The History of

Computers
Developments Leading
up to the Stored-
Program Computer of
Today

Designed by Mr. Wilhelmi

In The Beginning

• Early humans counted

on their fingers –
evolution of base 10
numbering system
Abacus Orient

• 3000 years ago

• First calculating
mechanism
• Beads represent
digits
• Rods represent
places – units,
tens, hundreds,
and higher
multiples of ten
Blaise Pascal

• Invented the Pascaline in 1642

• First mechanical adding machine
Gottfried Leibniz

• Invented Step Reckoner in 1671

• Could add, subtract, multiply,
divide, and evaluate square roots
Joseph Jacquard
• Jacquard’s Loom in
1810
• Emphasized three
computer concepts
1. Instructions
- used punched
cards
2. Simple Program
- series of
instructions
3. Automate job
- because of
Charles Babbage

• Father of Computers
• Invented Analytical
Engine in 1832
• 5 characteristics of
modern computer
– Input device – punch
cards
– Processor – mill
– Control Unit
– Storage Facility – store
– Output device
Ada Augusta

• First Computer
Programmer
– wrote programs for the
Analytical Engine
• Her notes on the
Analytical Engine
was used in the
future development
of computers
Herman Hollerith

• Invented
Tabulating
Machine for
1890 Census
• First machine
capable of
processing
statistical
information
from punched
cards
Alan Turing

• Worked on
Colossus
computer in
1943
• Used in World
War II for
cracking
German codes
(ENIGMA)
John Mauchly
Presper Eckert

• ENIAC (Electronic
Numerical
Integrator &
Calculator)
1946
• First electronic
computer to go
into operation
• A moth got caught in the MARK II
and shorted out a relay
• Grace crawled in and removed it
from inside the computer
• Popularized the term “bug” to
signify any system failure
• The term “debugging” signifies
solving a computer problem
John von Neumann
“First Draft” – based on
his concepts, all computers
process data by carrying out
four specific activities:
Input data
Store data
Process data
Output data/results

This initiated the modern

computer era.

EDVAC - first electronic computer to use stored-program

First Generation
Computers (1951-1958)

• Vacuum tubes
– for electronic circuits
• Punched cards
– for secondary
memory/storage
• Speed – Milliseconds
– Thousands of operations
per second
• Machine and Assembly
languages
Vacuum Tube

• Provided the electronic

circuits for computer
• 6000 circuits/cubic foot
• Konrad Zuse used it in 1941
instead of electromagnetic
relays
• Large and bulky. Generated
enormous amounts of heat
• Burned out frequently causing
computer to be down
for large amounts of time
Second Generation
Computers (1959-1964)

• Transistors
– electronic circuits
• Magnetic tape
– secondary memory\storage
• Speed – Microseconds
– millions of operations per second
• Programming languages
– COBOL, Fortran, Symbolic
Transistor
• Replaced vacuum
tubes as electronic
circuits in computers
• Developed by William
Shockley, Walter
Brattain, and John
Bardeen from Bell
Labs in 1947
– Won the Nobel Prize in
Comparison of the vacuum 1956 as a result
tube with the transistor
• 100,000 circuits/cubic
foot
Third Generation
Computers (1965-1970)

• Integrated Circuits (IC)

– electronic circuits
• Magnetic tape
– secondary memory\storage
• Speed – Nanoseconds
– Billions of operations per second
• Silicon Chip
– silicon crystal that IC is etched in
Integrated Circuit (IC)

• Invented by Jack Kilby of

Texas Instruments in 1959
• 10 million circuits/cubic foot
• Won the Nobel Prize in 2000 as a
result
Fourth Generation
Computers (1971-Present)

• Personal micro-computer
• Microprocessor
– electronic circuits
• Magnetic disk
– secondary memory\storage
• Speed – picoseconds
– trillions of operations
per second
• Virtual memory
– mimics behavior of primary memory
Microprocessor

• Invented by Ted Hoff of

Intel in 1971
• Very Large Scale
Integration (VSLI)
– tens of thousands electronic
components on each IC chip
• Over 500 billion
circuits/cubic foot
Steven Jobs
Steve Wozniak
• Invented Apple
Macintosh in
1984
• First
programmable
computer
available for
personal use
• First computer to
use Graphical
User Interface
Fifth Generation
Computers (Future)

• Artificial Intelligence
– Computer learns from itself
• Natural Language
– Communicate with computer using everyday
language
• Parallel Processing
– Ability to process millions of instructions
simultaneously
• Speed – gigaseconds
– Quadrillions of operations per second
What will the future hold
in the computer
industry?