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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
The steam-powered automatic flute described by the Book of Ingenious Devices (850) by the Persian-Baghdadi Banū Mūsā brothers may have been the first programmable device. [10] Other early mechanical devices used to perform one or another type of calculations include the planisphere and other mechanical computing devices invented by Al-Biruni ...
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 ...
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 ...
Arab astronomer, Abū Ishāq Ibrāhīm al-Zarqālī (Arzachel) of al-Andalus, invented the Equatorium [citation needed], a mechanical analog computer device used for finding the longitudes and positions of the Moon, Sun and planets without calculation, using a geometrical model to represent the celestial body's mean and anomalistic position. [6 ...
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.
A vacuum-tube computer, now termed a first-generation computer, is a computer that uses vacuum tubes for logic circuitry. While the history of mechanical aids to computation goes back centuries, if not millennia, the history of vacuum tube computers is confined to the middle of the 20th century. Lee De Forest invented the
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.