HISTORY OF COMPUTERS

Presented to:
N. Neupane

Prepared by :
Kapil Aryal
SN. TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION TO HISTORY OF COMPUTERS
 The 0th Generation of Computers
Simple Devices
 ABACUS
 NAPIER’S BONES
 SLIDE RULE

Devices With Gears

Mechanical Computation Machines

2. GENERATION OF COMPUTERS
 FIRST GENERATIONS OF COMPUTERS
 SECOND GENERATIONS OF COMPUTERS
 THIRD GENERATIONS OF COMPUTERS
 FOURTH GENERATIONS OF COMPUTERS
 FIFTH GENERATIONS OF COMPUTERS
 3. CONCLUSION

History of Computers
The first counting device was used by the primitive people. They used sticks, stones and bones as
counting tools. As human mind and technology improved with time more computing devices were
developed. Some of the popular computing devices starting with the first to recent ones are described
below;

Abacus

The history of computer begins with the birth of abacus which is believed to be the first computer. It is
said that Chinese invented Abacus around 4,000 years ago.

It was a wooden rack which has metal rods with beads mounted on them. The beads were moved by the
abacus operator according to some rules to perform arithmetic calculations. Abacus is still used in some
countries like China, Russia and Japan. An image of this tool is shown below;
Napier's Bones

It was a manually-operated calculating device which was invented by John Napier (1550-1617) of
Merchiston. In this calculating tool, he used 9 different ivory strips or bones marked with numbers to
multiply and divide. So, the tool became known as "Napier's Bones. It was also the first to use the
decimal point.
Pascaline

Pascaline is also known as Arithmetic Machine or Adding Machine. It was invented between 1642 and
1644 by a French mathematician-philosopher Biaise Pascal. It is believed that it was the first mechanical
and automatic calculator.

Pascal invented this machine to help his father, a tax accountant. It could only perform addition and
subtraction. It was a wooden box with a series of gears and wheels. When a wheel is rotated one
revolution, it rotates the neighboring wheel. A series of windows is given on the top of the wheels to
read the totals. An image of this tool is shown below;
Stepped Reckoner or Leibnitz wheel
It was developed by a German mathematician-philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz in 1673. He
improved Pascal's invention to develop this machine. It was a digital mechanical calculator which was
called the stepped reckoner as instead of gears it was made of fluted drums. See the following image;

CHARLES BABBAGE

Charles Babbage was born in 1791 in Teignmouth, Devonshire, United kingdom. He was a professor of
mathematics at Cambridge University. Difference engine was his first invention and it was powered by
steam. In 1822 AD, he persuaded the British government to finance his design to build a machine that
would calculate tables for algorithms. He also designed analytical machine in 1833 AD. This machine was
interconnected maze of gears, cams and shafts powered by steam. But unfortunately, he was unable to
complete it.
Lady Augusta Ada

Lady Augusta Ada described her approach as "poetical science" and herself as an "Analyst (&
Metaphysician)". As a young adult, her mathematical talents led her to an ongoing working relationship
and friendship with fellow British mathematician Charles Babbage, and in particular Babbage's work on
the Analytical Engine. Between 1842 and 1843, she translated an article by Italian military engineer Luigi
Menabrea on the engine, which she supplemented with an elaborate set of notes of her own, simply
called Notes. These notes contain what many consider to be the first computer programme that is, an
algorithm designed to be carried out by a machine.

Dr. HERMAN HOLLERITH

In 1881, Herman Hollerith began designing a machine to tabulate census data more efficiently than by
traditional hand methods. The U.S. Census Bureau had taken eight years to complete the 1880 census,
and it was feared that the 1890 census would take even longer. Herman Hollerith invented and used a
punched card device to help analyze the 1890 US census data. Herman Hollerith's great breakthrough
was his use of electricity to read, count, and sort punched cards whose holes represented data gathered
by the census-takers. His machines were used for the 1890 census and accomplished in one year what
would have taken nearly ten years of hand tabulating. In 1896, Herman Hollerith founded the Tabulating
Machine Company to sell his invention, the Company became part of IBM in 1924.
Difference Engine

In the early 1820s, it was designed by Charles Babbage who is known as "Father of Modern Computer".
It was a mechanical computer which could perform simple calculations. It was a steam driven calculating
machine designed to solve tables of numbers like logarithm tables. Machine designed to solve tables of
numbers like logarithm table.
Analytical Engine

This calculating machine was also developed by Charles Babbage in 1830. It was a mechanical computer
that used punch-cards as input. It was capable of solving any mathematical problem and storing
information as a permanent memory.

The above mentioned all the machines or equipments are considered under The Zeroth Generation of
Computers.
There were a lot of inventions of different machines between the Zeroth Generation of Computers and
First Generations of Computers.
Some of them are Tabulating Machines, Differential Analyzer, Mark 1, etc.

Tabulating Machine

It was invented in 1890, by Herman Hollerith, an American statistician. It was a mechanical tabulator
based on punch cards. It could tabulate statistics and record or sort data or information. This machine
was used in the 1890 U.S. Census. Hollerith also started the Hollerith?s Tabulating Machine Company
which later became International Business Machine (IBM) in 1924.
Differential Analyzer

It was the first electronic computer introduced in the United States in 1930. It was an analog device
invented by Vannevar Bush. This machine has vacuum tubes to switch electrical signals to perform
calculations. It could do 25 calculations in few minutes.
Mark I

The next major changes in the history of computer began in 1937 when Howard Aiken planned to
develop a machine that could perform calculations involving large numbers. In 1944, Mark I computer
was built as a partnership between IBM and Harvard. It was the first programmable digital computer.
Generations of Computers
A generation of computers refers to the specific improvements in computer technology with time. In
1946, electronic pathways called circuits were developed to perform the counting. It replaced the gears
and other mechanical parts used for counting in previous computing machines.

In each new generation, the circuits became smaller and more advanced than the previous generation
circuits. The miniaturization helped increase the speed, memory and power of computers. There are five
generations of computers which are described below;

First Generation Computers

The first generation (1946-1959) computers were slow, huge and expensive. In these computers,
vacuum tubes were used as the basic components of CPU and memory. These computers were mainly
depended on batch operating system and punch cards. It was based “The Principle of Thermionic
Emission”.Magnetic tape and paper tape were used as output and input devices in this generation;

Some of the popular first generation computers are;

o ENIAC ( Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer)

The size and the heating problem in it was the major problem, keeping in mind that it was too much
expensive and big. Also, it could do only one operation at a time and had to shut because of the heating
issue as it used to consumed huge amount of heat.
Second Generation Computers

The second generation (1959-1965) was the era of the transistor computers. These computers used
transistors which were cheap, compact and consuming less power; it made transistor computers faster
than the first generation computers.

In this generation, magnetic cores were used as the primary memory and magnetic disc and tapes were
used as the secondary storage. Assembly language and programming languages like COBOL and
FORTRAN, and Batch processing and multiprogramming operating systems were used in these
computers.

Some of the popular second generation computers are;

o IBM 1620
o IBM 7094
o CDC 1604
o CDC 3600
o UNIVAC 1108

The size was reduced but still was very big and were difficult to transport. Still consumed a lot of
electricity and heating problem wasn’t still resolved. Storage capacity wasn’t still reliable and
multiprogramming was still a huge question as they weren’t that efficient.
 Third Generations Computers

The third generation computers used integrated circuits (ICs) instead of transistors. A single IC can pack
huge number of transistors which increased the power of a computer and reduced the cost. The
computers also became more reliable, efficient and smaller in size. These generation computers used
remote processing, time-sharing, multi programming as operating system. Also, the high-level
programming languages like FORTRON-II TO IV, COBOL, PASCAL PL/1, ALGOL-68 were used in this
generation.

Some of the popular third generation computers are;

o IBM-360 series
o Honeywell-6000 series
o PDP (Personal Data Processor)
o IBM-370/168
o TDC-316

The thirst of future generation computers weren’t faded as they still took a lot of time to solve problems.

The size was still big, power consumed was still high and the heating issue was still in existence and had to
use cooling devices.
Fourth Generation Computers

The fourth generation (1971-1980) computers used very large scale integrated (VLSI) circuits; a chip
containing millions of transistors and other circuit elements. These chips made this generation
computers more compact, powerful, fast and affordable. These generation computers used real time,
time sharing and distributed operating system. The programming languages like C, C++, DBASE were also
used in this generation.

Some of the popular fourth generation computers are;

o DEC 10
o STAR 1000
o PDP 11
o CRAY-1(Super Computer)
o CRAY-X-MP(Super Computer)

The thirst for the AI computers was and is still a great innovation to come.
FIFTH GENERATIONS OF COMPUTERS

The period of fifth generation is 1980-till date. In the fifth generation, VLSI technology became ULSI
(Ultra Large Scale Integration) technology, resulting in the production of microprocessor chips having
ten million electronic components.
This generation is based on parallel processing hardware and AI (Artificial Intelligence) software. AI is
an emerging branch in computer science, which interprets the means and method of making
computers think like human beings. All the high-level languages like C and C++, Java, .Net etc., are used
in this generation.

AI includes −

 Robotics
 Neural Networks
 Game Playing
 Development of expert systems to make decisions in real-life situations
 Natural language understanding and generation
The main features of fifth generation are −

 ULSI technology
 Development of true artificial intelligence
 Development of Natural language processing
  Advancement in Parallel Processing
 Advancement in Superconductor technology
 More user-friendly interfaces with multimedia features
 Availability of very powerful and compact computers at cheaper rates
Some computer types of this generation are −

 Desktop
 Laptop
 NoteBook
 UltraBook
 ChromeBook
 Conclusion:
The four generations of computers along with zeroth was in one level of machine. The progress from the
zeroth to first was a little bit slow. Then the development in computers started to take pace.
The development of analytical engine and programming in it took the development of computer in a
different level. And the computers that once were larger than a building are now easily portable and the
speed has been superfast. However, still it isn’t considered as the future of computers, Fifth generation
of computers are considered as the future, which will be very genius which will be able to do quantum
computations, molecular and nanotechnology will be used completely and scientists have already
started on on this.

Sources:
Kullabs.com
Wikipedia(Images)
COMPUTER (BUDDHA PUBLICATION) GRADE 11

https://www.it.iitb.ac.in/~vijaya/ssrvm/dokuwikcm7_l7_1novi/media/.pdf
(additional informations)