That’s true, but, because computers are elegant devices for calculation,
and if we skip the development of calculating devices, we’ll just
puzzle how computers came into existence! And to understand how these
devices emerged, you should know the need to calculate and count. Oh! ‘the counting devices‘? How did people start to count?
It’s strange at first to see every book on history
of computers points to the ancient times – the time when mankind just
developed from Stone Age. Uhh? That’s the beginning of mankind! Does the
history of computers go that distant? Yes.
The First Problem – Counting
Life in jungle must be enjoying. Though, they did
not have luxury of materials, their brain must be free from all the
tensions of today’s world. All they cared was food and shelter. I wish
Eve[1] had never eaten that apple!
The quest for easy food drove mankind into the
agricultural age. People started to possess properties. When there is
something you possess, you need to remember the quantity, type and so
on. How many sheep do I have? How could a man express a quantity?
Numbers were not invented yet!
Knots in vine and ropes, notches in sticks,
scratches made on rocks must be the first counting aid for people at
that time. Later on, those scratches on rocks and drawings on ground
must have given a way to develop numbers.
Guess, what after the numbers came into existence? Obviously, the need to add and subtract them!
Mechanical Devices – Counting and Calculating
In this section we will learn about the counting and
calculating devices that contribute a way through for the development
of modern day computers.
Abacus – The first known calculating device
Abacus[2] is a simple wooden box with beads strung which are moved towards the mid-bar[3]
to perform calculations. You bring the beads near the bar and count to
get result. Obtaining result is a manual process. Thus Abacus is essentially a memory aid rather than truly a calculating device. It is generally agreed that Abacus was invented in China around 2500 BC.
An Abacus is divided into two parts – heaven, the
upper deck and earth, the lower deck – divided by a mid-bar. On each
string there are two beads on heaven and 5 beads on earth. The value of
each bead on heaven is 5 and on earth it is 1. So if you pull one heaven
bead and 3 earth bead near the mid-bar, it represented the number 8.
Napier’s bones
Abacus is about ancient past. When we look upon the modern history, it is 1614 when John Napier invented Logarithm[4]
– a branch of mathematics to multiply and divide extremely large or
small numbers. This is considered the principal invention of Napier.
In Computer Science what interests us more about Napier’s invention, in addition to the rule of Logarithm, is Napier’s bones.
It is a set of rods (10 rods in a set). Numbers are carved on each rod
and can be used to perform multiplication, division with the help of
logarithm. These rods were made up of bones, and must be the reason for
the name.
Calculation is done by aligning the proper rods against each other and by inspection.
Slide Rule
Photo by The Last Cookie 
Slide Rule was invented by William Oughtred towards
1620. This device consists of logarithmic scales where one can slide
upon other. The sliding rule is aligned properly against other scale and
a reading is done through the indicator slide.
Slide rule could be used to perform multiplication and divisions efficiently.
Pascal’s Adding Machine – the Pascaline
Photo by marc kjerland
17 Century was the most fertile for devising
different calculating equipment. Blaise Pascal, at an age of 19 years,
designed an adding machine to find the sum of numbers. The machine
resulted as his effort to help his father. Pascal’s father worked in tax
office and in every evening he had to calculate the sum of collection
throughout the day.
It was in 1642 Pascal developed Pascaline which
could be used to add, subtract, multiply and divide the numbers by
dialing wheels.
Leibnitz’s Calculator – The Stepped Reckoner
German philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz
improved Pascal’s adding machine and made Stepped Reckoner that could
even find square roots. This is the first digital mechanical calculator
that can perform all four basic arithmetic operations – add, subtract,
multiply and divide.
Charles Babbage and his engines
Photo by Doug Letterman
Charles Babbage is considered the father of modern
computers. It is his ideas – the idea of input, mill (processing),
output and storage – the modern computers followed and been successfully
miraculous device! Though he could not complete his Analytical Engine
(conceived in 1830s) due to insufficient funding and technological
advancement of the day, it proved to be a foundation for the birth of
computers.
Babbage however completed a working model
of his first machine – The Difference Engine and was awarded by Royal
Society. Difference engine implemented the mechanical memory to store
results. It was based on the difference tables of squares of the number,
and thus the name – Difference Engine.
INTERESTING FACT: Babbage conceived of a computer
100 years earlier. Howard Aikin builds the first computer Mark I based
on Babbage’s idea in 1944.
Lady Augusta Ada Lovelace – The first programmer
Lady Augusta Ada Lovelace was a
great supporter of Charles Babbage and she convinced him to use binary
systems in his engines. Because she devised a way to program Babbage’s
engines, she is considered the first programmer.
Ada is the daughter of Lord Byron, a famous English poet.
US Defense developed a programming language and named it ADA to honor her contribution
Dr. Herman Hollerith & his Tabulating Machines
Herman Hollerith invented a tabulating machine for the census of 1880s. He used punched cards to code the numbers and feed them into the machine. That’s why he is considered to be the man to use punched cards practically for the first time. Though Charles Babbage used punched cards
for his analytical engine, it was never built and Hollerith was
successful in designing a machine that could accept input through
punched cards.
Hollerith founded Tabulating Machine Company to
build and sell his products and later on it was merged with some other
companies to form International Business Machine (IBM) Company. IBM is
the largest computer manufacturing company even today.
INTERESTING FACT: Punched cards were originally invented by Joseph Jacquard, a textile manufacturer. He used them to automate the weaving loom. These cards
were later used by Charles Babbage in his design of Analytical Engine
and Herman Hollerith practically used them for the first time in his
Tabulating Machine.
EXTRA DOZE: Calculating devices such as Abacus,
Slide Rule, and Napier’s bones etc. were very simple machines that
could add, subtract and repeated operation to perform multiplication and
division. Though they appear trivial today, they were great invention
of that time.
By mechanical part, it means it works by moving
wheels and bars. Electronic components do not have any moving parts to
perform calculation and can work with the flow of electricity in its
circuitry. Because it does not have moving parts, these devices are very
low at failure rate.
Electro Mechanical Computers
In 1944 the first electro-mechanical computer Mark -I was built by Howard Aiken with the help of IBM. Mark I, Mark II, and Zues Computers (Z2, Z3) are the examples of Electro Mechanical Computers. Let’s look at Mark I and Z3 computer here.
Mark I
Mark-I, originally known as IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC),
is the first computer of the world. Mark-I is described as the
beginning of the era of the modern computer. It was built in Harvard
University by Howard H. Aiken.
Mark I was a gigantic computer. It was 51 feet long,
8 feet tall and 2 feet wide which weight 4500 Kg. It could do three
additions or subtractions in a second. A multiplication took six
seconds, a division took 15.3 seconds, and a logarithm or a trigonometric function took over one minute.
| Device | Inventor | Date | Specialty |
| Mark – I | Howard Aiken | 1944 | First Computer |
Z3 Computer
Apart from Mark I and Mark II computers, there are
other contemporary computers like Z2 and Z3 (designed by Konrad Zuse) on
this category.
The contribution of Zuse was ignored for long due to
political reasons. He was a German Engineer and Computer Pioneer. Zuse
completed his work entirely independently of other leading computer
scientists and mathematicians of his day. Between 1936 and 1945, he was
in near-total intellectual isolation.
Improving the basic Z2 machine, Konrad built the Z3
in 1941. It was a binary 22-bit floating point calculator featuring
programmability with loops but without conditional jumps, with memory
and a calculation unit based on telephone relays.
Zuse’s company (with the Z1, Z2 and Z3) was destroyed in 1945 by an Allied air attack.
Electronic Computers
In 1947 John Mauchly and J. P. Eckert developed the
first general purpose electronic computer – ENIAC. This begins a new era
in computing history. Apart from ENIAC, ABC, EDVAC and UNIVAC are some
early electronic computers. We will be studying these computers in this
section.
Calculating devices were fairly
simple aid for human head. Electromechanical calculators were moderately
complex. There were wheels, drums and bars that rotate and move to
produce result. Because they had some mechanical parts, those devices
are called electro-mechanical computers.
Electronic computers,
on the other hand, work with the flow of electrons in its different
components. Because electronic components are more reliable and speedy,
electronic computers are very reliable compared to the earlier
computers.
ABC
ABC, the first electronic digital computer, was
invented by John v. Atanasoff and his assistant Clifford Berry and thus
the name Atanasoff Berry Computer (ABC).
Earlier, ENIAC was considered to be the first
electronic computer until in 1973 a U.S. District Court invalidated the
ENIAC patent. Thus, ABC is the first electronic digital computer.
However, because ABC is a special purpose computer and not programmable,
ENIAC still is the first general purpose electronic computer.
It is the ABC that first implements the three critical features of modern computers:
ü Using binary digits to represent all numbers and data
ü Performing all calculations using electronics rather than wheels, ratchets, or mechanical switches
ü Organizing a system in which computation and memory are separated.
| Device | Inventor | Date | Specialty |
| ABC | John v. Atanasoff & Clifford Berry | 1942 | First Electronic Digital Computer |
ENIAC
ENIAC stands for Electrical Numerical Integrator And Calculator. It was developed in 1946 by John Mauchly and John Presper Eckert.
ENIAC is the first general-purpose electronic
digital computer. It used to be considered the first electronic computer
till 1973 when a U.S. District Court invalidated the ENIAC patent and
concluded that the ENIAC inventors had derived the subject matter of the
electronic digital computer from Atanasoff. Anyway, it is still the
first general purpose electronic computer.
ENIAC used decimal numbering system for its
operation and contained 17,468 vacuum tubes, along with 70,000
resistors, 10,000 capacitors, 1,500 relays, 6,000 manual switches and 5
million soldered joints. It covered 1800 square feet (167 square meters)
of floor space, weighed 30 tons, and consumed 160 kilowatts of
electrical power.
Note: In abbreviation the character ‘C’ in these computers stands for ‘Computer’ or ‘Calculator’. Consider both as correct.
| Device | Inventor | Date | Specialty |
| ENIAC |
J.P. Eckert & John Mauchly
|
1946 |
First General Purpose Electronic Digital Computer
|
EDVAC – Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic computer
Well that’s it – the name itself includes the word
‘automatic’ like ENIAC used the word ‘electronic’. ENIAC must be excited
as it was not depending upon mechanical components, so, called it
ELECTRONIC!
EDVAC was developed by John Mauchly and John Presper Eckert in 1949 with the help of John von Neumann.
| Device | Inventor | Date | Specialty |
| EDVAC | J.P. Eckert & John Mauchly | 1949 | Stored Program Computer |
EDSAC – Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Computer
EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic
Calculator) was an early British computer (one of the first computers to
be created). The machine, having been inspired by John von Neumann’s
seminal EDVAC report, was constructed by Professor Sir Maurice Wilkes
and his team at the University of Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory in
England.
EDSAC was the world’s first practical stored program
electronic computer, although not the first stored program computer
(that honor goes to the Small-Scale Experimental Machine).
| Device | Inventor | Date | Specialty |
| EDSAC | Sir Maurice Wilkes | 1949 | The first Practical Stored Program Computer |
UNIVAC – Universal Automatic Computer
After the successful development of ENIAC and EDVAC,
John Mauchly& J.P. Eckert founded their own company in 1946 and
began to work on the Universal Automatic computer.
UNIVAC was the first general purpose commercial computer.
| Device | Inventor | Date | Specialty |
| UNIVAC | J.P. Eckert & John Mauchly | 1951 | The first general purpose commercial computer |
History of Computer in Nepal
We saw the history of computers and some major
innovation and pioneers in the world context. Let’s look at the history
of Computers in Nepal now.
Nepal was using a calculating device called Facit
to prepare census report 2018 BS (1961). Though the total population at
that time was only 96 lakhs, Census Bureau could not give the exact
figure of population in different districts. Due to the delay, the five
year planning had to be stopped. So, for better and quicker data
processing, IBM 1401 was brought on
rent (Rs. 1 lakh 25 thousand per month) for the census of 2028 B.S
(1971). The census processing was completed in 1 year 7 months and 15
days for 1 crore 12.5 lakhs population.
IBM 1401 however was not sent back to the owner
after completing census processing but the government purchased it for
further data processing in the Bureau of Statistics.
IBM 1401 in National Computer Center, Nepal
|
His Majesty’s Government employed IBM 1401 in
agricultural data processing, industrial data processing, inventory of
Agriculture Bank, Provident fund and SLC result processing.
National Computer Center (NCC)
was established in 2031 (1974) with the purpose of giving computer
related service to government bodies, developing computer manpower and
enhancing computer consciousness. Later on, NCC used ICL-2950/10 a
second generation Mainframe computer, a DG Mini-computer, a Prime
Mini-computer.
National Computer Center, Kathmandu
|
With the help of ICL 2950/10, the census of 2038 BS
(1981) was completed in 1 year 3 months. ICL 2950/10 was more effective
and was used for data processing in some other corporations such as
Telecommunication, ElectricityAuthority, JanakpurCigarette factory,
Hetauda Cement Factory, Tribhuvan University, etc.
In 2039 B.S., the microcomputers, such as Apple,
Vector or Siruswere imported on personal level. New companies such as
Computer Consultancy(CC), Management Information Processing System(MIPS)
and Data System International (DSI) were established. Now, there are
manycompanies which deal with computer training, servicing, maintenance,
upgrading, etc.
In 1994, Mercantile Office Systems
and Royal Nepal Academy of Science and Technology contracted an Internet
feed from a site in India. Since the transmission was over cable, the
quality of the line was very poor and the UUCP connection was not
reliable. This effort was commercialized although there were significant
losses. Mercantile introduced the Internet and email in 1995 for the first time in Nepal.
Government of Nepal introduced the first IT Policy in 2000
with the vision of positioning Nepal on the global IT map within the
next five years. The policy has the broad objective of enhancing
employment opportunities and creating a knowledge-based society and
knowledge-based industries by ensuring that a large section of society
has access to information technology. The policy has adopted a 15-point
strategic framework that includes human resource development, promotion
of foreign and local investments, legal recognition.
Important Points to Remember
- People used to count and calculate using knots in ropes, notches in sticks, scratches on rocks and drawing lines on ground when there were no devices to compute.
- Abacus is the first known calculating device. It is believed that Chinese invented Abacus around 3000BC. Abacus has two parts separated by mid-bar. The upper deck is called heaven and lower deck is earth. There are 2 beads in each string in heaven and each has value 5. There are 5 beads on earth where each beads has value 1. Calculation is done by shifting beads towards the midbar.
- Napier’s bones was invented by a Scottish mathematician John Napier in 1617. There are 11 rods in a set of Napier’s bones and numbers are engraved in each rod. The rods are aligned properly to read the result using Napier’s bones. They could be used to multiply and divide numbers.
- John Napier’s principal invention is Logarithm – a branch of mathematics to multiply and divide very large or very small numbers. Napier invented Logarithm in 1614.
- Slide Rule was invented in 1620 by English mathematician William Oughtred. Slide Rule contains two or more sliding scales which can be properly aligned and the result is obtained by inspection. It could be used to multiply and divide numbers.
- A French mathematician Blaise Pascal invented an Adding Machine called Pascaline in 1642. It can add or subtract numbers by dialing wheels. Blaise Pascal designed this device to help his father who was a tax officer.
- Stepped Reckoner was invented in 1671 by a German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz. Leibnitz refined Pascal’s Adding Machine and made Stepped Reckoner capable to add, subtracts, multiply, divide and even find square root.
- Punched Card was invented by a French textile manufacturer Joseph Jacquard to automate his weaving loom. These cards later used in computers to feed data.
- Charles Babbage designed Difference Engine in 1923 and Analytical Engine in 1933.
- Babbage could not complete his engines mainly due to the lack of financial support and technology at that time. However, the concepts proposed for Analytical engine (input, mill and output) matches completely with the input, processing, output model of modern computers. That’s why Charles Babbage is known as Father of Computing.
- Lady Augusta Ada Lovelace suggested Babbage to use binary numbering system for his Analytical engine and devised a method of using punched cards to calculate which made her The First Programmer. She was known as enchantress of numbers.
- An American census statistician Dr. Herman Hollerith developed a mechanicaltabulatingmachinein1887asthe solution of tabulating problem of 1880s census. He established the Tabulating Machine Company in 1896 to manufacture and sell his inventionwhichlateronconvertedintoInternationalBusinessMachine (IBM)Company.
- Hollerith founded Tabulating Machine Company which later merges with other three companies – InternationalTime Recording Company, Bundy Manufacturing CompanyandComputingScale Corporation to form a new company namedComputing TabulatingRecording (CTR) Corporation. In 1917 the company changes its name to International Business Machine (IBM) Co. Ltd.
- Mark I is the first computer. Howard Aiken and American computer engineer and mathematician Grace Hoper invented it in collaboration with IBM engineers in 1937. It was an electro-mechanical computer with 18000 vacuum tubes. The machine was 51 ft. long, 8 ft. tall and 3 ft. wide.
- Mark I is also known as Harvard-IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator(ASCC).
- ABC (Atanasoff Berry Computer) was built in 1939-42 by John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry. It was the first electronic computer.
- ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Calculator) is the first general purpose electronic digital computer developed by John William Mauchly and John Presper Eckert in 1946-55. It used decimal numbering system.
- Hungarian mathematician John von Neumann proposed Stored Program Concept in 1945. In his paper he suggested that the data as well as instructions to process those data be stored internally in the machine and binary numbering system be used for machine building.
- EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer) was invented by John Mauchly and J.P. Eckert in 1946-49. It was the second stored program computer.
- Mourice Wilkes and his team in Cambridge University invented EDSAC (Electronic Delay StorageAutomatic Computer) in 1949. It is the first practical Stored Program computer.
- UNIVAC is the first commercially available general purpose electronic digital computer. It was invented in 1951 by John Mauchly and J.P. Eckert.
- PDP-8 is the first minicomputer introduced by DEC in 1968
- Intel 4004 is the first microprocessor developed by Intel Corporation in 1971. This is also the first commercially available microprocessor.
- 8 inch memory disk (floppy disk) was introduced by IBM in 1971. First sealed hard disk called Winchester was developed in 1972 by IBM.
- MITS Altair 8800 is the first successful personal computer.
- Microsoft Corporation founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. In 1976 Job and Woznik developed the Apple personal computer. In 1984 Apple introduced Macintosh computers.
- Apple – I personal computer was launched in 1976 by Apple Company and IBM PC was launched in 1981 by IBM Corporation.
- In 1981 Microsoft launched “quick and dirty” DOS operating system
- Tim Berner Lee developed World Wide Web and CERN released it in 1991.
- Intel Corporation produced Pentium II in 1997, Pentium III in 1999 and Pentium IV in 2000.
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