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In 1943, Thomas Watson, then chairman of IBM was quoted, “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” By 1953 there was an estimated 100 computers world-wide. However, the history of computers begins long before the technology boom of WWII.
It was around 500BC that the Babylonians first used an Abacus to aid in simple arithmetic, the Chinese following with their Abacus about 1300A.D.
The earliest automated mathematical devices were highly mechanical, complex in design, very big, and very expensive - so they were rarely mass produced. In fact many plans were lost, never built, or only partially completed. The use of wheels, gears, barrels, dials, and punch-cards were common in designs from about 1614. The first calculator to be mass produced, the “Arithometer”, was invented in 1820 by Frenchman Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar (1785-1870). The machine was large enough to occupy an entire office desk and performed multiplication and division (with operator assistance). Its general design was sold for about 90 years.Though Charles Babbage (1792-1871) was plagued with many obstacles in completing his innovations, producing only models and prototype segments, he is recognised as an important figure in the history of computer development. He designed two machines – The Difference Engine in 1822 (a mechanical computer for solving polynomials – originally conceived by J.H.Muller in 1786), and The Analytical Engine in 1834 (a general purpose mathematical device). Though neither of these machines was ever built in their entirety, it is generally accepted that these designs were viable.
George and Edvard Scheutz worked on the Difference Engine idea after reading a short description of the Babbage design in 1834. In 1853 they completed the 1st full-scale Difference Engine, which they called a Tabulating Machine. It could produce a printed output (as Babbage’s would have) and was purchased in 1858 by the Dudley Observatory of New York to produce a set of astronomical tables. It was never really used, ending up in a museum, after the observatory director was fired for the extravagant purchase. Using the same design, a second Tabulating Machine was built by the London firm of Brian Dokin. It was sold to the British government, where it had a useful life for many years.
It was predicted that, to manually process the 1890 US Census data, it was going to take longer than the ten years before the next Census. Winning a competition to find a better method, Census employee Herman Hollerith (1860-1929) returned a result of 62, 622, 250 people in just six weeks. He was inspired by Babbage’s idea of using punch-cards for data storage. He founded the “Tabulating Machine Company” (TMC) in 1896 which, after a series of mergers, became the “Computing – Tabulating – Recording Company” (CTRC) in 1911.
In 1906 Lee De Forest developed the Electronic Tube (Electronic Valve) in America. Before this, it would have been impossible to make digital electronic computers.
International Business Machines (IBM Corporation) was formed in February of 1924 after further mergers involving the Computing – Tabulating – Recording Company. In 1935 IBM introduced the “IBM601” – a punch-card machine capable of doing a multiplication in 1 second. About 1500 were eventually made, becoming important in scientific and commercial computation. By 1990 IBM had an income of around $69 Billion US per year.
On the 1st of January 1939, David Hewlett and William Packard, decide on the name Hewlett-Packard following a coin-toss in their Californian garage. WWII began soon after, which spurred the development of many technology improvements.
A variety of mechanical, binary, programmable calculators were completed during this period – most advancements made between 1943 and 1959.
These “First Generation” computers were based on valves and wire circuits and were programmed using machine code. They used punch-cards, and were very large. Developed at Harvard University, and partially funded by IBM, was the Harvard Mark1 of January 1943 - a calculator 51 feet long, weighing 5 tons, incorporating 750, 000 parts. In December of 1943 the first programmable electronic computer, The Colossus, was used in Britain to crack the German code system. It translated 5000 characters a second, using a punch-tape for input.It wasn’t until 1951, when Remington Rand delivered the UNIVAC-1 machine to the US Census Bureau, that electronic general-purpose computers became commercially available. The UNIVAC was designed by J.Presper Eckert and John Mauchly to handle both numeric and textual information.
The invention of the integrated circuit on the 12th September 1958, by Jack St Clair Kilby at Texas Instruments, began the demise of vacuum valves and punch-cards. Intel founder, Robert Noyce, also worked separately of the invention.
“Second Generation” computers, built between 1959 and 1964, were characterised by transistors and printed circuits, and were much smaller and more powerful than their predecessors. English-like programming languages were converted into machine code using an Interpreter, which allowed much more flexibility in their applications.
“Third Generation” computers, built between 1964 and 1972, were based on the first integrated circuits, and were smaller still. They allowed computing to become available to smaller businesses. The launch of the “IBM360” saw the release of the first series of compatible computers, and the world’s first word-processor.
Founded in 1968 by Robert Noyce and a few friends, Intel introduced the first RAM chip in 1970 and “Intel 4004”, the first Microprocessor, in 1971. It was capable of 60, 000 interactions per second.
In 1969 the US Department of Defence began the “Advanced Research Projects Agency network” (ARPAnet), the original concept for networking and the Internet. International connections were established in 1972 for military use, and universities and large businesses went online in the late 1970s. In 1989 the World Wide Web was invented by Tim Berners Lee, accommodating the need for a global information exchange. The World Wide Web has expanded rapidly since the first connections were sold to individual users in 1993.Computers built after 1972 are often called “Fourth Generation”, and are based on Large Scale Integration of circuits such as Microprocessors – typically 500+ components on a chip. Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) was introduced 5 years later – typically 10, 000+ components. Modern computers are also 4th Generation, contain millions of components, and are incredibly small and powerful.
In 1972 Hewlett-Packard released the first hand-held scientific calculator, while in 1973, the first popular arcade video game, “PONG”, was released by inventor Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari.
The first personal computer to be available commercially was the “MITS Altair 8800” released by Micro Instrumentation Telemetry Systems in 1974. They were $397 US for each kit, and about 200 were ordered on the first day they became available. The formation of Microsoft occurred in 1975 after Bill Gates demonstrated the first implementation of BASIC (a simple programming language) written for the MITS Altair.Apple Computer Inc. was founded in 1976 by Stephen Wozinak and Stephen Jobs, with the introduction of Apple I, and then the Apple II in May of 1977.
Arcade video games became incredibly popular following the release of “Space Invaders” in 1979 and Atari’s “Asteroids” in 1980. By 1982 the video game industry was worth $5 Billion US a year.
The “IBM Personal Computer” was released on the 12th August 1981, with an operating system commissioned from Microsoft known as “MS-DOS/PC-DOS”. 100, 000 orders were commissioned by Christmas of 1981. The standard model sold for $2880 US, while the IBM/Microsoft PC-DOS software sold for $39.95 US.
Designed in 1981, the “Xerox Star System” was the first WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus, and Pointing devices) system, from which all modern GUIs (Graphical User Interface) have evolved. It was made popular by Apple with the release of Macintosh in January 1984, and again by the Microsoft Windows OS for the IBM PC.The Commodore 64 was introduced in January 1982 at just $595 US, and Compaq also released their IBM Compatible Compaq Portable.
Microsoft’s operating system, Windows, was launched in November 1985, but is not widely used until the release of version 3 in 1990. It provided a GUI similar to the Apple Macintosh & multitasking capabilities, first becoming independent of DOS with the production of Windows 95 Operating System from August 12th 1995.
Pentium class computers became available in March 1993, with many IBM Compatible competitors such as Intel and AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) vying for the market dollar. The increasing graphic quality was reflected by the release of games set in a 3D environment, such as Doom, and later DOOM2 and Command and Conquer in 1994.
In 1997 Microsoft purchased 100, 000 non-voting shares in Apple, who had been in serious financial trouble for 18 months. Apple finally dropped their 12 year court-case suing Microsoft for copying the Macintosh operating system when designing the Windows GUI in 1985. Of course, Apple originally copied the Xerox Star System WIMP designed in 1981. Apple returned to the market in 1999 with the announcement of the “PowerMac G4”. Windows ME (Millennium Edition) was released in 2000, while the newest operating system available, Windows XP, was launched in 2002.
FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS
Today’s advancements in computers are rapid and purposes vary widely. Each day the applications and uses of computers expand. Generally, the market fluctuates on a monthly basis, as these developments are reported.
Investigate technology news and review websites to help keep up-to-date with future technology changes. Be aware that most advertising about computers, and their associated merchandise, often include many details in relation to functions, features, and updates of new products.
Activity: As technology improvements are constant and rapid, it is important to stay in touch with new developments and directions in computers, and their associated products.
Research and Summarise a new advancement or direction in the current development of computer technology. List the title, function, and features. Discuss one advantage and one negative impact this new technology may have on computers and society. Reference your source/s.
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