Either way, the software is actually the most recent implementation of something that has been around for quite some time. Software developed to meet the needs of early computer programmers. Instead, they all function on binary, which is a series of ones and zeros. Some of the earliest computers were programmed directly in binary, but this was a long, tedious chore that few people could actually do. In order to make programming easier, different programming languages were created.
This led to the creation of software, something that serves as a translator of sorts. Computer users, through the software interface, give the computer instructions. These instructions are then translated by the software into a language that the computer can understand. Before software as we know it was created, there were a few different early attempts at programming computers. Punch cards were the first. These cards were simple paper cards that had rows of dots.
If the dot was punched, it represented a zero. These cards would later be replaced by reels of magnetic tape. This was easier to manage space-wise, since storing stacks of cards was very impractical, but it still took a lot of time and work to program. During this time, a number of different types of programming software were created.
This did have some advantages: the software was tailored for the specific needs of the user, and the user understood exactly what the software was doing. However, the disadvantages were much greater. When computers became small enough to be sold to individuals, software became much more prevalent. Instead, the operating system was created. This specialized software ran the computer and launched other software as the user needed it.
IBM began selling software in the late s and early s. This was the first time commercial software was available to the average customer, and the ability to add different types of programs to any computer quickly became popular. Software has become more and more complex over the years. In the early days, commands were typed in, and early software only accepted keyboard input. Because floppy disks could only hold a very small amount of data and most personal computers had no actual hard drive, software had to be very simple.
That changed as computer hardware evolved. When hard drives became standard in personal computers, software could be installed on the computer before it left the distributor. It also made it possible to load larger pieces of software on computers without sending the customer a stack of disks. It was a wooden rack which has metal rods with beads mounted on them. The beads were moved by the abacus operator according to some rules to perform arithmetic calculations. Abacus is still used in some countries like China, Russia and Japan.
An image of this tool is shown below;. It was a manually-operated calculating device which was invented by John Napier of Merchiston. In this calculating tool, he used 9 different ivory strips or bones marked with numbers to multiply and divide. So, the tool became known as "Napier's Bones. It was also the first machine to use the decimal point.
Pascaline is also known as Arithmetic Machine or Adding Machine. It was invented between and by a French mathematician-philosopher Biaise Pascal. It is believed that it was the first mechanical and automatic calculator. Pascal invented this machine to help his father, a tax accountant. It could only perform addition and subtraction. It was a wooden box with a series of gears and wheels.
When a wheel is rotated one revolution, it rotates the neighboring wheel. A series of windows is given on the top of the wheels to read the totals.
It was developed by a German mathematician-philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz in He improved Pascal's invention to develop this machine. It was a digital mechanical calculator which was called the stepped reckoner as instead of gears it was made of fluted drums. See the following image;. It was a mechanical computer which could perform simple calculations.
It was a steam driven calculating machine designed to solve tables of numbers like logarithm tables. This calculating machine was also developed by Charles Babbage in It was a mechanical computer that used punch-cards as input. It was capable of solving any mathematical problem and storing information as a permanent memory. It was invented in , by Herman Hollerith, an American statistician. It was a mechanical tabulator based on punch cards.
It could tabulate statistics and record or sort data or information. This machine was used in the U. Hollerith also started the Hollerith?
It was the first electronic computer introduced in the United States in It was an analog device invented by Vannevar Bush. This machine has vacuum tubes to switch electrical signals to perform calculations. It could do 25 calculations in few minutes. The next major changes in the history of computer began in when Howard Aiken planned to develop a machine that could perform calculations involving large numbers. It was the first programmable digital computer. A generation of computers refers to the specific improvements in computer technology with time.
In , electronic pathways called circuits were developed to perform the counting. It replaced the gears and other mechanical parts used for counting in previous computing machines. In each new generation, the circuits became smaller and more advanced than the previous generation circuits. The miniaturization helped increase the speed, memory and power of computers. There are five generations of computers which are described below;.
The first generation computers were slow, huge and expensive. In these computers, vacuum tubes were used as the basic components of CPU and memory. These computers were mainly depended on batch operating system and punch cards. Magnetic tape and paper tape were used as output and input devices in this generation;.
The second generation was the era of the transistor computers. These computers used transistors which were cheap, compact and consuming less power; it made transistor computers faster than the first generation computers. In this generation, magnetic cores were used as the primary memory and magnetic disc and tapes were used as the secondary storage. The third generation computers used integrated circuits ICs instead of transistors. A single IC can pack huge number of transistors which increased the power of a computer and reduced the cost.
The computers also became more reliable, efficient and smaller in size. These generation computers used remote processing, time-sharing, multi programming as operating system.
The fourth generation computers used very large scale integrated VLSI circuits; a chip containing millions of transistors and other circuit elements.
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