They appeared after the Second World War, when the discoveries of mathematicians and other scientists made it possible to implement a new way of reading information. And although today these machines seem like outlandish artifacts, they became the ancestors of modern PCs familiar to the average person.
Manchester "Mark I" and EDSAC
The first computer in the modern sense of the word was the Mark I device, created in 1949. Its uniqueness lay in the fact that it was completely electronic, and the program was stored in its RAM. This achievement of British specialists was a great leap forward in the centuries-old history of the development of computers. The Manchester Mark I included Williams tubes and magnetic drums, which served as storage for information.
Today, many years later, the history of the creation of the first computer is controversial. The question of which machine can be called the first computer remains controversial. The Manchester "Mark I" remains the most popular version, although there are other contenders. One of them is EDSAC. Without this machine, the history of the computer as an invention would have been completely different. If "Mark" appeared in Manchester, then EDSAC was created by scientists from the University of Cambridge. This computer went into operation in May 1949. Then the first program was executed on it, which squared the numbers from 0 to 99.
Z4
The Manchester Mark I and EDSAC were program specific. The next step in the evolution of computing machines was the Z4. Last but not least, the device had a dramatic history of creation. The computer was created by the German engineer Konrad Zuse. Work on the project began at the final stage. This circumstance greatly slowed down this development. Zuse's laboratory was destroyed during an enemy air raid. Along with it, all equipment and preliminary results of long-term work were lost.
Nevertheless, the talented engineer did not give up. Production continued after the onset of peace. In 1950 the project was finally completed. The history of its creation turned out to be long and thorny. The computer immediately attracted the attention of the Swiss Higher Technical School. She bought the car. Z4 interested specialists for a reason. The computer had universal programming, that is, it was the first multifunctional device of this type.
In the same 1950, the history of the creation of computers in the USSR was marked by an equally important event. At the Kiev Institute of Electrical Engineering, MESM was created - a small electronic calculating machine. A group of Soviet scientists, led by Academician Sergei Lebedev, worked on the project.
The design of this machine included six thousand electric lamps. Greater power made it possible to take on tasks that were previously unprecedented for Soviet technology. In a second, the device could perform about three thousand operations.
Commercial models
At the first stage of computer development, their development was carried out by specialists from universities or other government agencies. In 1951, the LEO I model appeared, created thanks to investments from the British private company Lyons and Company, which owned restaurants and shops. With the advent of this device, the history of computer creation reached another important milestone. LEO I was the first to be used for commercial data processing. Its design was similar to that of its ideological predecessor EDSAC.
The first American commercial computer was UNIVAC I. It appeared in the same 1951. A total of forty-six of these models were sold, each costing a million dollars. One of them was used in the US Census. The device consisted of more than five thousand vacuum tubes. Delay lines made of mercury were used as an information carrier. One of them could store up to a thousand words. When developing UNIVAC I, it was decided to abandon punched cards and switch to metallized magnetic tape. With its help, the device could connect to commercial data storage systems.
"Arrow"
Meanwhile, Soviet electronic devices had their own history of creation. The Strela computer, which appeared in 1953, became the first such serial device in the USSR. The new product was produced on the basis of the Moscow Calculating and Analytical Machines Plant. During three years of production, eight samples were produced. These unique machines were installed at the Academy of Sciences, Moscow State University and design bureaus located in closed cities.
"Strela" could perform 2-3 thousand operations per second. These were record numbers for domestic technology. The data was stored on magnetic tape, which could hold up to 200 thousand words. The developers of the device were awarded. Chief designer Yuri Bazilevsky also became a Hero of Socialist Labor.
Second generation of computers
Transistors were invented back in 1947. At the end of the 50s. they replaced energy-consuming and fragile lamps. With the advent of transistors, computers began a new history of creation. Computers that received these new parts were later recognized as second generation models. The main innovation was that printed circuit boards and transistors made it possible to significantly reduce the size of computers, making them much more practical and convenient.
If previously computers occupied entire rooms, now they have been reduced to the proportions of office desks. This, for example, was the IBM 650 model. But even transistors did not solve another important problem. Computers were still extremely expensive, meaning they were only made to order for universities, large corporations, or governments.
Further evolution of computers
Integrated circuits were invented in 1959. They marked the beginning of the third generation of computers. 1960s became a turning point for computers. Their production and sales have increased significantly. New parts made the devices cheaper and more accessible, although they were still not personal. Basically, these computers were bought by companies.
In 1971, Intel developers released the first microprocessor in history onto the market. On its basis, fourth-generation computers appeared. Microprocesses solved several important problems that had previously been hidden in the design of any computer. One such part performed all the logical and arithmetic operations that were written using machine code. Before this discovery, this function lay on many small elements. The appearance of a single universal part heralded the development of small home computers.
Personal computers
In 1977, Apple, founded by Steve Jobs, introduced the Apple II to the world. Its fundamental difference from any other previous computers was that the device of the young Californian company was intended for sale to ordinary citizens. It was a breakthrough that just recently seemed unheard of. Thus began the history of the creation of personal computers of the computer generation. The new product was in demand until the 90s. During this period, about seven million devices were sold, which was an absolute record at that time.
Subsequent Apple models received a unique graphical interface, a keyboard familiar to modern users, and many other innovations. The same one just made the computer mouse popular. In 1984, he introduced his most successful Macintosh model, which marked the beginning of an entire line that still exists today. Many of the discoveries of Apple engineers and developers became the basis for today's personal computers, created by other manufacturers as well.
Domestic developments
Due to the fact that all the revolutionary discoveries related to computers occurred in the West, the history of the creation of computers in Russia and the USSR remained in the shadow of foreign successes. This was also due to the fact that the development of such machines was controlled by the state, while in Europe and the USA the initiative gradually passed into the hands of private companies.
In 1964, the first Soviet semiconductor computers “Snow” and “Vesna” appeared. In the 1970s Elbrus computers began to be used in the defense industry. They were used in missile defense systems and nuclear centers.
Computers, without which our life is not possible, actually appeared not so long ago. Representatives of the older generation not only did not use computers during their studies at schools and institutes, but, as a rule, they had no idea what they were. The era of computers and even electronic computers - computers - as the first computers were called in our country, came into our lives relatively recently. Although their most distant predecessor, the abacus (abacus), appeared in ancient Babylon 3000 BC.
Reconstruction of a Roman abacus
The first person who invented the first digital computing machine was Blaise Pascal. In 1642, he introduced the Pascalina, the first mechanical digital computing device to actually be realized and become famous. The prototype device added and subtracted five-digit decimal numbers. Pascal produced more than ten such calculators, and the latest models operated on numbers with eight decimal places. It all started with this discovery...
Pascal's summing machine
Since then, many mechanical devices have been invented that make it possible to perform not very complex calculations. The main progress was observed from the end of the 19th century, and the peak occurred in the first half of the 20th century. And so, in 1938, the German engineer Konrad Zuse created the more complex first mechanical programmable machine Z1. On its basis, in 1941, he created the first Z3 computer, which has all the properties of a modern computer.
Recreated Z3 at the German Museum Munich
Who and when invented the first electronic computer? After all, it is he who is the real prototype of modern computers. And this happened quite soon after the invention of Konrad Zuse. 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.
ENIAC computer
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 the first computer in general (in this case, a mechanical one), then Konrad Zuse can be considered its creator, and the country in which the first computer was invented can be considered Germany. If we consider the first computer to be an electronic computer, then it will be ENIAC, the inventor, respectively, is John Mauchly, and the country is the USA.
The first computers were still far from the ones we use now - personal computers. They were huge, occupied significant areas, comparable to the area of a multi-room apartment, and weighed several tens of tons! Personal computers (PCs) appeared much later.
Who then created the first personal computer? 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 there were practically no useful uses for 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 the 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.
Personal computer Altair 8800
The first personal computers, and even the computers of the early 90s, were many orders of magnitude weaker than modern ones. Suffice it to say that the memory capacity of a modern, not-so-cool “flash drive” is comparable to the entire disk memory of several thousand (!!!) personal computers of the early 90s. And so it is the same for all other indicators. The fantastic leap in the performance of modern personal computers in the 2000s is associated primarily with the development of new technologies in the field of electronics and nanotechnology.
When did the first computers appear? It is not so easy to answer this question, since there is no single correct classification of electronic computers, as well as formulations of what can be classified as them and what cannot.
First mention
The word "computer" was first documented in 1613 and meant a person who performs calculations. But in the 19th century, people realized that a machine never gets tired of working, and it can do work much faster and more accurately.
To begin counting the era of computing machines, the year 1822 is most often taken. The first computer was invented by the English mathematician Charles Babbage. He created the concept and began manufacturing the difference engine, which is considered the first automatic computing device. She was capable of counting multiple sets of numbers and making a printout of the results. But, unfortunately, due to funding problems, Babbage was never able to complete its full version.
But the mathematician did not give up, and in 1837 he introduced the first mechanical computer, called the Analytical Engine. It was the very first general purpose computer. At the same time, his collaboration with Ada Lovelace began. She translated and supplemented his works, and also made the first programs for his invention.
The Analytical Engine consisted of the following parts: an arithmetic-logical unit, an integrated memory unit and a device for monitoring the movement of data. Due to financial difficulties, it was also not completed during the scientist’s lifetime. But Babbage's designs and designs helped other scientists who created the first computers.
Almost 100 years later
Oddly enough, over the course of a century, computers have made almost no progress in their development. In 1936-1938, German scientist Konrad Zuse created the Z1, the first electromechanical programmable binary computer. Then, in 1936, Alan Turing built a Turing machine.
It became the basis for further theories about computers. The machine emulated the actions of a person following a list of logical instructions and printed the result of the work on a paper tape. The Zuse and Turing machines are the first computers in the modern sense, without which the computers we are accustomed to today would not have appeared.
Everything for the front
The Second World War also influenced the development of computers. In December 1943, the Tommy Flowers Company introduced a secret machine called the Kollos, which helped British agents break German message codes. It was the first all-electric programmable computer. The general public learned about its existence only in the 70s. Since then, computers have attracted the attention of not only scientists, but also the ministries of defense, which actively supported and financed their development.
There is some debate about which digital computer should be considered the first. In 1937-1942, University of Iowa professor John Vincent Atanasoff and Cliff Berry (graduate student) developed their ABC computer. And in 1943-1946 J. Presper Eckert and D. Mauchly, scientists at the University of Pennsylvania, built the most powerful ENIAC weighing 50 tons. Thus, Atanasov and Berry created their machine earlier, but since it was never fully functional, the title of “very first computer” often goes to ENIAC.
First commercial samples
With their enormous dimensions and design complexity, computers were available only to military departments and large universities, which assembled them themselves. But already in 1942, K. Zuse began work on the fourth version of his brainchild - Z4, and in July 1950 he sold it to the Swedish mathematician Eduard Stiefel.
And the first computers that began to be mass produced were models with the laconic name 701, produced by IBM on April 7, 1953. A total of 19,701 of them were sold. Of course, these were still machines intended only for large institutions. In order to become truly widespread, they needed a few more important improvements.
So, in 1955, on March 8, the “Whirlwind” went into operation - a computer that was originally conceived during the Second World War as a simulator for pilots, but by the time of its creation it arrived in time for the beginning of the Cold War. It then became the basis for the development of SAGE, an air defense subsystem designed to automatically target interceptor aircraft. The key features of the Whirlwind were the presence of 512 bytes of RAM and the display of graphic information on the screen in real time.
Technology to the masses
The TX-O computer, introduced in 1956 at MIT, was the first to use transistors. This made it possible to greatly reduce the cost and dimensions of the equipment.
The team of scientists who developed the TX-O then left the institute, founded Digital Equipment Corporation, and introduced the PDP-1 computer in 1960, ushering in the era of minicomputers. They were no larger than one room or even a closet, and were intended for a wider range of clients.
Well, the first desktop computers began to be produced by Hewlett Packard in 1968.
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I was sitting at the computer one day, working quietly, and then suddenly the thought struck me, where did it all start and what was the very first computer in the world? Of course, I decided to find the answer to this question, it really hooked me. And the answer was found! Naturally, it became the topic of the next blog post about all the most interesting things in the world that do not leave you indifferent. As always, determining the championship was not easy, but you can already get used to it...
The very first computer in the world was created and built in the USA by Harvard University mathematician Howard Aixn back in 1941. Together with four specialists from IBM, which ordered it for him, they created a computer based on the ideas of Charles Babbage. After all the tests, it was launched on August 7, 1944. It received the name “Mark 1” from its creators, and it was put to work at Harvard.
At that time, this computer cost five hundred thousand dollars, a fabulous sum at that time. It was assembled in a special case, which was made of glass and steel that is resistant to corrosion. The body itself was at least seventeen meters long, the height was more than 2.5 m. Its mass was about 5 tons and it occupied a space of several tens of cubic meters.
"Mark 1" consisted of many switches and other mechanisms, the total number of which was 765 thousand.
Its wires had a total length of about eight hundred kilometers!
The capabilities of the very first computer in the world now seem ridiculous to us, but at that time there was no more powerful computing device on the planet.
The machine could:
- operate with seventy-two numbers, which in turn consisted of twenty-three decimal places
- the computer could subtract and add, and each operation took three seconds.
- In addition, he also multiplied and divided, spending six and fifteen seconds on these operations.
To enter information into this device, which was essentially just a faster adding machine, a special perforated paper tape was used. It was the first computer that did not require human intervention for its computing processes.
Back in 1942, the development of John Mauchly served as the impetus for the creation of the first computer, but at that moment few people paid attention to it. After military engineers of the American Army took a closer look at it in 1943, attempts were made to create a device that then received the name “ENIAC”. The military was in charge of the finances and allocated about five hundred thousand dollars for this project, as they wanted to design new types of weapons.
"ENIAC" consumed so much energy that during its operation, the nearby city constantly experienced a shortage of electricity and people sat without electricity, sometimes for several hours.
Eniac technical specifications
Look at some very interesting characteristics of the very first computer in the world, according to the second version. Impressive isn't it?
- It weighed 27 tons.
- It contained 18,000 lamps and other parts.
- The memory was 4 KB.
- Occupied an area of 135 square meters. m. and was all entangled in many wires.
It was programmed by hand, and the operators just changed hundreds of switches, and they had to turn it off and on every time because it didn't have a hard drive. There was no keyboard and no monitor either. There were a number of dozens of cabinets with lamps, the machine often broke down as it often overheated. Then it was also used to design hydrogen atomic weapons. This machine worked for more than ten years, and in 1950, when the transistor was created, computers became smaller in size.
Where and when was the very first PC sold?
In two decades, little has changed in the concept of computers. Thanks to the introduction of the microprocessor, the creation of the computer itself proceeded at a faster pace. Back in 1974, IBM wanted to launch the first computer on the market, but there were almost no sales. The IBM5100 used cassettes where information was stored, and at that time it was very expensive - ten thousand dollars. Therefore, few people could afford to buy such a device then.
He could himself execute programs that were written in the BASIC and APL languages, created in the bowels of IBM. The monitor could display sixteen lines of sixty-four characters each, and its memory was sixty-four KB. The cassettes themselves were very similar to regular audio cassettes. There were almost no sales due to the high price and poorly thought out interface. But still, there were people who purchased it and who began a new era in the history of world markets - computer trading
Have you thought what they will be like in ten years?
Not long ago, IBM showed the press the Roadrunner supercomputer with 1 quadrillion operations. It was collected for the US Department of Energy. It includes 6,480 dual-core processors, and 12,960 Cell 8i processors. It consists of 278 cabinets, 88 kilometers of cable. Weighs 226 tons. Located on an area of 1100 m², this one costs $133,000,000.
As you can see, supercomputer cabinets are still in fashion, it’s all about the design...
Watch about the very first computer in the world in video format:
This is how computer history turned out. Was it interesting or not - write in the comments!
If you ask the above question, be prepared to hear different answers. Since many different types of computers (or calculating machines) have been created since the 1800s, it is simply impossible to answer this question definitively. Now let's look at everything in detail.
The first programmable "computing machine"
P The first “computing machine” was created by Charles Babbage in 1822. His idea was not to create a prototype of a modern computer, he simply wanted to build a machine that would calculate mathematical problems. Babbage was tired of human errors in solving mathematical problems, so he sought to create an error-free machine. But, nevertheless, his creation served as the basis for the modern computer.
This is why Charles Babbage is considered the inventor of the first computer. His “Babbage machine” was the first programmable analytical engine and, moreover, completely automatic. Computers today essentially do the same thing: read programs and execute them.
Charles Babbage was born in England, where he spent his life and career. After private school, Charles began studying at an academy in Enfield, where he began to develop an interest in mathematics. Babbage then entered Trinity College, Cambridge University, and completed his studies at St. Peter's College. His independent learning of the basics of mathematics also meant a lot.
Babbage's education played a major role in his future inventions. England is very proud of his son and some of his works are today in one of the museums in London.
Invention of the computer
The unique thing about Babbage's computer is that it could be programmed. After all, calculator developments were available then, but they only worked according to fixed rules. Isn't it amazing that the invention Babbage sought to create became incredibly useful to humanity centuries later?
The scientist used his student knowledge to develop a machine that calculated mathematical problems. Unfortunately, he never completed his dream project due to lack of money. Although his machine remained unfinished, his idea later evolved into the version of the computer we know today, and Babbage is rightfully considered the “Father of Computers.”
How did the computer get its name?
Have you ever wondered where the word “computer” came from? We should be grateful to Babbage for naming the computer as well as for developing it.
Everything is quite simple. Babbage tried to create a machine that could solve mathematical problems in the same way as a human. And the name of the computer itself comes from the English “computer”, where “compute” is translated as “to calculate”. And it was Babbage's idea that became the basis for all future computers.
Alan Turing and his achievements
The development of electronic computers, which are very similar to modern ones, was carried out by Alan Matheson Turing, an English scientist.
Alan Turing was born on June 23, 1912 in London, England. He was very interested in science and mathematics during his school period. However, he later entered Sherborne College, where the emphasis was on humanities rather than science. But this did not stop him from studying higher mathematics. For example, while studying elementary calculus, he simultaneously considered Einstein's complex conclusions regarding Newton's Laws. Alan spent a lot of time in the library and self-study.
Alan Turing began exploring the possibilities of computing while he was studying for a BA in mathematics at King's College Cambridge. There he wrote scientific articles and successfully defended his doctoral dissertation. He also reformulated Kurt Gödel's theorem, replacing the universal formal language with simple hypothetical devices that later became known as Turing machines.
The Turing machine was the first device that could use algorithms to solve arithmetic problems. For many experts, this was the first theoretical concept of a modern computer. Interestingly, the basic concept of a Turing machine is still being studied in the field of computer science around the world.
ACE
Based on the machine he invented, Turing worked on ACE (the Automatic Computing Engine) between 1945 and 1947. He also presented a paper on how a computer could store programs in memory (which is what modern computers do). Alan Turing developed other theories and concepts, for example, the speech encoder, Turing-Welshman “Bombe”, “Colossus”, “Hut 8”, “the Naval Enigma”, etc.
Alan Turing died on June 7, 1954 in England. The cause of his death was cyanide poisoning, and as the examination showed, he committed suicide. Prior to this, he was accused of homosexuality, which was considered a crime at the time.
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