A

SEMINAR REPORT

ON

Evolution of Computer

SUBMITTED BY:

Arti Gajbhar

SUBMITTED TO:

School of Commerce and Management

Sciences
Swami Ramanand Teerth Marathwada
University
Nanded
Evolution of Computers

Computers have been around a lot longer than many people might imagine.
The word "computer" has changed meaning over decades, but the
electronic computer that we think of in modern times developed throughout
the second half of the 20th century. Its popularity as a household item
surged in the 1980s following the arrival of operating systems by Apple and
Microsoft that mixed graphics and text, replacing the text-only systems of
the 1970s. By the 1990s, computers incorporated enhanced communication
and multimedia applications and became an indispensable part of daily life
for millions of people.

Early Computing

The original definition of the word "computer" was a person who made
calculations. This definition goes back to the 1600s and extends midway
through the 20th century, when the term "computer" began to refer to a
machine. The computer is based on the same concept as the abacus,
which goes back many centuries. Technology made a giant leap with
punched cards, introduced by Joseph-Marie Masquard in 1801. It's
interesting that an early use of this system involved music, in which piano
rolls assigned actions to notes on a piano, leading to the "player piano" in
the 1870s. In 1835 Charles Babbage combined punched cards with a
steam engine to invent what he called an "analytical engine."

In the beginning, when the task was simply counting or adding, people
used either their fingers or pebbles along lines in the sand in order to
simply the process of counting, people in Asia minor built a counting
device called ABACUS, the device allowed users to do calculations using a
system of sliding beads arranged on a rack.
With the passage of time, many computing devices such as Napier bones
and slide rule were invented. It took many centuries for the advancement
in computing devices. In 1642, a French mathematician, Blaise Pascal
invented the first functional automatic calculator. The brass rectangular
box also called Pascaline, used eight movable dials to add sums and eight
figures only.

In 1694, German mathematician Gotfried Wilhemvoz Leibniz, extended

Pascals design to perform multiplication, division and to find square root.
This machine is known as stepped reckoner. The only problem with this
device that it lacked mechanical precision in its construction and was not
reliable. The real beginning computer was made by an English
mathematician Charles Babbage in 1822. He proposed an engine to
perform difference equations, called a difference engine. It would print
results automatically. However, Babbage never quite made a fully
functional difference engine, and in 1833, he quit working on it to
concentrate on analytical engine.

The basic design of the engine included input devices in the form of
perforated cards containing operating system as a store for memory of
1,000 numbers up to 50 decimal digits long. It also contained a controlled
unit that allowed processing instructions at any sequence, output device
to produce printed results. Babbage borrowed the idea of punch cards to
encode the instructions in the machine from the Joseph Marie jacquards
loom

In 1889, Herman Hollerith, worked for us. Census Bureau, also applied the
Jacquards Loom concept to computing. The start of world war-2
substantial need for computers capacity, especially for military purposes.
One early success was mark-1, which was by IBM Andhardvard Huiken in
1944. In 1946, John Eckert and johny Mauchly of Moore School of
engineering, developed the ENIAC (Electronic Numeric Integrator and
Calculator). Later, EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic
Computer). It was first electronic computer developed by John Von
Neumann. In 1949, Maurice developed EDSAC(Electronic Delay Storage
Automatic Calculator). Eckert-Mauchly Corporation manufactured UNIVAC
(Universal Automatic computer) in 1951. In 1960, fastest computer to
access the time of 1 micro second and a total capacity of 100,000,000
words was developed. During 1970s, the trend for cheaper computers
made possible by integrated chips (IC) and Microprocessors. Today using
VLSI (Very Large Scale Integrated Circuits), which are programmed using
ROM is made. It could handle 32 bits at a time, and can process 4,000,000
instructions at a time.

Computer Generations

The term Computer, originally meant a person capable of performing

numerical calculations with the help of a mechanical computing device.
The evolution of computers started way back in the late 1930s. Binary
arithmetic is at the core of the computers of all times. History of
computers dates back to the invention of a mechanical adding machine in
1642. ABACUS, an early computing tool, invention of logarithm by John
Napier and the invention of slide rules by William Ought red were
significant events in the evolution of computers from these early
computing devices.

In the evolution of computers their first generation was characterized

by the use of vacuum tubes. These computers were expensive and bulky.
They used machine language for computing and could solve just one
problem at a time. They did not support multitasking.
 It was in 1937 that John V. Atanasoff devised the first digital
electronic computer. Atanasoff and Clifford Berry came up with the
ABC prototype in the November of 1939. Its computations were
based on a vacuum tube and it used regenerative capacitor
memory.
Konrad Zuses electromechanical Z Machines, especially the Z3 of
1941 was a notable achievement in the evolution of computers. It
was the first machine to include binary and floating-point arithmetic
and a considerable amount of programmability. In 1998, since it was
proved to be Turing complete, it is regarded as worlds first
operational computer.

In 1943, the Colossus was secretly designed at Bletchley Park,

Britain to decode German messages. The Harvard Mark I of 1944
was a large-scale electromechanical computer with less
programmability. It was another step forward in the evolution of
computers.

The U.S. Army's Ballistics Research Laboratory came up with the

Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) in 1946. It
came to be known as the first general purpose electronic computer.
However it was required to be rewired to change its programming
thus making its architecture inflexible. Developers of ENIAC realized
the flaws in the architecture and developed a better architecture. It
was known as the stored program architecture or von Neumann
Architecture. It got its name after John von Neumann, who for the
first time described the architecture in 1945. All the projects of
developing computers taken up thereafter have been using the von
Neumann Architecture. All the computers use a stored program
architecture, which is now a part of the definition of the word
computer.
 The U.S. National Bureau of Standards came up with Standards
Electronic/Eastern Automatic Computer (SEAC) in 1950. Diodes
handled all the logic making it the first computer to base its logic on
solid devices. IBM announced the IBM 702 Electronic Data
Processing Machine in 1953. It was developed for business use and
could address scientific and engineering applications. Till the 1950s
all computers that were used were vacuum tube based.
In the 1960s, transistor based computers replaced vacuum tubes.
Transistors made computers smaller and cheaper. They made computers
energy efficient. But transistors were responsible for the emission of large
amounts of heat from the computer. Due to this computers were subject
to damage. The use of transistors marked the second generation of
computers. Computers belonging to this generation used punched cards
for input. They used assembly language.
Stanford Research Institute brought about ERMA, Electronic
Recording Machine Accounting Project, which dealt with automation
of the process of bookkeeping in banking.
In 1959, General Electric Corporation delivered its ERMA computing
system to the Bank of America in California.
The use of Integrated circuits ushered in the third generation of
computers. Small transistors placed on silicon chips, called semi
conductors. This increased the speed and efficiency of computers.
Operating systems were the human interface to computing operations
and keyboards and monitors became the input-output devices.
In 1968, DEC launched the first minicomputer called the PDP-8.
In 1969, the development of ARPANET began with the financial
backing of the Department Of Defense.
Thousands of integrated circuits placed onto a silicon chip made up a
microprocessor. Introduction of microprocessors was the hallmark of
fourth generation computers.
 Intel produced large-scale integration circuits in 1971. During the
same year, Micro Computer came up with microprocessor and Ted
Hoff, working for Intel introduced 4-bit 4004.
In 1972, Intel introduced the 8080 microprocessors.
In 1974, Xerox came up with Alto workstation at PARC. It consisted
of a monitor, a graphical interface, a mouse, and an Ethernet card
for networking.
Apple Computer brought about the Macintosh personal computer
January 24 1984.
The fifth generation computers are under development. They are going to
be based on principles of artificial intelligence and natural language
recognition. Developers are aiming at computers capable of organizing
themselves. The evolution of computers continues

Mechanical Information Processing Computer Generations

The company IBM grew out of the invention of the tabulator, crafted by
Herman Hollerith in the late 1880s. This was the first use of punched
cards representing data as opposed to punched cards automating a
mechanical function like a player piano. The information processing world
through the 1950s was based on a combination of punched cards, the
tabulator and key punch machines. The first calculators appeared in the
1930s. Analog machines began to get replaced by the digital concept of
zeroes and ones throughout the World War II era. The first computer made
for the masses was UNIVAC, made by Remington Rand in 1951. IBM
introduced its mainframe computer the following year.
Computer Integration

Early Remington computers sold at over a million dollars per machine, but
IBM made smaller, more affordable machines that became popular. In
1954 IBM developed FORTRAN, one of the original computer
programming languages, based heavily on mathematics. During the same
decade, the developments of the transistor, integrated circuits and
microprogramming led the way for reducing computer size. Meanwhile,
CPUs increased computer processing speed and memory improved data
storage. The arrival of microprocessors introduced by Texas Instruments
and Intel in the early 1970s paved the way for miniaturized yet more
powerful computers.

Rise of the PC

Up until the 1970s computers were mainly used by business, government

and universities. Personal computers first appeared on the market in the
late 1970s. Apple introduced the Apple I in 1976 and the Apple II the
following year, ushering in an era for the masses using computers at
home. From this point on, the software industry began to develop, with
Microsoft and Apple as the primary companies. Microsoft became a
software giant by marketing its Dos operating system with IBM computers
beginning in 1984. Apple introduced the MacIntosh in 1984, marking the
beginning of graphics and text, replacing systems that only displayed
text. Ever since, Apple has called its computer system "Mac" to
differentiate itself from the rest of the PC market.

Multimedia Culture

In the 1990s the computer became common in almost every household,

as compared with the previous decade. Part of the reason for this surge in
computer popularity was that by the 1990s much of the population had
already become familiar with computers from school or work since
computers were considered a business necessity by then. Microsoft's
Windows 95 operating system accelerated the mass use of computers
while the growth of the World Wide Web throughout the 1990s also helped
attract interest in computers. Soon, nearly every profession needed
software to improve its product or service. By the first decade of the
2000s, Microsoft had introduced the XP and Vista operating systems while
Apple offered the OS X series through Leopard. These developments,
along with other popular software applications, meant that the average
person now had access to robust multimedia tools.

The New Television

In the early 2000s computers started to become integrated with the

television. YouTube.com became one of the top 10 most popular websites
on the Internet. This site helped contribute to a growing interest in
watching videos, TV shows and movies on a computer. Companies such as
Amazon.com, Netflix, Blockbuster and Walmart began to offer TV and
movie downloads following Apple's quick rise to top of the music retail
industry with iTunes. Apple's iMovie computer software also made it easy
for a novice video producer to create quality professional videos.