History of Computers Computers became an essential part of life in the modern days. It is basically a machine that perform complex task with least human effort involved. Computer we know today started out simple and evolved with the advancement in technology and efficient manufacturing processes for the component inside. The first electronic computer created in 1947 and was call Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, or ENAIC. It was created for military purposes and financially back by the US Army. ENAIC was able to solve complex problems involving huge numbers. Unlike the modern computer, ENAIC did not come in a box; it occupied a large room as it operated on thousands of vacuum tubes in the size of a light bulb and generated great
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IBM 701 still used a vacuum tube circuitry but used magnetic memory storage and could hold a maximum of 2048 words. Although it was relatively cheaper compare to the ENAIC, it still cost $4000 at the time and $35000 adjusted for inflation. Transistor was the first major breakthrough for electronic computers as it was much smaller and consumes a lot less power compare to the vacuum tube. University of Manchester created the first transistorize computer in 1953, and by 1955, the computer had only 200 transistors and consumed 150 watts. Then the discovery of the semiconductor silicone took the transistor to the next level; thousands or millions of transistor can be pack on to a tiny chip, and as a result, the computer processing power increase exponentially by the year. In 1970, the Moore’s law states that the transistor packed on a chip in computers double every two years. This law still hold true in the present day; the microchip inside a high end computer contains billions of transistor. With the development of quantum computing which contains transistor that is only the size of an atom, scientists expect Moore’s law will grow exponentially in the …show more content…
In the old days, computer memory was stored in vacuum tubes. The first computer storage unit was developed with vacuum tube and created in 1946; it was call the William Tube. It only holds 1024 bits of data. In 1950s, magnetic technology came along with tape and hard disk storage. Magnetic tape became more popular because it was cheaper to produce and more reliable comparing to the hard disk at the time. One big draw back for the magnetic storage was it is slow and the data reading is sequential which means the computer cannot skip to access a certain piece of data. Magnetic disk technology developed into many forms, a popular one was the floppy disk that came in different sizes and storage capacities. In the 1990s, the invention of optical disk became the dominance form of removable storage. At the same time, advancement in magnetic disk drive manufacturing process made it easier and cheaper to produce. Manufacturers are able to pack memory blocks densely on to a single disk and accurate reader head to decipher the memory. Modern day hard disk drives often contain multiple disks in a single case and storing terabytes of data. In the recent years, cloud storage had become a popular choice of storing data, it works by not storing data in the local computer, but sent it to a remote server for storage. Cloud storage is often used for backing up data in case of catastrophe and it is a cheap and secure way
IBM 701 still used a vacuum tube circuitry but used magnetic memory storage and could hold a maximum of 2048 words. Although it was relatively cheaper compare to the ENAIC, it still cost $4000 at the time and $35000 adjusted for inflation. Transistor was the first major breakthrough for electronic computers as it was much smaller and consumes a lot less power compare to the vacuum tube. University of Manchester created the first transistorize computer in 1953, and by 1955, the computer had only 200 transistors and consumed 150 watts. Then the discovery of the semiconductor silicone took the transistor to the next level; thousands or millions of transistor can be pack on to a tiny chip, and as a result, the computer processing power increase exponentially by the year. In 1970, the Moore’s law states that the transistor packed on a chip in computers double every two years. This law still hold true in the present day; the microchip inside a high end computer contains billions of transistor. With the development of quantum computing which contains transistor that is only the size of an atom, scientists expect Moore’s law will grow exponentially in the …show more content…
In the old days, computer memory was stored in vacuum tubes. The first computer storage unit was developed with vacuum tube and created in 1946; it was call the William Tube. It only holds 1024 bits of data. In 1950s, magnetic technology came along with tape and hard disk storage. Magnetic tape became more popular because it was cheaper to produce and more reliable comparing to the hard disk at the time. One big draw back for the magnetic storage was it is slow and the data reading is sequential which means the computer cannot skip to access a certain piece of data. Magnetic disk technology developed into many forms, a popular one was the floppy disk that came in different sizes and storage capacities. In the 1990s, the invention of optical disk became the dominance form of removable storage. At the same time, advancement in magnetic disk drive manufacturing process made it easier and cheaper to produce. Manufacturers are able to pack memory blocks densely on to a single disk and accurate reader head to decipher the memory. Modern day hard disk drives often contain multiple disks in a single case and storing terabytes of data. In the recent years, cloud storage had become a popular choice of storing data, it works by not storing data in the local computer, but sent it to a remote server for storage. Cloud storage is often used for backing up data in case of catastrophe and it is a cheap and secure way