GAJERA INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL, SURAT COMPUTER STUDY MATERIAL STD – 5TH DATE – 23/04/2020 TOPIC – HISTORY OF COMPUTER

Topic covered:  Concept of counting  Early Calculating Devices  The First Electro – Mechanical Computer  The First Electronic Computer Concept of Counting The computer is an electronic machine that has touched every aspect of our life, making our work faster, easier, and well-organized. We rely on computers for most of our daily work. Computer has its own history. It has been a combination of efforts and ideas of many people from all over the world. The concept of counting started with the existence of human beings. In the ancient times, people used to count with the help of stones, pebbles, bones, sticks, fingers, toes, etc., and store the information by making marks on walls, pillars, rocks, etc.

In the course of time, it became difficult to do bigger and complex calculations with such objects. So, people started thinking of some kind of device which could make their tasks easier. Thus, the first calculating device 'ABACUS' was invented. Early Calculating Device 1) Abacus o Abacus was the first calculating device, invented about o 5000 years ago by the Chinese. Simple calculations like o addition and subtraction were performed, using the o Abacus. It is still in use in different parts of the world.

2) Napier’s bones

In 1617, a Scottish mathematician John Napier invented a calculating device called Napier’s bones. This device is a set of rectangular rods marked with numbers on them. It was meant for simple calculations like addition, subtraction, multiplication of numbers. Later on, it was improved to perform division and to find the square root. 3) Pascaline

In 1642, a French mathematician named Blaise Pascal invented the first mechanical computing machine known as Pascaline. It consisted of a box with movable gears that could add, subtract, multiply, and divide the numbers very easily.

4) Leibniz’s Step Reckoner

In 1692, the more advanced calculating machine named Step Reckoner was developed by a German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz. It could perform all four basic mathematical operations, i.e., addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

5) Babbage’s Analytical Engine

In 1822, a mathematics professor of Cambridge University, England, Charles Babbage developed a machine known as Difference Engine. It could perform mathematical operations automatically. However in 1833, Babbage had a better idea, and he stopped working on Difference Engine and started designing another machine called Analytical Engine. It had five key features, i.e., input device, storage unit, processor, control unit and an output device. All these five features are found in today's modern computers. Therefore, Charles Babbage is also known as the Father of Computer.

6) Tabulating Machine

In 1890, Herman Hollerith, an army engineer invented a tabulating machine. This Tabulating Machine was used in census (to count the population) of the USA. It gave a 'quick' count of the US population. The use of the Tabulating Machine was so successful that Hollerith formed a company that later became famous as the International Business Machine or IBM. The First Electro – Mechanical Computer 1) Mark I

In 1944, Prof. Howard Aikens built the first Electro-Mechanical Computer named Mark I. It was 51 feet long, weighed 5 tons, and used a typewriter for input and punched cards for output. This device was the first computer in a real sense. The First Electronic Computer 1) ENIAC and UNIVAC John Mauchly and John Presper Eckert together built the first successful electronic digital computer known as ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer).It was operational in 1946. ENIAC was 10 feet wide and 100 feet long; it occupied 1800 square feet of area and could perform 5000 additions per second. In 1951, John Mauchly and John Presper Eckert developed another successful computer known as UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer). It could handle both numeric and textual information. It was the first commercial computer delivered to a business client US Census Bureau in 1951.

ENIAC UNIVAC

WORKSHEET

Fill in the blanks.

1. The first calculating device was ______. 2. ______Calculating device was developed by Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz. 3. ______known as the ‘Father of Computer.’

True or False.

1. Early man used to count with the help of stones, fingers, etc. _____ 2. Herman Hollerith invented ‘Tabulating Machine’ in 1990. _____ 3. Mark I was the first electro-mechanical computer. _____

Write the name of inventors and the year of inventors.

Inventors Year

1. Pascaline ______2. PC – AT ______3. Analytical Engine ______4. Abacus ______5. Mark I ______6. Tabulating Machine ______