In the history of development of Computer, a big change happened in the year 1944.
An American mathematics, Howard H. Aiken of Harvard University, in collaboration with IBM (International Business Machines), invented the first electro-mechanical computer, known as Mark-I.
This electronic calculating machine is also known as an automatic sequence controlled calculator. It was the first fully automatic calculating machine.
Mark-I computer was extremely slow, noisy, and massive, measuring 51 feet long, 8 feet high, and weighing over 5 tons.
It consisted of over 750,000 electromagnetic components (both electronic and mechanical components), including switches, relays, and motors.
This machine was powered by electricity and controlled by punched paper tape, which stored programs and data.
Mark-I computer machine is capable of performing addition, subtraction, division, multiplication, and table reference. It could perform mathematical calculations at a speed of 3 additions or subtractions per second.
This computer was also used to perform complex calculations for the military during World War II, including calculations for the development of the atomic bomb.
If you want to know about the history of computers development before Mark-I, then go to this tutorial: History of computing.
Development of ABC Computer (1939-42)
By the end of 1939, John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry built the first electronic computer known as ABC (Atanasoff Berry Computer).
It was the first electronic digital computer machine which introduced the idea of binary arithmetic, regenerative memory, and logic circuits.
The ABC computer used 45 electronic vacuum tubes for internal logic and capacitors for storage of data. It used binary digits to perform calculations and stored data in capacitors.
ABC computer was the first computer to use the concept of binary digits, or bits, which are still used in computers today. It was capable of solving mathematical equations, including linear equations, which are used in many scientific and engineering applications.
ABC computer was also the first computer machine to use parallel processing, which allowed multiple calculations to be performed simultaneously.
Despite its innovative design, ABC computer was never fully completed because of some issues and World War II. However, its impact on the field of computing was significant.
It inspired other researchers to develop more advanced electronic computers. Scientists and engineers incorporated many of its concepts and designs into later computers.
Development of Colossus Computer (1944)
In 1944, British mathematician Alan Mathison, in collaboration with some colleagues, invented a computer named Colossus. It was the first programmable, electronic digital computer in the world.
This computer machine consisted of over 2000 vacuum tubes. It could perform over 5,000 additions or subtractions per second.
The Colossus computer was capable of decrypting messages encrypted by the German Lorenz cipher machine, which was used by high-level military officials to communicate sensitive information.
The Colossus computer was a significant breakthrough in the development of computer. This is because it was the first computer to use programmable logic. It allowed users to be reprogrammed to solve different problems.
It was also the first computer to use electronic valves, or vacuum tubes, which could perform calculations at a much faster rate than previous electromechanical computers.
The success of Colossus in decrypting German messages played a imperative role in the Allied victory in World War II. It helped to break the German Lorenz cipher and provided valuable intelligence to the Allies.
Thus, the Colossus computer machine paved the way for the development of modern computers. Its impact on the field of computer science is still felt today as engineers still use many of its design, concepts and principles in modern computer architecture.
Development of ENIAC (1943-46)
ENIAC, stands for Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, was one of the first general-purpose electronic digital computers.
In 1946, Professors John Eckert and John Mauchly of the Moore School of Engineering at the university of Pennsylvania USA during World War II invented this computer. The team developed ENIAC because of military needs.
Like ABC computer, ENIAC consisted of 18000 electronic vacuum tubes, required around 160 KW of electricity and weighed nearly 30 tons. It took up wall space in a 20 x 40 square feet room.
This computer machine could compute at speeds 1000 times as compared to Mark-I but had a limited amount of space to store and manipulate information.
It was capable of discriminating the sign of a number, compare quantities for equality, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and exact square roots. United States military used for many years to solve ballistic related problems.
ENIAC was a significant breakthrough in the development of electronic computer. Despite its limited size and capabilities compared to modern computers, ENIAC was a major milestone in the history of computers.
Development of EDVAC (1946-52)
EDVAC stands for Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer. It is a modern type of computer developed by an American Physicist John Mauchly and an American Engineer John Eckert in 1950.
Although the conceptual design for EDVAC was completed in 1946, but it came into existence in 1950. EDVAC was the first electronic computer to use the stored program concept (also called software) developed by Dr. John Von Neumann.
This software consisted of a sequence of instructions and data that was stored in the form of binary code in the computer’s memory.
John Von Neumann joined John Eckert, John Mauchly, and other ENIAC designers in a consulting role and built EDVAC.
EDVAC contained approximately 4000 electronic vacuum tubes and 1000 crystal diodes. It was the improved version of ENAIC. It was the first electronic computer that used to store different programs on punch cards.
Development of EDSAC (1949)
EDSAC stands for Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator. In 1949, a professor named Sir Maurice Wilkes at the university of Cambridge invented this computer.
It was also based on the John Von Neumann’s stored program concept. In 1946, the work started on EDSAC at the Cambridge university by Maurice Wilkes and his team.
They ran the first successful program on this computer machine in 1949. They used vacuum tubes for logic and mercury delay lines for memory.
EDSAC consisted of 3000 vacuum tubes arranged on 12 racks and used tubes filled with mercury for memory. This machine could carry out 650 instructions per second. It occupied a room, which measured 5 metres by 4 metres.
They fed a program into the machine through a sequence of holes punched into a paper tape. EDSAC was the first electronic computer that used stored programs.
There was also successfully run the first graphical computer game nicknamed “Baby” on this computer.
Development of UNIVAC-I (1951)
UNIVAC, stands for Universal Automatic Computer, was the first commercially available electronic computer in the world. It was also the first general purpose computer, which was designed to handle both numeric and text data.
In 1951, John Presper Eckert and John Mauchly designed this computer. It was the first time he used magnetic tapes and buffer memory on the computer. The machine was 25 feet by 50 feet in length. It contained 5600 tubes, 18000 crystal diodes, and 300 relays.
UNIVAC was the capable of computing at a speed of 120-3600 microseconds. It was used for general purpose computing with large amounts of input and output.
The Eckert-Mauchly corporation manufactured many UNIVAC machines. The first machine was installed in the Census Bureau in 1951. After that, it was used continuously for 10 years.
IBM developed the IBM-701 commercial computer in 1952. In fast succession, IBM designed the improved models of the UNIVAC I and other 700-series machines. IBM made the IBM-650, and sold over 1000 of these computers in the year 1953.
In this tutorial, you have known about a brief history of development of computer in simple words. Hope that you will have understood the basic facts of computers development with timeline and enjoyed the tutorial.
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