The first computer was the abacus which was first developed in 2800 B. It was the zenith of calculating technology until the 1st century. In the early 1600's, John Napier invented the Napier's bones which were multiplication tables inscribe on wood. He also invented logarithms. In 1621 William Oughtred used Napier's logarithms as the basis for his invention, the slide rule. In 1642, Blaise Pascal developed the "Pascaline." 1694 when Gottfried Leibnitz invented the "stepped reckoner." Theoretically this machine could handle the four arithmetic functions, had delayed carrying device, and contained the stepped drum principle, which 150 years later was used in the first commercially successful calculator. In the 1700's many calculators emerged. It was in the 1800's when things started to happen. Joseph Jacquard invented the "jacquard loom." Charles Babbage, also known as the father of computing, contributed to the basic design of the computer through his analytic machine. In 1867 the first typewriter was developed.
First stored programs on computers were developed in the 1940's. In the year's 1943-1946, the first general-purpose electronic computer was invented. By the mid-1940s, the majority of computers were being built out of vacuum tubes rather than switches and relays. Although vacuum tubes were fragile, expensive, and used a lot of power, they were much faster than relays (and much quieter). In August 1944, Mauchly and Eckert proposed the building of a new machine called the electronic discrete variable automatic computer. It was the first commercial purpose computer commonly known as universal automatic computer (UNIVAC). In November 1972, Intel introduced the 8008, which was essentially an 8-bit version of the 4004. The 8008 contained approximately 3,300 transistors and was the first microprocessor to be supported by a high-level language compiler called PL/M. The 8008 was followed by the 4040, which extended the 4004's capabilities.
