PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE OF COMPUTERS.
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~ PAST ~.
"Using Technology in the Classroom" taught me about the history of computers. The Difference Engine was a pre-computer that Charles Babbage created. It had a lot of moving parts that made jammed all the time and made it useless. Next he created something called the Analytic Engine. It could store, execute, and change instructions. It had so many parts that it could not be produced. These are two of the first two pre-computers. .
Herman Hollerith created a device that could read data from punched cards, and keep track of the count. The U.S. census sponsored a contest that was searching for such a machine. They got their machine. Soon after John V. Atanasoff created the very first digital-computing device. This device was the forerunner of the first generation of computers. .
The next wave of computers to come around was the first generation of computers. In 1944 the Mark 1 was created. It was electromechanical. It contained one million components and 500 miles of electric wire. It could add three 8-digit numbers per second. It was a break through, but still very slow as compared to today's computers. .
John W. Mauchly and others created the next computer. It was called the Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer (EDVAC). It used the binary numbering system and was smaller than previous computers. There was no longer a need for paper-tape storage. .
The Electronic Delayed Storage Automatic Computer (EDSAC) was the next computer to come out. This computer allowed storage to be used. Now more than one program could be saved at a time. All of the first generation of computers used vacuum-tube technology, and required far too much maintenance.
The next wave of computers was the Second Generation of Computers. The second generation of computers used transistor technology.