Computers

1762 Words4 Pages

Computers

The Computer that you know these days is a small thing that sits on a desk in your room that is composed of a monitor, keyboard, mouse and a small box. But computers have changed so much that if you seen old computer you would never recognize it. The first computer was built in the early 17 hundreds. You probably heard that the first computer was made in the 1950’s but computers have been around for hundreds of years.

All a computer is is something that calculates number. So these computers of the 1700’s were made from gears that worked together to make a answer. “In the nineteenth century, Englishman Charles Babbage designed a steam powered machine that could calculate square roots, cube roots and other exponential functions.” (1) The first computer was an abacus. “The Chinese abacus consists of a wooden frame divided into an upper and lower section.” (2) These are all computer that have been around 100’s of years.

Latter in the 20th century the government started to work on a top-secret project. That was the birth of type of computer. Similar to your computer but still very vary different. You would probably still would have never have guest what it is. The computer had no screen and it was the size of a office building. This computer was programmed differently too instead of typing in to a computer they had to make cards with holes in it that stood for different thing for it to do. They first had to make a program for typing so that they could have a keyboard connected to it. But still that was not good enough they need a program so that they could use the keyboard program on the system. This is called a operating system. The operating system is a lot like windows, it’s what keeps your computer interactive with you. But at that time they didn’t have a operating system and had to create one. One of the first operating systems open to the public was DOS.

The computer for years had been improved to smaller and smaller parts to run it faster and faster. Soon the computer was the size of a house. By then everyone knew about a computer. It was not until 1985 that the computer industry was able to take off and become one of the most important necessities in this world.

Show More
Related

  • Technology

    1170 Words  | 3 Pages

    In today's world, technology is constantly changing from a new paperclip to an improvement in hospital machinery. Technology lets people improve the way they live so that they can preserve their own personal energy and focus on the really important factors in life. Some people focus their energy on making new innovations to improve transportation and the health of people that may save lives and some people focus on making new designs of packaging CDS. Technology is significant in everyone's life because it rapidly changes what is in the market. But, some new innovations of technology are ridiculous because they serve no purpose in helping mankind.

    Read More

  • Desktop Computer vs. Laptop Computers

    1355 Words  | 3 Pages

    These statistics are amazing, but even more amazing is the development of computers. Now in 2005, in this short 68-year period, computer technology has changed its entire look; now, we use computer chips instead of vacuum tubes and circuit board instead of wires. The changes in size and speed are probably the biggest. When we look at computers today, it is very hard to imagine computers 60 years ago were such big, heavy monsters.

    Read More

  • The Impact of Technology

    1424 Words  | 3 Pages

    There are many different beginnings to the origins of computers. Their origins could be dated back more than two thousand years ago, depending on what a person means when they ask where the first computer came from. Most primitive computers were created for the purpose of running simple programs at best. (Daves Old Computers) However, the first ‘digital’ computer was created for the purposes of binary arithmetic, otherwise known as simple math. It was also created for regenerative memory, parallel processing, and separation of memory and computing functions. Built by John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry during 1937-1942, it was dubbed the Atanasoff Berry Computer (ABC).

    Read More

  • Computer Engineer

    929 Words  | 2 Pages

    Computer engineering started about 5,000 years ago in China when they invented the abacus. The abacus is a manual calculator in which you move beads back and forth on rods to add or subtract. Other inventors of simple computers include Blaise Pascal who came up with the arithmetic machine for his father’s work. Also Charles Babbage produced the Analytical Engine, which combined math calculations from one problem and applied it to solve other complex problems. The Analytical Engine is similar to today’s computers.

    Read More

  • The Love Witch

    552 Words  | 2 Pages

    This was my first time viewing The Love Witch by Anna Biller. I enjoyed every aspect of it. It was extremely theatrical and intellectual. I also loved the actress who played Elaine and how she performed the character. It was an overperformance that painted Elaine as the ultimate femme fatale, she is the literal personification of male fear towards women.

    Read More

  • History of the Development of Computers

    1704 Words  | 4 Pages

    Have you ever pondered upon how computer came into existence? It could not have just pop out of nowhere, can it? What actually is a Computer? When was it invented? Who were the great men behind these inventions? With so many of these questions popping up, we should look back into history to answer all these questions and to have a bette...

    Read More

  • The History of The Microprocessor

    1787 Words  | 4 Pages

    Prior to the revolution in technology that was microprocessors, making a computer was a large task for any manufacturer. Computers used to be built solely on discrete, or individual, transistors soldered together. Microprocessors act as the brain of a computer, doing all mathematics. Depending on how powerful the machine was intended to be, this could take weeks or even months to produce with individual components. This laborious task put the cost of a computer beyond the reach of any regular person. Computers before lithographic technology were massive and were mostly used in lab scenarios (Brain 1).

    Read More

  • Computers: Past, Present and Future

    841 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • 100 years of change

    543 Words  | 2 Pages

    Another example of the change in our technology over the last century is the change in the computer. In 1946, the first electronic computer called the ENIAC took up the space of a large room. Instead of using transistors and IC chips, the ENIAC used vacuum tubes. Compared to many computers now, the ENIAC is about as powerful as a small calculator. That may not be much, but it is a milestone because there would not be computers today if it were not for the ENIAC. As the years passed, the computer became smaller and more powerful. Today, more than half of the American population has a computer in their home. The personal computers today are thousands of times more powerful than the most powerful computers fifty years ago.

    Read More

  • The Impact of Computers On Our Lives

    2684 Words  | 6 Pages

    The very earliest existence of the modern day computer’s ancestor is the abacus. These date back to almost 2000 years ago. It is simply a wooden rack holding parallel wires on which beads are strung. When these beads are moved along the wire according to

    Read More

  • The History Of Computers

    1689 Words  | 4 Pages

    very old. It is about 2000 years old .1 The first computer was the abacus. This

    Read More

  • The History of Computers

    836 Words  | 2 Pages

    The history of the computer dates back all the way to the prehistoric times. The first step towards the development of the computer, the abacus, was developed in Babylonia in 500 B.C. and functioned as a simple counting tool. It was not until thousands of years later that the first calculator was produced. In 1623, the first mechanical calculator was invented by Wilhelm Schikard, the “Calculating Clock,” as it was often referred to as, “performed it’s operations by wheels, which worked similar to a car’s odometer” (Evolution, 1). Still, there had not yet been anything invented that could even be characterized as a computer. Finally, in 1625 the slide rule was created becoming “the first analog computer of the modern ages” (Evolution, 1). One of the biggest breakthroughs came from by Blaise Pascal in 1642, who invented a mechanical calculator whose main function was adding and subtracting numbers. Years later, Gottfried Leibnez improved Pascal’s model by allowing it to also perform such operations as multiplying, dividing, taking the square root.

    Read More

  • The First Generation Of Computers

    333 Words  | 1 Pages

    The First Generation of Computers The first generation of computers, beginning around the end of World War 2, and continuing until around the year 1957, included computers that used vacuum tubes, drum memories, and programming in machine code. Computers at that time where mammoth machines that did not have the power our present day desktop microcomputers. In 1950, the first real-time, interactive computer was completed by a design team at MIT. The "Whirlwind Computer," as it was called, was a revamped U.S. Navy project for developing an aircraft simulator.

    Read More

  • The Computer Evolution

    2687 Words  | 6 Pages

    The fist computer, known as the abacus, was made of wood and parallel wires on which beads were strung. Arithmetic operations were performed when the beads were moved along the wire according to “programming” rules that had to be memorized by the user (Soma, 14). The second earliest computer, invented by Blaise Pascal in 1694, was a “digital calculating machine.” Pascal designed this first known digital computer to help his father, who was a tax collector. Pascal’s computer could only add numbers, and they had to be entered by turning dials (Soma, 32). It required a manual process like its ancestor, the abacus. Automation was introduced in the early 1800’s by a mathematics professor named Charles Babbage. He created an automatic calculation machine that was steam powered and stored up to 1000 50-digit numbers. Unlike its two earliest ancestors, Babbage’s invention was able to perform various operations. It relied on cards with holes punched in them, which are called “punch cards.” These cards carried out the programming and storing operations for the machine. Unluckily, Babbage’s creation flopped due to the lack of mechanical precision and the lack of demand for the product (Soma, 46). The machine could not operate efficiently because technology was t adequate to make the machine operate efficiently Computer interest dwindled for many years, and it wasn’t until the mid-1800’s that people became interested in them once again.

    Read More

  • Computers In Daily Life

    1458 Words  | 3 Pages

    There is a need for more computers in everyday life, in homes, schools and on the job. The advancement of computer technology today in all facets of the world, and life are growing to the point that everyone will need a computer to carry out their everyday life. Computer technology today is at the threshold of making life easier for everyone in the world.

    Read More

More about Computers

Open Document