The History of Computer Technology

solitary(prenominal) once in a living pass on a recent earth come closely to touch each aspect of our lives. much(prenominal)(prenominal) devices changed the itinerary we manage, work, and live. A mold that has d champion wholly this and to a prominenter extent than(prenominal) promptly exists in nearly either business in the united States. This implausible intention is the information swear outing arrangement. The electronic ready reck whizzr has been rough for e realwhere a half-century, only its origins eat up been around for 2000 old age. However, just in the finish 40 geezerhood has the information processor changed Ameri notify management to its greatest extent.From the low woody abacus to the freshst fast microprocessor, the reck atomic number 53r has changed nearly e truly spect of management, and our lives for the better. The rattling early existence of the innovative twenty-four hours ready reckoners ancestor is the abacus. The se visualize dressing to almost 2000 familys ago (Dolotta, 1985). It is simply a wooden rack retentivity par each(prenominal)el wires on which beads argon strung. When these beads atomic number 18 moved along the wire gibe to scheduling rules that the user must memorize. accomplishedly ordinary arithmetic operations can be perform on the abacus.This was one of the origin management tools use. The next innovation in ready reckoners took place in 1694 when Blaise Pascal invented the counterbalance digital calculating automobile. It could only rack up arrives and they had to be entered by bit dials. It was designed to help Pascals father, who was a revenue enhancement collector, manage the t confesss taxes (Beer, 1966). In the early 1800s, a mathematics professor named Charles Babbage designed an self-moving calculation implement (Dolotta, 1985). It was steam moguled and could store up to one C0 50-digit verse.Built in to his gondola were operations that inclu de e realthing a unexampled general-purpose calculator would need. It was course of studymed by and stored info on tease with holes punched in them, kick the buckettingly c all in alled punch beaks. This machine was xtremely useful to managers that delt with plumping volumes of good. With Babbages machine, managers could much than easily drive the cosmic numbers accumu youthfuld by inventories. The only problem was that there was only one of these machines built, thusly making it operose for all managers to use (Beer, After Babbage, nation began to lose interest in reckoners.However, betwixt 1850 and 1900 there were great advances in mathematics and physics that began to re agreeablele the interest. Many of these novel advances involved difficult calculations and formulas that were truly(prenominal) fourth dimension consuming for gentle calculation. The scratch line study use for a deliberation machine in the U. S. was during the 1890 census. Two men, Her man Hollerith and James Powers, au sotic a revolutionary punched- beak system that could automatically get check into of information on cards without homophile (Dolotta, 1985).Since the universe of discourse of the U. S. as increasing so dissolute, the data processor was an essential tool for managers in tabulating the These expediencys were noted by commercial industries and currently led to the development of reformd punch-card business-machine systems by International Business Machines, Remington-Rand, Burroughs, and another(prenominal) corporations (Chposky, 1988). By neoe standards the unched-card machines were slow, typically processing from 50 to 250 cards per minute, with each card holding up to 80 digits. At the succession, however, punched cards were an wondrous step forward they provided a pith of input, payoff, and memory board storage on a massive scale.For more than 50 yrs following their eldest use, punched-card machines did the hoi polloi of the worlds business computing By the late 1930s punched-card machine techniques had become so well established and reliable that Howard Hatha commission Aiken, in collaboration with addresss at IBM, chthonictook construction of a large automatic digital calculator ased on standard IBM electro mechanic part (Chposky, 1988). Aikens machine, called the Harvard Mark I, handled 23-digit numbers and could perform all four arithmetic operations (Dolotta, 1985).Also, it had special(a) built-in programs to handled logarithms and trigonometric functions. The Mark I was controlled from prepunched paper tape. Output was by card punch and electric typewriter. It was slow, requiring 3 to 5 seconds for a multiplication, provided it was fully automatic and could complete long computations The outbreak of solid ground War II bring ind a dread(a) need for computing capability, especially for the military (Dolotta, 985). New weapons systems were produced which needed trajectory tables and other essential data. In 1942, behind P. Eckert, crapper W.Mauchley, and their associates at the University of Pennsylvania decided to physique a high-speed electronic computing machine to do the job. This machine became known as ENIAC, for Electrical Numerical Integrator And information processing system (Chposky, 1988). It could multiply two numbers at the rate of 300 products per second, by finding the value of each product from a multiplication table stored in its memory. ENIAC was thus more or less 1,000 clips faster than the foregoing generation of figurers. ENIAC apply 18,000 standard inanity tubes, occupied 1800 squargon feet of floor space, and employ about 180,000 watts of electricity.It use punched-card input and output. The ENIAC was very difficult to program because one had to fundamentally re-wire it to perform whatever task he wanted the information processing system to do. It was efficient in handling the particular programs for which it had been designed. ENIAC is generally current as the archetypal successful high-speed electronic digital computer and was employ in some applications from 1946 to 1955. However, the ENIAC was not social to managers of businesses Mathematician John Von Neumann was very implicated in the ENIAC.In 1945 he chthoniantook a theoretical study of computation that present that a computer could fool a very simple and withal be able to execute any kind of computation matterively by means of proper programmed control without the need for any changes in hardwargon. Von Neumann came up with unimagined ideas for methods of building and organizing practical, fast computers. These ideas, which came to be referred to as the stored-program technique, became fundamental for future generations of high-speed digital computers and were universally adoptedThe counterbalance roll up of modern programmed electronic computers to prevail advantage of these improvements appeared in 1947. This group included computer s using random plan of attack memory, RAM, which is a memory designed to give almost unremitting access to any particular division of information (Dolotta, 1985). These machines had punched-card or punched-tape input and output devices and RAMs of 1000-word capacity. Physically, they were much more compact than ENIAC both(prenominal) were about the coat of a shocking piano and required 2500 small electron tubes. This was quite an improvement over the previous machines.The number 1-generation stored-program computers required considerable importanttenance, usually come through 70% to 80% reliable operation, and were utilise for 8 to 12 years (Hazewindus,1988). Typically, they were programmed straightaway in machine language, although by the mid-mid-fifties communicate had been do in several(prenominal) aspects of march on programming. This group of machines included EDVAC and UNIVAC, the first commercially available computers. With this designing, managers had even m ore power to perform calculations for much(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal) things as statistical demographic data (Beer, 1966).Before this time, it was very rare for a anager of a large business to defy the means to process The UNIVAC was positive by John W. Mauchley and John Eckert, younger in the 1950s. Together they had formed the Mauchley-Eckert information processing system Corporation, Americas first computer keep confederacy in the 1940s. During the development of the UNIVAC, they began to run diddle on funds and change their company to the larger Remington-Rand Corporation. Eventually they built a working UNIVAC computer.It was delivered to the U. S. Census Bureau in 1951 where it was apply to help tabulate the U. S. population Early in the 1950s two important engineering discoveries hanged the electronic computer champaign. The first computers were made with vacuum tubes, simply by the late 1950s computers were macrocosm made out of transistors, which wer e little, less high-ticket(prenominal), more reliable, and more efficient (Dolotta, 1985). In 1959, Robert Noyce, a physicist at the Fairchild semiconductor Corporation, invented the co-ordinated duty tour, a tiny chip of silicon that contained an unblemished electronic term of enlistment.Gone was the bulky, unreliable, but fast machine now computers began to become more compact, more reliable and ready more capacity. These new technical discoveries rapidly free-base their way into new odels of digital computers. reposition storage capacities increased 800% in commercially available machines by the early mid-sixties and speeds increased by an equally large margin (Jacobs, 1975). These machines were very expensive to acquire or to rent and were especially expensive to operate because of the cost of hiring programmers to perform the complex operations the computers ran.Such computers were typically run aground in large computer centers operated by industry, government, an d private laboratories staffed with legion(predicate) programmers and support personnel. By 1956, 76 of IBMs large computer mainframes were in se, compared with only 46 UNIVACs (Chposky, 1988). In the mid-sixties efforts to design and develop the fastest executable computers with the greatest capacity reached a play point with the completion of the LARC machine for Livermore radiation therapy Laboratories by the Sperry-Rand Corporation, and the extend computer by IBM. The LARC had a core memory of 98,000 voice communication and multiplied in 10 microseconds.Stretch was provided with several ranks of memory having slower access for the ranks of greater capacity, the fastest access time being less than 1 microseconds and the tally capacity in the vicinity of 100 During this time the major computer manufacturers began to call a range of computer capabilities, as well as various computer-related equipment (Jacobs, 1975). These included input means such as consoles and card feed ers output means such as page printers, cathode-ray-tube displays, and graphing devices and optional magnetic-tape and magnetic-disk filing cabinet storage.These found total use in management for such applications as accounting, payroll, scroll control, ordering supplies, and billing. Central processing units for such purposes did not need to be very fast arithmetically and were primarily employ to access arge amounts of records on file. The greatest number of computer systems were delivered for the larger applications, such as in hospitals for keeping track of enduring records, medications, and treatments given.They were also used in change library systems and in database systems such as the Chemical Abstracts system, where computer records now on file cover nearly all known chemical compounds The fashion during the seventies was, to most extent, away from extremely powerful, concentrate computational centers and toward a broader range of applications for less-costly compu ter systems (Jacobs, 1975). Most continuous-process manufacturing, such as fossil oil refining and electrical-power distribution systems, began using computers of relatively modest capability for controlling and adjust their activities.In the 1960s the programming of applications problems was an rampart to the self-sufficiency of moderate- surfaced on-site computer installations, but great advances in applications programming languages aloof Applications languages became available for controlling a great range of manufacturing processes, for computer operation of machine tools, and for many other tasks. In 1971 Marcian E. Hoff, Jr. , an engineer at the Intel Corporation, invented the microprocessor and another breaker point in the development of the computer began (Chposky, 1988).A new revolution in computer hardware was now well under way, involving miniaturization of computer-logic circuitry and of component manufacture by what are called large-scale In the 1950s it was real ized that scaling down the size of electronic digital computer circuits and part would increase speed and efficiency and improve performance (Jacobs, 1975). However, at that time the manufacturing methods were not good ample to accomplish such a task. About 1960, photoprinting of conductive circuit boards to eliminate wiring became highly real. and so it became possible to build resistors and capacitors into the circuitry by photographic means. In the mid-seventies entire assemblies, such as adders, shifting registers, and counters, became available on tiny chips of silicon. In the 1980s very large scale integration, VLSI, in which hundreds of thousands of transistors are placed on a maven chip, became increasingly common Many companies, some new to the computer field, introduced in the mid-seventies programmable minicomputers upplied with software program packages (Jacobs, 1975).The size-reduction trend continued with the entering of privateized computers, which are progr ammable machines small affluent and inexpensive enough to be purchased and used by individuals (Beer, 1966). 1 of the first of such machines was introduced in January 1975. Popular electronics magazine provided plans that would support any electronics wizard to build his own small, programmable computer for about $380. The computer was called the Altair 8800. Its programming involved pushing buttons and flipping switches on the confront of the box.It didnt include a onitor or keyboard, and its applications were very limited. Even though, many orders came in for it and several famous owners of computer and software manufacturing companies got their pass in computing through the Altair (Jacobs, 1975). For archetype, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, founders of orchard apple tree data processor, built a much cheaper, yet more productive version of the Altair and moody their hobby into a business. After the base of the Altair 8800, the in-person computer industry became a fierce battleground of competition.IBM had been the computer industry standard for well over a half-century. They held their position as the standard when they introduced their first personal computer, the IBM Model 60 in 1975 (Chposky, 1988). However, the newly formed Apple Computer company was releasing its own personal computer, the Apple II. The Apple I was the first computer designed by Jobs and Wozniak in Wozniaks garage, which was not produced on a wide scale. Software was needed to run the computers as well.Microsoft developed a Disk in operation(p) System, MS-DOS, for the IBM computer fleck Apple developed its own software (Chposky, 1988). Because Microsoft had now adjust the software standard for IBMs, every software anufacturer had to make their software compatible with Microsofts. This would pop off to huge profits for Microsoft. The main goal of the computer manufacturers was to make the computer as affordable as possible while increasing speed, reliability, and capacity. Nearly every computer manufacturer accomplished this and computers popped up everywhere.Computers were in businesses keeping track of even more inventories for managers. Computers were in colleges aiding students in interrogation. Computers were in laboratories making complex calculations at high speeds for scientists and physicists. The computer had made its mark everywhere in management and built up a huge industry The future is assure for the computer industry and its applied science. The speed of processors is anticipate to double every year and a half in the coming years (Jacobs, 1975).As manufacturing techniques are further perfect the prices of computer systems are expected to steady degenerate. However, since the microprocessor technology will be increasing, its higher(prenominal) costs will offset the do in in price of older processors. In other words, the price of a new computer will stay about the same(p) from year to year, but technology will steadily Since the en d of human being War II, the computer industry has with child(p) from a standing start into one of the adultgest and most profitable industries in the United States (Hazewindus,1988).It now comprises thousands of companies, making everything from multi-million dollar high-speed supercomputers to printout paper and floppy disks. It employs millions of people and generates tens of billions of dollars in sales each year. Surely, the computer has wedge every aspect of peoples lives (Jacobs, 1975). It has affected the way people work and play. It has made everyones brio easier by doing difficult work for people.The recital of Computer TechnologyThis report short explains the history of modern computers, starting from the year 1936 to present day time. There are many models of computers documented throughout the years, but they only computer models mentioned are ones that I deemed too have had the greatest effect on computer technology back then and now. This report will examine h ow in just forty years, computers have transformed from slow, room-sized machines, to the small and fast computers of forthwith. Computers are a part of important effortless life, but there was a time when computers did not exist.Computers are one of the few excogitations that do not have one specific inventor. Many inventors have contributed to the take and technology of computers. Some of the inventions have been distinguishable types of computers, while the others were parts needed for the computer to function effectively. Many people have added their creations to the list required to make computers work, adding to the general technology of computers like a shot. The term computer sooner referred to people. It was a job title for those who did clamant work with math problems.A computer is define as a programmable machine that receives input, stores and automatically manipulates data, and provides output in a useful format. The most significant date in the history of comp uters is in the year of 1936. This is the year the first computer was developed by a German engineer named Konrad Zuse. He called it the Z1 Computer and it was the first system to be fully programmable. The Z1 Computer had computing power, setting it apart from other electronic devices. Programming early computers became somewhat of a hassle for inventors and in 1953 Grace Hooper invented the first high level computer language.Her invention helped simplify the binary code used by the computer so that its users could arrange the computers actions. Hoopers invention was called Flowmatic and has evolved into modern day technology. In the same year, the International Business Machines (IBM) was introduced into the computing industry, invariably altering the age of computers. Throughout computer history, this company has played a major role in the development of new systems and servers for ordinary and private use. Inventors sawing machine IBM as competition inside the computing hist ory, which helped to acantha faster and better development of computers.Their first computer technology contribution was the IBM 701 EDPM Computer. During the trinity years of production, IBM change 19 machines to research laboratories, aircraft companies, and the federal government. The first computer physically built in America was the IAS computer. It was developed for Advanced Study at Princeton under the direction of John Von Neumann between1946-1950. (History of Computer Technology, 2011). John von Neumann wrote First draft of a Report on the EDVAC in which he outlined the architecture of a stored-program computer (Computer History Museum Timeline of Computer History, 2006).electronic storage of programming information and data eliminated the need for the more clumsy methods of programming. An example of stored-program data computer is the IAS computer. Many modern computers trace their ancestry to the IAS machine and they are referred to as von Neumann (or Princeton) arc hitecture machines. The IAS computer embodied the concept of a stored-program computer. The main memory contained two main categories of information, book of instructions and data. The computer had an ability to place divers(prenominal) sequences of instructions in the memory which made the computer very useful.This allowed inventions to build computers to complete antithetic tasks at different clock. Such a computer can be reconfigured (reprogrammed) at any time to perform a new or different task. The Hungarian-born von Neumann demonstrated prodigious expertness in hydrodynamics, ballistics, meteorology, game theory, statistics, and the use of mechanical devices for computation contributed to the production of the modern day computer (Computer History Museum Timeline of Computer History, 2006).In 1955, Bank of America coupled with Stanford question Institute and General Electric saw the creation of the first computers for use in banks. Researchers at the Stanford Research Ins titute invented ERMA, the Electronic Recording Method of Accounting computer processing system. ERMA updated and posted checking accounts and manually touch checks and account management. The MICR (Magnetic Ink Character Recognition) was a part of ERMA and allowed computers to read special numbers at the bottom of the checks.This technology helped with the trailing and accounting of checks transactions. ERMA was officially demonstrated to the public in September 1955 and first tested on real banking accounts in the fall of 1956. (Blain, 2005). Today, computer technology has transformed the banking industry. One of the most important breakthroughs in computer history occurred in 1958. This was the creation of the integrated circuit, known as the chip. The integrated circuit device is one of the base requirements for the modern computer systems.On every motherboard and card inside the computer system, are many chips that contain vital information on what the boards and cards do. With out the integrated circuit, the computers known today would not be able to function. The first commercially integrated circuits became available from the Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation in 1961. All computers then started to be made using chips sort of of the individual transistors and their accompanying parts. Texas Instruments first used the chips in Air Force computers and the Minuteman rocket in 1962.They later used the chips to produce the first electronic portable calculators. The pilot integrated chip had only one transistor, three resistors and one capacitor and was the size of an adults pinkie finger. Today, an integrated chip is smaller than a penny and can hold 125 million transistors (Bellis). The late 1970s saw the popularization of personal computers and the draw close continues from then until now. An explosion of personal computers occurred in the 1970s. The Tandy Corporation was one of the leading companies in computer technology.Their most popular invention was the TRS-80 arriving on the market in the late 1970s. It was contiguously popular, selling out at Radio Shack where it was exclusively sold. The TRS-80 was sold for only $600, making it affordable for many individuals to own their own personal computer. at bottom its first year, over 55,000 consumers bought Tandy TRO-80 to use in their al-Qaeda or blank space and over 250,000 of them sold in the next few years. Tandy Corporations TRS-80 had a keyboard and motherboard all in one. This is a common trend that other companies today use for their personal computer products.TRS-80 also included office applications, including a word processor, calculator, and early spreadsheet capabilities (The pot History Computers From the 1970s). People during the late 70s embraced personal computers and used them for a variety of reasons, such as, games, office applications, home finances, storing date, and many other necessary usages. In 1975, Apple Computers was founded by Steve Jobs and St eve Wozniac. The Apple II was launched in 1977 and was an immediate success as well. Apple created the home/personal computer that could be used by anybody.The success of the Apple II established Apple Computers as a main competitor in the field of personal computers. Then Dan Bricklin created a spreadsheet program called VisiCalc for the Apple II. It went on sale in 1979 and within four years it sold 700,000 copies at $250 a time (Trueman, 2000). By 1980, there were one million personal computers in the world. Computers have come an enormous way since their initial establishment, as the earliest electronic computers were so large that they would take up the entire area of a room, while today some are so small that they can fit in your hands.While computers are now an important part of the everyday lives of human beings, there was a time where computers did not exist. Knowing the history of computers and how much forward motion has been made can help individuals conceive just how complicated and innovative the creation of computers really is. The first programmable digital computers invented in the 1940s have dramatically changed in appearance and technology from today. They were as big as living rooms and were about as powerful as modern day calculators. Modern computers are billions of times more capable than early machines and sop up less space.Simple computers, such as smart phones, are small enough to fit into mobile devices, and can be powered on by a small battery. In todays world, computers play an incredibly large role in the way the world exists in general, and the majority of tasks could in truth not be sinless if not for the use of computers. Although there are for sure some areas and jobs that cannot yet be completed solely by computers and which thus clam up require actual manpower, for the most part, computers have helped to make life significantly easier, productive, and more convenient for us all.Future computer technology will help e xploit many medical problems by reinterpreting sensory(a) data and modulating brain activity. Technology will be so advanced that it may allow people who have muzzy the use of their limbs to use robotics to regain their handicapped movements. The future of computer technology is very bright and welcomed indeed. Current trends, research, and development accident at a lightning speed supports this statement. Our children today will see a strong new world of technology with computers within the next decade.Works Citedhttp//inventors.about.com/od/istartinventions/a/intergrated_circuit.htmhttp//www.computerhistory.org/timeline/?category=cmptrhttp//www.thepeoplehistory.com/70scomputers.htmlhttp//www.historylearningsite.co.uk/personal_computer.htm