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History of computing is the study of how humans developed machines and software to perform calculations, store information, and communicate. The history of computing covers a wide range of topics, from ancient devices like the abacus and the Antikythera mechanism, to modern inventions like the electronic computer and the internet. Learn more about the origins, evolution, and impact of ...
While first-generation computers typically had a small number of index registers or none, several lines of second-generation computers had large numbers of index registers, e.g., Atlas, Bendix G-20, IBM 7070. The first generation had pioneered the use of special facilities for calling subroutines, e.g., TSX on the IBM 709. In the second ...
The world's first electronic digital computer, the Atanasoff–Berry computer, was built on the Iowa State campus from 1939 through 1942 by John V. Atanasoff, a professor of physics and mathematics, and Clifford Berry, an engineering graduate student. In 1941, Konrad Zuse developed the world's first functional program-controlled computer, the Z3.
A computer is a machine that can be programmed to automatically carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations ( computation ). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as programs. These programs enable computers to perform a wide range of tasks. The term computer system may refer to a nominally ...
Vacuum-tube computer. A vacuum-tube computer, now termed a first-generation computer, is a computer that uses vacuum tubes for logic circuitry. While the history of mechanical aids to computation goes back centuries, if not millennia, the history of vacuum tube computers is confined to the middle of the 20th century.
The fourth generation computers began with the shipment of CPS-1, the first commercial microprocessor microcomputer in 1972 and for the purposes of this list marks the end of the "early" third generation computer era. Note that third generation computers were offered well into the 1990s. The list is organized by delivery year to customers or ...
Timeline of computing presents events in the history of computing organized by year and grouped into six topic areas: predictions and concepts, first use and inventions, hardware systems and processors, operating systems, programming languages, and new application areas. Detailed computing timelines: before 1950, 1950–1979, 1980–1989, 1990 ...
SEAC (Standards Eastern Automatic Computer) demonstrated at US NBS in Washington, DC – was the first fully functional stored-program computer in the U.S. May 1950. UK. The Pilot ACE computer, with 800 vacuum tubes, and mercury delay lines for its main memory, became operational on 10 May 1950 at the National Physical Laboratory near London.