Timeline Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Timeline - Essay Example The definition of the computer used today is based primarily in von Neumann’s conception that the computer is a device, which is capable of accepting data input, processing data, storing it and producing data output. The history of computing has progressed from the vacuum tube to the transistor, ultimately to the microchip and modem. This paper will provide a comprehensive timeline of the history of computing, describing the evolution of various computing items through timelines such as 2400 BC–1949,  1950–1979,  1980–1989,  1990–1999,  2000–2009,  2010–2019. 2400 BC–1949 In this period, computing devices focused primarily on enhancing people’s capacities to make calculations. The initial devices used for calculation were tally sticks, with the Lebombo bone being the first known to modern archeology. However, the abacus, developed in 2400BC is the first ever calculator, invented by the Babylonians to enhance sim ple arithmetic. The Chinese abacus (suanpan) was invented in 200BC and was widely used before the invention of present day’s calculator (Isaacson, 2011). ... In 1930, American Vannevar Bush developed a partly electronic difference engine with the capacity to solve differential equations. In 1939, German Helmut Schreyer completed a prototype memory using neon lamps and a 10-bit adder prototype using vacuum tubes. In 1942, Americans Atanasoff and Berry made a special-purpose calculator for system solutions of linear equations, later known as the Atanasoff-Berry-Computer (ABC). German Konrad Zuse created the S1, which was the first process computer that measured the surface of wings (Turner, 2006). In 1944, IBM developed the second program machine, which was 51 feet long and weighed nearly 5 tons. In British, in 1949, the Manchesteer Mark 1’s final specifications were completed. This machine was the first computer to utilize the equivalent of index registers, which entered the second generation computing architecture in 1955. 1950–1979 This period appeared to focus intently on the creation of computer communication and intellig ence. In 1950, the Pilot ACE computer, having 800 vacuum tubes with mercury delay lines as its main memory became functional in the UK (Black, 2001). In 1951, Americans J. Prespert Eckert and John Maunchly designed the first commercially operational electronic computer, UNIVAX, which handled both textual and numeric information. This machine’s implementation was the real start of the computer age (Isaacson, 2011). In 1951, the CIRAC (Council for  Scientific and  Industrial  Research  Automatic  Computer) became the first digital computer used to play music. In 1952, IBM introduced the IBM 701, which was the initial computer in its 700 and 7000 series of large scale machines. In 1960, the initial ordered, technical programming