analog computer
digital computer
to aim guns
to figure out
at a fast rate
memory / storage
to store data and instructions
stored program computer
binary code
condition , ,
vacuum tube () ()
to amplify
to perform computations
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THE FIRST COMPUTERS
In 1930 the first analog computer was built by American named Vannevar Bush. This device was used in World War II to help aim guns. Many technical developments of electronic digital computers took place in the 1940s and 1950s. Mark I, the name given to the first digital computer, was completed in 1944. The man responsible for this invention was Professor Howard Aiken. This was the first machine that could figure out long lists of mathematical problems at a very fast rate.
In 1946 two engineers at the University of Pennsilvania, J.Eckert and J.Maushly, built their digital computer with vacuum tubes. They named their new invention ENIAC (the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator).
Another important achievement in developing computers came in 1947, when John von Neumann developed the idea of keeping instructions for the computer inside the computer's memory. The contribution of John von Neumann was particularly significant. As contrasted with Babbage's analytical engine, which was designed to store only data, von Neumann's machine, called the Electronic Discrete Variable Computer, or EDVAC, was able to store both data and instructions. He also contributed to the idea of storing data and instructions in a binary code that uses only ones and zeros. This simplified computer design. Thus computers use two conditions, high voltage, and low voltage, to translate the symbols by which we communicate into unique combinations of electrical pulses. We refer to these combinations as codes.
Neumann's stored program computer as well as other machines of that time were made possible by the invention of the vacuum tube that could control and amplify electronic signals. Early computers, using vacuum tubes, could perform computations in thousandths of seconds, called milliseconds, instead of seconds required by mechanical devices.
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1. When was the first analog computer built? 2. Where and how was that computer used? 3. When did the first digital computers appear? 4. Who was the inventor of the first digital computer? 5. What could that device do? 6. What is ENIAC? Decode the word. 7. What was J.Neumann's contribution into the development of computers? 8. What were the advantages of EDVAC in comparison with ENIAC? 9, What does binary coda mean? 10. Due to what invention could the first digital computers be built?
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Verbs: to name, to complete, to calculate, to develop, to keep, to interprete, to communicate, to fulfill, to apply, to translate, to improve, to build, to call, to store, to communicate, to figure out, to perform, to use, to finish, to construct, to connect.
Nouns: speed, aim, storage, information, machine, significance, computation, data, device, rate, calculation, purpose, memory, importance.
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SOME FIRST COMPUTER MODELS
1. Babbage's Analytical Engine
In 1832, an English inventor and mathematician Charles Babbage was commissioned by the British government to develop a system for calculating the rise and fall of the tides.
Babbage designed a device and called it an analytical engine. It was the first programmable computer, complete with punched cards for data input. Babbage gave the engine the ability to perform different types of mathematical operations. The machine was not confined to simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division. It had its own "memory", due to which the machine could use different combinations and sequences of operations to suit the purposes of the operator.
The machine of his dream was never realized in his life. Yet Babbage's idea didn't die with him. Other scientists made attempts to build mechanical, general-purpose, stored-program computers throughout the next century. In 1941 a relay computer was built in Germany by Conrad Zuse. It was a major step toward the realization of Babbage's dream.
2. The Mark I Computer (1937-1944)
In 1944 in the United States, International Business Machines (IBM) built a machine in cooperation with scientists working at Harvard University under the direction of Prof. Aik-en. The machine, called Mark I Automatic Sequence-Controlled Calculator, was built to perform calculations for the Manhattan Project, which led to the development of atomic bomb. It was the largest electromechanical calculator ever built. It used over 3000 electrically actuated switches to control its operations. Although its operations were not controlled electronically, Aiken's machine is often classified as a computer because its instructions, which were entered by means of a punched paper tape, could be altered. The computer could create ballistic tables used by naval artillery.
The relay computer had its problems. Since relays are electromechanical devices, the switching contacts operate by means of electromagnets and springs. They are slow, very noisy and consume a lot of power.
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3. The ABC (1939-1942)
The work on introducing electronics into the design of computers was going on.
The gadget that was the basis for the first computer revolution was the vacuum tube, an electronic device invented early in the twentieth century. The vacuum tube was ideal for use in computers. It had no mechanical moving parts. It switched flows of electrons off and on at rates far faster than possible with any mechanical device. It was relatively reliable, and operated hundreds of hours before failure. The first vacuum tube computer was built at Iowa University at about the same time as the Mark I. The computer, capable to perform thousands of related computations, was called ABC, the Atanasoff-Berry Computer, after Dr.John Atanasoff, a professor of physics and his assistant, Clifford Berry. It used 45 vacuum tubes for internal logic and capacitors for storage. From the ABC a number of vacuum-tube digital computers developed. Soon the British developed a computer with vacuum tubes and used it to decode German messages.
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