project on computer

8/8/2019 Project on Computer

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A

PROJECT REPORTON

HISTORY OF

COMPUTER

(Project report submitted in practical fulfillment of

the requirement for the MBA Program).

Amrapali InstituteShiksha Nagar, Haldwani

SUBMITTED BY: SUBMITTED TO:

SONAL ARORA MS MONIKA GUPTAM.B.A Ist SEM B Lecturer of Management Dept.R.NO.35


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

IT IS A SUBJECT OF GREAT PLEASURE & SATISFACTION FOR METO DO THIS PROJECT UNDER VALUABLE GUIDANCE OF MYFACULTY WHO HAS GIVEN ME ALL TYPE OF SUPPORT,WHICHENABLE ME TO COMPLETE THIS PROJECT ALSO WISH TO THANKSMY PARENTS AS WELL AS WISHER WHO CONTROLLED IN THEDEVELOPMENT OF THIS PROJECT.


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PREFACE

THIS PROJECT IS SUBMITTED IN THE PARTIAL FULLFILMENT OF

THE REQUIREMENT OF THE PROGRAME OF MASTER IN BUSINESSADMINISTRATION AMRAPALI INSTITUTE HALDWANI. IT IS THEOUT OF THEORITICAL WORK WHICH WE HAVE UNDERGONE ATAMRAPALI INSTITUTE HALDWANI.

I HAVE MUCH PLEASURE TO SUBMIT THE PROJECT ON HISTORYOF COMPUTER IS CONCERNED WITH THE USE OF COMPUTERAPPLICATIONS.


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PROJECT AT A GLANCE

INTRODUCTION

ABACUS

NAPIERS LOGS AND BONES

SLIDE RULE

PASCALS ADDING MACHINE

BABBAGES DIFFERENCE AND ANALYTICAL

ENGINE

HERMAN HOLLERITHS PUNCHED CARD

ABC COMPUTER

DESIGN

ENIAC

EDSAC

UNIVAC

MAINFRAME COMPUTER

MINI COMPUTER

MICRO COMPUTER

PERSONAL COMPUTER

SUPER COMPUTER

CONCLUSION


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INTRODUCTION

The word computer is an old word that has changed its meaning severaltimes in the last few centuries. Originating from the Latin, by the mid-17thcentury it meant someone who computes. The American Heritage Dictionary(1980) gives its first computer definition as a person who computes. Thecomputer remained associated with human activity until about the middle ofthe 20th century when it became applied to a programmable electronicdevice that can store, retrieve, and process data as Websters Dictionary(1980) defines it. Today, the word computer refers to computing devices,

whether or not they are electronic, programmable, or capable of storing andretrieving data. The Techencyclopedia (2003) defines computer as a general

purpose machine that processes data according to a set of instructions that arestored internally either temporarily or permanently. The computer and allequipment attached to it are called hardware. The instructions that tell it whatto do are called "software" or program. A program is a detailed set ofhumanly prepared instructions that directs the computer to function in specificways. Furthermore, the Encyclopedia Britannica (2003) defines computers asthe contribution of major individuals, machines, and ideas to the

development of computing. This implies that the computer is a system. Asystem is a group of computer components that work together as a unit toperform a common objective.The term history means past events. The encyclopedia Britannica (2003)defines it as the discipline that studies the chronological record of events (asaffecting a nation or people), based on a critical examination of sourcematerials and usually presenting an explanation of their causes. The OxfordAdvanced Learners Dictionary (1995) simply defines history as the study of

past events. In discussing the history of computers, chronological record ofevents particularly in the area of technological development will be

explained. History of computer in the area of technological development is being considered because it is usually the technological advancement incomputers that brings about economic and social advancement. A fastercomputer brings about faster operation and that in turn causes an economicdevelopment. This paper will discuss classes of computers, computerevolution and highlight some roles played by individuals in thesedevelopments.


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ABACUS

The abacus, also called a counting frame, is a calculating tool used

primarily in parts of Asia for performing arithmetic processes.Today, abacuses are often constructed as a bamboo frame with

beads sliding on wires, but originally they were beans or stones

moved in grooves in sand or on tablets of wood, stone, or metal. The

abacus was in use centuries before the adoption of the written

modern numeral system and is still widely used by merchants,

traders and clerks in Asia, Africa, and elsewhere. The user of an

abacus is called an abacist.

The earliest known written documentation of the Chinese abacus dates to the

2nd century BC. The Chinese abacus, known as thesunpn ( lit. "Counting

tray"), is typically 20 cm (8 in) tall and comes in various widths depending onthe operator. It usually has more than seven rods. There are two beads on each

rod in the upper deck and five beads each in the bottom for

both decimal and hexadecimal computation. The beads are usually rounded

and made of a hardwood. The beads are counted by moving them up or down

towards the beam. If you move them toward the beam, you count their value.

If you move away, you don't count their value. The suanpan can be reset to the

starting position instantly by a quick jerk along the horizontal axis to spin all

the beads away from the horizontal beam at the center.

Suanpans can be used for functions other than counting. Unlike the simple

counting board used in elementary schools, very efficient suanpan techniques

have been developed to do multiplication,

division, addition, subtraction, square root and cube root operations at high

speed. There are currently schools teaching students how to use it.
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NAPIERS LOGS AND BONES

Napier was a Scottish mathematician NAPIERS LOGS AND BONES

who lived from 1550 to 1617. He worked for more than twenty years todevelop his theory and tables of what he called logarithms, a word he derivedfrom two Greek roots: logos, meaning word, or study, or reasoning, or in

Napiers use, reckoning, and arithmos, meaning number. Much of ourmathematical terminology, and indeed our English vocabulary, derives from

Greek and Latin roots. It is a useful exercise to take a few moments whennew terms are introduced to explore the etymology of the word and to havethe class try to name other words also deriving from these roots. For example,you might ask Where else have you seen a word derived from arithmos?

If etymology is not your strong suit, you will find The Words ofMathematics by Steven Schwartzman an excellent resource. It is published bythe MAA.

Napier chose the name logarithm because he thought of them as reckoning

numbers. Their use could save computational time, especially the time ofbeleaguered astronomers. These men had to carry out computations involvingvery large numbers. Any simplifying devices were welcomed with joy. Infact, the French mathematician Pierre Laplace (1749-1833) said that Napiersnew tool doubled the life of the astronomer. Come back to this idea afterstudents have seen that logarithms are exponents and after they have learnedthe rules for working with logarithms. Then the students will be able toappreciate the computational improvements especially when the lack ofcomputers and calculators is borne in mind!


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SLIDE RULE

The slide rule, also known colloquially as aslipstick, is a mechanical analog

computer. The slide rule is used primarily formultiplication and division, and

also for functions such as roots, logarithms andtrigonometry, but is not

normally used foraddition orsubtraction.

Slide rules come in a diverse range of styles and generally appear in a linear

or circular form with a standardized set of markings (scales) essential to

performing mathematical computations. Slide rules manufactured forspecialized fields such as aviation orfinance typically feature additional scales

that aid in calculations common to that field.

William Oughtred and others developed the slide rule in the 17th century

based on the emerging work on logarithms by John Napier. Before the advent

of thepocket calculator, it was the most commonly used calculation tool

in science and engineering. The use of slide rules continued to grow through

the 1950s and 1960s even as digital computing devices were being gradually

introduced; but around 1974 the electronic scientific calculatormade it largely

obsolete and most suppliers left the business.
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PASCALS ADDING MACHINE

The Pascaline, invented by Blaise Pascal in France in 1642[1], was a

mechanical calculator that could add and subtract directly. Its introduction in

1645 launched the development of mechanical calculators, first in Europe and

then all over the world, development which culminated three centuries later by

the invention of thefirst microprocessordeveloped for aBusicom calculator in

1971.

The mechanical calculator industry owes a lot of its key machines andinventions to the pascaline. First Gottfried Leibniz created his famous Leibniz

wheels around 1673 while trying to add an automatic multiplication and

division feature to the pascaline[2]. Then Thomas de Colmardrew his

inspiration from the pascaline and from the Leibniz cylinders when he

designed his arithmometerin 1820. And finally Dorr E. Feltsubstituted the

input wheels of the pascaline by columns of keys to invent

his comptometeraround 1887. The pascaline was also constantly improved

upon, especially with the machines of Dr. Roth around 1840, and then with

some portable machines until the creation of the first electronic calculators.
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BABBAGES DIFFERENCE AND ANALYTICAL ENGINE

Charles Babbage, FRS (26 December 1791 18 October 1871)[2] was

an Englishmathematician, philosopher, inventor, and mechanical

engineer who originated the concept of a programmable computer.[3] Parts of his uncompleted mechanisms are on display in theLondon

Science Museum. In 1991, a perfectly functioning difference

engine was constructed from Babbage's original plans. Built to

tolerances achievable in the 19th century, the success of the finished

engine indicated that Babbage's machine would have worked. Nine

years later, the Science Museum completed the printer Babbage haddesigned for the difference engine, an astonishingly complex device

for the 19th century. Considered a "father of the

computer",Babbage is credited with inventing the first mechanical

computer that eventually led to more complex designs.

Difference engine

In Babbages time, numerical tables were calculated by humans who were

called computers, meaning "one who computes", much as a conductor is

"one who conducts". At Cambridge, he saw the high error-rate of this human-

driven process and started his lifes work of trying to calculate the tables

mechanically. He began in 1822 with what he called the difference engine,

made to compute values of polynomial functions. Unlike similar efforts of the

time, Babbage's difference engine was created to calculate a series of values

automatically. By using the method offinite differences, it was possible to

avoid the need for multiplication and division
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At the beginning of the 1820s, Babbage worked on a prototype of his first

difference engine. Some parts of this prototype still survive in the Museum of

the history of science in Oxford. This prototype evolved into the "first

difference engine." It remained unfinished and the completed fragment is

located at the Museum of Science in London. This first difference enginewould have been composed of around 25,000 parts, weighed

fifteen tons(13,600 kg), and been 8 ft (2.4 m) tall. Although Babbage received

ample funding for the project, it was never completed. He later designed an

improved version, "Difference Engine No. 2", which was not constructed until

19891991, using Babbage's plans and 19th century manufacturing tolerances.

It performed its first calculation at the London Science Museum returning

results to 31 digits, far more than the average modern pocket calculator.

Analytical engine

Soon after the attempt at making the difference engine crumbled, Babbage

started designing a different, more complex machine called the Analytical

Engine. The engine is not a single physical machine but a succession of

designs that he tinkered with until his death in 1871. The main difference

between the two engines is that the Analytical Engine could be programmed

usingpunched cards. He realized that programs could be put on these cards so

the person had only to create the program initially, and then put the cards inthe machine and let it run. The analytical engine would have used loops

ofJacquard's punched cards to control a mechanical calculator, which could

formulate results based on the results of preceding computations. This

machine was also intended to employ several features subsequently used in
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modern computers, including sequential control, branching, and looping, and

would have been the first mechanical device to be Turing-complete.

Ada Lovelace, an impressive mathematician, and one of the few people who

fully understood Babbage's ideas, created a program for the Analytical

Engine. Had the Analytical Engine ever actually been built, her program

would have been able to calculate a sequence ofBernoulli numbers. Base on

this work, Lovelace is now widely credited with being the first computer

programmer

HERMAN HOLLERITHS PUNCHED CARD

Herman Hollerith (February 29, 1860 November 17, 1929) was

an Americanstatistician who developed amechanical tabulator based on punched cards to rapidly tabulate

statistics from millions of pieces of data. He was the founder of the

company that became IBM.

Inventions and businesses

Hollerith had left teaching and begun working for the United States Census

Office in the year he filed his first patent application. Titled "Art of Compiling

Statistics", it was filed on September 23, 1884; U.S. Patent No. 395782 was

granted on January 8, 1889.
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Hollerith built machines under contract for the Census Office, which used

them to tabulate the 1890 census in only one year.[5] The 1880 census had

taken eight years. Hollerith then started his own business in 1896, founding

the Tabulating Machine Company. Most of the major census bureaus around

the world leased his equipment and purchased his cards, as did majorinsurance companies. To make his system work, he invented the first

automatic card-feed mechanism and the first key punch (that is, a punch

operated by a keyboard); a skilled operator could punch 200300 cards per

hour. He also invented a tabulator. The 1890 Tabulatorwas hardwired to

operate only on 1890 Census cards. A control panel in his 1906 Type I

Tabulator allowed it to do different jobs without being rebuilt (the first step

towards programming). These inventions were the foundation of the modern

information processing industry.In 1911 four corporations, including Hollerith's firm, merged to form

the Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation (CTR).[6] Under the

presidency ofThomas J. Watson, it was renamed International Business

Machines Corporation (IBM) in 1924

ABC COMPUTER

The AtanasoffBerry Computer (ABC) was the first

fully electronicdigitalcomputing device.[1]Conceived in 1937, the machine

was not programmable, being designed only to solve systems oflinear

equations. It was successfully tested in 1942. However, its intermediate resultstorage mechanism, a paper card writer/reader, was unreliable, and

when Atanasoff left Iowa State University for World War II assignments,

work on the machine was discontinued.[2] The ABC pioneered important

elements of modern computing, including binary arithmeticand electronic
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switching elements, but its special-purpose nature and lack of a

changeable, stored program distinguish it from modern computers.

John Vincent Atanasoff's and Clifford Berry's computer work was not widely

known until it was rediscovered in the 1960s, amidst conflicting claims about

the first instance of an electronic computer. At that time, the ENIAC was

considered to be the first computer in the modern sense, but in 1973 a U.S.

District Court invalidated the ENIAC patent and concluded that the ABC was

the first "computer"

DESIGN

Diagram of the ABC pointing out its various components

According to Atanasoff's account, several key principles of the Atanasoff

Berry Computer (ABC) were conceived in a sudden insight after a long

nighttime drive during the winter of 193738. The ABC innovations included

electronic computation, binary arithmetic, parallel processing, regenerative

capacitor memory, and a separation of memory and computing functions. The

mechanical and logic design was worked out by Dr. Atanasoff over the next

year. A grant application to build aproof of concept prototype was submitted

in March, 1939 to the Agronomy department which was also interested in

speeding up computation for economic and research analysis. $5,000 of

further funding to complete the machine came from the nonprofitResearch

Corporation ofNew York City.
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The ABC was built by Dr. Atanasoff and graduate student Clifford Berry in

the basement of the physics building at Iowa State College during 193942.

The initial funds were released in September, and the 11-tube prototype was

first demonstrated in October, 1939. A December demonstration prompted a

grant for construction of the full-scale machine. The ABC was built and testedover the next two years. A January 15, 1941 story in the Des Moines

Registerannounced the ABC as "an electrical computing machine" with more

than 300 vacuum tubes that would "compute complicated algebraic equations"

ENIAC

ENIAC (pronounced / ni.k/ ), short forElectronic Numerical Integrator

And Computer, was the first general-purpose, electronic computer. It was

a Turing-complete, digital computer capable of being reprogrammed to solve

a full range of computing problems.[3]

ENIAC was designed to calculate artilleryfiring tables for the United States

Army's Ballistic Research Laboratory, but its first use was in calculations for

the hydrogen bomb. When ENIAC was announced in 1946 it was heralded in

the press as a "Giant Brain". It boasted speeds one thousand times faster thanelectro-mechanical machines, a leap in computing power that no single

machine has since matched. This mathematical power, coupled with general-

purpose programmability, excited scientists and industrialists. The inventors

promoted the spread of these new ideas by teaching a series of lectures on

computer architecture.

The ENIAC's design and construction was financed by the United States

Army during World War II. The construction contract was signed on June 5,

1943, and work on the computer began in secret by theUniversity ofPennsylvania's Moore School of Electrical Engineering starting the following

month under the code name "Project PX". The completed machine was

unveiled on February 14, 1946 at the University of Pennsylvania, having cost

almost $500,000 (nearly $6 million in 2008, adjusted for inflation). It was

formally accepted by the U.S. Army Ordnance Corps in July 1946. ENIAC
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was shut down on November 9, 1946 for a refurbishment and a memory

upgrade, and was transferred toAberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland in 1947.

There, on July 29, 1947, it was turned on and was in continuous operation

until 11:45 p.m. on October 2, 1955.

ENIAC was conceived and designed by John Mauchly and J. Presper

Eckert of the University of Pennsylvania. The team of design engineers

assisting the development included Robert F. Shaw (function tables), Chuan

Chu (divider/square-rooter), Thomas Kite Sharpless (master

programmer),Arthur Burks (multiplier), Harry Huskey (reader/printer), Jack

Davis (accumulators) and Iredell Eachus JR

EDSAC

Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC) was an

early Britishcomputer. The machine, having been inspired by John von

Neumann's seminalFirst Draft of a Report on the EDVAC, was constructed

by Maurice Wilkesand his team at the University of Cambridge Mathematical

Laboratory in England. EDSAC was the first practical stored-

program electronic computer.

Later the project was supported by J. Lyons & Co. Ltd., a British firm, who

were rewarded with the first commercially applied computer, LEO I, based onthe EDSAC design. EDSAC ran its first programs on 6 May 1949, when it

calculated a table of squares and a list of prime numbers.

UNIVAC

The UNIVAC I (Universal Automatic ComputerI) was the first commercial

computer produced in the United States. It was designed principally by J.

Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, the inventors of the ENIAC. Design work

was begun by their company, Eckert- Mauchly Computer Corporation, and

was completed after the company had been acquired by Remington Rand. (In
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the years before successor models of the UNIVAC I appeared, the machine

was simply known as "the UNIVAC".)

The first UNIVAC was delivered to the United States Census Bureau on

March 31, 1951, and was dedicated on June 14 that year.[1] The fifth machine

(built for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission) was used by CBS to predict

the result of the 1952 presidential election. With a sample of just 1% of the

voting population it correctly predicted that Dwight Eisenhowerwould win.

The UNIVAC I computers were built by Remington Rand's UNIVAC division

(successor of the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, bought by Rand

in 1950)

MAINFRAME COMPUTER

Mainframes (often colloquially referred to asBig Iron) are

powerful computers used mainly by large organizations for critical

applications, typically bulk data processing such as census, industry and

consumer statistics, enterprise resource planning, and financial transaction

processing.

The term originally referred to the large cabinets that housed the central

processing unit and main memory of early computers.[2][3]Later the term wasused to distinguish high-end commercial machines from less powerful units.

Most large-scale computer system architectures were firmly established in the

1960s and most large computers were based on architecture established during

that era up until the advent of Web servers in the 1990s. (The first Web server

running anywhere outside Switzerland ran on an IBM mainframe at Stanford

University as early as 1991. See History of the World Wide Web for details.)

There were several minicomputeroperating systems and architectures that

arose in the 1970s and 1980s, but minicomputers are generally not considered

mainframes. (UNIX arose as a minicomputer operating system; Unix has

scaled up over the years to acquire some mainframe characteristics.)

Many defining characteristics of "mainframe" were established in the 1960s,

but those characteristics continue to expand and evolve to the present day
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MINI COMPUTER

A mini computer (colloquially, mini) is a class of multi-usercomputers that

lies in the middle range of the computing spectrum, in between the

largest multi-user systems (mainframe computers) and the smallest single-user

systems (microcomputers or personal computers). The class at one time

formed a distinct group with its own hardware and operating systems, but the

contemporary term for this class of system is midrange computer, such as thehigher-end SPARC, POWERand Itanium -based systems from Sun

Microsystems, IBM and Hewlett-Packard.

The minicomputer's industrial impact and heritage

Several pioneering computer companies first built minicomputers, such

as DEC, Data General, and Hewlett-Packard (HP) (who now refers to

its HP3000 minicomputers as servers rather than minicomputers). And

although todays PCs and servers are clearly microcomputers physically,

architecturally their CPUs and operating systems have evolved largely byintegrating features from minicomputers.

In the software context, the relatively simple OSs for early microcomputers

were usually inspired by minicomputer OSs (such as CP/M's similarity to

Digital's RSTS) and multi user OSs of today are often either inspired by or

directly descended from minicomputer OSs (UNIX was originally a
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minicomputer OS, while Windows NT the foundation for all current

versions ofMicrosoft Windows borrowed design ideas liberally

from VMS and UNIX). Many of the first generation of PC programmers were

educated on minicomputer systems.

List of some notable mini computers

Control Datas CDC 160A and CDC 1700

DECPDP and VAX series

Data GeneralNova

Hewlett-PackardHP 3000 series, HP 2100 series, HP1000 series.

Honeywell-BullLevel 6/DPS 6/DPS 6000 series

IBMmidrange computers

Norsk Data Nord-1, Nord-10, and Nord-100

Prime ComputerPrime 50 series

SDS SDS-92

SEL, one of the first 32-bit real-time computer system manufacturers

Texas InstrumentsTI-990

Wang Laboratories 2200 and VS series

K-202, first Polish minicomputer and probably first personal computer
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MICRO COMPUTER

A microcomputer is a computerwith a micro processoras its central

processing unit. They are physically small compared tomainframe and minicomputers. Many microcomputers (when equipped with a

keyboard and screen for input and output) are alsopersonal computers (in the

generic sense).

The abbreviation "micro" was common during the 1970s and 1980s, but has

now fallen out of common usage.

The term "Microcomputer" came into popular use after the introduction of

the minicomputer, although Isaac Asimov used the term microcomputer in his

short story "The Dying Night" as early as 1956 (published in The Magazine of

Fantasy and Science Fictionin July that year). Most notably, the

microcomputer replaced the many separate components that made up the

minicomputer's CPU with one integrated microprocessorchip.

The earliest models such as the Altair 8800 were often sold as kits to beassembled by the user, and came with as little as 256bytes ofRAM, and

no input/output devices other than indicator lights and switches, useful as

aproof of concept to demonstrate what such a simple device could do.

However, as microprocessors and semiconductor memory became less

expensive, microcomputers in turn grew cheaper and easier to use:

Increasingly inexpensive logic chips such as the 7400 series allowed

cheap dedicated circuitry for improved user interfaces suchas keyboard input, instead of simply a row of switches to toggle bits one at

a time.

Use ofaudio cassettes for inexpensive data storage replaced manual re-

entry of a program every time the device was powered on.
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Large cheap arrays of silicon logic gates in the form ofRead-only

memory and EPROMs allowed utility programs and self-bootingkernels to

be stored within microcomputers. Thesestored programs could

automatically load further more complex software from external storage

devices without user intervention, to form an inexpensive turnkeysystem that does not require a computer expert to understand or to use the

device.

Random access memory became cheap enough to afford dedicating

approximately 1-2 kilobytes of memory to a video display controllerframe

buffer, for a 40x25 or 80x25 text display or blocky color graphics on a

common household television. This replaced the slow, complex, and

expensive teletypewriterthat was previously common as an interface to

minicomputers and mainframes.

SUPER COMPUTER

A supercomputer is a computerthat is at the frontline of current processingcapacity, particularly speed of calculation. Supercomputers were introduced in

the 1960s and were designed primarily by Seymour Cray at Control Data

Corporation (CDC), which led the market into the 1970s until Cray left to

form his own company, Cray Research. He then took over the supercomputer

market with his new designs, holding the top spot in supercomputing for five

years (19851990). In the 1980s a large number of smaller competitors

entered the market, in parallel to the creation of the minicomputermarket a

decade earlier, but many of these disappeared in the mid-1990s

"supercomputer market crash".

Today, supercomputers are typically one-of-a-kind custom designs produced

by "traditional" companies such as Cray, IBM and Hewlett-Packard, who had

purchased many of the 1980s companies to gain their experience. As of
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October 2010, the Tianhe-I super computer is the fastest in the world; it is

located in China.

The termsupercomputeritself is rather fluid, and today's supercomputer tends

to become tomorrow's ordinary computer. CDC's early machines were simply

very fast scalar processors, some ten times the speed of the fastest machines

offered by other companies. In the 1970s most supercomputers were dedicated

to running a vector processor, and many of the newer players developed their

own such processors at a lower price to enter the market. The early and mid-

1980s saw machines with a modest number of vector processors working in

parallel to become the standard. Typical numbers of processors were in the

range of four to sixteen. In the later 1980s and 1990s, attention turned from

vector processors to massive parallel processingsystems with thousands of

"ordinary" CPUs, some being off the shelf units and others being customdesigns. Today, parallel designs are based on "off the shelf" server-

class microprocessors, such as the PowerPC, Opteron, orXeon, and

coprocessors like NVIDIA TeslaGPGPUs, AMD GPUs, IBM Cell, FPGAs.

Most modern supercomputers are now highly-tuned computer clusters using

commodity processors combined with custom interconnects.

Supercomputers are used for highly calculation-intensive tasks such as

problems involvingquantum physics, weather forecasting, climate

research, molecular modeling (computing the structures and properties ofchemical compounds, biological macromolecules, polymers, and crystals),

physical simulations (such as simulation of airplanes inwind tunnels,

simulation of the detonation ofnuclear weapons, and research into nuclear

fusion).

Relevant here is the distinction between capability computing and capacity

computing, as defined by Graham et al. Capability computing is typically

thought of as using the maximum computing power to solve a large problem

in the shortest amount of time. Often a capability system is able to solve a problem of a size or complexity that no other computer can.Capacity

computing in contrast is typically thought of as using efficient cost-effective

computing power to solve somewhat large problems or many small problems

or to prepare for a run on a capability system
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tianhe-Ihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalar_processorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_processorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_computinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_processing_unithttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_off-the-shelfhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microprocessorshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerPChttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opteronhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xeonhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NVIDIA_Teslahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Cellhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FPGAhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_clusterhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_physicshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_forecastinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_chemistryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macromoleculeshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_tunnelhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weaponshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_fusionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_fusionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tianhe-Ihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalar_processorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_processorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_computinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_processing_unithttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_off-the-shelfhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microprocessorshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerPChttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opteronhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xeonhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NVIDIA_Teslahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Cellhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FPGAhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_clusterhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_physicshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_forecastinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_chemistryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macromoleculeshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_tunnelhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weaponshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_fusionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_fusion


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PERSONAL COMPUTER

A personal computer (PC) is any general-purpose computerwhose size,

capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and whichis intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening

computer operator. This is in contrast to the batch processing or time-sharing

models which allowed large expensive mainframe systems to be used by

many people, usually at the same time, or large data processing systems which

required a full-time staff to operate efficiently. It is also in contrast with the

more recent trend of controlling software availability through an intervening

third party such as the Apple App Store.

A personal computer may be a desktop computer, a laptop, a tablet PC, ora handheld PC (also called apalmtop). The most common microprocessors in

personal computers arex86-compatible CPUs. Software applications for

personal computers includeword processing, spreadsheets, databases, Web

browsers and e- mail clients, games, and myriad personal productivity and

special-purpose software applications. Modern personal computers often have

connections to the Internet, allowing access to the World Wide Web and a

wide range of other resources.

A PC may be used at home or in an office. Personal computers may be

connected to a local area network(LAN), either by a cable or a wireless

connection.

While early PC owners usually had to write their own programs to do

anything useful with the machines, today's users have access to a wide range

of commercial and non-commercial software, which is provided in ready-to-

run or ready-to-compile form. Since the 1980s, Microsoft and Intel have

dominated much of the personal computer market, first with MS-DOS and

then with the Wintel platform.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End-userhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time-sharing_systemhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainframe_computerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_App_Storehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_computerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laptophttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tablet_PChttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handheld_PChttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microprocessorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_processinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spreadsheetshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Databaseshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_browserhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_browserhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mailhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_computer_gamehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Webhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_area_networkhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compilerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsofthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS-DOShttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wintelhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End-userhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time-sharing_systemhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainframe_computerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_App_Storehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_computerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laptophttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tablet_PChttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handheld_PChttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microprocessorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_processinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spreadsheetshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Databaseshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_browserhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_browserhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mailhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_computer_gamehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Webhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_area_networkhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compilerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsofthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS-DOShttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wintel


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SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

Researching, studying and writing on History of the Computer has indeed been a fulfilling, but challenging task and has brought about greaterappreciation of several work done by scientists of old, great developmental

research carried out by more recent scientists and of course the impact all suchinnovations have made on the development of the human race. It hasgenerated greater awareness of the need to study history of the computer as ameans of knowing how to develop or improve on existing computertechnology.It is therefore strongly recommended that science and engineering studentsshould develop greater interest in the history of their profession. The saying


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that there is nothing absolutely new under the sun is indeed real because thesame world resources but fresh ideas have been used over the years toimprove on existing technologies.Finally, it is hoped that this paper is found suitable as a good summary of thetechnological history and development of computer and challenging toupcoming scientists and engineers to study the history of their profession.

LIST OF REFERENCES

Encyclopedia Britannica (2003) http://www.britannica.com. Joelmreyes website (2002). http://comp100.joelmreyes.cjb.net

http://www.google.com

World Book Encyclopedia, Inc. Allison, Joanne (1997) http://www.computer50.org/mark1/ana-dig.html

Computational

Science Education Project. (1996) http://csep1.phy.ornl.gov/csep.html
http://comp100.joelmreyes.cjb.net/http://www.google.com/http://www.computer50.org/mark1/ana-dig.htmlhttp://comp100.joelmreyes.cjb.net/http://www.google.com/http://www.computer50.org/mark1/ana-dig.html

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