A Brief History of Computers

A majority of the working people sit at the desk all day, using one or more computers to work with. Even 100 years ago this was unthinkable and far away. The typewriter, the telegraph, and the first telephones and photographic apparatus were regarded as marvels of technology, which became indispensable for some branches of profession. However, most people only had very late access to modern developments that would change life and work sustainably.

The 1940’s was the beginning of an era of computers ruling us. It all started with Konrad Zuse a German engineer creates and finishes the computer called Z3 built in 1941 it was built using 2,300 relays, and used a floating point binary arithmetic, and had a 22 bit word length. Although the original was destroyed in a bombing run in Berlin in late 1943. He supervised a reconstruction of his invention in the 60's which is on display at the Deutsches Museum in Munich. In February of 1946 the ENIAC was released and the public was able to view it, built by John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert they improved it by 1,000 times since the first computers were released. Started in 1943 it took 3 years to complete and it used a plugboard and switch program, and the speed was about 5,000 operations per second. It took up 1,000 square feet, or the size of a small house! In 1944 the Harvard Mark-1 was completed. Thought by the Harvard professor Howard Aiken, and built by IBM, the dimensions of this beast was room sized, relay-based calculator. Also it had a

The origin of the computer resides with the military. The computer itself was created by the military during the Cold War era, when we were in a technological race with Russia. This race was the fuel for massive advancements in technology especially in the sector of computer intelligence. The first Computer’s were physically large enough to fill an entire room. They were used to manage large quantities of data in textual and numerical form. The government backed certain research facilities in the advancement of the computer and some investigated and experimented in computer technology with art and music. 1

Computing in the 1800’s: An era of inventions We live in an era where technology is all around us. We use technology in our daily lives by using computers, cell phones, cars, etc. The most productive form of technology though is computers and like most people might think, computers did not emerge in the late 20th century. It was in the 1800’s when the most significant forms of computing were built, and as a result the amazing computers we have today were pioneered.

The ENIAC was invented by John Mauchly and J.Presper Eckert, Jr.and built from 1943-1945. The ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator), often referred to as the first computer, was built to supply the need for faster calculations. It started the information age and led to the development of the first commercial computers (The ENIAC).

IBM was behind the inventions of the Automated Teller Machine (ATM); Floppy Disk; Electronic Keypunch; SABRE travel reservation system; PC; UPC codes; Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM);Watson Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Machine. (IBM Facebook, 2014)

Moving on, the development of computer can be assessed from two perspectives. One perspective would be the invention of hardware components over time like vacuum tubes, transistors, integrated circuits and microprocessors that can be referred to as a generation of change. In the other hand, another perspective would be how user friendly were the computers over a period of time. In the 1950s the computers were almost impossible to use except by very patient geniuses. Next in the 1960s and 1970s, it could only be programmable by highly trained people. Lastly, from the 1980s till present time the computers are now smaller cheaper and useable by just about anyone.

Hewlett-Packard was founded in 1939 by two men, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard who met in the 1930s while studying at Stanford University. Hewlett-Packard is and has always been a highly innovative company that thrives

Hewlett Packard also known as HP was founded by William Hewlett and Dave Packard in a small rented garage in Palo Alto, California which is now known as the original Silicon Valley. HP is one of the world’s largest Information Technology (IT) companies operating on a global level. HP specializes in computers, computer systems and software. Also, in the development and manufacture of hardware, software design, service delivery as well as data storage. Identified Strategies

Charles Babbage, aka the “Father of the Computer,” had invented the computer by the early 9th century. The size of computers has changed drastically.

It’s difficult to explain when the first computer was introduced because of the many different classifications of them. Dating back to the early 1800’s, (1822) Charles Babbage created the “Difference Engine,” a device that computed sets of numbers and came to be the first mechanical calculator. However, millennials wouldn’t consider this to be a computer because it doesn’t function as a modern computer does.

1946: Mauchly and Presper leave the University of Pennsylvania and get financing from the Census Bureau to manufacture the UNIVAC, the first business workstation for business and government applications.eniac - World's first electronic, expansive scale, universally useful machine, constructed by Mauchly and Eckert, and initiated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1946. ENIAC reproduced on an advanced machine chip. See a clarification of ENIAC on a Chip by the Moore School of Electrical Engineering, University of Pennsylvania.

The first ever computer was invented in the 1820s by Charlse Babbage. However the first electronic digital computer were developed between 1940 and 1945 in the United States and in the United Kingdom. They were gigantic, originally the size of a large room, and also need to be supply a large amount of power source which is equivalent as several hundred modern personal computers. The history of computer hardware covers the developments from simple devices to aid calculation, to mechanical calculators, punched card data processing and on to modern stored program computers. The tools or mechanical tool used to help in calculation are called calculators while the machine operator that help in calculations is called computer. At first the

a man named Gary Kildall. IBM came to Kildall first, but he turned them away

Hewlett Packard began in 1939 in Palo Alto, California. The company was founded by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard who were friends at the time and remained that until both of their passing. Hewlett Packard has been a leader in technology that encompasses globally, into space exploration, the entertainment industry, the medical industry, the hospitality industry, and many others. In the early 2000’s, the economic landscape was changing globally and Hewlett Packard was beginning to feel the financial hardships of a very competitive industry. In an effort to remain competitive, Hewlett Packard and Compaq decided upon a merger that did aid in transforming both companies, but only to a degree.