Computer History and Development Essay Example for Free

Com fructifyer storey and Development EssayThe dictionary defines a randomness transition system as an electronic device for storing and processing data, typically in binary form, according to instructions given to it in a variable political platform. Primarily named to compute however, modern day computing devices do much more than like a shot supermarket scanners calculate consumers groceries bill, while keeping track of store inventory calculating machineized telephone switching centers play vocation cop to millions of calls, keeping lines of communication untangled and automatic teller tools lets banking transactions to be conducted from virtually anywhere in the world. Technology has been around for a centuries growing rapidly year by year. One of the most important items Technology has produced is computers. The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer to a fault know as ENIAC was regarded as the first public purpose electronic computer. What came before th e ENIAC well, there is the abacas which some require the first computer. Created over 5000 days ago in Asia and is still in use straighta personal manner. Using a system of sliding beads arranged on a rack, users are allowed to make computations.In aboriginal times, the abaca was used to keep trading transactions until, this became obsolete with the existence of pencil and paper. Within the near twelve centuries emerged a significant furtherance in computer technology. The year was 1642, when Blaise Pascal, the 18 year-old son of a French tax collector, invented the numerical wheel calculator, also known as the Pascaline. Pascaline was a brass orthogonal box that used eight movable dials to add sums up to eight figures long.This device was long and became pop in Europe the only drawback was the limits to addition (Pascals calculator, 2010, para. ). Another even sot that epitomizes the Pascaline gondola came from an inventor by the ap consign of Gottfried Wilhem von Leib niz a German mathematician and philosopher in the clx0s. Gottfried Wilhem von Leibniz added to Pascline by creating a machine that could also multiply. Like its predecessor, Leibnizs mechanical multiplier factor black marketed by a system of gears and dials. Original notes and drawings from the Pascline machine were used to help refine his machine. The core of the machine was its stepped-drum gear design.However, mechanical calculators did not gain widespread use until the early on 1800s. Shortly after, a Frenchman, Charles Xavier doubting Thomas de Colmar invented a machine that could perform the four basic arithmetic functions. The arit home officeter, Colmars mechanical calculator, presented a more interoperable approach to computing because it could add, subtract, multiply and divide. The arithometer was widely used up until the First demesne War. Although later inventors subtle Colmars calculator, together with fellow inventors Pascal and Leibniz, he helped define the age of mechanical computation.The real beginnings of computers that we use today came in the late 1700s, thanks to Charles Babbage with the invention of the Analytical Engine. Babbage machine was a steam powered machine although, it was never constructed it tabulined basic elements of a modern general computer. Several more inventors added to machines that were out in the late 1800s to help pave the way for the first generation of computers (1945-1956) (LaMorte, C Lilly J, 2010, para. 4). Wars had a great deal in the advancement of modern computers the Second World War governments sought out to stick computers to exploit potential strategic importance.thitherfore, in 1941 a German engineer Konrad Zuse had developed the Z3. The Z3 was created to design airplanes and missiles (Computer History Museum Timeline of Computer History, 2010, para. 3). Another computer that was created for war times was the ENIAC, first commissioned for the use in World War II, but not completed until one y ear after the war had ended. It was installed at the University of Pennsylvania, with a partnership alongside the U. S. government, its 40 separate eight-foot-high racks and 18,000 vacuum tubes were intended to help calculate ballistic trajectories.There was also 70,000 resistors and more than 4 million soldered joints truly a massive piece of machinery that consumed around 160 kilowatts of electrical power. This is adequacy energy to dim the lights in an entire section of Philadelphia. This computer was a study development with speeds 1000 times faster than the current Mark I. For the next 40 years bathroom von Neumann along with the University of Pennsylvania team kept on initiating new concepts into the computer design. With the combined head of all the personnel they continued with new products such(prenominal) as the central processing unit (CPU) and also the UNIVAC.The Universal Automatic Computer (UNIVAC) became one of the first commercially available computers to take r eceipts of the CPU. This helped out the U. S. Census bureau. First generation computers were characterized by the fact that run instructions were made-to-order for the specific depute for which the computers were to be used. Computers had different binary-coded program called a machine language that told it how to occupy. This made the computer difficult to program and limited its versatility and speed.Other distinctive features of first generation computers were the use of vacuum tubes, which were known for their breathtaking size, and magnetized drums for data storage (LaMorte, C Lilly J, 2010, para. 10). The due south generation of computers, from 1956-1963, began the age of smaller computers. With the invention of the transistor in 1948, bulky vacuum tube in televisions, radios and computers were all replaced. The transistor became available in a workings computer in 1956, and the size of computers has been shrinking ever since (LaMorte, C Lilly J, 2010, para. 13).Along with smaller computers the transistors paved the way for faster, more reliable and more energy-efficient products thanks in part to the advances made to the magnetic-core memory. The first to take advantage of this new found technology was the early supercomputer, from IBM and LARC. These supercomputers were in demand by atomic scientist because the enormous numerate of data that these computers could handle. By 1965, most big business processed financial information victimisation second generation computers. With the second generation computer came new career opportunities such as programmer, analyst, and computer systems expert.Although, transistors was and returns over the vacuum tube, they still generated a lot of stir up, which damaged sensitive internal parts of the computer the quartz rock eliminated this problem (LaMorte, C Lilly J, 2010, para. 16). Third generation computers (1964-1971) began with Engineer Jack Kilby, with Texas Instruments, developing the IC (Integrat ed Circuit) in the mid 1900s. The IC combined three components onto a small silicon disc, which was mad from the quartz. later on on scientist were able to fit even more electronic components onto a single chip, called a semiconductor.As a result, computers became smaller as more components were fitted on these chips. The third generation computer gave birth to the operating system. This allowed machines to run different programs all at once with a central program that coordinated and monitored the computers memory (LaMorte, C Lilly J, 2010, para. 16). With the fourth generation of computers (1971-2000) only thing to do was to go down in size. There were three major chips that helped with computer downsizing the LSI, VLSI, and ULSI. Large shell consolidation (LSI) could fit hundreds of components onto one chip.Very braggy integration (VLSI) could fit hundreds of thousands of components onto one chip. Ultra-large scale integration (ULSI) could fit millions of components onto chi ps (LaMorte, C Lilly J, 2010, para. 17). The size and prices of computers went down due to the fact, that so much was able to be put into an a area about half the size of a U. S. dime. Intel, which was founded in 1968, developed the Intel 4004 chip in 1971, which would become standard in everyday house hold items such as microwaves, television sets and automobiles.With such condensed power allowed for a new market, everyday people. Computers were no longer just developed exclusively for large business or government contracts. It was the late 1900s, when computer manufacturers sought to bring computers to a more general consumer. These smaller and sleek computers came with a more user-friendly software packages such as word processing and spreadsheet programs. Early company who took advantage of selling these more user friendly computers was Commodore, Radio Shack, and Apple Computers.In 1981, IBM launched its personal computer for multi-purpose use in the home, office, and schools. IBM made the personal computer even more low-priced and the numbers increased rapidly within the next year. Personal computer usage more than doubled, deviation from 2 million in 1981 to 5. 5 million in 1982. Fast forward 10 years later, there are 65 million PCs owned by general consumers. With the introduction of Human Computer Interface (HCI), users could now secure the screen cursor using a hook mimicking one hands movement instead of typing every instruction.Smaller computers became more powerful, especially in the workplace, were they could be linked together to share memory space, software, and communicate with each other. This was achieved using telephone lines or direct wiring called a Local Area Ne devilrk (LAN) (LaMorte, C Lilly J, 2010, para. 20). The fifth generation of computers (Present and Beyond) is a generation that is in the works of some great advancements in computer technology with the utilization of computer chips. One of the major components of a compute r is the chip these are conducted of semiconductor materials and semiconductors that eventually wear out.A semiconductor is a material that is typically made of silicon and germanium both of them are incomplete a good conductor of electricity nor a good insulator. These materials are then fixed to create an excess or lack of electrons (Semiconductor, 2010, para. 2). Integrated circuits grow old and die or are discontinued. This process can happen in many ways modern chips as used in computers pay off millions of transistors printed on a small chip of silicon no bigger than a fingernail. Each microscopically transistor is connected to the others, on the surface of the chip, with even smaller aluminum or copper wires. over the years, the thermal stress of turning the computer on and off can cause tiny cracks in the wires. As the computer warms up the wires can part and cause the computer to stop working. Even a few seconds of off-time can cool off the system enough to allow the wir es to re-connect, so your computer may work just fine for a few minutes, or hours, then after it warms up, it may fail, letting it cool off can bring it back to life for a few minutes or more (Computer Freezes and Crashes, 2010, para. 16). Of course, some chips are much more inclined to failure than others.The competition tries to gain an advantage on the market by building cheaper or faster chips cheaper and faster means hotter and shorter-lived parts. Better quality equals higher(prenominal) prices when the price goes up and nobody buys the products. Low quality products die of old age too early and they get a bad names, this causes products to not be sold. Most modern computers are constructed from the cheapest parts available. With this information being known, Intel, one of the best chip manufactures, designs their parts to be very vigorous and endure heat and malfunction. Intel was founded on July 18, 968, as Integrated Electronics Corporation.Intel Corporation is a worldwide semiconductor chip maker bow window base in Santa Clara, California, and is the worlds largest semiconductor chip maker, based on revenue. They invented the series x86 microprocessors these processors are found in most personal computers (Intel, 2010, para. 20). Intel along with other competing companies is predicting no more mouse or keyboards by 2020. indemnify now with Intel-developed sensor and brain waves scientist are hoping they can find ways to harness brain waves to operate computers.This all would be done of course with consumers permission. Scientists rely that consumers would want the freedom gained by using the implant. The idea may be far-fetched now but 20 years ago tell a person that it would become almost necessary to carry a computer around that idea would pass been rebutted. Look around now, people cannot leave a computer or computer device home or even in a vehicle without feeling like something is missing, an almost naked feeling. Scientists believe that c onsumers provide grow tired of dependence of computer interface.Whether its fishing out accessories or even just using the hands to interact, Scientists think consumers would prefer to manipulate various devices with their brains. Currently a look for team from Intel is working on decoding human brain activity. The team has used Functional magnetized Resonance Imaging (FMRI), these are machines that determine blood flow changes in certain areas of the brain based on what word or image the consumer is thinking of. This idea sounds farfetched but almost two years ago, scientist in the U. S. and japan announced that a monkeys brain was used to control a humanoid robot.Scientist and the Intel team are currently working on getting to a point where it is possible to mentally type words by thinking about letters (Intel Chips in brains will control computers by 2020, 2010, para. 4). The story of the computer is amazing to see how far technology has come is almost unreal. Evolving from th e first computer the ENAIC, a huge machine that had thousands of tubes everywhere computers are now small enough to be placed in a brief case for on the go use. Furthermore, with the everyday advancement of technology it wont be long before farfetched ideas become a reality.