History of the Computer Industry in America

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.

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

Personal computers are now a very common item in many households. More than one million personal computers had been sold and by in the mid 1980s, it had risen to 30 million. Personal computers have been a big help in today’s society, and it also helps me with my homework, research papers, essays, and much more. The first African American ever to receive the honor as IBM fellow was, Dr. Mark Dean. In this research paper, I will highlight the importance of the personal computer and how it has an impact on society then and now.

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

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 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 era of most mechanical computation devices has somewhat ceased, and gave way to electronic computation devices. This sudden change gave way to an immediate impact, this impact was felt most during one of the most violent times in America’s history, WWII. During this time the military had a priority to be able to navigate and break the conversation codes from the enemy. Radar in WWII was also much more accurate. In a very real sense, electronic implementation and computer technology came at just the right time, and was a small cornerstone for the American Military. Mechanical devices when compared to pure electronic computation devices were too slow and very unreliable. In an electronic computing devices, their electrons achieve the same

In the past 100 years, the world has completely turned around. The technological and computer revolutions have completely changed the way the world works. Henry Ford revolutionized factorial production through the creation of the assembly line. It increased efficiency and a basic standard of conformity among products, therefore making the company a lot more successful. The rest of the industry creating a nation-wide revolution based on efficiency adopted this new innovation. Following the innovation of the assembly line, a new era of development came into existence. In the 1970’s, computers were first introduced. Although they were as large as a room and could only play tic tac toe, they were the start of the

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).

Today, the Turing Bombe is not used by the military, yet the machine inspires and reminds of the importance of sciences as World War II was won with the help of the scientific community. Now, the machines are exposed in the British Museum and are part of history. Soldiers and scientific community fought against the Nazis. After World War II, Alan Turing continued to devote himself for his passion of sciences, cryptanalysis, and computers. For instance, Turing is known as the father-creator of computers as in 1941, he designed the Colossus computer (Notes). In addition, he is recognized as an important figure in the scientific community and contributed largely to everyone’s lives, as computers are indispensable in today’s generation.

When ENIAC was announced in 1946, it was heralded in the press as a "Giant Brain." [8] It had a speed on the order of one thousand (103) times faster than that of electro-mechanical machines; this computational power, coupled with general-purpose programmability, excited scientists and industrialists

Americans have at present become too dependent on computers. With the invention of computers years ago, they have become an essential part of human life. Americans have increasingly become dependent on computers, and it is quite unbelievable that almost fifty years ago, many of them had never seen a computer before. Presently, computers are in use in almost every aspect of human life, at almost all corners of the globe. People can now work from the comfort of their own homes, interact instantly with their family or friends living abroad, and even socialize with strangers from all over the world. This paper explores how Americans are becoming too dependent on computers for communication, education, and entertainment.

At the time of the World War II, things were very different, they needed something or some technology to strategize and make plans which could help them through their war. In 1941 a computer called the Z3 was developed by a German engineer named Konrad Zuse, which was used for aerodynamic calculations as designing airplanes and missiles for the war. The Z3 was “the world’s first programmable automatic computer” (“First generations computers,” 2007). The Z3 used 2,300 relays and was operated on a 22-bit word length at a 5-10 Hz clock frequency. However, in 1943, the Z3 was destroyed in a bombing raid in Berlin, but Zuse did not stop there. He rebuilt the Z3 again after 17 years in the 1960s which became the “Turing Complete” (Brown, 2016) and as a result of the Z3, Zuse is occasionally, known as the inventor of the

　　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.