History of Computting

By smm5730

  • Computer Prototypes

    Between 1937 and 1942, professor John V. Atanasoff and Clifford E. Berry worked on a prototype computer called the Atanasoff-Berry Computer which was the first to use vacuum tubes.

  • Prototypes continued

    Konrad Zuse, a German engineer, developed a computer called the Z3. It was designed to work with binary numbers and built in Germany during WWII.

  • IBM Prototype

    IBM sponsored Howard Aiken who had created a plan to create an Automatic Accounting Machine into a single unit. This unit used a decimal system which is not even used today.

  • Performing real computing

    COLLOSSUS, created by the British, was able to decode German encrypted messages using binary arithmetic system. It was able to rear 5,000 characters per second.

  • UNIVAC Specifications

    UNIVAC was smaller than ENIAC as it was 14.5 feet long, 7.5 feet high, and 9 feet wide. It could interepret 7,200 characters per second and complete 2.25 million instruction cycles per second. It had 12KB of RAM and used magnetic tape to store data

  • First Generation

    UNIVAC was considered to be the first digital computer to be used. It was constructed by Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation.

  • Progress for 1st Generation

    As technology moved forward, computers became smaller by using relay switches and vacuum tubes were replaced with smaller ones that required less power.

  • Characteristics

    First generation computers used vacuum tubes to store data. Vacuum tubes controlled the flor of electrons in a vacuum. Each tube was assigned a value, 0 or 1, which made computations faster.

  • Second Generation

    Second generation computers received transistors instad of vacuum tubes. A transistor regulates voltage flow and acts as a switch for an electronic circuit. They are much smaller and cheaper tan vacuum tubes and consumed less energy.

  • Transistorized Computers

    IBM, Burroughs, Control Data, Honeywell, and Sperry Rand manufacturered computers with transistors.

  • Operating System

    Unlike first generation computers, second generation used a operating system that was designed by IBM that would provide standard routines for input and output, memory management, and activities.

  • Operation system continued

    The operating systems that IBM developed were unique to the partcular model computer they were designed for. It contained special commands.

  • Third Generation of Computers

    Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments and Robert Noyce at Fairchild Semiconductor developed circuits. This allowed for the process of thousands of vacuum tubes to be placed on a chip.

  • Computers with Circuits

    RCA Spectra 70 and IBM 360 were te first computers to contain crcuits. The Digital Equipement Corp introduced the DEC PDP-8 which was the first successful minicomputer.

  • Compaq

    DEC, who took over the computer industry for some time, was purchased by Compaq. Later on, Compaq was purchased by Hewlett-Packard.

  • Minicomputers

    IBM's AS/400 computer was one of the last computers to be classified as a minicomputer. Today, minicomputers have fallen into a state of disuse.

  • Fourth Generation

    Fourth Generaton contains personal computers. Users now are able to have computerst that they do not need to share, or they are easily obtained.

  • Apple

    Apple, also known as Macintosh, was one of the first personal computers to come about. They were sold in kits that contained all the necesary parts to construct a person computer.

  • Personal computer success

    Personal computers could be upgraded to the users needs. Slots were left empty in the mother baord of computers thus users were able to ad on more RAM or different video cards.