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The Development of the Computer
It is not easy to pinpoint any one device as the earliest computer. The very definition of a computer has changed over time and it is therefore impossible to isolate the key computer. Many devices once christened "computers" would no longer qualify as such by today's criteria. Originally, the term "computer" referred to a device that performed numerical calculations (a hominid computer), every so often with the aid of a mechanical scheming symbol. Examples of premature mechanical computing devices included the abacus, the slide rule and perhaps the astrolabe and the Antikythera mechanism (which dates from something like 150-100 BC). The end of the Middle Ages saw a re-invigoration of European mathematics and engineering, and Wilhelm Schickard's 1623 emblem was the foremost of a numeral of mechanical calculators constructed by European engineers. However, none of those devices fit the state-of-the-art definition of a computer because they could not be automatic. In 1801, Joseph Marie Jacquard made improvements to the weaving loom that used a sequence of punched thesis cards as a prototype to allow his loom to texture intricate patterns automatically. The resulting Jacquard loom was a central step in the development of computers because the use of punched cards to characterize woven patterns can be viewed as an primary, albeit narrow, form of programmability. In 1837, Charles Babbage was the first to intellectualize and describe a fully programmable mechanical computer that he termed "The Analytical Engine". However, due to the lack of adequate funding Babbage never actually built his Analytical Engine. Large-scale automated data processing of punched cards was performed for the United States Census in 1890 by tabulating machines designed by Herman Hollerith and manufactured by the Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation, which eventually became IBM. By the end of the 19th century a number of technologies that would later demonstrate progress towards the realization of practical computers had begun to be seen: the punched card, Boolean algebra, the void tube (thermionic regulator) and the teleprinter. During the earliest half of the 20th century, many computing parameters were met by progressively more high-level analogue computers, which used a direct mechanical or electrical model of the problem as a core for computation. However, these were not programmable and generally lacked the versatility and precision of cutting-edge arithmetical computers. |
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This intel was contributed by alonzo
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May, 2012
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