The Computer Revolution: From Room-Sized to Pocket-Sized

 The world's first electronic general purpose computer was built at the University of Pennsylvania.

Computers are an integral part of life. People use them to communicate with people who are important to them at work and home. Many people look up the information they want to learn on computers. Others watch movies, play games or entertain themselves using computers. From early morning until late at night, people rely on computer systems to help them stay organized.

Although it is difficult for most people to imagine life without computers, it has not always been this way. Here's a look at how people developed computers and their operating programs. Along the way, meet some of the people who influenced his growth. You will discover how computers went from filling an entire room to being small enough to fit in your pocket.

The United States Army commissioned John Mauchly and John Presper Eckert in 1943 to create a new type of computer. The pair designed the Electrical Numerical Integrator and Calculator (ENIAC). The computer, built at the Moore School of the University of Pennsylvania, was housed in 40 9-foot-long cabinets. It covers 1,800 square feet and weighs more than 30 tons, thanks to its 70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors, 1,500 relays, 6,000 manual switches and 5 million solder joints. To keep the machine from melting, the university installed two 20-horsepower blowers that continuously blew cool air. It could perform 5,000 additions, 357 multiplications or 38 divisions a second, but it took weeks to reprogram the computer to work on a different problem. Furthermore, it required frequent repairs.

University staff eventually dismantled the giant machine, but visitors can see parts of it on the University of Pennsylvania campus and another part at the Smithsonian.

Apple launched the Macintosh with a groundbreaking ad during Superbowl XVIII in 1984

Steve Hayden, Brent Thomas and Lee Clough came up with the idea of introducing the world to the Macintosh through a television commercial based on George Orwell's book "Nineteen Eighty-Four". The advertisement, directed by Ridley Scott (Alien, Blade Runner), starring Anya Major as the unnamed heroine and David Graham as Big Brother, first aired on 10 local channels during the last break before midnight on 31 December. Was shown on. Nevertheless, most people saw this ad during Super Bowl XVIII on CBS.

In a keynote speech, Steve Jobs described the ad as, "It is now 1984. It appears that IBM wants it all. Apple is seen as its only hope of offering IBM a run for its money." Supposedly. Dealers who initially welcomed IBM with open arms now fear IBM dominating and controlling the future. They are increasingly returning to Apple as the only force that can ensure their future independence. Can do."

Mathematician Charles Babbage invented the steam-powered difference engine.

While Charles Babbage never built a steam-powered difference engine, it nevertheless laid the basis for the modern computer in 1822. Babbage envisioned a machine that used gears, levers, and other mechanical components to perform complex mathematical calculations. He was attempting to create a machine for navigation logarithms for astronomers guiding ships at sea. He received funding from the British government for the 25,000 parts he thought would take too long to build the computer, but he needed more. Rather than despair, Babbage came up with a different plan that required only 8,000 parts. Although Babbage never built the machine, George Schutz used Babbage's design in 1854, but the machine broke down so frequently that it proved impractical.

After abandoning his idea of a steam-powered difference engine, Babbage built an analytical computer with a mill where it performed calculations, an area where answers could be stored, and a reader where users could punch cards and a printer. Could enter information using.

Ada Lovelace ignited the computer revolution with the world's first program imagining beyond numbers

Ada Lovelace worked for Charles Babbage, whom she met in 1833 while creating the world's first computer program. His job involved translating a paper by mathematician Luigi Menabria from French into English. While translating the paper, he added thousands of words, which he titled "Notes". Note G was a computer program to use Babbage's analytical computer to calculate Bernoulli numbers. This note is considered to be the first computer program.

In his "Notes", he also speculated that people could use Babbage's analytical computer to calculate more than just numbers. For example, she suggested that she could recommend musical notes. Workers only created a small piece of the computer, but experts believe its program must have run successfully.

Herman Hollerith's punch card innovation changed the 1880 US census calculations and shaped modern computing

The rapidly increasing population in the United States was problematic for the US Census in 1880. For example, participants completing the census in 1850 chose between 60 different statistical entries regarding race and gender, but the 1880 census gave people 1,600 choices. Despite being more complex, government officials needed information immediately.

While working for the Census Department, Herman Hollerith devised an idea based on Joseph Marie Jacquard's textile loom, suggesting he could use computers to find patterns in census data. He created a system where people punched holes in strips of paper to represent data. The strips were fed into a special device by hand. Then, the machine pushed the metal pins into contact with the paper strip, bringing the pins into contact with the mercury bottle. Where the holes were, an electrical circuit was created, making it easier to calculate the results. Later, the design of computers was changed so that punch cards were replaced by paper strips for better durability.

Vannevar Bush unveils Memex, the world's first large-scale automated general purpose mechanical analog computer

Vannevar Bush began designing a computer in the 1930s that was a Memex-like device. While he had previously designed machines that were analytical computers that could examine data in detail, his new idea was revolutionary because it took data and connected it in much the same way as the human brain works. The computer designed by Bush would access information stored on microfilm based on numerical indexing, rather than numerical indexing, which was how larger computers already worked. His idea was to create a desk with a keyboard on the right side. Users who wanted to access specific information used an electrically driven optical identification system.

In his article "As We May Think" Bush portrayed the machine as a piece of furniture, while its mechanisms could learn about the user's behavior and work on problems when the user was unavailable. Although they never created Memex, the inventors used many of its ideas in future projects.