முனிபாலா'வின் வணக்கம் பல.....: A Brief History Of Computing

Friday 9 November, 2007

A Brief History Of Computing

Abacus - 1000-500 BC

The origins of the abacus are disputed; many cultures are known to have used similar tools. It is known to have first existed in Mesopotamia and China, and was invented sometime between 1000 BC and 500 BC.

Antikythera - 150-100 BC

The Antikythera mechanism is believed to be an ancient mechanical calculator (also described as a "mechanical computer") designed to calculate astronomical positions. It was discovered in the Antikythera wreck off the Greek island of Antikythera, between Kythera and Crete, and has been dated to about 150-100 BC.

Napier's Bones -1617 AD

Napier's bones are an abacus invented by John Napier for calculation of products and quotients of numbers. Also called Rabdology.more..

Stepped Reckoner- 1671 AD

Leibniz extended Blaise Pascal's ideas and, in 1671, introduced the Staffelwalze / Stepped Reckoner, a device that, as well as performing additions and subtractions, could multiply, divide, and evaluate square roots by a series of stepped additions.

Arithmometer - 1820 AD

The arithmometer, invented by Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar in 1820, was the first commercially successful calculating machine capable of performing addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. The Thomas Arithmometers were produced and sold in Europe and the United States well into the 20th century.more..

The Analytical Engine - 1837 AD

The analytical engine, an important step in the history of computers, was the design of a mechanical general-purpose computer by the British professor of mathematics Charles Babbage. It was first described in 1837, but Babbage continued to work on the design until his death in 1871. more..

George Boole

The inventor of Boolean algebra, the basis of all modern computer arithmetic, Boole is regarded in hindsight as one of the founders of the field of computer science, although computers did not exist in his day.more..

Electric Tabulating System - 1890 AD

Herman Hollerith introduces an automated punch-card driven tabulation device for the Census Bureau.

Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC) - 1937-38 AD

The Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC) was conceived by the professor John Vincent Atanasoff during the winter of 1937-1938 . With the assistance of his student Clifford Berry, the ABC was prototyped by November of that year. The key ideas employed in the ABC included binary math and Boolean logic to solve up to 29 simultaneous linear equations. The ABC had no central processing unit (CPU), but was designed as an electronic device with vacuum tubes for speed. It also used separate regenerative capacitor memory, a process still used today in DRAM memory.more..

Konrad Zuse - 1941 ADKonrad Zuse was a German engineer and computer pioneer. His greatest achievement was the completion of the first functional program-controlled computer, the Z3, in 1941 (the program was stored on a tape). more..

Automatic Sequence Controlled - 1944 AD

The Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (Harvard Mark I) was the first operating machine that could execute long computations automatically. A project conceived by Harvard University's Dr. Howard Aiken, the Mark I was built by IBM engineers in Endicott, N.Y. A steel frame 51 feet long and eight feet high held the calculator, which consisted of an interlocking panel of small gears, counters, switches and control circuits, all only a few inches in depth.

UNIVAC I - 1951 AD

The UNIVAC I (UNIVersal Automatic Computer I) was the first commercial computer made in the United States. It was designed principally by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, the inventors of the ENIAC.

PDP-1 - 1960 AD