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Brief history of computers
A speec about evolution of computers
Brief history of computers
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A Brief History of Personal Computers
The electronic computer is a relatively modern invention; the first fully operable computer was developed about 50 years ago, at the end of World War II, by a team at the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School of Engineering. This team was headed by John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert, who named the new machine ENIAC, for Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator. ENIAC was hardly a personal computer, occupying a large room and weighing about 33 tons. By today's standards, ENIAC was extremely slow, unreliable, and expensive to operate. In 1945, on the other hand, it was considered a marvel.
Over the next 30 years, computers became smaller, faster, and less expensive. However, most of these machines remained isolated in their own air-conditioned rooms, tended by specially trained personnel. By 1975, computers were in great demand at universities, government agencies, and large businesses, but relatively few people had ever come face-to-face with an actual computer. This all began to change in the late 1970s.
To understand why, let's take a closer look at the early computers. ENIAC and its immediate successors were large, slow, and unreliable primarily because they used thousands of large, slow, and unreliable vacuum tubes in their electronic circuits. The vacuum tubes were glass cylinders, typically about four inches high and an inch in diameter, which generated a lot of heat and thus could not be placed too close together. Then, in 1947, a momentous event occurred at Bell Labs - William Shockley, John Bardeen, and Walter Brattain announced the invention of the transistor. Only about an inch long and a quarter inch across, a transistor produced very little heat, and did the same job as a vacuum tube.
The downsizing of computers began in the 1950s as transistors replaced vacuum tubes, and continued into the 1960s with the introduction of the integrated circuit (IC) - an ice cube-sized package containing hundreds of transistors. By the late 1960s, microchips, consisting of thousands of electronic components residing on a piece of silicon the size of a postage stamp, had begun to replace ICs. At this time, some minicomputers occupied a space no larger than a small filing cabinet and cost less than $25,000. Then, in 1970, Marcian Hoff, Jr., working at Intel Corporation, invented the microprocessor, a central processing unit on a chip. The technological world was now ready for the personal computer.
The First Personal Computer
The Great Depression often seems very distant to people of the 21st century. This article is a good reminder of potential problems that may reoccur. The article showed in a very literal way the idea that a depression can bring a growing country to its knees. The overall ramifications of the event were never discussed in detail, but the historical significance is that people's lives were put on hold while they tried to struggle through an extremely difficult time.
Following the decade of economic prosperity and peace of the Roaring 20’s was the 1930’s which is commonly known as the Great Depression, an era of distress and instability that played an effect on altering the social, political, and economical infrastructure of the United States. Before the Great Depression, the United States was a representation of a consumer-driven society, with people loaning money from banks, in order to pay for luxurious items, they could not afford. However, in 1929, the stock market crashed, resulting in the nationwide closures of multiple banks and marked as the begin of turmoil for Americans. With the burden of the nation on the backs of all Americans, the meaning of life was changed and people waited day by day for the government to act and steer the nation back on the track for economic and political stability and progress, to be a
Kindleberger, Charles P. The World in Depression, 1929-1939. Vol. 4. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986.
..., and lethal gas should not be used as an execution method in my opinion. The main method of execution should be firing squad because it is the most humane and most efficient way to kill someone without torturing him or her. Six guys with guns line up and they all fire at the same times so no one who exactly the offender. I believe the United States and each State alone needs to start using or utilizing the death penalty more. Criminals need to know when they commit a heinous crime that there is a risk and that they could be put to death because of their actions. I believe once this threat is high enough and enforced enough that crime will decrease in the United States. In conclusion, criminals made their choice in committing serious crimes and now they should have to face the consequences of their actions by ending their life by using the death penalty.
The Death Penalty is very controversial because some people believe is a good Idea while others think is not a good idea at all. Lethal injection has become the preferred method of execution in the United States since the early 80 'sIn the United States the death penalty is used as a punishment for capital offenses. These specifics can vary from state to state, but commonly include first-degree murder, murder with special circumstances, rape with additional bodily harm, and the federal crime of treason. Lethal injection is a process that allows a convict to be put down quickly and painlessly. The death penalty honors human dignity by treating the defendant as a free moral actor able to control his own destiny for good or for ill; it does not
After the end of the World War I in 1920, the United States entered in a period where great changes were made. During this period known as the New Era of the 1920’s, many innovations were taking place as well as many economic developments, which were stimulating the way through a change in America’s society. However, while for some Americans this was an era of better opportunities for living, some others were suffering the consequences. Later on, with an unequal distribution of wealth and low incomes, America’s economy was in a vulnerable point of a catastrophic collapse. And so it was. By the end of the 1920’s, when the stock market crashed, the prosperity of that period disappeared and the nation was sunk into an economic catastrophe known as the Great Depression. Many factors constituted the reasons for this collapse, for example, the Wall Street crash, the oligopolies domination over American industries, the weaknesses in some industries (textile, coal and agriculture), and also the government policies and international economic difficulties. Then, by the early 1930 with the depression spreading and affecting the entire society, the policies, philosophy and optimism that Herbert Hoover had brought to his presidency was being challenged. As a result, by the time of the elections in 1932, Hoover lost the presidency against the candidate of the Democratic Party, Franklin D. Roosevelt and his campaign of what he called the New Deal. Based on this, FDR pushed towards many solutions for the “crises of a collapsing financial system, crippling unemployment, and agricultural and industrial breakdown” (Goldfield, Page 704). Even thought when various changes were made, it was during the period right after the elections of 1936 that polit...
1.According to Gary M. Walton and Hugh Rockoff, The Great Depression was the most important economic event of the twentieth century. In this essay, you have the opportunity to address two of the most important questions debated by economic historians of the Great Depression: What caused this unprecedented collapse? Why did the economy remain depressed for so long? (Walton and Rockoff, Chapter 23, page 422)
... Control are predisposed to having these other leadership traits. To the extent that that is true, I am likely to make an effective leader in the workplace and will be suited to both executive and entrepreneurial roles.
...n and Witteloostuijn 2003). Hence, my internal locus of control score suggests that although I may not immediately be in a leadership position, I will behave and respond to situations differently to those externally orientated and exhibit qualities expected in a successful leader.
"Technology is like fish. The longer it stays on the shelf, the less desirable it becomes." (1) Since the dawn of computers, there has always been a want for a faster, better technology. These needs can be provided for quickly, but become obsolete even quicker. In 1981, the first "true portable computer", the Osborne 1 was introduced by the Osborne Computer Corporation. (2) This computer revolutionized the way that computers were used and introduced a brand new working opportunity.
We have the microprocessor to thank for all of our consumer electronic devices, because without them, our devices would be much larger. Microprocessors are the feat of generations of research and development. Microprocessors were invented in 1972 by Intel Corporation and have made it so that computers could shrink to the sizes we know today. Before, computers took a room because the transistors or vacuum tubes were individual components. Microprocessors unified the technology on one chip while reducing the costs. Microprocessor technology has been the most important revolution in the computer industry in the past forty years, as microprocessors have allowed our consumer electronics to exist.
In 1937 the electronic computer was born. Computers were in 1943 to break “the unbreakable” German Enigma codes. 1951 introduced the computer commercially. However, it wasn’t until around 1976 when the Apple II was introduced and it was immediately adopted by high schools, colleges, and homes. This was the first time that people from all over really had an opportunity to use a computer. Since that time micro processing chips have been made, the World Wide Web has been invented and in 1996 more than one out of every three people have a computer in their home, and two out of every three have one at the office.
In 1953 it was estimated that there were 100 computers in the world. Computers built between 1959 and 1964 are often regarded as the "second generation" computers, based on transistors and printed circuits - resulting in much smaller computers. 1964 the programming language PL/1 released by IBM. 1964 the launch of IBM 360. These first series of compatible computers. In 1970 Intel introduced the first RAM chip. In 1975 IBM 5100 was released. In 1976 the Apple Computer Inc. was founded, to market Apple I Computer. Designed to Stephen Wozinak and Stephan Jobs. In 1979 the first compact disk was released around 1981 IBM announced PC, the standard model was sold for $2,880.00.
Thousands of years ago calculations were done using people’s fingers and pebbles that were found just lying around. Technology has transformed so much that today the most complicated computations are done within seconds. Human dependency on computers is increasing everyday. Just think how hard it would be to live a week without a computer. We owe the advancements of computers and other such electronic devices to the intelligence of men of the past.
The computer evolution has been an amazing one. There have been astonishing achievements in the computer industry, which dates back almost 2000 years. The earliest existence of the computer dates back to the first century, but the electronic computer has only been around for over a half-century. Throughout the last 40 years computers have changed drastically. They have greatly impacted the American lifestyle. A computer can be found in nearly every business and one out of every two households (Hall, 156). Our Society relies critically on computers for almost all of their daily operations and processes. Only once in a lifetime will a new invention like the computer come about.