HISTORY OF COMPUTERS

(WHAT CAME BEFORE OUR MODERN TIME-SAVING DEVICES)

By Miss Hall and Mrs. Batchelor, 2014

INVENTORS OF PRE-COMPUTERS

Inventors Inventions (Machine)

Ancient civilizations (e.g. Egyptians,

Chinese)

ABACUS, a manual calculating machine

Blaise Pascal PASCALINE, an accounting adding

machine

Gottfried Leibnez STEPPED RECKONER, a calculating

machine

Joseph-Marie Jacquard JACQUARD’S LOOM, an automatic cloth-

weaver

Herman Hollerith TABULATING MACHINE, to tally census

results

Charles Babbage ANALYTICAL ENGINE, DIFFERENCE

ENGINE

THE ABACUS

PASCAL AND LEIBNIZ

JACQUARD’S LOOM

HOLLERITH’S & BABBAGE’S MACHINES

GENERATIONS OF COMPUTERSFirst Generation (1945-1956)

Second Generation (1956-1963)

Third Generation (1964-1970)

Fourth Generation (1971- present)

Vacuum Tubes Transistors Integrated Circuits Microprocessors

Big and Clumsy

High electricity consumption

Larger AC units were needed

Lot of electricity failure occurred.

Smaller transistors were used

Core memory was developed.

Faster than first generation computers

Integrated circuits developed

Power consumption was low.

100 times faster than the second generation

Development of portable computers

Floppy disks, optical disks then flash memory became the popular storage media

1ST & 2ND GENERATION

3RD & 4TH GENERATION

SUPER COMPUTER

• Supercomputers – are the largest, fastest and most powerful computers at present.

MAINFRAME COMPUTERS

• Mainframe – these computers are very expensive and can handle more than hundred users at a time. They are found in large organization such as banks.

MINI COMPUTERS

These become outdated and are rarely used today. They were very popular in the 1960s. They take up less space, may fit on a desk or take up the space of filing cabinet. Modern versions would be something like servers

MICROCOMPUTER

This type of computer includes those for general purpose and for business needs. They are usually called PC’s (Personal Computers) based on the microprocessor.

TYPES OF COMPUTERSMICROCOMPUTER MINICOMPUTER MAINFRAME SUPERCOMPUTER

 

Desktop, laptop, palmtop

About the size of a small filing cabinet

Large office desk dimensions

Roomful of large filing cabinets SIZE

1 10-100 100-500 500-thousands USERS

Microseconds Under 100 nanoseconds Under 70 nanoseconds Under 15 nanoseconds SPEED

Joysticks, modems, keyboard, printer,

disk drives, monitor, etc.

Terminals, printers Magnetic tape drive Special high-performance devices PERIPHERALS

Dust-free, anti-virus, disk protection

Air- conditioning and security

recommended

Special cooling, fire protection, security

required

Special cooling, fire protection, security

requiredENVIRONMEN

T

CheapestSmall businesses or departments

use it

Often used as part of a network in medium to large businesses, e.g.

banks

Severe heat buildup, for superior (scientific)

applicationsNOTES

REFERENCES

• http://history-computer.com/MechanicalCalculators/Pioneers/Lebniz.html

• http://www.thocp.net/hardware/pascaline.htm

• http://www.computersciencelab.com/ComputerHistory/HistoryPt2.htm

• http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/mainframe-ubuntu-linux/9491

• http://www.shirazjju.com/1390/12/computer-generations-english/

• http://danjo.city.kashiwa.lg.jp/gakushuu/pcschool/pc_history/comp_history02.htm

• http://mally.stanford.edu/leibniz.html

THE END..