History of Computers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

History of Computers - Essay Example The study would even outline trend of computer science profession in next 10 years. The beginning stage of computers has its roots in 19th century. Its history is closely knitted with an English mathematics professor called as Charles Babbage. He was able to frame the design of an analytical machine. On basis of this framework computers are being designed in present scenario. Computers can briefly be categorized into three generations. Each generation basically lasts for a specific time frame. These generations individually has delivered improved and new computer or rather further modifications on existing ones. First generation was from 1937 to 1946. Electronic digital computer firstly was designed in 1937 by Clifford Berry and Dr. John V, Atanasoff. It was known as ABC or Atanasoff-Berry Computer. During 1943 for military purpose an electronic computer was designed called as Colossus. It was followed by wide range of other developments encompassing general purpose digital computer. This device was also known as Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer or ENIA C. It was stated that this computer had a total of 18,000 vacuum tubes and weighed 30 tons. These were mainly used for purpose of processing. Computers belonging to this generation were able to perform only one task at a time and possessed no such operating system. Second generation can be outlined from 1947 to 1962. In this generation vacuum tubes were discarded and transistors were utilized due to high reliability. The first computer mainly for commercial usage was introduced in 1951 and this was called as UNIVAC 1 or Universal Automatic Computer. IBM or International Business Machine 700 and 650 series had set their mark in world of computers. In this generation particularly more than 100 programming languages were created. This generation computers possessed operating systems and memory (Dale and Lewis, 2007). Storage media like disk and tape were effectively used along with