History of Computers

HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF COMPUTERS
(General History)

  1. 3rd century BCE, Indian mathematician Pingala invented the binary numeral system. In this system, still used today to process all modern computers, a sequence of ones and zeros can represent any number.
  2. Charles Babbage, considered the "father of computing," that the modern computer began to take shape with his work on the Analytical Engine (1835). The device, though never successfully built, had all of the functionality in its design of a modern computer.
  3. Ada Lovelace published the first ever computer programs in a comprehensive set of notes on the analytical engine. Because of this, Lovelace is popularly considered the first computer programmer.
  4. In 1890 the United States Census Bureau used punch cards and sorting machines designed by Herman Hollerith. Hollerith's company eventually became the core of IBM.
  5. Before the 1920s, computers were human clerks that performed calculations.
  6. Church–Turing thesis, by Alan Turing and Alonzo Church, is a hypothesis about the nature of mechanical calculation devices, such as electronic computers. The thesis claims that any calculation that is possible can be performed by an algorithm running on a computer, provided that sufficient time and storage space are available.
  7. Alan Turing, known as the Father of Computer Science, invented such a logical computer known as the Turing Machine, which later evolved into the modern computer.
  8. Enigma was the encryption machine used by the Germans during World War II.
  9. In 1948, the first practical computer that could run stored programs, based on the Turing machine model, had been built - the Manchester Baby.
  10. Nobert Wiener coined the term cybernetics from the greek word for "steersman." He published "Cybernetics" in 1948, which influenced artificial intelligence.
  11. The US-built ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) is often called the first electronic...