Computing history

We begin with Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine 1849

 

Charles Babbage Was an English Mathematician, Philosopher, inventor and mechanic. He is best remembered for his ideas for programmable computers. The picture you see to the left shows the beginning of the computing age, the Difference engine. The concept behind Babbage’s Difference engine was to eliminate the risk of human error.

The difference engine was created to calculate a series of values automatically. To do this it would use a method called finite differencing. Making it possible to avoid the need for sums such as multiplication and division.

 

 

Hewlett, Packard / HP audio oscillator 1939

 

This 1939 HP Audio oscillator was not the first oscillator built but it was the first to differ from other in the sense that it was both more stable and affordable to the every day person. The oscillators at that time were expensive and were rather unstable where as the Hewlett, Packard Oscillator was the first to use a light bulb in its circuit to stabilize and improve it performance and at the same time reducing the Cost.

 

ZUSE Z3 1941

Zuse Z3 was an electro mechanical computer used in World War 2. The fact that it was electro mechanical means that it did not run completely from electricity but also from mechanisms built into the machine. This machine was created in Berlin by Conrad Zuse where it was used by the German aircraft research institute. The Z3 computer would perform statistical analysis of aircrafts wing flutter.

 

Project whirlwind 1943

During the Second World War the US navy proposed building a flight simulator to M.I.T (Massachusetts Institute of technology). The flight simulator would be used to train pilots and bomber crews. But by the time the Whirlwind flight simulator was completed the Navy had lost interest in the project, but the U.S. Air Force would eventually support it, and therefor influencing the design of the SAGE program.

 

 

Colossus 1943

 

The Colossus computer was a British code breaking computer used during the Second World War. Colossus would be operated by the women in Britain to break code and supply our troops with vital information on the battle front. Sometimes I believe that women do not receive enough recognition for the part that they played in neither the war nor the field of computing, but in this example of history women played a vital role in both.  

 

Harvard MK1

 

The Harvard Mk1 computer was the first system to have and editable system that allowed the user to change its systems without de assembling and then re assembling the hole computer. It was also the first operating machine that could execute long computations automatically.








Eniac 1946

The 1946 Eniac computer was one of the first civilianized computer systems, allowing members of the public to use the computing systems.  

 

 

 The cathode ray tube amusement devises 1947

 

The cathode ray amusement devise is where computer gaming all began. The cathode gaming devise was a simple devise that was used to play a virtual game of tennis. The device was never marketed or sold to the public but was patented in 1948.

 

 

 

 

M.I.T TX-0 1956

 

 

When computers began to get smaller. “It was an experimental high-speed digital computer for testing transistor circuitry and very large magnetic core memory”. (http://museum.mit.edu/150/23)

One of the most notable features of the TX-0 was the light pen that allowed the user to directly interact with the computer programs while they were running. The TX-0’s large memory of a 64k ram, its speed and its overall reliability made it one of the most advanced computers in the world in 1957