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History of development computers
History of development of computers
Research on the history of microprocessors
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We have the microprocessor to thank for all of our consumer electronic devices, because without them, our devices would be much larger. Microprocessors are the feat of generations of research and development. Microprocessors were invented in 1972 by Intel Corporation and have made it so that computers could shrink to the sizes we know today. Before, computers took a room because the transistors or vacuum tubes were individual components. Microprocessors unified the technology on one chip while reducing the costs. Microprocessor technology has been the most important revolution in the computer industry in the past forty years, as microprocessors have allowed our consumer electronics to exist.
Prior to the revolution in technology that was microprocessors, making a computer was a large task for any manufacturer. Computers used to be built solely on discrete, or individual, transistors soldered together. Microprocessors act as the brain of a computer, doing all mathematics. Depending on how powerful the machine was intended to be, this could take weeks or even months to produce with individual components. This laborious task put the cost of a computer beyond the reach of any regular person. Computers before lithographic technology were massive and were mostly used in lab scenarios (Brain 1).
Computers lacked the power to operate on a GUI, or graphical user interface, system. A GUI is a windows and icons system, where the user clicks on icons to operate the computer. Computers of the time ran text interfaces requiring the user to understand commands and communicate with the computer through text prompts. This was not ideal for the average user because it took time to learn how to operate the device. Processes are individual piece...
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In 500 B.C. the abacus was first used by the Babylonians as an aid to simple arithmetic. In 1623 Wihelm Schickard (1592 - 1635) invented a "Calculating Clock". This mechanical machine could add and subtract up to 6 digit numbers, and warned of an overflow by ringing a bell. J. H. Mueller comes up with the idea of the "difference engine", in 1786. This calculator could tabulate values of a polynomial. Muellers attempt to raise funds fails and the project was forgotten. Scheutz and his son Edward produced a 3rd order difference engine with a printer in 1843 and their government agreed to fund their next project.
In 1968 Bob Noyce, Gordon Moore and Andy Grove founded a new company that built semiconductor memory products, named NM Electronics Inc. Moore and Noyce had problems with the copyright of the company’s name as it already belonged to a hotel chain. Noyce, Moore and Grove then changed the name to Intel Corporation, short for Integrated Electronics. The small startup company was founded in Santa Clara, California with $500,000 and funds from investors. In 1971 they introduced the world’s first microprocessor, which revolutionized the computer industry. Moore sensed the impending growth of the semiconductor computer chip industry and predicted that the amount of transistors on a single computer chip would double every year. This fact helds true and has been coined as “Moore’s Law”. Intel's mission is to be the preeminent building block supplier to the Interne...
In the mid?1950's, the transistor was introduced, creating a more reliable computer. Computers were used primarily for scientific and engineering calculations and were programmed mainly in FORTRAN and assembly language.
It was January of 1975 when the first personal computer Altair 8800 was invented by an ex air force officer from Georgia, Ed Roberts. His motivation was his interest of having a personal computer to play with, since computer back then was scarce and was difficult to come across. The Altair 8800 was invented in Albuquerque New Mexico where Ed Roberts was running his calculator business called MITS. It was believed that Ed Robert’s Altair was the spark that started the fire, and gave personal computer a chance to be seen in everyone’s desk. Ed Roberts used a microprocessor (8080), to launch Altair, a chip that he got from Intel, the creator of chips, chips that they saw as useful only for calculators and traffic lights, but Ed Robert’s saw more. Microprocessor was a technological breakthrough that made personal computer possible, without it, the first personal computer would have never existed. Altair did basic computing, but it was a pain to use. Keying in data and instructions strenuously by flipping switches, that was really all that the Altair could do. So, those who had interest in technology decided to form a club called the “Homebrew Computer Club” at Stanford University in Silicon Valley , mainly to talk about computer, and how they could improve it. For Ed Roberts building more innovative personal computer was not the path that he chose to continue on doing, rather he sold his company MITS and pursue doctorate in his hometown, Georgia.
If there is one piece of technology in this world today that has been through thousands of revolutions and evolutions in the past several decades, it is the computer. The basis of all computers is the microprocessor, which is integrated on the motherboard which functions as the computer's nucleus or brain. The microprocessor has evolved heavily since Intel's discovery of the 4004 in 1971 to the present Pentium III class processors. Even today, the speed, complexity, versatility, and efficiency of processors are enhancing at a lightning fast pace.
Ceruzzi, P. E. (1998). A history of modern computing (pp. 270-272). London, England: The MIT Press.
Building a computer can be a useful skill in today's world. It allows you to
The microprocessor has changed our lives in so many ways that it is difficult to recall how different things were before its invention. During the 1960's, computers filled many rooms. Their expensive processing power was available only to a few government labs, research universities, and large corporations. Intel was founded on July 18,1968 by engineers, Gordon Moore, Robert Noyce, Andrew Grove, and Arthur Rock. Rock became Chairman, Moore was President, Noyce was Executive Vice President in charge of product development and worked with Moore on long range planning, and Grove headed manufacturing. The purpose of the new company was to design and manufacture very complex silicon chips using large-scale integration (LSI) technology. Moore and Grove's vision was to make Intel the leader in developing even more powerful microprocessors and to make Intel-designed chips the industry standard in powering personal computers. Moore and Noyce wanted to seek Intel because they wanted to regain the satisfaction of research and development in a small growing company. Although the production of memory chips was starting to become a commodity business in the late 1960's, Moore and Noyce believed they could produce chip versions of their own design that would perform more functions at less cost for the customer and thus offer a premium price. Intel's unique challenge was to make semiconductor memory functional. Semiconductor memory is smaller in size, provides great performance, and reduces energy consumption. This first started when Japanese manufacturer Busicom asked Intel to design a set of chips for a family of high-performance programming calculators. Intel's engineer, Ted Hoff, rejected the proposal and i...
In 1970, Intel got into the microprocessor business with Busicom, a Jap firm, as collaborators. During late 70s, Apple collaborated with Motorola for microprocessor purchases against Intel who had sim...
My interest in Computers dates back to early days of my high school. The field of CS has always fascinated me. The reason for choosing CS stream was not a hasty decision. My interest started developing in the early stage of my life, when I studied about the invention of computers. The transformation from the large size to small palmtops enticed me to know about the factors responsible for making computers, also the electronic gadgets so small. I was quite impressed after seeing a small chip for the first time in my school days, especially after I learnt that it contained more than 1000 transistors, “integrated circuits”.
The creation of the microchip dates back to the late 1950s, when two separate American engineers developed their own microchips. Both their goals were to make a transistor smaller and use less power, but in the same time, accommodate more transistors onto one surface to increase the performance of transistors. Despite their separate backgrounds, their microchips were essentially identical in terms of the components. Both were built on very thin wafers of semiconductor materials, and both laid small “paths” of metal onto the semiconductor material. This meant that they were able to integrate a whole network onto a very small surface. The influence of the creation of the microchip had great influences around the world in many different aspects of society.
A client in the early 70’s from Japan wanted to recruit Intel services to design twelve chips for their calculators. Knowing that they did not have the manpower or the resources to complete this job effectively, Ted Hoff agreed to the job just the same to any other challenge. His idea was: “What if we can design one computer chip which could function the same as twelve microchips?”. Hoof’s idea was completely embraced by Moore and Noyce. If this project was effective and that the chip could have the ability to receive command functions. After a conscient...
"Computer Hardware Engineering." Ferguson's Career Guidance Center. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 14 Mar. 2014.
Thousands of years ago calculations were done using people’s fingers and pebbles that were found just lying around. Technology has transformed so much that today the most complicated computations are done within seconds. Human dependency on computers is increasing everyday. Just think how hard it would be to live a week without a computer. We owe the advancements of computers and other such electronic devices to the intelligence of men of the past.
During my undergraduate studies at the Electronics & Communication department of M.K. College of Engineering, subjects like Microprocessors, C-Programming, Computer Networks interested me the most. I was awestruck by the potential of Intel 8086 microprocessor, more so by the manner in which its faster and more powerful cousins revolutionized the working of computers in a decade. I was now determined to focus on microprocessors during my Final Year project.