A Computer is machine that performs various tasks, calculations and operations based on instructions & inputs from the user !
A computer is an electronic device that can receive, store, process and output information. It is designed to perform a variety of tasks, such as calculations, data processing, information storage and retrieval, communication, and multimedia processing.
There are many types of computers, including personal computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones, servers, and mainframes. Each type of computer is designed for specific tasks and comes with different capabilities, processing power, and features.
Modern computers consist of various components, such as the central processing unit (CPU), memory (RAM), storage devices, input/output devices (e.g. keyboard, mouse, monitor), and various peripherals. These components work together to execute the instructions and programs that make the computer perform the desired tasks.
Charles Babbage, is known as the father of computer. He conceptualized and invented the first mechanical computer in the early 19th century.
Types of Computer
| Laptop | Has a good computing capabilities with portability |
| Desktop | Has a good computing capabilities but not portable |
| Workstation | Desktop which is highly optimized to handle large & complex process |
| Mini Computer | Is very small in size but can perform all daily tasks |
| Mainframe computer | A centralized computer used for large scale computing, specially as a server. |
| Supercomputer | As a name suggest is used for highly complex & very large data to process. |
Computer History
Human History has has records of many tools / equipment which are some or other way can be regarded as computer.
Some highlights of the machines which can be considered as bloodline of the modern computer.
Pre 20th Century
- History of computer begin with very simple but effective calculating instrument “ABACUS”
- The slide rule was invented around 1620–1630 by the English clergyman William Oughtred, shortly after the publication of the concept of the logarithm. It is a hand-operated analog computer for doing multiplication and division.
- In the 1770s, Pierre Jaquet-Droz, a Swiss watchmaker, built a mechanical doll (automaton) that could write holding a quill pen. By switching the number and order of its internal wheels different letters, and hence different messages, could be produced.
20th Century
- The first substantial computer was the giant ENIAC machine by John W. Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert at the University of Pennsylvania in year 1946. ENIAC (Electrical Numerical Integrator and Calculator) used a word of 10 decimal digits instead of binary ones like previous automated calculators/computers. ENIAC was also the first machine to use more than 2,000 vacuum tubes, using nearly 18,000 vacuum tubes. Storage of all those vacuum tubes and the machinery required to keep the cool took up over 167 square meters (1800 square feet) of floor space.
- CDC 6600, world’s first Super Computer, introduced by Control Data Corporation in 1964.
- First ever usable personal computer named Programma 101 invented by a company name Olivetti in 1965. It was built without integrated circuits or microprocessors, it used only transistors, resistors and condensers for its processing & had features found in modern personal computers, such as memory, keyboard, printing unit, magnetic card reader/recorder, control and arithmetic unit.
- Portal R2E CCMC, the first portable computer designed by company Micral CCMC in 1980. Works on an Intel 8085 processor, 8-bit, clocked at 2 MHz, equipped with a central 64K byte RAM, a keyboard with 58 alphanumeric keys and 11 numeric keys (in separate blocks), a 32-character screen, a floppy disk (capacity – 140,000 characters), a thermal printer (speed – 28 characters/second), an asynchronous channel, a synchronous channel, and a 220-volt power supply. It weighed 12 kg (26 lb) and its dimensions were 45 × 45 × 15 cm. It ran the Prologue operating system and provided total mobility.
- First Server computer was developed by Steve Job backed company Next Computer & used by World Wide Web Inventor Tim Berners-Lee in the year 1990.
Read Also :
COMPUTER – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer#History
SUPERCOMPUTER – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercomputer