When the human race started doing some trade, it fell a need for a calculating device. An early manual calculating device called Abacus was developed for this purpose. The Abacus that was used more than 2000 years ago is still in use in many countries such as China, Japan, etc.
Blaise Pascal developed the first mechanical adding machine in 1642. In 1671, German mathematician developed a calculating machine that could add, subtract, multiply, divide and even extract the square root. Then around 1800, a mathematical desk calculator was developed.
Dr. Herman Hollerith came out with the concept of punched cards. These punched cards are used extensively as input media in modern digital computers. In 1833, Professor Charles Babbage of Cambridge University, England, who is considered as the father of modern computer, proposed a machine. He named this machine the analytical engine Professor Charles Babbage spend much of his life in building this machine, but could not succeed, as the precision engineering required to build it, was not available at that time. However, the principles he established were used later in the design of the digital computers.
The Mark –I- Computer (1937 – 1944):
The Mark –I Computer also called the Automatic sequence controlled calculator was the first fully automatic calculating machine. This computer was developed by Professor Howard Aiken of Harvard University in collaboration with International Business Machines Corporation. (IBM) The Mark I was not an electronic computer. It was an electro mechanical computer. The size of this computer was huge and its design was very complex, but it was quite reliable. It could perform the five basic operations-additions, subtraction, multiplication, division and table reference.
The Atanasoff Computer (1935 – 1942):
The first electronic computer was developed by Dr. John Vincent Atanasoff, a Professor of physics and Mathematics. He did most of his work on his prototype during 1935-1942.
The ENIAC (1943-1946):
The Electronic Numeric Integrator and Calculator (ENIAC) was the first electronic computer. The ENIAC was built at Moore school of Electronic engineering, University of Pennsylvania, USA by a team of professor J Presper Eckert Jr. and John.W.Manchly. The ENIAC used about 19,000 vacuum tubes and was housed in a room of about 800 sqft. It could do about 300 multiplications per second. The ENIAC had a short coming, it could not store the operating instructions internally, and these were fed through externally wired plug boards.
The EDSAC (1947-1949):
A team of scientists led by professor Maurice Wikes at Cambridge University, UK developed the first ‘stored instruction’ computer, the EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator/Computer).
The Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer (EDVAC) project was the first effort to develop a stored instruction computer. A team led by Professor J. Presper Eckert, Jr. and John.W.Manchly. University of Pennsylvania, U.S.A developed it. The design concepts were based on Dr. John Von Neumann’s idea that both data and instructions can be stored in the binary form instead of the decimal number system used by human beings.
The UNIVAC-I (1951):
The first Universal Automatic Computer (UNIVAC) became operational at the central bureau, USA in 1951. This computer was used at the Census bureau for about a decade. General Electrical Corporation acquired Univac-I in 1954 and used a computer for a commercial purpose for the first time.
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