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The history of the development of computers
History of modern computers
Historical Development Of Computer
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Types of Computers
Mainframes
Mainframes
Was the dominant form of computing before microcomputers. They are usually very expensive, powerful and operate specialist software
Mainframes are typically used by large companies, public authorities and universities for their data handling tasks. These tasks are typically:
File maintenance:
This is perhaps the most common use of mainframes. Maintaining records is a huge task for institutions. Records can contain information on sales, credit card status, payroll details, social security details, health records, stock inventory, etc. These either need to be accessed by different people in real-time (for instance a travel agent booking an airline ticket) or updated in batches (for instance warehouse stock levels at the end of each day). It is necessary in such cases to have the data stored centrally and then accessible by those who need it. A lot of minicomputers are now capable of performing these tasks in medium-sized companies.
Emulations:
Many physical and engineering problems cannot be solved without the help of complex computer simulations. These require intensive mathematical work, and so take advantage of a mainframe's computational power. Examples include weather forecasting, or calculating the position of astronomical bodies with extreme accuracy. Many minicomputers or workstations are now used for this type of problem.
General purpose:
Many universities used a mainframe to act as a general purpose computing facility. Each user can then be given their own area on the mainframe to store files, and different departments can use its resources to perform different tasks, e.g. predicting bird populations in the Biology department and calculating metal stress in the Engineering Department. PCs are now used to perform many of these tasks.
Minicomputers:
Minicomputers
Are powerful, special-purpose computers. They were originally viewed as small mainframes - hence the prefix 'mini'. However, they have become increasingly powerful and have replaced mainframes for many functions. Examples include Digital Equipment's VAX machines and IBM's AS/400s. They typically cost in the $100,000s.
Tasks minicomputers might be used for include:
Plant control:
Many industrial plants require a central computing facility to collect data from various sensors and then to act accordingly. For example, in a chemical engineering plant, as the pressure in one vat increases the computer registers this, and opens a release valve slightly while also adjusting the boiler temperature.
Network control:
Many computer networks need a central computer which provides storage space and controls the network using special network software. This is known as a server. The other computers which access the server are called clients.
5. Although the lines between the different computer classifications have blurred over the years, thanks to higher quality personal computers (PCs), mainframe computers still require their own classification. Mainframes have similar speeds to personal computers; however, they
Not long ago computers were non-existent in many homes. When computers were first introduced to the world, they were for the sole purpose of performing business functions. The only people who owned computers were large organizations. Eventually, computers were introduced into the homes of those who could afford to buy them. Today, just about everyone owns some form of system that they use daily to help manage their day-to-day operations. What many once survived without now seems impossible to do without. As technology continues to grow, it has a greater effect on families and the education system. Some companies such as Microsoft and Apple made it possible to reinvent a new form of technology that would change the world. Each company had some form of struggle and overtime had to keep up with the changes of time and the way people communicated. From the first day of its invention, organizations have had to steadily implement new operating systems to keep up with the demands of the people while staying afloat with competitors. The ways of life for many have changed as well as the way people communicate. It is evident that the history and uses of computers have changed the world but these computers could not perform without the operating systems. Various operating systems will be discussed, how they began and how they each changed since they were first introduced. Although, they all had a purpose each varied in how they performed and changed the lives of many and will continue in the near future.
The subject of this term paper will be about computers in the 1950’s. The divisions that will be covered are; the types of computers there were, the memory capacity of computers, the programming languages of that time, and the uses of the computers for that time. Information will be gathered from the Internet, from books, and from magazines, and from the encyclopedia.
A mainframe is a very large machine that has several processors, large amounts of memory and hundreds of gigabytes of RAM. It has masses of disk space and other storage facilities in large size and quantities that are not normally found with Personal computers. The actual difference comes in the scale and power of the mainframe machine and it’s ability to process large amounts of data at amazing speeds, whereas the PC is limited in size and scope as to its abilities processing small amounts of data with a limited amount of power. For large business, the main frame is a necessary but for most home computing a PC is everything they need.
to replace the IBM machine. In the 1960s and the 1970s IBM came out quickly and built a
It was January of 1975 when the first personal computer Altair 8800 was invented by an ex air force officer from Georgia, Ed Roberts. His motivation was his interest of having a personal computer to play with, since computer back then was scarce and was difficult to come across. The Altair 8800 was invented in Albuquerque New Mexico where Ed Roberts was running his calculator business called MITS. It was believed that Ed Robert’s Altair was the spark that started the fire, and gave personal computer a chance to be seen in everyone’s desk. Ed Roberts used a microprocessor (8080), to launch Altair, a chip that he got from Intel, the creator of chips, chips that they saw as useful only for calculators and traffic lights, but Ed Robert’s saw more. Microprocessor was a technological breakthrough that made personal computer possible, without it, the first personal computer would have never existed. Altair did basic computing, but it was a pain to use. Keying in data and instructions strenuously by flipping switches, that was really all that the Altair could do. So, those who had interest in technology decided to form a club called the “Homebrew Computer Club” at Stanford University in Silicon Valley , mainly to talk about computer, and how they could improve it. For Ed Roberts building more innovative personal computer was not the path that he chose to continue on doing, rather he sold his company MITS and pursue doctorate in his hometown, Georgia.
...d to the 1950s during the use of large mainframe computers by schools and corporations. The hardware infrastructure for the gargantuan mainframe would be stored in a single space where multiple users could access it via ‘dumb or static terminals’. This central mainframe was structured in a manner that ensured maximum use through sharing physical access and CPU time during periods of inactivity. In the 1970s, IBM introduced the VM operating software that facilitated administrator with multiple virtual systems in one physical mode. This allowed multiple individual computer environments to be sustainable in the same physical environment, which is considered as the cradle for most virtualization software. The shared resources in the VM operating systems allowed for custom or guest operating systems with their own keyboards, memory, hard drives, CD-ROMs, and networking.
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).
In 1975, about one month after the Altair’s debut, IBM introduced the 5100 – dubbed the IBM Portable PC. There were few personal computers available around this time, making the powerful 5100 very attractive as a complete portable system (Sysop, n.d.). At almost 60 pounds and a cost of $9,000-$20,000 however, it was attractive to a small audience. It was designed specifically for professional and scientific problem-solvers. Several years later saw the introduction of what most historians refer to as the first truly portable computer, the Osborne 1 (Bellis, 2005). Released in 1981, the Osborne 1 weighed about 24 pounds and sold for $1795. While the unit itself was still rather bulky, it contained a fold-out keyboard, 5 inch monitor, and two floppy disk drives. Its biggest value however, was the $1500 worth of software that came with it. Unlike the IBM 5100, the Osborne 1 optionally ran on battery packs, enabling true portability. Advances in technology saw the decrease in size of portable computers, as well as an increase in computing power.
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.
It simplifies the storage and processing of large amounts of data, eases the deployment and operation of large-scale global products and services, and automates much of the administration of large-scale clusters of computers.
The history of computers is an amazing story filled with interesting statistics. “The first computer was invented by a man named Konrad Zuse. He was a German construction engineer, and he used the machine mainly for mathematic calculations and repetition” (Bellis, Inventors of Modern Computer). The invention shocked the world; it inspired people to start the development of computers. Soon after,
Computer history goes back to the 1800s when Charles Babbage created the first computer, named the Babbage model. It was an analytical model that was composed of gears and levers and was about the size of a desk calculator ("Computers" Ferguson's Career Guidance Center). Computers that used vacuum tubes to store space concepts were considered first generation computers. Overtime, computers became smaller, faster, more reliable, and much easier to use than the previous models. In 1971, the first microprocessor was invented, which led to the fourth generation computers, which are used to this day. By the 1980s, competition among companies, such as IBM, Apple, and Packard Bell, resulted in lower prices for computers ("Computers"). Now, computers are affordable for businesses, schools, and homes.
Computers are very complex and have many different uses. This makes for a very complex system of parts that work together to do what the user wants from the computer. The purpose of this paper is to explain a few main components of the computer. The components covered are going to be system units, Motherboards, Central Processing Units, and Memory. Many people are not familiar with these terms and their meaning. These components are commonly mistaken for one and other.
Computers are helpful because they offer a wide range of functions and services that are not available anywhere else. There are four main uses: word processing, internet/communications, digital video/audio composition, and desktop publishing. Although one can create a typed paper with a typewriter, the computer has more features