Computers in those days

Introduction to Computers - What is Computer

What is a Computer?

Computers in those days

In the olden days, people make use of primitive materials in performing some activities, which of course lead them to less effective result. This was occasioned by the use of less technologically advanced equipment that can perfectly perform those tasks. With time, man began to improve on that equipment; the consequential result is more effective outcome. In the last two centuries, machines were invented that could serve variety of task. Among those machines, computer was the most important as it usage in the modern days has affected the lives of people, to an extend that many have began to imagine the world without computer.

Nothing epitomizes modern life better than the computer for better or worse, computer has infiltrated every aspect of our society. Today, computers do more than simply compute: the importance of computer has cut across all live aspects. One may wonder where did this master machine come from, how is it used to achieve aims and where is it leading to? This article is purposely made to assist people acquire knowledge on how and when to use computer. This is in line to solve the rising demand for computer services.

This article shall be used as a medium to move from computer illiteracy to literacy. It is also designed to improve on the knowledge of those who are already computer literate.

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DEFINITION AND HISTORY OF COMPUTER

Definition of Computer

Computer is a very commonly word used often. We are familiar with what a computer is in specific contemporary sense. Personal computers are found in most aspect of our daily life, and for some it is hard to even imagine a world without computer. A computer is a its most basic, a machine which can take instructions, and perform computations based on those instructions. It can also be defined as an electronic device that accept data as raw material, process them and bring out result as output. Computer can also be defined as an electronic device that accept data as an input, store and process data, and present information known as output. It can also be seen as a machine that can be programmed to manipulate symbols.


Principal characteristics of Computer are;

• It responds to specific set of instructions in a well defined manner
• It can quickly store and retrieve large amount of data
• It can execute a prerecorded list of instructions (a programme)

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HISTORY OF COMPUTER DEVELOPMENT

Abacus

The abacus device may be considered the first computer. It was invented about 5000 years ago in Asia Minor. This computer permits the operators to make computations using a system of sliding beads arranged on a rack. Early merchants used the abacus to keep trading transactions. With the increased usage of paper and pen, mostly in Europe, the use of abacus became insignificant. When the use of abacus came down the new advanced machine do not quickly replace abacus. A duration of about 12 centuries made a gap for a  new advance machine. Abacus probably is in use today.

Blaise Pascal: In 1642 an 18 year old son of a French tax collector, Blaise Pascal, brought to birth a numerical wheel calculator. The primary aim for this machine was to assists his father perform perfectly some of his activities. A machine made of brass in a rectangular shape used eight moveable dials to add sums up to eight figures long. The machine also called Pascaline used a base of ten to accomplish this. Pascal machine was only used for summation which coarse its weak point.

Gottfried Wilhem Von Leibniz: The Pascal machine  was improved on by Gottfried Wilhem Von Leibniz in 1694. this was done by the inclusion of a multiplication machine on the former. Leibniz’s mechanical multiplier worked by a system of gears and dials. The work Leibniz was based on the knowledge  derived from Pascal machine. The centerpiece of the machine was its stepped drum gear design which offered an elongated version of the simple flat gear. The work of this German mathematician and philosopher stire until mechanical calculators were appreciated by a lot of people.

Charles Xavier Thomas De Colmar: A Frenchman invented a machine that could perform the four basic arithmetic functions. Colmar mechanical calculator, the arithometer, presented a more practical approach to computing because it could add, subtract, multiply and divide. With its enhanced versatility, the arithometer was widely used up untl the First World War. Although later inventors refined Colmar’s calculator. Together with fellow inventors Pascal and Leibni, he helped define the age of mechanical computation.

Charles Babbage: An English professor of mathematics after been frustrated at the many errors he found while examining calculations for the Royal Astronomcal Society, says and I quote “I wishh these calculations had been performed by Steam:” He observed a natural harmony between machines and mathematics: machines he says, were best at performing tasks repeated without mistakes. On the other hand, mathematics, particularly the production of mathematical tables, often require the simple repeating of steps. The challenge was on applying the ability of machines to the needs of mathematics.

In 1822 Babbage made an attempt to proffer a solution to this problem and thus, proposed a machine to perform differential equation called a Differences Engine. The machine performs calculations and prints the results automatically.

        Babbage was encouraged 10yrs after, working on a different machine to start work on a analytical engine “the first general purpose computer”. While in the design of this machine, he was assisted by August at Ada King, countless of Lovelace (1815 1842) ad daughter of English poet Lord Bryon. The knowledge of Lady Lovelace’s here permitted her to create the instruction routines to be fed into the computer, this made her the first female computer programmer. She was named a programming language ADA in her honour by the U.S Defense Department in the 1980s.

Babbage’s steam-powered engine outlines the basic elements of a modern general purpose computer and was a break though concept. The basic design of the analytical engine included input devices in the form of perforated cards containing instructions and a “store” for memory of 1,000 number of up to 50 decimal digits long. Also contained in the machine is a “mill” with a control unit that allowed processing instructions in any sequence and output device to poduce printed results. Babbage borrowed the idea of punch card to encode the machine instructions from the Jacquard loom.

Herman Hollerrith: An American inventor, Herman Hollerith in 1889, applied the Jacquard loom concept to computing. His first challenge was to find a faster way to compete the U.S. census. To do this, Holleriths used cards to store data which he fed into a machine that compiled the results mechanically. In this method each punch on a card was used to represent one number and a combination of two punches represented one letter. With this, instead of a long duration of about 10yrs a result of census was compiled in a short duration say six weeks.

Vannevar Bush: Vannevar Bush invented a calculator that would help for solving differential equations in 1931. the machine was able to solve complex differential equations that had long left scientists and mathematicians baffled. Because of the use of hundreds of gears and shafts required to represent numbers and their various relationship to other, the machine was highly compact.

John V. Atanasoff: A professor at Lowa State College now referred to as Lowa State University and his graduate student, Clifford Berry, envisioned an all-electronic computer that applied Boolean algebra to computer circuiting. This approach was based on the mid-19^th century work of George Boole who clarified the binary system of algebra which stated that, any mathematical equations could be stated simply as either true or false. By extending this concept to electronic circuits in the form of ‘on or off’, Atanasofff and Berry had developed the first all-electronic computer by 1940. the project, however,  lost its finding and it was over shadowed by similar developments by other innovators.

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