History of Computer

Fourth Generation

1974 IBM single chip processor, microprocessor/ microcomputer. Miniaturization still in this generation today.

First Generation Computer

characterized by their use of vacuum tubes to store individual bits of data

ENIAC

the first general-purpose electronic computer

Tabulating Machine

-part of Hollerith's US Census -400 cards/ minute, 12 bits of info from each card -IBM aided Nazi regime effort to allocate and exterminate Jewish population

abacus

An ancient Chinese counting device that used rods on which were mounted movable counters

Herman Hollerith (1860-1929)

Applied the concept of representing information as holes in paper cards to speed up the tabulation process in the 1890 US census.

Second Generation Computer

used transistors instead of vacuum tubes

ENIAC (1946)

ENIAC - the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer. World's first electronic, large scale, general-purpose computer, built by J. Presper Eckert, Jr. and John W. Mauchly, and activated at the University of Pennsylvania. The ENIAC was a 30 ton machine that measured 50 x 30 feet. It contained 19,000 vacuum tubes, 6000 switches, and could add 5,000 numbers in a second, a remarkable accomplishment at the time.

Pascaline (1642)

Set of gears, similar to clock Only performed addition

Fifth Generation Computer

Called supercomputers. Has CPU's. Characterized by high speed and efficiency, high storage. Ex. AI or Robotics

Charles Babbage

He is known as the "Father of Computers." He developed the Difference Engine and the Analytical Engine. These two machines were powered by steam to move the punch cards and operate the gears. His ideas were later used to design calculators and computers.

Blaise Pascal

He was a mathematician who developed the "Pascaline." This was the first mechanical adding machine. The Pascaline was a wooden box that could add and subtract by using a series of gears and wheels.

UNIVAC

Universal Automatic Computer; first commercially successful electronic digital computer.

Third Generation Computer

integrated circuits

Analytical Engine

1st mechanical computer. Ran off of punched cards. Created by Charles Babbage, but never completed by him.