Computer technology has come a long way in its development. The first computing device was a primitive board with pebbles. But now computers are capable of performing millions of operations per second.
Abacus
The very first computing device is considered to be an abacus - a board with special depressions, on which calculations were carried out using bones or pebbles. Abacus variants existed in Greece, Japan, China, and other countries. A similar device was used in Russia - it was called the "Russian account". By the 17th century, this device had evolved into the familiar Russian abacus.
The first computers
The French scientist Blaise Pascal gave a new impetus to the development of computers. He designed a summing device, which he called Pascalina. Pascaline could subtract and add. A little later, the German mathematician Leibniz created a more perfect device capable of performing all four arithmetic operations.
It is believed that the creator of the first calculating machine, which became the prototype of modern computers, was the English mathematician Babbage. Babbage's computing machine made it possible to operate with 18-bit numbers.
The first computers
The development of computer technology is closely related to the IBM company. Back in 1888, the American Hollerith designed a tabulator that made it possible to automate calculations. In 1924, he founded the IBM company, which became involved in the production of tabulators. After 20 years, IBM created the first powerful computer, the Mark-1. It worked on electromechanical relays and was used for military calculations.
In 1946, the ENIAC tube computer appeared in the USA. It worked much faster than the Mark-1. In 1949, "ENIAC" was able to calculate the value of the number "pi" up to 2000 decimal places. In 1950, ENIAC calculated the world's first weather forecast.
The era of transistors and integrated circuits
In 1948, the transistor was invented. One transistor has successfully replaced several dozen electronic tubes. Transistor computers were more reliable, faster, and took up less space. The performance of electronic computers running on transistors was up to one million operations per second.
The invention of integrated circuits led to the third generation of computers. They were already capable of performing millions of operations per second. The first computer to run on integrated circuits was the IBM-360.
In 1971, Intel created the Intel-4004 microprocessor, which was as powerful as a giant computer. Intel specialists managed to place more than two thousand transistors in the processor on a single silicon crystal. From that moment on, the era of development of modern computer technology began.
