HISTORY OF COMPUTERS AND THE INTERNET
OUTLINE
1B
MODULE
Steps Toward Modern Computing 31 First Steps: Calculators 31 The Technological Edge: Electronics 31 Putting It All Together: The ENIAC 36 The Stored-Program Concept 36 The Computer’s Family Tree 37 The First Generation (1950s) 37 The Second Generation (Early 1960s) 38 The Third Generation (Mid-1960s to Mid-1970s) 39 The Fourth Generation (1975 to the Present) 41 A Fifth Generation? 44 The Internet Revolution 45 Lessons Learned 48
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN . . .
After reading this module, you will be able to: 1. Define the term “electronics” and describe some early electronic devices that helped launch the computer industry. 2. Discuss the role that the stored-program concept
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A calculator is a machine that can perform arithmetic functions with numbers, including addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
The Technological Edge: Electronics
Today’s computers are automatic, in that they can perform most tasks without the need for human intervention. They require a type of technology that was unimaginable in the nineteenth century. As Figure 1B.1 shows, nineteenth-century inventor Charles Babbage came up with the first design for a
Figure
1B.1
Steps Toward Modern Computing: A Timeline
quipa (15th and 16th centuries) At the height of their empire, the Incas used complex chains of knotted twine to represent a variety of data, including tribute payments, lists of arms and troops, and notable dates in the kingdom’s chronicles.
( abacus (4000 years ago to 1975) Used by merchants throughout the ancient world. Beads represent figures (data); by moving the beads according to rules, the user can add, subtract, multiply, or divide. The abacus remained in use until a worldwide deluge of cheap pocket calculators put the abacus out of work, after being used for thousands of years.
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Jacquard 's loom (1804) French weaver Joseph-Marie Jacquard creates an automatic, programmable weaving machine that creates fabrics with richly detailed patterns. It is controlled by means of punched cards. Pascal’s calculator (1642) French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal, the son of an accountant, invents
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries Science & Technology have grown-up a radical contribution to industry, and the personal computer has become a defining symbol of our age. In 1940, it was not recognized that Science & Technology would develop into an innovative way that would intensely affect business, trade, the monetary world, administration, discipline, education, communications, entertainment, and society as a whole. Today, information technology and its applications persist to go forward progressively. Computers and communication technology will become even more precious to civilization as they are ever more able to distinguish
From a very simple invention satisfying man’s conviction to do better, the abacus dramatically encouraged the growth of trade wherever it was adopted, for it was well suited to any commercial calculation. Still used in the Soviet Union and in the Far East in the 20th century, the abacus was finally replaced worldwide by the cheap electronic calculator. (The Inventions, pg.10) In 1945, the world’s first fully electronic computer was completed at the University of Pennsylvania. It was called ENIAC-Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer.
The first devices included:Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator was a computer that filled a whole room “Built in 1943-45 at the Moore School of the University of Pennsylvania for the War effort by John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert (no relation to Columbia University's Wallace Eckert) but not delivered to the Army until just after the end of the war,” Years after came minicomputers “Mini-computer was invented in 1965. It was invented by a U.S engineer because computers were too expensive. Kenneth Olsen the U.S Engineer thought he can make a mini-computer that cost less.” Schools saw these devices as a source that would potentially help students learn better, but it was not until 1965 when minicomputers were placed in schools, and although they were used mostly by the school’s administration, technology began to develop throughout the years from that time period on. And after a couple of years came the Macintosh created by steve Jobs that revolutionized society,as people were now able to have their personal computer,and from that point on technology just sky rocketed.
Babylonian: The base 60 system that is still used today in the division of hours into minutes and seconds. They left clay tables that contained tables of multiplication, division, squares cubes, and square roots, and the measurement of area and length. All of these allowed the solution of linear and quadratic equation to be determined. They knew the Pythagoras Theory before invented and made predictions of when an astronomical event will occur.
Currently, computers are used for everything in life. For example, from researching for a large essay project to playing video games with friends. “From the outset, computers were weighed for both military and commercial significance, and hence they straddled the very institutional boundaries that central to this study. It is also significant that computers became valuable research instruments in nearly all disciplines.” (Akera, 2). The first digital computer was constructed in 1946 by John Mauchly, a professor, and Presper Eckert, an inventor. “They met by chance in 1941 at the University of Pennsylvania’s Moore School of Engineering. They soon developed a revolutionary vision: to use electricity as a means of computing--in other words, to make electricity "think."” (McCartney, 1). They were ignored by their colleagues, but in 1943 they were becoming more well known and was funded by the U.S Army. The U.S Army was seeking for a contraption that can quickly calculate ballistic missile trajectories in wartime Europe and Africa (McCartney, 1). John Mauchly and Presper Eckert led a team that constructed the computer that occupied 1,800 square feet and weighed thirty tons. They named the large computer, ENIAC, Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer. The process of building this machine was not an effortless task, Mauchly and Presper and their team had to overcome many problems
There have been many advances since the initial invention of the computer fifty years ago. Today, computers operate many of the things that we use in everyday life. Some examples of these things are farm machinery, cars, planes, video games, heat and water delivery to our homes, banking, billing, and even the stock market. The advances of the computer have resulted in the
An innovative era of technological advancements and radical new concepts swept the nation by storm. The revolution was steered by a collaboration of boundless minds and problem solvers. Through a series of trial and error, computers were transformed from small sprockets and motors to machines that could unravel most of society’s problems. In 1946, Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, two military commissioned American inventors, constructed one of the world’s first computers using vacuums and enormous air conditioners. The two men started an industry in machine processing speed and power. Eckert and Mauchly’s invention defined all new aspects of the future. By the 1950s computers were a public attraction; they were being used for military purposes, business management, and the advancement of networking.
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.
the next item i will be talking about is kites, kites are used today as for fun, and even after several millennia, china still uses them for religious celebrations.
the introduction of the calculator? I certainly find it crucial to understand this, for the
They built spectacular temples and palaces, developed several calendars—including one reaching back to 13 August, 3114 BC —and evolved a numerical system capable of recording a number that today would be expressed as 142 followed by 36 zeros. They developed a complex system of writing and, beginning in 50 BC , were the first people in the Western hemisphere to keep written historical records. Around AD 900 the construction of buildings and stelae—stone slabs inscribed with names and dates—ceased abruptly, and the advanced lowland
Since ancient times, mathematics has always been a necessity for the sake of civilization. Many different cultures developed their own numerical system to adapt to changing times. Even
The key period of the evolution of modern electronic computer is in between the late 1930s and the early 1950s. Not all of them were invented by the mathematician or physician. Among those machines were pioneering computers put together by english academics notably Manchester/Ferrenti Mark 1, built at Manchester University by Frederic Williams and Thomas Kilburn. And the EDSAC, Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator built by Maurice Wilkes at Cambridge University.
John Atanasoff and Clifford Berry’s creative and innovative idea led to many of today’s technology – including our own personal computer. The creation of electronic computer’s changed the marketers advertise and sell their products. This innovation was definitely a success in terms of creative influence. (Stansifer)
The birth of the internet created a revolution on technology, and social media in the world. It created a vast amount of change, and has put humans onto a path that they thought they could not walk on. It has shifted modern culture and helped shape it into a unique one where the internet seems to run the world. One big part of internet culture is the platform Web 2.0. It has helped shape many applications and has had an impact on creation, and content presented in the web to viewers. Web 2.0 can be shown in the popular app Twitter, and it shows how the site has evolved, what concepts are involved in it, and the future of Twitter and Web 2.0.