The word Evolution comes from the Latin word, ‘ēvolvō’ which literally means; to ‘unroll’, or to ‘unfold’.
Evolution of computers refers to the historical developments through which computers and technology have passed, from the time they started to exist in ancient forms to their current state.
Knowledge about the history/evolution of computers gives us a deeper understanding of the origin and the gradual Mechanical to Electro-mechanical to Electronic technological changes, which have brought about the kind of computers we see today, and helps us to predict Computer how they will be in future.
Origin of calculation
Although electronic computers have become popular in the past 4-5 decades, man had always had the urge to solve problems and manage information/data in a much easier way. As a result, various mechanical devices were invented by man to help him fulfill his needs.
So the origin of computing started with the early man who used fingers, stones, sticks, marks on walls, sand, etc.
The word ‘compute’ was derived from two Latin words; ‘com’, which means ‘together’ and ‘putare’, which means ‘add, calculate, count, or estimate’.
Over the centuries, people have developed an amazing variety of data processing tools and techniques. Some of these devices could not work on their own they required some human assistance in order to carry out their tasks effectively
Examples of ancient counting and calculating devices include: The abacus, Napier’s bones, the Slide rule.
Calculation era
- The Abacus
- Napier Bones
- Slide Rule
Abacus (3000BC)
This was the first computing device used in the 16th Century in China and Japan to compute volume for thousands of years Before Christ.
It consisted of a rectangular wooden rack which had horizontal wires running from left to right. Theses wires had beads stuck on them. It is these beads that were used for simple addition and subtraction.
Napier’s bones (1617)
It was invented by a Scottish Mathematician called John Napier in1617. It was made of ivory rods which looked like bones and they had numbers painted on them.
It was used to solve mathematical problems involving multiplication, subtraction, division and addition. This could be done by sliding the bones back and forth.
Slide rule
Slide rule was invented by British mathematician called William Oughfred in 1620 as the first kind of analog computer. This device was made up of two sets of scales marked in logarithms.
This Mechanical Computer could also solve mathematical problems involving multiplication, division, addition and subtraction. All these computations could be done by sliding its cursor.
Mechanical era (1623 – 1945)
Before 1642, all computation was done by humans. Manual devices used then could just aid the users to keep track of numbers as they did the computing.
In the Mechanical Era (Period) however, machines and gears did the computations. This era also saw the development of the world’s first computer programmer Ada Byron Lovelace (1815-1852)
The popular mechanical developments of computers in this period include:
- Blaise Pascal’s Calculator (1642)
- Leibniz’s Stepped Reckoner (1694)
- Jacquard’s Loom (1801)
- Charles Babbage’s Analytical & Difference Engine (1834).
- Hollerith’s Tabulator (1860)
Blaise Pascal’s Calculator (1642),
Blaise Pascal calculator was invented in around1642 by Blaise to help his father who was a Tax Collector to simplify his calculation from the taxes collected daily.
It was the first mechanical adding machine which used a system of gears and wheels. It consisted of toothed wheels which were numbered from 0-9. When one wheel moved past the notch of another wheel, it would cause it to rotate automatically.
Leibniz Stepped Reckoner(1694)
The Stepped Reckoner was a digital mechanical calculator invented by German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz around 1672 and completed in 1694.
It was the first calculator that could perform all four arithmetic operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division including square roots.
Jacquard Weaving Loom (1801)
Jacquard weaving loom was developed by Joseph Marie Jacquard of France in1801 who made the first successful automatic draw loom by means of a series of instructions given to the threads by a punched card system.
It was a textile weaving equipment whose instructions were stored on punched paper cards. These instructions could automatically control this machine. He developed it with the intention of devising means of simplifying the weaving process of complex patterns within the textile industry.
Babbage’s Analytical Engine and Difference Engine
Charles Babbage from England is considered the first person to propose the concept of the modern computer hence called the Father of Computing who partially invented two machines that is different and analytical machines.
Difference Engine
In 1823, with the help of a grant from the British Government, he partially built a steam driven mechanical calculator called the Difference Engine to compute logarithms tables.
Analytical Engine
He then thought of an Analytical engine which was a mechanical steam driven mechanical machine which had many characteristics of a modern computer such as input, storage, control, mill, and output. It uses punched cards to restore its data and instructions.
The First Computer Programmer
Lady Augusta Ada Byron Lovelace (1815-1852) is the first world computer programmer.
In 1842, Ada was asked to write a scientific interpretation of the Analytical Engine and its operations. These extensive writings on the Analytical Engine later became known as the first explanation of computer programming.
Notice; In between 1890 to 1946, there were another three inventions that took place. Among the popular developments of computers within this era include;
Hollerith’s tabulating machine (1890)
Howard Aiken’s Harvard Mark I (1944)
Program “debugging” (1944-1946)
Hollerith’s Tabulator
Dr. Herman Hollerith (1860 –1929) was an American statistician who developed a mechanical tabulator based on punched cards to rapidly tabulate statistics from millions of pieces of data.
He decided to use punched cards to represent the data gathered for the USA population census of 1890, and to read and collate this data using an automatic machine.
Hollerith’s machine used a set of spring loaded wires suspended over the punched card reader. When the wires were pressed onto the card, punched holes allowed wires to complete electric circuits. The cards were coded for age, state of residence, gender, and other information
It was a hand operated computer which used punched card for storing and tabulating data. It allowed the 1890 US census to be completed in less than three years.
It is said that before the introduction of this computer, it had taken the Bureau seven years to compile the results but with this computer, it took the Bureau few months to compile the results of 1890census.
He then left the census Bureau to start a business Firm (company) to produce punched card machines. He called his company Dr. Hollerith’s Tabulating Machine Company. He later named it the International Business Machine Corporation (IBM), the present day computer manufacturer.
Howard Aiken’s Harvard Mark I (1944)
Howard Aiken Harvard Mark was a professor at Harvard University who was supported by IBM to build an electro-mechanical computer which began computations for the U.S. Navy Bureau of Ships.
The computer was called the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator – (ASCC) by IBM but Harvard renamed it the Mark I.
It was very reliable, much more so than early electronic computers. The computer had mechanical relays (switches) which flip-flopped back and forth to represent mathematical data. It was huge, weighting some 35 tons with 500 miles of wiring.
IN CONCLUSION
The First Computer Bug
Dr. Grace Murray Hopper was a lady in the U.S. Navy Bureau of Ships, who worked with Howard Aiken from 1944 and used his machine for gunnery and ballistics calculation
One day, the program she was running gave incorrect results and, upon examination, a moth was found blocking one of the relays.
The bug was removed and the program performed to perfection. Since then, a program error in a computer has been called a bug.
Debugging is a process of finding and correcting errors, in a computer program or a piece of electronic hardware.
