Computer History: Impressive Developments Through Re-invention, Research, and Innovation

The history of computers, beginning nearly 5000 years ago, is an interesting combination of re-invention, research, and innovation.

In 3000 B.C., the abacus was invented in China and shortly thereafter came into wide use around the world. This simple adding device is considered by some to be the first precursor to computers, if not the real thing. Much later, in 1622 A.D., the slide rule was invented by William Oughtred and another giant step was taken toward the information age.

Charles Babbage, considered by many to be the "Father of the Computer," began creating a device referred to as the "Difference Engine" in 1822. When funding was pulled in 1842, Babbage designed, but was never able to build, the "Analytical Engine," a machine that shared many aspects of modern computers, including subroutines, an input device, etc.).

Babbage’s failure to build the Analytical Engine did not, fortunately, lead to its demise altogether. In 1930 scientists built the first Analytical Engine and seven years later Alan Turing developed the idea of a machine that could execute algorithms. Development of computers continued through the early and mid-1900s and in 1943 the U.S. Army funded the development of ENIAC, the prototype for modern computers. MIT built the "Whirlwind" for the U.S. Air Force in 1955 and invented RAM in the process.

Finally, in 1971, microchips and floppy disks came into existence and a fledgling company called Intel developed the 4004, which was dubbed by them a "computer on a chip." Ten years later, IBM debuted a machine referred to as a "PC" which used a DOS operating system owned (but not developed) by Microsoft. 1984 found Apple Computers developing the Graphical User Interface (GUI), a mainstay in modern computing and the concept upon which Microsoft’s Windows operating system is based.

Computer development in the 21st century includes a 1 gigabyte processor and machines that fit in the hand carrying out billions of commands per second.

As the age of the Internet and technology progress, the developments should be even more impressive.