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History of Computers
Research Proposal · September 2024
DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.23968.39682
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History of Computers
In order to understand today’s computers, it is important to study how computers
evolved through time by discussing some of the major achievements. This section
deals with the history of computers and identifies the major technological
achievements of the four computer generations.
Humans needed devices that could be used to perform calculations as early as the
period when they kept animals and started to trade with other people. They realized
the need to calculate and to record information. Many people agree that the history
of calculation began with the Abacus around 5000 B.C. in Egypt and China. It has a
wooden frame with balls or beads strung on parallel wires. It is used for
calculations. Afterwards, other developments include the invention of the slide rule
in the 1620’s and the first mechanical calculating machine in 1642.
Probably the first computer was designed by Charles Babbage in 1822. He devised
a machine called the difference engine. In 1834, Babbage proposed a more elaborate
computing machine, called the analytical engine. It was completely mechanical and
needed thousands of components. Babbage was unable to produce most of these
parts due to the technological limitations of his time.
Generation of Computers
The evolution of computer started from 16th century and resulted in the form that
we see today. The present day computer however has also undergone rapid change
during the last fifty years. This period during which the evolution of computer took
place can be divided into five distinct phases known as Generation of Computer.
First Generation (1945-1955)
Computers in this generation were characterized by the use of vacuum tubes as the
main component. As a result, they were very big, filling up entire rooms with tens
of thousands of vacuum tubes. However, they were slow, unreliable (with a high
failure rate) and expensive. They required extensive air conditioning to dissipate
the heat generated by the large number of vacuum tubes. Programming was done
by wiring up plugboards to control the machine’s basic functions using sequences
of only 0 and 1.
The Second World War has also contributed in the development of computers. A
machine called Colossus was built in 1943 by the British to speed up the breaking
of the Lorenz cipher. The Lorenz cipher was used by the German Army High
Command to communicate by radio in complete secrecy. It was based on teletype
a technology for sending text messages over telephone lines at very high speeds.
Second Generation (1955-1965)
The transistor was introduced in the mid-1950s and replaced vacuum tubes. As a
result, computers became smaller in size, faster, and more reliable. These machines
could be controlled using high level programming languages such as COBOL
(COmmon Business Oriented Language) and FORTRAN (FORmula TRANslator).
These programming languages allow the use of Englishlike statements to write
programs. Magnetic tapes were also introduced in this generation as storage
devices.
Third Generation (1965-1975)
Integrated circuits (ICs) also called chips replaced transistors. In ICs, several
transistors are held in a silicon chip, whose size and power requirement is very
small. As a result, computers became faster, smaller, and more reliable than before.
Magnetic disks took the place of magnetic tapes as storage devices.
Tip: Magnetic tapes are also used today, but only as backup devices
because of their cheap price and high storage capacity. Backup means to
copy the data from the hard disk into a tape as a precaution. If the disk is
damaged, we will not loose the data if a copyis available.
ICs are classified into four groups based on the number of transistors
contained in a single chip, called the level of integration: Small-Scale
Integration – SSI (contains tens of transistors), Medium-Scale
Integration – MSI (contains hundreds of transistors), Large-Scale
Integration – LSI (contains tens of thousands of transistors), and Very
Large-Scale Integration – VLSI (contains hundreds of thousands of
transistors and more). The first three levels of integration were achieved in
the third generation while VLSI is a feature of the fourth generation.
Fourth Generation (1976 - Present)
The development of VLSI technology helped to manufacture computers that are
small in size, cheaper in price, more powerful, efficient, and reliable.
Microprocessors were developed as a result of VLSI technology.
A microprocessor, also called the Central Processing Unit (CPU), is a tiny device
which houses the major components of a computer such as the Arithmetic and
Logic Unit (ALU), registers, and the control unit. Personal computers (PCs) were
developed using microprocessors. Because of their low price and user-friendliness,
PCs started to be used in homes, smaller offices and schools. Until the mid 1980s,
the user could give commands to the computer by typing them using a keyboard,
called command-driven interface. Later on commands could be given to the
computer by clicking on images displayed on the screen using a mouse, called
Graphical User Interface (GUI). This made computers user-friendly. The concept
was first developed in 1973 by Xerox Corporation’s Palo Alto Research Centre
(PARC) with a prototype called Alto that uses GUI. In 1984, the Macintosh
computer from Apple Computer brought the user-friendly interface to many PC
users.
Fifth Generation
The computer of 1990s are said to be fifth generation computer. The speed is
extremely high in fifth Generation computer. Apart from this it can perform
parallel processing. The concept of artificial intelligence has been introduced to
allow the computer to take its own decision. It is still in a developmental stage.
Computers can be general-purpose or special-purpose:
A general-purpose computer can solve any problem that can be expressed as a
program and executed within the capacity of the computer, the size of the
program, and the speed of program execution. Note that all the discussion in
this book is about general-purpose computers.
A special-purpose computer is designed to do a specific task. An example is a
computer that is capable of doing only word processing. Standalone
specialpurpose computers were popular in the 1930s and early 1940s.
Nowadays, they are mostly found embedded within other devices. Many
domestic and industrial devices such as mobile telephones and video recorders
contain special-purpose computers. Computers embedded inside other devices
are commonly referred to as microcontrollers or embedded computers.
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