Development of the Computer

Historical Development of Computers
We are living in the computer age. Most of our day to day jobs are being influenced by the use of computers. It is used increasingly in each and every field of our life. In the areas of science and technology improvements can not be achieved without the use of computers. Hence it has become necessary to have basic knowledge about computers.

Strictly speaking, computer is a calculating device having certain important characteristics like speed, storage capacity, accuracy etc. But, now days it is used for many more applications other than computing. It has become an indispensible tool in the field of communications.

History of Computers:

Historians start the history of calculations with the abacus, a wooden frame with balls or beads strung on parallel wires. But, principally first such machine having principles of today’s computing machines, was developed by Charles Babbage in Nineteenth Century. It had certain basic ideas of stored computer programs in the machine. Such a machine was devised by Babbage in the year 1822 and was called difference engine. It was used to perform simple arithmetic computation needed for setting up of trigonometric and logarithmic tables. Further he developed and analytical engine around 1871 that was a prototype computer.

Meanwhile an important theoretical development occurred, around 1850, when Geroge Boole, a mathematician developed an algebraic system which is now called as Boolian Algebra. This Boolian algebraic system is used to represent quantities as binary numbers i.e 0s and 1s and also represent and manipulate logical expressions.

The significance of Boolian Algebra was not utilized at that time. In the nineteenth Century, around 1880, Hollerith developed techniques and machine that had significant impact on the future design of computers. He designed a machine in which data was represented in the form of punched holes on paper cards. This machine could work with punched cards and handled 50-80 punched cards per minute. The punched cards contained 80 columns and rectangular punches. These machines were called tabulators. These machines were also used for semiautomatic selection and sorting of cards. He set up his own company “Computer Tabulating Recording Company” which eventually became International Business Machine Corporation (IBM). Today, IBM is one of the largest companies in the computer world.