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The history of computing hardware spans the developments from early devices used for simple calculations to today's complex computers, encompassing advancements in both analog and digital technology. The first aids to computation were purely mechanical devices which required the operator to set up the initial values of an elementary arithmetic ...
Analog computers had an advantage over early digital computers in that they could be used to solve complex problems using behavioral analogues while the earliest attempts at digital computers were quite limited. A Smith Chart is a well-known nomogram. Since computers were rare in this era, the solutions were often hard-coded into paper forms ...
The category of early computers contains the computer systems made in the early era (i.e., the era in modern computer history defined as the period from the late 1930s to the early 1960s) utilizing mechanical, vacuum tube, discrete transistor, or other pre-integrated circuit technology. See also. Category:History of computing
Three brothers who wrote the Book of Ingenious Devices, describing what appears to be the first programmable machine, an automatic flute player. [8] 1960–1964 Baran, Paul: One of two independent inventors of the concept of digital packet switching used in modern computer networking including the Internet.
Digital machinery used difference engines or relays before the invention of faster memory devices. The phrase computing machine gradually gave way, after the late 1940s, to just computer as the onset of electronic digital machinery became common. These computers were able to perform the calculations that were performed by the previous human clerks.
Chinese inventor Liang Lingzan built the world's first fully mechanical clock; water clocks, some of them extremely accurate, had been known for centuries previous to this. This was an important technological leap forward; the earliest true computers, made a thousand years later, used technology based on that of clocks. [citation needed] 850
According to the IEEE Annals of Computer History, the MCM/70 is the earliest commercial, non-kit personal computer. [25] IBM 5100: 1975: An early portable computer with integrated monitor; the 5100 was possibly one of the first portable microcomputers using a CRT display. Sphere 1: 1975: A personal computer that was among the earliest complete ...
Used for the first time at the National Institutes of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland in 1963. Many consider it to be the first personal computer, despite the big dimension of some elements, e.g. the memory rack. [15] 1962: US Spacewar!, an early and highly influential computer game, is written by MIT student Steve Russell. The game ran on ...