The computer era came into our lives relatively recently. Literally 100 years ago, people did not know what a computer was, although its most distant predecessor, the abacus, appeared in ancient Babylon 3000 BC.
The first person to come up with the first digital computing machine was Blaise Pascal in 1642. It all started with this discovery...
IN geometric progression, humanity strived for the computer era, created more and more new computers that performed more and more complex functions. And in 1938, the first trial mechanical programmable machine Z1 was created, on the basis of which in 1941 the same person created the first computer Z3, which has all the properties of a modern computer. The man who created this first mechanical computer was the German engineer Konrad Zuse.
Who came up with the first idea? electronic computer?
In 1942, American physicist John Atanasov and his graduate student Clifford Berry developed and began installing the first electronic computer. The work was not completed, but had a great influence on the creator of the first electronic computer, ENIAC. The person who invented the ENIAC computer, the first electronic digital computer, was John Mauchly, an American physicist and engineer. John Mauchly generalized the basic principles of computer construction based on the experience of developing machines, and in 1946 the real electronic computer ENIAC appeared to the world. The development leader was John von Neumann, and the principles and structure of the computer he outlined later became known as von Neumann.
So the questions about what year the computer was created, where the first computer was created and who created the first computer can be answered in different ways. If we are talking about a mechanical computer, then Konrad Zuse can be considered the creator of the first computer, and the country in which the first computer was invented is Germany. If we consider ENIAC to be the first computer, then John Mauchly, accordingly, created the first computer in the USA.
The first computers were still far from the ones we use now - personal computers. The first computers were huge, often taking up large areas, the size of a three-room apartment and weighed up to 28 tons! Personal computers (PCs) appeared much later.
The creation of the first personal computers became possible only in the 1970s. Some people began to assemble computers at home for the sake of research interest, since useful application There were practically no computers at home. And in 1975, the first personal computer Altair 8800 appeared, which became the first commercially successful PC. The creator of the first personal computer was American engineer Henry Edward Roberts, who was also the founder and president of Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems, which began producing the first PC. Altair 8800 was the “chief” of the boom in computerization of the population.
And those scientists, engineers and physicists, all those who invented the computer, who created the first personal computer and who made at least some contribution to information Technology, transferred us all to a new, modern and incredibly promising stage of life. Thanks to these talented people.
The term “the world’s first computer” can mean several different models. On the one hand, these are gigantic machines created in the middle of the 20th century.
On the other hand, humanity became directly acquainted with computers, and even got the opportunity to use them in everyday life, much later.
And the history of the first personal computers begins in the mid-1970s.
In our material we will tell you about the creation of the first prototypes of modern computers and huge computing machines, which scientists call the first computers.
The first "giants" of computing technology
At the very beginning of the computer era, in the 1940s, several independently developed models of huge computing devices were created.
All were developed and assembled by scientists from the USA and took dozens of square meters area.
By modern standards, such equipment can hardly be called a computer.
However, at that time, there were no more powerful machines that could perform calculations at a speed much faster than the average person.
Rice. 1 One of the first computers, UNIVAC, is brought into the installation room.
Mark-1
The programmable device "Mark-1" is rightfully considered the world's first computer.
The computer, developed in 1941 by a group of 5 engineers (including Howard Aiken), was intended for military purposes.
After completing the work, checking and adjusting the computer, it was transferred to the US Air Force. The formal launch of the Mark-1 took place in August 1944.
The main part of the computer total cost which exceeded 500 thousand dollars, was inside a metal case and consisted of more than 765 thousand parts.
The length of the equipment reached 17 meters
The height is 2.5 m, as a result of which a huge room at Harvard University was allocated for it. Other device parameters include:
- total weight: more than 4.5 tons;
- length of electrical cables inside the housing: up to 800 km;
- length of the shaft synchronizing the computing modules: 15 m;
- power of the electric motor that drove the computer: 5 kW;
- calculation speed: addition and subtraction - 0.33 s, division - 15.3 s, multiplication - 6 s.
“Mark-1” could be called a huge and powerful adding machine - this is the version adhered to by those who consider the ENIAC model to be the founder of computer technology.
However, thanks to the ability to execute user-specified programs in automatic mode (which, for example, the German Z3 computer created a little earlier could not do), it is the Mark-1 that is considered the first computer.
Working with punched paper tape, the machine did not require human intervention.
Although, due to the lack of support for conditional jumps, each program was recorded on a long and looped tape roll.
After the device’s power became insufficient to complete the new tasks that customers set for the developers, one of the computer’s authors, Howard Aiken, continued to work on new models.
So, in 1947, the second version, “Mark-2”, was created, and in 1949, “Mark-3”.
The last version, called Mark IV, was released in 1952 and was also used by the US military.
Rice. 2 The first computer Mark-1.
ENIAC
The ENIAC computer was intended to perform approximately the same tasks as the Mark-1.
However, the result of the development was a truly multitasking computer.
The first launch of the device took place almost at the end of 1945, so it was already too late to use it for military purposes in World War II.
And the most complex computer at that time, which, according to contemporaries, worked “at the speed of thought,” participated in other projects.
One of them was explosion simulation hydrogen bomb.
The operating frequency of these elements reached 100 thousand pulses every second.
In order to increase the reliability of such a number of devices, the developers used a method designed for the operation of musical electric organs.
After this, the accident rate decreased several times, and out of 17 thousand lamps, no more than two burned out in a week.
In addition, an equipment safety monitoring system was developed, which included checking each of the 100 thousand small parts.
Computer settings:
- total development time: 200 thousand man-hours;
- project price: $487 thousand;
- weight: about 27 tons;
- power: 174 kW;
- memory: 20 alphanumeric combinations;
- operating speed: addition – 5 thousand operations per second, multiplication – 357 operations per second.
A tabulator was used to input and output data to the ENIAC at speeds of 125 and 100 cards per minute, respectively.
During the tests, the computer processed more than 1 million punched cards.
And the only serious drawback of the machine, which sped up the calculation process hundreds of times compared to its predecessor, even for its time, was its size - almost 2 times larger than that of the Mark-1.
Rice. 3 The second ENIAC computer in the world.
EDVAC
The improved EDVAC computer (also created by Eckert and Mosley) could carry out calculations not only on the basis of punched cards, but also using a program contained in the memory.
This opportunity arose as a result of the use of mercury tubes, which store information, and the binary system, which significantly simplified the calculations and the number of lamps.
The result of the work of a group of American scientists was a computer with a memory of about 5.5 KB, consisting of the following elements:
- devices for reading and writing information from magnetic tape;
- an oscilloscope to monitor the operation of a computer;
- a device that receives signals from control elements and transmits them to computing modules;
- timer;
- devices for performing calculations and storing information;
- temporary registers (in modern terminology - “clipboards”), storing one word at a time.
A computer occupying an area of 45.5 square meters. m., spent about 0.000864 seconds on addition and subtraction and 0.0029 seconds on multiplication and division.
Its mass reached only 7.85 tons - much less compared to ENIAC. The power of the device is only 50 kW, and the number of diode lamps was only 3.5 thousand pieces.
Rice. 4 Computer "Advac".
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Domestic developments
In the 1940s, domestic science also carried out developments to obtain electronic computers.
The result of the work of the laboratory named after S. A. Lebedev was the first MESM model on the Eurasian continent.
Following it, several other computers appeared, no longer so famous, although they made a significant contribution to scientific activity THE USSR.
MESM
The abbreviation MESM, a computer created from 1948 to 1950, stood for “Small Electronic Computing Machine”.
The computer received this name due to the fact that at first it was just a prototype of a “large” device.
However, the received positive results tests led to the creation of a full-fledged computer, assembled in a two-story monastery building.
The first launch took place in November 1950, and the first serious problem was solved in January next year.
Over the next 6 years, MESM was used for complex scientific calculations, then used as teaching aid, and finally dismantled in 1959.
The operating parameters of the device were as follows:
- number of lamps: 6 thousand;
- three-address command system with 20 binary digits;
- memory: constant for 31 numbers and 63 commands, RAM of the same size;
- performance: frequency 5 kHz, execution of 3 thousand operations per second;
- area: about 60 sq. m.;
- power: up to 25 kW.
Rice. 5 Soviet entry-level computer MESM,
BESM-1
Work on another Soviet computer was carried out at the same time as on MESM.
The device was called the Large Electronic Calculating Machine and worked at triple speed - up to 10 thousand operations per second - while reducing the number of lamps to 730 pieces.
The number of digits for the numbers that the computer operated was 39 units, and the accuracy of calculations reached 9 digits.
As a result, the machine could work with numbers from 0.000000001 to 1000000000. Just like the MESM, the large device was produced in one copy.
The car, whose designer was also S. A. Lebedev, was considered the fastest in Europe in 1953. While the best computer The American IBM 701 is recognized throughout the world.
IBM's first commercial computer performed up to 17 thousand operations per second.
Rice. 6 The first full-fledged computer in the USSR BESM-1.
BESM-2
The improved version, BESM-2, became not only the next most fast computer in the country, but also one of the first serial Soviet devices of this type.
From 1958 to 1962, Soviet industry produced 67 computer models.
One of them was used to calculate the rocket that delivered the pennant to the Moon Soviet Union. The speed of BESM-2 was 20 thousand operations per second.
Wherein RAM reached, in terms of modern units, about 11 KB and worked on ferrite cores.
Rice. 7 Soviet computer BESM-2.
The first mass-produced models
By the early 1970s, computer technology had developed to the point where it was possible to purchase a computer for personal use.
Previously, only large organizations could do this, since the cost of equipment reached tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars in the USA and approximately the same amount in rubles for the USSR.
As computers get smaller, they become truly personal.
And the first among them can be called a prototype that did not leave a big mark in history, but was still released in the amount of several thousand copies - Xerox Alto.
The release date of the first model was 1973.
Among the advantages were a decent memory of 128 KB (expandable to 512 KB) and a storage device of 2.5 MB.
The disadvantage is a huge “system unit” the size of a modern one for A3 format.
It was the dimensions that prevented production from becoming quite widespread, although organizations purchased the computer because of its convenient graphical interface.
Rice. 8 The Xerox Alto computer is powerful, but expensive.
On the territory of the USSR in 1968, they also tried to create a prototype of a PC.
Omsk engineer Gorokhov patented a computing device, the functionality of which was approximately equivalent to the first personal computers of the 1970s.
However, not a single actually working model was created, not to mention mass production.
And the first mass-produced PC (albeit with limited functionality) was the Altair 8800, produced since 1974.
It can be called the prototype of the first modern computers with - it was the Intel chipset that was installed on motherboard COMPUTER.
The cost of the assembled model was just over $600, and about $400 when disassembled.
This low cost led to massive demand, and the Altair sold in the thousands.
In this case, the device was just a system unit that had neither a monitor, nor a keyboard, nor a sound card.
All of these peripherals were developed later, and buyers of the first Altair 8800 models could only operate it using switches and lights.
Rice. 9 Altair 8800 model with monitor and keyboard combined together.
Article about historical facts on computer development, about the first invention of the personal computer in the USSR.
It is believed that the founders of the personal computer are two American citizens, Steven Jobs and Stephen Wozniak.
However, this is not quite true!
The sixties of the last century in the Soviet Union were significant for scientific and technical discoveries, man's breakthrough into space, military and technological developments.
The creation and patent of the first PC, back in 1968, belongs to a modest Soviet scientist Arseny Gorokhov. This event occurred several years before the “invention” of the Americans. Arseny Gorokhov worked at the Aviation Design Institute in Omsk.
The first PC looked like this:
Personal Computer. Invention of engineer A. A. Gorokhov. 1968
Some historical facts
The development of the first computers began immediately after the Great Patriotic War. In the early 50s, computers were huge cabinets with many keys. They were called computer, electronic computers. The first car was the Soviet one Computer "Whirlwind".
Electronic computers of the 50s of the last century
The equipment was expensive. The operating memory of the computer was very small, only 512 bytes, and the weight of the equipment reached half a ton! Such machines could not be called personal. However, development continued.
The beginning of the 60s of the last century is marked by the emergence of commercial computers. The equipment becomes fast, powerful, compact, equipped with a keyboard and screen. The size of the equipment is reduced to the size of several refrigerators, and the price also becomes lower. Computer type "PDP-1".
Computer device from the early 60s of the last century, “PDP-1”
In 1969, the American company claimed the right to be called the first personal computer. Honeywell Kitchen Computer. Its weight is significantly reduced, only 65 kg. Visually, it presents a box equipped with a working panel of lamps and keys, as well as a cutting board.
Honeywell Kitchen Computer, 1969
The main function is to store various chef's cooking recipes in memory. There were no people willing to purchase such equipment!
The creation of microprocessors in 1970 ushered in the age of personal electronic devices. The first microprocessor had 8 bits and was named Intel 8080. Further, events developed at high speed: the first microcomputer was created "Altair 8800".
Microcomputer “Altair 8800”, 1970
The equipment is already being sold in small quantities. But! Having received the ordered computer, users are shocked! You have to assemble the computer yourself from parts sent, do soldering, testing, and create computer programs.
Regular users cannot operate the device. Development continues!
It's 1976, two Americans create their own computer. Apple". The equipment is sold complete and assembled. Serial production began in 1978.
Apple computer, 1976
However, we missed 1968!
Development of the first PC
So, 1968. Omsk Aviation Research Institute. Engineer Gorokhov invents a machine for outlining the contours of a part. This is the official name in the patent dated May of the same year. The equipment is intended for drawing electrical circuit diagrams and engineering drawings.
The equipment consisted of a monitor, system unit, built-in hard drive. Using the device, problems with electronic computers, memory cards, and video cards were solved.
Does the described device diagram remind you of anything?
Yes, exactly, a modern home computer!
Next comes information according to which a patent for the invention was granted, but funding was not allocated. In 1970, the design of the device was published for public viewing in a special journal of inventions. In 1976, two Americans patented a personal computer.
The moment of truth was missed, but the fact of the first invention of the PC by Soviet engineer Gorokhov remains a fact!
Arseny Anatolyevich Gorokhov with a patent for the invention of a personal computer. In the background is a photo of the first computer.
Video: Invention of the first personal computer. Arseny Gorokhov
So when was the first computer invented? This question cannot be answered unequivocally due to various classifications computers. The first mechanical computer, created by Charles Babbage in 1822, is actually not very similar to what we call a computer today.
When was the word "computer" first used?
The word "computer" was first used in 1613, and originally meant a person who performed calculations or calculations of some kind. The definition of computer carried the same meaning until the end of the 19th century, when the Industrial Revolution gave rise to machines whose main purpose was calculation.
The first mechanical computer or the concept of an automatic computing machine.
In 1822, Charles Babbage conceptualized and began developing the Difference Engine, which is considered the first automatic calculating machine. This is where the history of the computer began. The difference engine was capable of operating on multiple sets of numbers and producing paper copies of the results. Babbage was helped in developing the difference engine by Ada Lovelace, who is considered by many to be the first. Unfortunately, due to financial problems, Babbage was unable to complete a full-scale functional version of this machine. In June 1991, the Science Museum in London built Difference Engine No. 2 in honor of Babbage's bicentenary birthday, and then completed the printing mechanism in 2000.
In 1837, Charles Babbage proposed the first programmable computer, called the Analytical Engine. The Analytical Engine contained an arithmetic logic unit (ALU), basic flow control, and on-chip memory. Unfortunately, due to funding problems, this computer was never built during Charles Babbage's lifetime. It was not until 1910 that Henry Babbage, Babbage's youngest son, was able to complete the central part of this machine from his father's designs, which was capable of performing basic arithmetic calculations.
The first computer with programming capabilities.
The first electro-mechanical binary programmable computer, the Z1, was created by German engineer Konrad Zuse in his parents' living room between 1936 and 1938, and is considered the first truly functional modern computer.
The Turing machine was proposed by Alan Turing in 1936 and became the basis for theories about computing and computers. This mechanism printed characters onto punched paper tape in a manner that emulated a person after a series of logical instructions. Without these basic principles, we would not have the computers we use today.
The first electrical programmable computer.
In December 1943, the first electrical programmable computer, the Colossus, developed by Tommy Flowers, was demonstrated and used to decipher intercepted German communications.
The first digital computer in history
The Atanasoff-Berry computer - ABC was developed by Professor Atanasoff and graduate student Cliff Berry in 1937. Its development continued until 1942. State College Iowa (now Iowa State University).
ABC was an electrical computer that used vacuum tubes for digital computation, including binary mathematics and Boolean logic, and had no processor.
On October 19, 1973, US Federal Judge Earl R. Larson signed a decision revoking the ENIAC patent of J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly and named Atanasov as the inventor of the electronic digital computer.
ENIAC was invented by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly at the University of Pennsylvania and began construction in 1943 and was not completed until 1946. It occupied about 1,800 square feet, and used about 18,000 vacuum tubes, weighing almost 50 tons. Even though the judge ruled that the ABC computer was the first computer, many still believe that the ENIAC is the first computer because it was fully functional.
The first computer with a stored program.
The British computer, known as the EDSAC, is generally considered to be the first electronic computer to store programs in memory. The computer was launched on May 6, 1949 and was the first computer to run a graphical computer game.
Around the same time, another computer called the Manchester Mark 1 was being developed at Victoria University of Manchester, which could also execute stored programs. The first version of the Mark 1 computer went into operation in April 1949. On the night of June 16-17, 1949, Mark 1 was used to run a program to find Mersenne primes, and for nine it made no errors.
The first computer company.
The first computer company was the Electronic Controls Company, which was founded in 1949 by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, the same people who helped create the ENIAC computer. The company was later renamed EMCC or Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation and produced a series of mainframe computers under the UNIVAC name.
First stored computer program
The first computer that was capable of storing and executing a program from memory was the UNIVAC 1101 or ERA 1101, introduced to the US government in 1950.
The first commercial computer.
In 1942, Konrad Zuse began working on the Z4, which later became the first commercial computer. The computer was sold to Eduard Stiefel, a mathematician at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich on July 12, 1950.
IBM's first computer.
On April 7, 1953, IBM publicly unveiled the 701, the company's first commercial scientific computer.
The first computer with RAM
On March 8, 1955, MIT introduced the revolutionary Whirlwind computer, which was the first computer with ferrite core RAM and real-time graphics.
First transistor computer 
TX-O (Transistor Experimental Computer) is the first transistorized computer that was demonstrated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Institute of Technology in 1956.
The first mini-computer.
In 1960, Digital Equipment Corporation released its first of many PDP computers, the PDP-1.
The first desktop and mass market computer.
In 1964, the first desktop computer, Programma 101, was presented to the public at the New York World's Fair. It was invented by Pier Giorgio Perotto and manufactured by Olivetti. Approximately 44,000 Programma 101 computers were sold, each priced at $3,200.
In 1968, Hewlett Packard began selling the HP 9100A, which is believed to be the first mass-market desktop computer.
First workstation.
Although this computer was never sold, the Xerox Alto, introduced in 1974, is considered the first workstation. The computer was revolutionary for its time and included a fully functional computer, display and mouse. This computer, like most computers today, used as its interface operating system windows, menus and icons. Many of the capabilities of this computer were demonstrated on December 9, 1968.
The first microprocessor.
The first microcomputer.
In 1973, engineer André Truong Trong Thi, together with François Gernel, developed the Micral computer. Considered the first "microcomputer", it used the Intel 8008 processor and was the first commercial computer without assembly. Originally sold for $1,750.
The first personal computer.
In 1975, Ed Roberts coined the term "personal computer" when he introduced his creation, the Altair 8800, even though the first personal computer is widely believed to be the KENBAK-1, introduced for $750 in 1971. The computer relied on a series of switches for input and a series of lights for output. Thus, the history of computers reached a new level.
First laptop or laptop computer
The IBM 5100 is the first portable computer, which was released in September 1975. The computer weighed 55 pounds (25 kg) and had a five-inch CRT display, tape drive, 1.9MHz PALM processor and 64 KB of RAM.
The first truly portable computer or laptop is the Osborne I, which was designed by Adam Osborne and released in April 1981. Osborne weighed 24.5 lb (11.1 kg), had a 5-inch display, 64 KB of memory, two 5 1/4-inch floppy drives, ran the CP/M 2.2 operating system, had a modem, and cost US$1,795 .
The IBM PC Division (PCD) later released the IBM, the first portable computer, which weighed 30 pounds. Later in 1986, IBM PCD announced the first laptop, weighing 12 pounds (5.4 kg). Then, in 1994, IBM introduced the IBM ThinkPad 775CD, the first laptop with an integrated CD-ROM.
The first Apple computer.
Apple I (Apple 1) was the first Apple Computer and sold for $666.66. The computer was designed by Steve Wozniak in 1976 and featured an 8-bit processor and 4 KB of memory, expandable to 8 or 48 KB with expansion cards. Even though Apple was sold fully assembled, it still could not function without the power supply, display, keyboard and case, which were sold separately.
IBM's first personal computer.
IBM introduced its first personal computer, called the IBM PC, codenamed Acorn, in 1981. It was equipped with an 8088 processor, 16 KB of memory, which was expandable to 256 KB, and MS-DOS was used as the operating system.
The first PC clone.
The Compaq Portable model is the first PC clone and was released in March 1983 by Compaq. Compaq Portable was 100% IBM compatible and capable of running any software developed for IBM computers.
The first multimedia computer.
In 1992, Tandy Radio Shack became one of the first companies to produce computers based on the MPC standard with its introduction of the M2500 XL/2 and M4020 SX computers.
Date: 2012-09-27
Word computer, came to us from the distant eighteenth century. It first appears in the Oxford Dictionary. Initially, the concept of a computer was interpreted as a calculator. This is exactly the translation of this word from in English. It differed from today’s in that it could be applied to absolutely any computing device, and not necessarily electronic.
First computers or calculators, were mechanical instruments and could perform simple mathematical operations such as addition and subtraction. In 1653, the first computer appeared, capable of solving more complex tasks, or rather, divide and multiply.
For some time, the improvement of computers in the qualitative sense of the word stopped, and the main emphasis was on improving the mechanisms and reducing the size. Computers still performed the four basic arithmetic operations, but they became lighter and more compact.
In 1822, a machine capable of solving simple equations was first invented. It was the greatest breakthrough in the field of development computer technology. After the project was approved by the government, funds were allocated, and the invention was able to further development. Soon the machine received a steam engine and became fully automatic. After another decade of continuous research, the first analytical machine appeared - a multi-purpose computer that could operate with many numbers, work with memory and be programmed using punched cards.
From that moment on, the evolution of the computer proceeded at an accelerated pace. Electrical relays have been added to mechanical devices. They were joined by vacuum tubes. The speed and power of computers grew from year to year. And in 1946, the first computer appeared. Its weight, size and power consumption, for our understanding, were simply shocking. The mention of a weight of 30 tons is enough to imagine the scale of this machine, but at that time it was a huge achievement.
With the advent of semiconductor devices, gradually replacing vacuum tubes, the reliability of computers increased, and their sizes became smaller. The computer now has RAM for storing information. Machines have learned to write data onto magnetic disks. The leader in the production of computers at this time was IBM.
And then one day, scientists were able to integrate several semiconductor devices into one chip. This moment was a new impetus for development computer equipment. The computer has a disk drive, HDD, mouse and GUI. Its size was reduced so much that the machine could be placed on a table. This was the birth of the personal computer, the prototype of the one we know today.
Since then, humanity has gained the opportunity to massively use computers for home use. The first personal computer is considered to be the IBM PC 5150, based on Intel processor 8088.
After the creation of the first commercial personal computer, the main emphasis in the development of computing technology was on improving the quality and productivity of machines. Gradually, progress brought the computer to what we see today. The machines became more and more powerful and compact. Laptops, netbooks, tablet PCs, etc. appeared.
Interesting. What will the development of computer technology lead to in the near future? What will our children use?
You can read more about the history of the computer in the article ""
