Historical Development of Computer

CLASS: JSS ONE

Introduction
We are living in the computer age. Most of our day-to-day jobs are being influenced by the use of computers. It is used increasingly in every field of our lives. In the areas of science and technology improvements cannot be achieved without the use of computers. Because of these, it has become necessary to look at the historical development of the computer. The computer was developed as a result of man’s search for fast and accurate calculating devices.

Stages in the History of Computer

The evolution of the computer is divided into several stages. These are:
Stage 1: Early Counting Devices
Stage 2: Mechanical Counting Devices
Stage 3: Electro-mechanical Counting Devices
Stage 4: Electronic Counting Devices and Modern Computers

Early Counting Devices

Long ago, people used different and easily available and affordable counting methods such as fingers, toes, stones, sticks, pebbles, cowries, writing on the wall, etc. to solve different counting needs. Some of these early counting devices are examined below.

1. Fingers and toes
The fingers and toes were used for counting, giving an account of days, trading and performing basic arithmetics like addition and subtraction. The early man also used their feet to measure.

2. Pebbles and grains
Pebbles, which are small round stones and grains from the farm such as corn, beans and rice were used for counting.

3. Cowries
These are the highly polished, usually brightly coloured shells of small snails found in warm seas. They were used as money and for other counting needs.

4. Sticks
These include the canes, clubs and shaped woods that were used for measuring the land area and for other counting and measuring needs.

5. Writing on the wall
In early ages, man learnt to use objects like charcoal, mud and limestone to solve their computational needs by writing strokes on the wall and other surfaces.

Major Problems Associated with the Use of Early Counting Devices

The major problems with these devices are:
a. They cannot be used for counting large numbers efficiently.
b. They also occupy large spaces.
c. They waste time.
d. They are not always available
e. They are not always accurate.
f. They were not very versatile i.e. They could only be used to perform a limited number of calculations.

Mechanical Counting Devices

Mechanical devices are devices that involve the use of physical force to operate them. After it had been discovered that the earliest methods of counting were no longer convenient for counting large numbers, many mechanical devices were designed that aided people in their calculation. These include:

1. Abacus

Abacus is one of the first counting mechanical devices used for calculation. An abacus is a small device, that consists of beads strung on wire or wooden rods in a rectangular frame, which slides easily. The Chinese were the first to use the abacus. It is used for the addition and subtraction of numbers.

2. Slide Rule

In 1632, an English Mathematician, William Oughtred designed the first linear slide rule, although the familiar inner sliding rule was invented by an English instrument-maker, Robert Bissaker in 1654. However, the modern slide rule was made by Amedee Mannheim in 1859. The slide rule consists of a graduated scale, which can be moved relatively to aid simple calculation mechanically. In simple slide rules, multiplication, division and finding a square root can be done.

Electro-Mechanical Counting Devices

Electro-mechanical counting devices are devices that use both electronic and mechanical principles to perform the task of calculation. These include:
1. John Napier’s Bone
2. Blaise Pascal Machine
3. Gottfried Leibniz, Machine
4. Joseph Jacquard’s Loom
5. Charles Babbage’s Analytical Machine
6. Philip Emeagwali
1. John Napier’s Bone

In the early 1600s, a Scottish mathematician called John Napier invented a tool called Napier’s Bone. It consists of eleven rods, with four sides each which was used as a multiplication tool.

2. Blaise Pascal Machine

Blaise Pascal a nineteen-year-old French mathematician invented the calculating machine in 1642 and named it Pascaline. He did that to aid his father who was a tax collector. It is used for addition and subtraction of up to 8-digit numbers.

3. Gottfried Leibnitz’s Machine

A German mathematician named Gottfried Leibnitz in 1671, built a better machine that would save time. He called it Leibnitz’s stepped Reckoner. The machine can add, subtract, multiply divide and calculate the square root of numbers.

4. Joseph Jacquard’s Loom

The Jacquard Loom was invented by Joseph Marie Jacquard in 1801, which used punched cards to control the weaving of patterns in the fabric. Though the loom was not used in computation, but the use of the punched card is considered an important step in the history of computing.

5. Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine

An English Mathematician Charles Babbage decided to build a machine that could perform difficult calculations accurately and more quickly than previous machines. In 1837, Charles Babbage designed the first programmable computer which he referred to as the analytical engine. According to Babbage’s design, the analytical engine would be able to save instructions, perform calculations and produce the printed output. He is widely recognized as the father of the modern computer.

6. Philip Emeagwali (Inventor of the World's First Fastest Computer)
Philip Emeagwali, who has been called the "Bill Gates of Africa," was born in Nigeria in 1954. Like many African schoolchildren, he dropped out of school at age 14 because his father could not continue paying Emeagwali's school fees. However, his father continued teaching him at home, and every day Emeagwali performed mental exercises such as solving 100 math problems in one hour. His father taught him until Philip "knew more than he did. In 1989 Emeagwali used 65,000 processors to invent the world's fastest computer, which performs computations at 3.1 billion calculations per second. His computers are currently being used to forecast the weather and to predict the likelihood and effects of future global warming.

Electronic Counting Devices and Modern computers

Electronic devices are devices that function using electronic principles. After electro-mechanical devices, electronic devices took centre stage. These devices include:
1. Herman Hollerith’s machine
2. John Von Neumann Machine
3. Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator (ENIAC)
4. Mini Computers
5. Micro Computers
6. Personal Computer

1. Herman Hollerith’s machine

Herman Hollerith’s machine was developed in the late 19th century by an American called Herman Hollerith. This machine was used to process census information in the U.S.A. in 1890.

Hollerith formed a company to sell his machine but later merged with other companies to form the popular IBM (International Business Machine) Computer which is the largest computer manufacturing company today.

2. John Von Neumann Machine
In 1945, a mathematician, John von Neumann developed the stored program concept in which a program could be read into computer memory for processing.
John Vonn Neumann Architecture

3. ENIAC

This means Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer. ENIAC was built at the University of Pennsylvania between 1943 and 1945 by two professors John Mauchly and Prosper Eckert. ENIAC filled a 20 by 40-foot room, weighed 30 tons, and used more than 18,000 vacuum tubes to generate waste heat like a light bulb and all this heat (174,000 watts of heat) meant that the computer could only be operated in a specially designed room with its heavy-duty air conditioning system.
Note:
Other computing devices invented by John Mauchly and Prosper Eckert include;
i. UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer)
ii. EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer)

4. Mini Computers
Minicomputers were developed in the mid-1960s. They are a class of smaller general-purpose computers that are digital and generally used in multi-user systems. They have higher processing speed and higher storage capacity than microcomputers. Minicomputers can support up to 4 – 200 users simultaneously.

5. Micro Computers
Microcomputers became popular in the 1970s and 1980s. They are relatively small and low-cost. They consist of a CPU, an input unit, an output unit, a storage unit, and the software.

6. Personal Computers
The term home computer or personal computer became popular in the late 1970s and 1980s. A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use.