From the Abacus to the PC: A Selective History of the Computer
Thousands of years ago, the abacus was invented; it was this seemingly simple device that aided a human with calculations, which would be used as the conceptual model to build the computer. Looking back, one of the earliest instances of computer technology in action was not found in a computer at all but in a loom. The Jacquard loom, patented in 1804, was programmed by punched cards to create patterns in woven cloth (Keats 72). Charles Babbage, the English mathematician and many others would eventually use punch cards to program the computers they developed. The computer has taken many forms through the ages, and it would not be until almost 100 years later that the first fully electronic computer, the Atanasoff Berry Computer (ABC), would be developed, ushering in the age of electronic computing.
The earliest computing device known, the abacus, a tool for counting and calculating, was invented thousands of years ago, and it consisted of beads on a frame whose numerical value was indicated by their position on the frame (Fernandes). In addition to being beads on a frame, an abacus was a stone or an area on the ground with grooves in which pebbles were placed and then manipulated for calculating. The abacus was in use centuries before the adoption of the written modern numeral system and is still widely used (“Abacus”). The abacus used the biquinary numbering system, a numbering system used in some early computers (Kent and Williams 51).
Joseph Marie Jacquard, a French weaver, patented a loom in 1804. The Jacquard loom’s contribution to computing is that it could be programmed by punched cards. The weaves produced by punched cards were easy to reproduce as the punched cards could be stored and reused (Keats 72). The use of punched cards was significant for computing because it introduced the concept of stored programs and programming. Like many developments in computing to come, the Jacquard loom was created to streamline a complex task. The Jacquard loom augmented the weaving process by drastically increasing the amount of weaving that could be completed in one day. Before the Jacquard loom was completed, six inches of weave took one week to complete. Afterwards, using the Jacquard loom, two feet of weave could be completed in one day (Keats 72). The Jacquard loom’s early introduction of the concept of programs and programming would go on to have an immeasurable impact on the computer industry.
Babbage, who is recognized as the father of computing for his work on the Analytical Engine, designed and built the first mechanical computers, the Difference Engine and the Analytical Engine ("Charles Babbage The Analytical Engine."). Babbage first conceived the idea of the Difference Engine as a way to eliminate human errors in the calculation and printing of tables. The Difference Engine spent eleven years in development before work was stopped; it was never completed because Babbage came up with the idea for the Analytical Engine before the Difference Engine was complete. After Babbage’s death, his plans for the Difference Engine would be used to build the first fully functional Difference Engine in 2002, proving that it would have worked had the original ever been completed (Swade). Babbage’s Difference Engine is a significant contribution to computing because of its scope, but more importantly, it would be the seed from which the Analytical Engine would grow.
Charles Babbage would borrow the idea of punch cards for use in his Analytical Engine. The Analytical Engine, like the Difference Engine, was never completed. Doron Swade, the curator of computing for the London Science Museum said of the Analytical Engine:
The logical structure of the Analytical Engine was essentially the same as that which has dominated computer design in the electronic era -- the separation of the memory (the 'Store') from the central processor (the 'Mill'), serial operation using a 'fetch-execute cycle,' and facilities for inputting and outputting data and instructions (Swade).
Babbage’s Analytical Engine was, as a result of its structure, a true predecessor of modern computers (Ifrah 191).
Herman Hollerith, a mining engineer and inventor, would use punch cards in his Tabulating Machine that was developed for the 1890 United States Census. The 1880 census took seven years to complete, and the Census Bureau was concerned that because of explosive population growth, the 1890 census count would not be complete before the 1900 census began (Campbell-Kelly and Aspray 15). Because of their concerns, the Census Bureau set up a competition to select an alternative to the laboriously slow process of using tally sheets, the process used in the 1880 census (Campbell-Kelly and Aspray 16). Hollerith’s Tabulating Machine handily won the competition and was selected for the 1890 census because it was ten times faster than the competitor’s entries. Using Hollerith’s Tabulating machine, the 1890 census was completed in two-and-a-half years as compared to the seven years it took to complete the 1880 census (Campbell-Kelly and Aspray 19). The use of Hollerith’s tabulating machine would be the early stages of data processing ("The Birth of Data Processing (Reason): American Treasures of the Library of Congress.").
Unaware of Babbage’s work, Konrad Zuse, a German engineer, built the Z1 in 1936. The significance of the Z1 is that it is the first binary-based programmable computer ("Forgotten Pioneer (20 Years of Hardware)."). The Z1 could add, subtract, multiply, and divide. Zuse built the Z1 to overcome the difficulties of complex calculations (Bellis, "Inventors of The Modern Computer - Konrad Zuse."). Though unreliable, the Z1 had a sound architectural design and it encouraged Zuse to build his other computers the Z2, Z3, and Z4 (Rojas 6).
The ABC developed by John Atanasoff a physics professor, and Clifford Berry a graduate student, was developed in 1942. Like Zuse’s Z1, the ABC is considered to be a world’s first, the world’s first digital electronic computer to be exact. The ABC was not programmable though, but it did have characteristics that would be found in later computers such as binary arithmetic and electronic switching elements (Campbell-Kelly and Aspray 74). Work on the ABC was never completed, and its only significance in computing is that it was the first digital electronic computer. It was not until patent disputes arguing which computer came first that the work on the ABC was re-discovered (Campbell-Kelly and Aspray 74). The ABC was the first computer to use vacuum tubes, technology that would go on to be used in many early computers for the next twenty years.
Unlike the ABC, the Harvard Mark 1 did not use vacuum tubes, but instead relied on switches and relays. The Harvard Mark 1, which was programmable by punched paper tape, was invented in 1944 by Howard Aiken a physicist and Grace Hopper a naval officer. The Mark 1 was used by the Navy for gunnery and ballistic calculations until 1959 (Bellis, "Howard Aiken and Grace Hopper - Inventors of the Mark I Computer."). The Mark 1 was painfully slow, but its distinguishing characteristic was that it was the first fully automatic computer to be completed (Campbell-Kelly and Aspray 63). The Mark 1 would be the last of the early computers to use both electrical and mechanical parts.
The Mark 1 was quickly surpassed by electronic computers such as the Electrical Numerical Integrator And Calculator (ENIAC). In 1946, the ENIAC was invented by John Eckert an electrical engineer, and John Mauchly a physicist. Commissioned by the Ballistics Research Laboratory (BRL) to calculate firing tables for the U.S. Army, the ENIAC was programmable by using toggle switches and patch cables (Ceruzzi 15). Significantly faster than the computers of its time the ENIAC ran at a clock speed of .1 MHz whereas today’s computers run at around 3.2 GHz ("History of New Media."). Considering the technological breakthrough the ENIAC represented for its time, ENIAC had only a 20% accuracy rate (Ifrah 221). Even though the ENIAC was 1000 times faster than its predecessors were, it was very slow by today’s standards.
The developers of the ENIAC, Eckert and Mauchly, also developed the Universal Automatic Computer (UNIVAC). Unlike its predecessors, the UNIVAC was designed as a multi-purpose computer and was sold to government entities and commercial corporations such as General Electric, beginning “the era of commercial sales of large-scale stored-program computers in the United States” (Ceruzzi 27). The first UNIVAC was sold to the U.S. Census Bureau in March of 1951. The UNIVAC had design features that would be found in computers to come such as alphanumeric and numeric processing, memory buffers, the use of extra bits for error checking, and magnetic tapes (Ceruzzi 29).
As the UNIVAC was the first commercial computer, the MITS Altair 8800 was the first commercially successful personal computer (“FAQ's - San Diego Computer Museum.”). Bill Gates and Paul Allen of Microsoft fame wrote a version of the BASIC programming language to work with the Altair (Johnson). The MITS Altair 8800 had no keyboard or monitor and was interfaced with by the use of switches and lights on the front. Though not particularly useful in the sense that today’s personal computers are useful, the combination of the MITS Altair and the Basic programming language was marketed to hobbyists and enjoyed immense popularity. Unlike its predecessors, the MITS Altair was not designed with a specific task in mind; it was up to the builder to determine the purpose of the machine and then work towards that goal.
The Apple II, a more consumer-oriented computer than the MITS Altair, was introduced on April 16, 1977 at the first West Coast Computer Faire and it quickly became popular. Because of its popularity the Apple II enjoyed a significant number of software packages released for its use. Visicalc, the first spreadsheet program, was one such package released for the Apple II and it likely aided Apple II sales. Interestingly enough a version of Microsoft Basic would be licensed for the Apple II computer (Ceruzzi 264). The Apple II differed from other personal computers because it came with color graphics, an audio cassette for storage and 4 k of memory (Wozniak). The significance of the Apple II was its eight expansion slots; before the Apple II was released, no other early computer had that kind of built-in expandability.
Like the Apple II, the IBM PC introduced in 1981 was immensely popular. Interest in the IBM PC increased rapidly soon after its release. Numerous peripherals and software packages were rapidly developed for the new computer making it a welcome addition to many households and businesses. The IBM PC came with the MS-DOS operating system installed. Microsoft was allowed by IBM to license MS-DOS to other computer manufacturers, a move that greatly benefitted Microsoft and would be would be the beginning that made Microsoft the largest software company in the world (Ceruzzi 270). Months after its release the IBM PC would be named Man of the Year by Time magazine. The IBM PC being named man of the year could be equated to not only recognition of the IBM PC, but also an acknowledgement of all computers past and present and their impact on society.
From the invention of the abacus until the present, computers have evolved. More can be done with computers now than ever before, and it can be done much faster than ever before. Were it not for innovation of early computer inventors, computers would not be developed to the point they are today. There will continue to be significant developments in computing as new uses for computers are discovered. Considering where computing started with the abacus and seeing the potential developments in computing today such as Artificial Intelligence, it will be exciting to see what the future of computing has in store. Works Cited
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