Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
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 ...
The history of computing hardware starting at 1960 is marked by the conversion from vacuum tube to solid-state devices such as transistors and then integrated circuit (IC) chips. Around 1953 to 1959, discrete transistors started being considered sufficiently reliable and economical that they made further vacuum tube computers uncompetitive .
Invented the concept of a hardware abstraction layer called the BIOS, with both conceptually laying the foundation to all DOS-based operating systems on personal computers. Worked on diskette track buffering schemes, read-ahead algorithms, virtual disk drives, and file system caching.
He also invented a mechanical "planetary computer" which he called the Plate of Zones, which could graphically solve a number of planetary problems, including the prediction of the true positions in longitude of the Sun and Moon, [16] and the planets; [17] the latitudes of the Sun, Moon, and planets; and the ecliptic of the Sun.
As more and more programs enter the realm of firmware, and the hardware itself becomes smaller, cheaper and faster as predicted by Moore's law, an increasing number of types of functionality of computing first carried out by software, have joined the ranks of hardware, as for example with graphics processing units.
Computer hardware includes the physical parts of a computer, such as the central processing unit (CPU), random access memory (RAM), motherboard, computer data storage, graphics card, sound card, and computer case.
Glenn A. Beck (background) and Betty Snyder (foreground) program ENIAC in BRL building 328. (U.S. Army photo, c. 1947–1955) ENIAC (/ ˈ ɛ n i æ k /; Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) [1] [2] was the first programmable, electronic, general-purpose digital computer, completed in 1945.
German inventor Karl Ferdinand Braun invented cathode ray oscilloscope (CRO). 1901: First transatlantic radio transmission by Guglielmo Marconi 1901: American engineer Peter Cooper Hewitt invented the Fluorescent lamp. 1904: English engineer John Ambrose Fleming invented the diode. 1906: American inventor Lee de Forest invented the triode. 1908