Evolution of Computers

Evolution of computers from earlier models to today models was the outcome of various scientific and computing advancements.

Today the first question that is asked from every child on computers is"Who discovered computer"?.The answer that is heard is "Charles Babbage discovered computer".But..............

EVOLUTION OF COMPUTERS

Only few would know that in 1822 "Charles Babbage"-The English Mathematician initiated to create a steam based computing machine that would have the ability to compute tables of numbers.This project was funded by English government.The project was a failure.

However the first computer was actually invented more than a 100 years later.

IBM gave a good hand in invention of computer.At that time the population of U.S.had drastically grown that it took not less than seven years to calculate the U.S. census.To overcome this problem and save money Herman Hollerith designed a punch card machine that was able to complete the same task in just 3 years.He established a company that would later become IBM in 1911.

During the time till 1941 machine with computing power was developed but the computer was not able to store data.In 1941 Atanasoff along with Clifford Berry designed a computer that was able to solve 29 equations simultaneously.This was the first computer with the ability to store data in main memory.

Two years later,with the development of digital electronics ENIAC was developed.This electronic numeric integrator and calculator was based on turing automaton.This was capable of solving various numerical problems with an additional feature of reprogramming.This was not a handheld calculator but acquired a full rectangular room (20*40 foot) space.

The two professors John Mauchly and J.Presper responsible for invention of ENIAC worked further on the same to present ENIAC as the first commercial computer for incorporation and government applications.The ENIAC was renamed as UNIVAC in 1946(The year of official announce of ENIAC to public). 

Now after the creation of these computing machines,the developers started stressing on languages to interact with computer in order to give commands.These languages are now known as programming languages.In 1953 the first programming language ever was developed.This was named as COBOL(Common Business Oriented language).This language is easy to understand but what makes programmers annoying is its length.It has a quite lengthy syntax.

After the arrival of COBOL,IBM also developed a programming language in 1954 which was named FORTRAN (Formula Translating System).As the name suggests it was developed to calculate complex mathematical expressions.

The circuit for computers was really complex.Thereh was an need for little compact machines.Hence the invention of ICs(Integrated circuits) in 1958 by Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce marked a turning point in the history of computers.An IC is sometimes called a chip or microchip.It has various electronic devices(thousands of resistors,capacitors and transistors) embedded or integrated(by name)on it.It can work as various devices such as oscillator,amplifier,counter,storage memory,microprocessor etc. ICs are given alphanumeric codes according to task they perform,for example.....LM358 for dual operational amplifier.

Till 1964 computer was imagined as a specialized machine to be used by scientists and researchers.Douglas Engelbart introduced the concept of mouse and GUI(Graphical user interface) so that these specialized machines can be easily accessed by common people.

The Random Access Memory(RAM) also called main memory(All processes are brought and then executed) was introduced as dynamic in 1970.That is Intel released first DRAM chip.DRAM is capable of storing each bit of data on a separate capacitor.

Don't forget IBM(can never be behind),they realized the need to share data among different computers and hence invented a floppy disk.in 1971.Floppy disks were every where that time.Almost every personal computers supported floppy disk in 1980s and 90s.But after 2010 rarely any motherboard supports floppy disks.

By 1973 Ethernet was also introduced in order to connect various computers and other hardware.It was developed from an earlier concept called Alohanet.Ethernet is now most widely installed LAN.

In 1974-75 many personal computers jumped into the scene.But in September 1975 IBM 5100 became the first commercial personal portable computer available.It was based on SCAMP(Special Computer APL(Programming Language) Machine Portable)-An early prototype introduced at IBM scientific center.

In 1976 Steve Jobs,Ronald Wayne and Steve Wozniac founded Apple computers.They launched Apple 1-The first computer with just single circuit board

In 1977 TRS-80 with Z-80 microprocessor was launched.This comprised of the largest variety of software  in a microcomputer at that time. TRS-80 became the largest selling computer of that time.Same year Apple II was introduced at a computer exhibition.Apple II comprised of qualitative high resolution graphics with integrated sound.Well Apple II ran the incoporation in a good business as it was much better than its previous model i.e. Apple I.

Now next was small but really effective technology jumped in the world of computing.Yes the year of 1978-79.Firstly in 1978 VISICALC(Apple II's most  killer application).This was the first  computer spreadsheet program.The introduction of VISICALC made computers an effective incorporation tool.Then 1979 the fantasy of word processing became reality with the introduction of Wordstar by MicroPro Internationals.The biggest application of Wordstar was mail merge.

In 1980 Apple series continued with the release of Apple III.But due to stability issues it was discontinued in 1984.

On 12th Aug 1981 IBM first personal computer commonly known as IBM PC(Model No. 5150) jumped into the market with assembly of various brands in its specifications such as it used an Intel chip,MS-DOS operating system.For personal computers to catch sales should be IBM compatible.Well this was the influence of IBM PC in computer market.Only Apple Mackintosh released in 1984 were able to keep up with the sales without the IBM compatibility.

IBM-PC

The concept of GUI already introduced in 1964 was implemented in Apple Lisa (released in 1983) for the first time.With Steve Jobs forced out of Lisa project in 1982 Lisa went into a complete failure.Steve jobs then joined Mackintosh project.

In 1983 first flip over computer jumped into the world of computer technology.Can you guess what it was......Well it was the first computer to be sold as Laptop.Yes Galvin Sc was the first portable computer whose screen shut down to its keyboard.This clamp shell design was just partially IBM compatible.   

In 1984 Mackintosh was released.It was an eventual evolution of Lisa model.Lisa was then sold as Mackintosh XL.

1985 was not just the year for development of computer technology but also modified some standards for internet.firstly in 1985 Microsoft announced Windows in competition with Apple's graphical user interface(GUI).Secondly the first .com domain was also sold that year.Yes the first ever .com with the link symbolics.com was registered.It was sold to XF.com in August 2009.

1986 bring with it the Deskpro 386.It was manufactured by Compaq.At that time it supported Intel 8086 microprocessor of 32-bit architecture which added a lot to its speed.It came in various models with intel 8086 to intek x86 Pentium 4 microprocessors.

www(World Wide Web) was standardized after HTML(Hypertext Markup Language) was developed by Tim Berners Lee in 1990.

Computer graphics and audio quality was enhanced with the introduction of Intel Pentium microprocessors in 1993.This also enabled computers to enter the world of gaming i.e. computer were now also marked as gaming devices since 1994.

In 1997 Microsoft purchased $150 million of Apple's non-voting shares for direct negotiations with Apple for the case filed by Apple against Microsoft which was actually a copyright case for stealing the feel and look of Apple's GUI.

1999 was the year of introduction of wireless LAN technology.Yes Wi-Fi  that enables electronic devices(that supports Wi-Fi) to carry out networking with other devices.Eventually the name Wi-Fi was derived from Hi-Fi.

2001 was the year of Operating Systems.Firstly Apple launched its Mac OS X.This successor of Mac OS 9 was a Unix based operating system.Apple was desperately trying to develop a next generation OS but all its efforts failed with the departure of Steve Jobs from Apple in 1985.Steve Jobs incorporated "Next Inc.".Apple went into losses after Steve Jobs left the company.

Then Apple purchased Next Inc. in 1996. OPENSTEP designed at Next Inc. served the basis for Apple's new OS.Steve Jobs was designated as CEO.This project was earlier named as Rhapsody but later renamed as Mac OS X.

Later in 2001 Windows XP was also released with a new and a unique interface.Most have us must have worked on windows XP at least once I guess.So I think we are already familiar with  its graphical interface,

The first processor with 64-Bit architecture was introduced to consumer market in 2003.It was named AMD Athlon 64.It is also available at present also.The highest clock cycle it supports till now is 3.2 GHz.

In 2006 Mac Book Pro hit the market.It also announced that Apple now jumped into the world of Intel processors.

The period of 2006-2008 marked the development of BluRay disks which was capable of storing 27GB of data(much larger storage then normal DVD with 4.7 GB) and 12 hours time.Dell also added BluRay burner to gaming laptops.

As we come in 2009,the technology introduced this year has a good future scope.Yes the crux here is Cloud Computing enabling users to store a large amount of data over the air that can be retrieved anywhere.In simple words we can say users are provided with additional storage disk.Most popular clouds you might have heard are Amazon,icloud,dropbox etc..

The year of 2010 leads to development of quantum computing.The branch that studies theoretical computer systems using quantum-mechanical process more precisely superposition etc. in order to perform various data related operations.Quantum computing also have a great future scope

2011 bring with it the concept of NVMM(non-volatile main memory)technology.It was suggested to replace DRAM(Dynamic RAM) chips with NVMM chips in order to get instant boot up and shutdown.But security was a compromise with NVMM chips.The security concerns of the same were resolved in 2011.

2012 was the year of NFC(Near Field Communication) and yes the fifth version of HTML was also introduced.HTML 5 enabled users to create more interactive applications especially web applications.NFC enabled devices to develop radio communication among them.

The prices of high resolution display went down in 2013. 4k colors are expected the standardized display of computer devices since then.Also in 2013 voice recognition became up to the mark.

Brain-Computer interfaces got great success in 2014.Through it the computers could interpret signals directly from brain.It helped biologically affected people up to a good extent.For example......The people who needs wheel chair to move could give it directions through their brain itself,people could move the robotic arm and many more biological benefits.The concept of Brain net was also introduced the same year.

Brain-Computer Interface

Read Supercomputers simulation as human brain.

This was Evolution of computers from zero to a device we have today. Charles Babbage if could see this immense development in computer technology would definitely be proud.So use your god gifted personal computer i.e. brain in addition with your passion and make him even more proud.

Also read EVOLUTION OF MOBILE PHONES