Computers have become like discarded toys in many homes. - By: fandydu

The History of Computer,The first design for a programmable computer¡ªone that would follow a set of instruc?tions¡ªis usually considered to be the ¡°Analytic Engine" invented by English inventor Charles Babbage in 1832. His device was designed to perform a sequence of calculations using instructions in? put on punched cards, and it included a memory "store "and a processing unit. It was entirely me?chanical in design.(http://www.imitatewatch.com/GoodsBrand/Replica-Cartier-Watches-26.html)

Unfortunately, Babbage never assembled his computer, and it was not until the 1900s, with the invention of the electron tube, that components for a viable electronic computer became availa?ble. An electron tube is a device that can block, amplify, or act as on/off switch for an electric current. During the 1920s and 1930s, scientists investigated how to link these devices in arrays that would accept electric signals representing numbers, process the signals according to program me, and output the results. Whereas electron-tube computers were huge, and programming them in?volved changing their circuitry by plugging and unplugging cables.

Aside from their large size, computers based on electron tubes had other drawbacks. The heating fila?ments in the tubes made the computers hot, and the filaments would often "blow". But in 1947, the devel?opment of the transistor by scientists at Bell Tele?phone Laboratories transformed the computer land?scape. These tiny components were made from crys?tals of semiconductors such as germanium and sili?con, and could do everything an electron tube could do, but were smaller and more reliable. Chea?per, more compact computers were soon in production, although some still occupied a whole room.

Along with the developments in -hardware, there were changes in software. Originally, all in?structions for computers were written in binary code ("machine code"). In 1951,a programmer named Grace Hopper proposed "reusable software" ,code that could be assembled according to in?structions written in a "higher-level language" (something more closely resembling English). Hopper further proposed the concept of a compiler¡ªa program that would translate instructions written in a higher-level language into machine code. FORTRAN, the first fully-fledged language, and its compiler were introduced in 1956. During this period, the punched cards and tape used to input data into computers were gradually replaced by magnetic tape and disks.

2. The History of Computer Integrated Circuits,In 1959, engineers at Texas Instruments showed that it was possible to incorporate many tran?sistors, connected by metal tracks, onto one piece of silicon. This innovation became known as an integrated circuit, or" silicon chip" ,and the trend ever since is summarized in" Moore' s Law" :the number of transistors that can be put on a chip doubles every 12 to 18 months. Gordon Moore, who formulated this law in 1965, later cofounded the chip manufacturer Intel. (http://www.luv-replica.com/GoodsBrand/Cartier_Replica_Watches-6.html)

Integrated circuits soon led to the development of yet smaller, cheaper computers, called minicomputers. Although still too expensive for most individuals to afford, these were relatively simple to operate. Other innovations of the 1960s were keyboards for inputting data into computers and monitors for displaying this data and the results of calculations before they were printed out. In 1971, the floppy disk was

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