Computers are tools used to process the data according to the commands that have been formulated. Computer word originally used to describe people who work perform arithmetic calculations, with or without aids, but the meaning of the word is then transferred to the machine itself. Originally, the processing of information almost exclusively related to arithmetical problems, but modern computers are used for many tasks unrelated to mathematics.
Broadly, the computer can be defined as an electronic device that consists of several components, which can cooperate between the components with one another to produce an information based on existing programs and data. The computer components are included: Screen Monitor, CPU, Keyboard, Mouse and Printer (as a complement). Without a computer printer can still do its job as a data processor, but not limited to visible screen monitor in print form (paper).
In the definition of such a tool like a slide rule, mechanical calculators types ranging from abacus and so on, until all the contemporary electronic computers. The term better suited for a broad sense such as "computer" is "that process information" or "information processing systems."
Nowadays, computers are becoming more sophisticated. However, before the computer is not small, sophisticated, cool and light now. In the history of computers, there are 5 periods in the history of computers. Computer History Articles on this site will be presented in five parts, namely, from the period of the history of the first generation to the fifth generation.
Computer First Period
With the onset of the Second World War, the countries involved in the war sought to develop computers to exploit their potential strategic computer. This increases funding for the development of computers and accelerate the progress of computer engineering. In 1941, Konrad Zuse, a German engineer to build a computer, the Z3, to design airplanes and missiles.
Allied also made other advances in the development of the power of the computer. In 1943, the British completed a secret code-breaking computer called Colossus to decode secret German. The Colossus's impact influenced the development of the computer industry because of two reasons. First, Colossus is not a versatile computer (general-purpose computer), it was only designed to decode secret messages. Second, the existence of the machine was kept secret until decades after the war ended.
The work done by the Americans at that time produced a broader achievement. Howard H. Aiken (1900-1973), a Harvard engineer working with IBM, succeeded in producing electronic calculators for the US Navy. It was about half the length of a football field and has a range of 500 miles along the cable. The Harvard-IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator, or Mark I, an electronic relay computer. It uses electromagnetic signals to move mechanical components. The machine was slow (taking 3-5 seconds per calculation) and inflexible (in order of calculations can not be changed). The calculator can perform basic arithmetic and more complex equations.
Another computer development today is the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC), which is made by the cooperation between the US government and the University of Pennsylvania. Consisting of 18,000 vacuum tubes, 70,000 resistors and 5 million soldered joints, the computer is a very large machines that consume power of 160kW.
This computer was designed by John Presper Eckert (1919-1995) and John W. Mauchly (1907-1980), ENIAC is a versatile computer (general purpose computer) that work 1000 times faster than Mark I.
In the mid-1940s, John von Neumann (1903-1957) joined the University of Pennsylvania team, initiating concepts in computer design that the next 40 years is still used in computer engineering. Von Neumann designed the Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer (EDVAC) in 1945 with a memory to accommodate either program or data. This technique allows the computer to stop at some point and then resume her job back. Key to the von Neumann architecture is the central processing unit (CPU), which allowed all computer functions to be coordinated through a single source. In 1951, the UNIVAC I (Universal Automatic Computer I) made by Remington Rand, became the first commercial computer that utilizes the model of Von Neumann architecture.
Both the US Census Bureau and General Electric have UNIVAC. One of the impressive results achieved by the UNIVAC dalah success in predicting victory of Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1952 presidential election.
First generation computers were characterized by the fact that the operating instructions are made specifically for a particular task. Each computer has a different binary code program called "machine language" (machine language). This causes the computer is difficult to be programmed and the speed limit. Another feature is the use of first-generation computer vacuum tube (which makes the computer at that time very large) and a magnetic cylinder for data storage.
Source: http://id.wikipedia.org
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