Computer History

Bill Gates and his corporation have made few inventions as such. Generally they have developed other people's work profitably.

Bill Gates's big break came when he developed the Q-DOS operating system for the IBM PC, calling it MS-DOS. Well, the first software invention happened when he was 13 or 12 years old, when he began programming on his school computer with ForTran (FORmula TRANslation) and LISP (LISt Programming). The major invention was Windows 1.0, the first software that was commercially used by Microsoft. Then they made Windows 3.0 and 3.1 then 95 and 98. Then it was NT and 2003 XP and Server and then Vista. The next O/S will be Windows Vienna.

We could argue that the first computer was the abacus or its descendant, the slide rule, invented by William Oughtred in 1622. But the first computer resembling today's modern machines was the Analytical Engine, a device conceived and designed by British mathematician Charles Babbage between 1833 and 1871. Before Babbage came along, a "computer" was a person, someone who literally sat around all day, adding and subtracting numbers and entering the results into tables. The tables then appeared in books, so other people could use them to complete tasks, such as launching artillery shells accurately or calculating taxes.

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they consider ada lovelace as the first computer programmer because she was the first founder of scientific computing

Although the major peripheral product segments experienced solid growth in the late 1990s, conditions changed during the early 2000s, as the economy worsened.

To help crack the German High Command "Fish" cypher. The "Fish" cypher, unlike the German operational "Enigma" cypher was fully automatic: after setting the initial code wheel settings you typed clear text on one teletype and encrypted text was printed and punched by another. The cypher used a pseudorandom binary number generator, the result of which was xored with the bits of a teletype character. By using predetermined random settings for each message the Germans hoped to simulate a one time pad cypher system.

it was used as a calcutor and used for typing ahah this is right i say!! ahah u guys are stupid this is fake! i say

Sir Tim Berners Lee invented World Wide Web He then set up first website 1991, made it available to all in 1993

This is an ambiguous question since it doesn't give the context as to the type of size being requested. Do you mean physical? A desktop PC is around 9" wide, 18" deep, and about 15" tall. If you mean the storage capacity, it can range from almost none to several terabytes or more. If you mean the RAM capacity, it ranges from 1k of a few old computers to 64 Gb or more.

So it is hard to be more specific with a question this broad.

New machines in farming made it easier and faster for farmers to finish their work! There are also added expenses for keeping up the equipment

the Z1 was created by Conrad Zuse in 1936, its considered to be the first electro mechanical binary programmable computer

The zeroth generation of computers started in 1642 - 1946. It started with the invention of pascaline by Blaise Pascal, then in 1822, Charles Babbage invented Difference Engine to compute tables for naval navigation. Then came the Tabulating machine by Herman Hollerith in 1880 for counting US census which was followed by invention of Mark I and II by Howard Eiken in 1944, which was the first US general purpose electro-mechanical computer.

Alan had many pioneering roles, two of the most important is:

1. Defining all programs as a "Turing machine", a machine with a definite stopping condition.

2. Answering the Question , "Can a Machine Think?", with his communicating with a partner behind a curtain, man or machine. Watson and SIRI are latest answers.

NIC - Network Interface card (sometimes also called a network adaptor card).

1. vacuum tube
2. transistor
3. IC
4. microprocessor

Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper (December 9, 1906 - January 1, 1992) was an American computer scientist and United States Naval officer. A pioneer in the field, she was one of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer, and she developed the first compiler for a computer programming language. She is also credited with popularizing the term "debugging" for fixing computer glitches (motivated by an actual moth removed from the computer).

I have books of over 600 pages in length that individually cover very small portions of the history of computers. Any attempt to combine these to get a complete history of computers from the beginnings in the 1940s to now is hopeless. Even a summary would be much too long to post here and thus be out of scope for this site.

If I were to make such an attempt I would have it published as a multivolume set and try to make some money on it for my effort at research. I doubt you would read the set as the selling price would likely be a few thousand dollars.

From The ENIAC Story ... The original agreement between the United States of America and the trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, dated June 5, 1943, called for six months of "research and development of an electronic numerical integrator and computer and delivery of a report thereon." This initial contract committed $61,700 in U.S. Army Ordnance funds. Nine supplements to this contract extended the work to 1946, increased the amount ultimately to a total of $486,804.22, assigned technical supervision to the Ballistic Research Laboratories, and called for the delivery of a working "pilot model," first to be operable at the University of Pennsylvania and then to be delivered to the Ballistic Research Laboratories at the Aberdeen Proving Ground. From this point forward, the research staff and faculty of the Moore School under Dr. Pender undertook rigorous prosecution of the development pursuant to the terms of the Ordnance contract. The project was placed under the supervision of Professor Brainerd, with Mr. Eckert as chief engineer and Dr. Mauchly, who provided the original outline for this development, as principal consultant. Captain Goldstine, the resident supervisor for the Ordnance Department, not only exercised extraordinarily detailed and highly competent supervision for the Government but also contributed greatly to the mathematical side of this undertaking. As in all important undertakings which achieve important results, this was the work of many individuals. The ENIAC was placed in operation at the Moore School, component by component, beginning with the cycling unit and an accumulator in June 1944. This was followed in rapid succession by the initiating unit and function tables in September 1945 and the divider and square-root unit in October 1945. Final assembly took place during the fall of 1945. By today's standards for electronic computers the ENIAC was a grotesque monster. Its thirty separate units, plus power supply and forced-air cooling, weighed over thirty tons. Its 19,000 vacuum tubes, 1,500 relays, and hundreds of thousands of resistors, capacitors, and inductors consumed almost 200 kilowatts of electrical power. But ENIAC was the prototype from which most other modern computers evolved. It embodied almost all the components and concepts of today's high- speed, electronic digital computers. Its designers conceived what has now become standard circuitry such as the gate (logical "and" element), buffer (logical "or" element) and used a modified Eccles-Jordan flip-flop as a logical, high-speed storage-and-control device. The machine's counters and accumulators, with more sophisticated innovations, were made up of combinations of these basic elements. ... SOURCE: http://ftp.arl.army.mil/~mike/comphist/eniac-story.html

Its' almost 35 years since the computers first came to Pakistan when certain banks PIA and WAPDA installed computers at their head offices. During 1970's and early 80's import of computers was banned and one could not import a computer without the special import license of the Ministry of Commerce. The restriction was eased in mid 80's when the import of computer was put on free list. The import duties were also reduced and subsequently removed. In the 90's the market was flooded with low cost user friendly PC's that did not require rigid operating environments. This resulted in sharp increase in the number of computers imported and installed. As a result of the government's liberal policies, this increase became exponential both in the government as well as private sector. In March last year, the government decided to set up the IT & Telecom Division to provide a focal point for IT at federal level and Prof. Dr. Atta ur Rehman was appointed the Minister for Science & Technology. Since then as we all know tremendous development activity has taken place in the IT Sector in Pakistan.

Woz managed to pack a motherboard that had the computing power of a huge device - 6 x 8x 8 feet on a board 14 x 12 inches. Well, he did not have the access to the the mass storage devices - "DASD", but used a 5 1/5 "floppy disk (where PCs used 8"). Steve Jobs was a wizard in marketing and collected funds and holahoy enough to get people to buy it.

They were not unique in any other way, others such as Nokia made very good computers based on "CP/M" and aimed at commercial applications. Apple made a decision to support the academics, in what they considered to be best suited - the Motorola instruction set. Intel made anther decision, to make a chips that was simple to interface to and provided a instruction set tailored to simplify code.

Apple managed to sell to schools and academic institutions and made coding possible on a typewriter using a TV set as a screen. But also Europeans made CP/M devices, most famous is (Sir) Clive (Sinclaire) with his ZX80 and ZX81, which was Intel based (and Zilog). It was smaller than Apple II, and had BASIC in BIOS - and could use a regular cassette player as mass storage.

But Apple made the market, made technology for mass production of computers. By the focus on cheap computers to school they reached the classroom and allowed the classrooms to be used to teach about computers without the need to visit a local "Computer Center". The ZX and Commodore reached the home market, allowed individuals who could afford it, to play around at home.

The Apple II was a techie project, but when Apple attracted the key people from Xerox PARC to make the Lisa, Steve Jobs defined the strategy of "Graphical User Interface" and made the first "MacIntosh" based on this philosophy. Steve Jobs had to leave Apple a number of times, because he drove the company close to bankruptcy by lack of pragmatism. But he left and managed to get back and raise funds to make a new device, such as the Next. Sorry, Woz - your IIe was just another device, you provided good casing also for the peripherals, and configured a production line. But Steve Jobs created the holahoy that created the sales so bills could be paid and game writers could earn a living. The commercial side is important, and with Steve, computers were taken out of the laboratories, coding out of the garage - some of us had to take of the tie and drop COBOL and PL/1.

Characteristics of Computer

Speed

A computer works with much higher speed and accuracy compared to humans while performing mathematical calculations. Computers can process millions (1,000,000) of instructions per second. The time taken by computers for their operations is microseconds and nanoseconds.

Accuracy

Computers perform calculations with 100% accuracy. Errors may occur due to data inconsistency or inaccuracy.

Diligence

A computer can perform millions of tasks or calculations with the same consistency and accuracy. It doesn’t feel any fatigue or lack of concentration. Its memory also makes it superior to that of human beings.

Versatility

Versatility refers to the capability of a computer to perform different kinds of works with same accuracy and efficiency.

Reliability

A computer is reliable as it gives consistent result for similar set of data i.e., if we give same set of input any number of times, we will get the same result.

Automation

Computer performs all the tasks automatically i.e. it performs tasks without manual intervention.

Memory

A computer has built-in memory called primary memory where it stores data. Secondary storage are removable devices such as CDs, pen drives, etc., which are also used to store data.

You use a "browser" and related computer software to "connect" your computer to information sources connected to the web somewhere else, making copies of data files or streams that your computer can display, store, play, run, or whatever.

Personal computers have really changed the way we communicate with one another. Just look at these social media websites like Facebook, for example, where one can message another without leaving the comfort of their own home and instantly too. Personal computers simplify everything in our lives. Typing documents, finding calculations, watching movies, playing games. All of it is done on a personal computer.