Saturday, October 29, 2011
Dream Dot
hough very few people really want to know when the first computer was made as long as not knowing that does not take away the privilege of using computers from them. Yet this article is for those enthusiasts for whom knowledge opens the doors of the world. Computers as we all know has become the connecting system across the world and if all the computers of the world stop working for just one day, that would be the end of all. Lets start discussing computers from the beginning. Computers are machines for controlling data and performing actions according to a list of instructions.
Birth of the First Computer
In the year 1837, Charles Babbage was the first to think about something that would function like a computer and ended up designing a programmable mechanical computer that he called "The Analytical Engine" but because of limited finance, and the inability to stop himself from trying to upgrade it and find some innovation with the design, Babbage could never actually built his Analytical Engine.
Then Konrad Zuse came in the whole arena in the year 1941. He also wanted to make something that would be like a computer hence was created electromechanical "Z machines," the Z3, which was the first working machine, which featured binary arithmetic, including floating point arithmetic and a measure of programmability. Zuse also started the first Computer start up company, which was established in 1946.
ENIAC and its working
After five long years came the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) that was considered the first computer made but then the strong contender for this honor is also Atanasoff -Berry's Computer that came in the year 1946. ENIAC was called the first computer and there were strong reasons to do so. It was a digital computer that could be reprogrammed to find a solution to a full range of computing problems. This was not the first computer that could do all this since there were earlier computers that were built with some of the above-mentioned properties. The primary reason to design ENIAC was to facilitate the calculation of artillery firing tables for the Ballistic Research Laboratory of U.S.
ENIAC was massive in its physical size if you compare it to modern PCs that are available now. It contained approximately 17,468 vacuum tubes, 7,200 crystal diodes, 1,500 relays, 70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors and around 5 million hand-soldered joints so the weight is not very weird that it weighed somewhere like 30 short tons (27 t). It consumed somewhere around 150 kW of power. ENIAC is reliable, programmable, though not as easy and user-friendly as the modern-day computers.
ENIAC vs. Atanasoff-Berry
Then came the Atanasoff-Berry, which was shown working in 1939 but I am mentioning it now because ENIAC was the computer that was previously considered as the first computer made. It used vacuum tube based computation, binary numbers, and regenerative capacitor memory. After about three years the secret British Colossus computer came in the scene. This computer though had limited programmability but it did demonstrate that a device using thousands of tubes could be quite reliable and electronically reprogrammable. In fact it was used on a big scale during World War II to break German wartime codes.
There have been many debates as to which one should be considered as the first computer but then Atanasoff-Berry could not be used generally and did not work on electronic computing speed since the basic functioning of this computer was with the help of rotating capacitor drum memory and an input output system that was used to put intermediate results to paper cards. So this all about the First computer that was made and that gave way to the computer that I am right now working on.
Birth of the First Computer
In the year 1837, Charles Babbage was the first to think about something that would function like a computer and ended up designing a programmable mechanical computer that he called "The Analytical Engine" but because of limited finance, and the inability to stop himself from trying to upgrade it and find some innovation with the design, Babbage could never actually built his Analytical Engine.
Then Konrad Zuse came in the whole arena in the year 1941. He also wanted to make something that would be like a computer hence was created electromechanical "Z machines," the Z3, which was the first working machine, which featured binary arithmetic, including floating point arithmetic and a measure of programmability. Zuse also started the first Computer start up company, which was established in 1946.
ENIAC and its working
After five long years came the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) that was considered the first computer made but then the strong contender for this honor is also Atanasoff -Berry's Computer that came in the year 1946. ENIAC was called the first computer and there were strong reasons to do so. It was a digital computer that could be reprogrammed to find a solution to a full range of computing problems. This was not the first computer that could do all this since there were earlier computers that were built with some of the above-mentioned properties. The primary reason to design ENIAC was to facilitate the calculation of artillery firing tables for the Ballistic Research Laboratory of U.S.
ENIAC was massive in its physical size if you compare it to modern PCs that are available now. It contained approximately 17,468 vacuum tubes, 7,200 crystal diodes, 1,500 relays, 70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors and around 5 million hand-soldered joints so the weight is not very weird that it weighed somewhere like 30 short tons (27 t). It consumed somewhere around 150 kW of power. ENIAC is reliable, programmable, though not as easy and user-friendly as the modern-day computers.
ENIAC vs. Atanasoff-Berry
Then came the Atanasoff-Berry, which was shown working in 1939 but I am mentioning it now because ENIAC was the computer that was previously considered as the first computer made. It used vacuum tube based computation, binary numbers, and regenerative capacitor memory. After about three years the secret British Colossus computer came in the scene. This computer though had limited programmability but it did demonstrate that a device using thousands of tubes could be quite reliable and electronically reprogrammable. In fact it was used on a big scale during World War II to break German wartime codes.
There have been many debates as to which one should be considered as the first computer but then Atanasoff-Berry could not be used generally and did not work on electronic computing speed since the basic functioning of this computer was with the help of rotating capacitor drum memory and an input output system that was used to put intermediate results to paper cards. So this all about the First computer that was made and that gave way to the computer that I am right now working on.
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