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Artifacts in Computer Science

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Computers are what run society today, everywhere we look we see devices that are run off of computers and microcomputers such as phones, computers, tablets, and even vehicles. It is now the way the world communicates with each other, because of computers it is a much smaller world in which we live. Computers have been around for such a short period of time, yet they seem to be advancing faster than anything else; this is because there is an infinite number of ways computers can be implemented to help individuals. Thirty years after the first computer was developed, computers had already been altered to read and save information on magnetic tapes that ran through the computer. The picture below was taken at East Carolina University (ECU) in the mid 1970’s of a man changing tapes in a tape computer (Computer Data Tapes). 40 years after this picture was taken, this form of computers is almost unrecognizable by society today, due to dramatic advancements in computer technology. When the first programmable mainframe computer was built in 1946, the technology was utilized to help people with mathematical calculations, problem solving, and could even run small simple simulations while only taking up 1,000 square feet (Bestofmedia). Prior to the 1950’s, vacuum tubes had been used in all computers to indicate on or off for processing. In the early 1950’s transistors which used less energy, produced less heat, and were more reliable swept the computer field, making vacuum tubes

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