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The history of computer dated back to the period of scientific revolution (i.e. 1543 – 1678). The calculating machine invented by Blaise Pascal in 1642 and
ancient abacus and a modern computer seems vast, but the principle—making repeated calculations more quickly than the human brain—is exactly the same. Read on to learn more about the history of computers—or take a look at our article on how computers work.
The first “computers” were people—individuals and teams who would tediously compute sums by hand to fill in artillery tables. Inspired by the work of a com-puting team in revolutionary France, Charles Babbage, a British mathematician, created the first mechanical device that could organize calculations.
about the invention of the first computers, by proposing a hierarchical scheme of increasingly flexible machines, culminating in the stored program computer. Finally, Harry Huskey, one of the pioneers at the conference, looks at the constraints imposed on computer architectures by the kind of materials and logical
This paper is intended to provide an introduction to the study of the history of computing for someone who has a good knowledge of computer science, but only a limited knowledge of the history of computing and no formal training in any kind of historical study. It has three parts.
No history of modem computers would be complete without a discussion of the contributions of Charles Babbage (1791-1871). In a preelectronic era, he worked out many of the concepts of automatic computation that we find in today's digital computers. His success was limited by the state of engineering and his temper-
Computers were invented to ‘‘compute’’: to solve ‘‘complex mathema-tical problems,’’ as the dictionary still defines that word.1 They still do that, but that is not why we are living in an ‘‘Information Age.’’ That reflects other things that computers do: store and retrieve data, manage