History of Computers at a Glance

    A long,long time a ago (not in a far distant), humans had invented abacus.An Arabic number system that is used for calculation.But out of more human needs,abacus can no longer satisfy the new demands for highly complicated and repetitive tasks of calculations.This new demand had prompted the humans to invent more calculating tools and to make it short,one of these,is the computer .The following are the important landmarks of the computer revolution:

1939
-A German engineer Konrad Zuseinvented the first general-purpose computer.
-An American professor John Atanasoff of the Iowa State College (now University) invented the first electronic computer called the Atanasoff-Berry Computer.

1940's
-Harvard University professor Howard Aiken invented the automatic general-purpse calculator called Mark I in 1944 which in turn was finance by the International Business(IBM).
-John Mauchly and Presper Eckert invented the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer(ENIAC) that was used in World War II to Calculate trajectory tables for new guns.When the World War II was over,Mauchly and Eckert developed the UNIVAC I,the first generate purpose commercial computer.The UNIVAC I was considered as the first generation of computers that was built using vacuum tubes.

1948
-The three physicists at Bell Laboratories-J.Bardeen,W.H.Brattan,and W.Shockey invented the transistor that could perform and accomplish the same function like the vacuum tube.Transistors were first used to build computers in 1956.This is the Beggining of the computer's second generation.

1960's
-In mid 1960's transistor-based computer were replaced by smaller and more powerful third-generation computers built around the concept of integrated circuit (IC) .The IC is a technology that integrates hundreds of transistors in one single tiny similar chip.

1969
-In 1969,the first microprocessor (the brain of the computer) was first invented.This invention was considered the beginning of the fourth generation of computers.

1970's
-In mid 1970's Apple,Tandy,and Commodered computer campanies had introduced the first low-cost computers that are considerd as powerful as many of the room-sized computers in early 1950's and 1960's. The computer Age Generation