The History & Developments of a Computer - Report Example

Running Header: The History & Developments of a Computer Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code & Name: Date of Submission: The History & Developments of a Computer Introduction One of the machines that everyone today interacts with is the computer. There are many applications today that man has been able to do that were impossible back in the days when computers were not there. As the world enjoys the good service of the machine ‘computer’ and its applications, it is important to get to know the history that is behind its success story today. The computer was developed from scratch by people who died before seeing what today a reality. This paper would limit itself to the history that computers have taken to be what they are today. It would also seek to explain the developments that have taken place for years that has led to the successful story of the computers that are in the market today. First, it is important to define what a computer is all about. A computer may simply refer to an electronic machine that has the capacity to manipulate data or any given information. In particular the computer has the ability to offer storage of data, it can process the data that is fed into it, and also has room for the data to be retrieved when needed by its user. Computers are widely used today for the purposes of typing of documents, browsing over the internet, sending emails, perform spread sheet calculations, manage databases, play games, show presentations and so on. The computer has many parts with it that makes it function however the two main parts that are important to note for this paper are the hardware and the software. The hardware is the physical structure or the physical devices that are used by the user. The common ones are the mouse used often to highlight, the keyboard where the users type the information to b e fed to or from the computer, and the monitor which is the screen that displays what the computer is performing. The other key part is the software part which may be defined as a set of programs or instructions that commands the hardware on what to do. It gives the hardware guidance to perform the operations or commands of the user. Examples of software may include web browsers, word processors, accounting software’s, and so on. The History of Computers The computer has a long history with regard to the period it has taken tom be a success. It also has a long history with regard to its development to what it is today with regard to its functionality. Today’s computer can perform many more functions that the first computer couldn’t do for instance. This shows the long journey that the inventors, researchers, philosophers and engineers have gone through to bring to realization of the ‘computer’. One cannot separate the history of computers with the philosophers of the ancient times. History has it that the desire of the philosophers to perform certain operations played a big role towards the development of the computer. The philosophers were perhaps the first people to without intention make effort to come up with the computer. This is because they established manual ways by which certain basic operations such as addition, and subtraction were performed. They expanded this knowledge to multiplication and division. Knowledge further expanded to the use of logarithms, and calculus which required advanced calculator devices to perform. Increased need to perform more operations as the numbers increased caused the need to come up with a machine that is able to handle these operations. This was developed over many years and today we have the computer which can perform multiple functions (Munck, 2006). Notably, the first ‘computers’ were people because it’s the people who were responsible in doing the functions that the computer does today. Today’s electronic computers, as well as the ancient mechanical computers were referred to as ‘computers’. ‘Computer’ was a job title that referred to the people (i.e. particularly women) who were responsible for performing repetitive calculations that were used in computation of certain parameters such as tide charts, navigational tables, and planetary positions for astronomical almanacs. Their job was to hour after another on each day compute multiplications. This led to the challenge of many mistakes due to boredom, which leading to carelessness, leading to mistakes. This led to inventors, philosophers to find out means by which these tasks would be performed. This led to a research that took hundreds of years to bring forth the computer. The computer has had a long history with regard to its development to the kind of machine that we have today. Hundreds of years went by as more research and discoveries were made and assembled together to make the ‘computer’ as success story. It is also important to note that the development of the modern day computer has come as a result of various technological advancements with increasing demand to quantify (Ceruzzi, 2003). The following developments were made over the years and they significantly contributed towards the development of computer to be able to perform the functions it can be able to perform today. It all began long ago as early as the time when Papyrus helped early man to write down numbers. The ‘abacus’ was developed to be the first counting machines. This led to other mechanical counting machines that were developed to lead to the computer. There were many developments that were made which are summarized as follows. The Development of Computers It all began with the need to quantify numbers through automation. Development 1: Coming up of the ‘Abacus’ The ‘Abacus’ refers to the early aid that was developed to assist the philosophers and mathematicians in handling mathematical computations. It was used to aid the memory of the user while performing calculations. A user who was skilled in using the ‘Abacus’ was able limited to handling addition and subtraction at an equivalent speed with those who used the hand calculator. The oldest ‘abacus’ that was used by Babylonians was used in 300 B.C. This was followed by the coming up of the ‘eccentric’ which was named ‘logarithms’ by John Napier. This was in the year 1617. Development 2: Development of the Calculating Clock Machine It involved the success in making the first gear-driven calculating machine. It was named the ‘calculating clock’ by Wilhelm Schickard in 1623. This was followed by the invention of the ‘Pascaline’ in 1642, by the 19 year old Blaise Pascaline, who made it as an aid to his father, a tax collector. The challenge of the machine was that it wasn’t that accurate. At age 12, he made an 8 digit version of the Pascaline. Development 3: Development of the ‘Steped Reconer’ Machine. After Pascal, another German inventor developed the ‘Steped Reconer’ calculating machine. This machine was at least able to perform the four functions of addition, multiplication, subtraction and division. He also was the first inventor to advance the use of binary number system, a system that is important for the operation of the modern computers. This was followed by discovery of ‘punched cards’ in 1801 which was designed on a fabric and would be used to perform various operations. Development 4: Development of the Analytic Engine. In 1822, Charles Babbage, proposed a stem driven calculating machine referred to as the “Difference Engine” which was said to have the capacity to compute tables of numbers including logarithm tables. However the cost implication stopped the funding of this project so it was never finished. It is said to be the ever expensive project that was British funded. He was not deterred by funding; he went on to make the ‘Analytic engine’. This device that was powered by six steam engines and it was big taking the space of a house. He combined this with the punched card technology of Jacquard. He saw the patterns of holes in the card as an opportunity to represent abstract data that may be used to find a solution to a problem. The analytic engine had one extra function that made it different from calculators. It had what was referred to as the ‘conditional statement’ which allows a computer program to have different end-results every time the program runs. Development 5: Development of the ‘Hollerith desk’ card reader device. This breakthrough towards coming up with a computer took place in America in 1780. It was brought about by the pressure of the US constitution with regard to its census that was to take place every 10 years, so that from the data collected a determination of the number of representatives who would represent the states in the congress would be established (Colson, 2007). As much as the 1790 census, this was the very first census in America to have taken place for 9 months. In the 1880 the American population had significantly risen and thus there was a great need for Automation to be used in the next census which was to take place in 1890. At this time, the American census bureau offered a big prize for an inventor who would come up with an automation technology that would help in calculation during the next census which was to take place in the 1890. Herman Hollerith, came out with an invention referred to as ‘Hollerinth desk card reader machine, which performed computations using the Jacquard's punched cards. He won the prize. This device used a gear driven mechanism to count and dial indicators in form of a large wall which displayed the results of the count. Other devices were discovered though they had several weaknesses, to 1944 where there was a big breakthrough that led to establishment of Harvard Mark I computer. Development 6: Development of the Harvard Mark I Computer. This was one of the greatest successes that came to be a success after a long search for the computer. This computer was built through a partnership between IBM and Harvard in 1944. This computer was built from switches, clutches, rotating shafts and relays. It major challenges were that it was very heavy (weighed 5 tonnes), very large (estimated at 8 feet tall and 51 feet long, with a 50 ft rotating shaft that runs across its length). It power requirements were also high (it required 5 horse power electric motor to be returned). This may be the reason why it could not be stopped. Indeed it ran non-stop for 15 years (McCartney, S. (2005). Development 8: The microelectronics revolution & the original IBM Personal Computer (PC). This was the latest development that made computers perform the functions they can do today. The ‘integrated circuit’ was made which lessened the use of hand-crafted wiring used in Harvard I Computer. The original IBM Personal computer was then made after the invention of the microprocessor, which simply may be defined as a computer fabricated on an integrated circuit. This is happening at Intel in 1971, 20 years after computers had been around. Other developments included the development of software’s to be used in the computers. This is enhanced by Bill Gates who made efforts to write programs for the IBM machine in 1981, leading to the ‘Intel Pentium 4’ computers which are still used today as PC’s. This model was the first PC’ to be made by IBM Company. Other developments that came up have been with respect to building computers that are smaller in size, with larger storage capacities and faster speeds. This led to the coming up of laptops, palmtops, and now the iPad designed by Apple. Inc. (Association for History and Computing, 1995). Conclusion It has taken hundreds of years to develop what began as a calculation aid in solving problems to do with quantifying, to the computer we have today. Consistency, challenges and passion that the inventors had towards coming up with the computer paid off finally when the computer was made. The developments in the computer are still ongoing with new software’s being made, implying that the computer will have the capacity to perform more functions as new software programs are made. References Munck, C. (2006). History & Computation: Analyzing and Modeling Global Development. London: Routledge. Ceruzzi, P. (2003). A history of modern computing. New York, NY: MIT Press. Association for History and Computing. (1995). Structures and contingencies in computerized historical research. New York, NY: SAGE Publishers. Colson, R. (2007). The Fundamentals of Digital Art. London: AVA Publishing. McCartney, S. (2005). The Triumphs and Tragedies of the World's First Computer. 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