Charles Babbage, Konrad Zuse and the computer
With purely mechanical means already in the Baroque era mathematician calculators had built. Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) constructed a calculating machine, which worked with the familiar decimal system and was very awkward to use. But they nevertheless facilitated the addition of large numbers. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz (1646-1716) built a little later a calculating machine that already mastered all basic arithmetic operations.
Punch cards to control looms
The Frenchman Joseph Marie Jacquard (1752-1834) used to control its mechanical loom already punched cards. On this principle the end of the 19th century the German-Americans Hermann Hollerith resorted (1860-1929), as of the data of that census in the United States was punch in punch cards, which were then evaluated by counting in electromechanical time unmatched speed. This machine sat soon in general authorities and offices by.
The Unfinished professor of mathematics
Far more demanding computing tasks should resolve as early as 1830, the "difference machine" of the English mathematics professor Charles Babbage (1791-1871), a behemoth with hundreds of gears, which, however, was never quite finished. Later, he planned a more universal purpose machine incorporating a calculating device and control work, but could not be built with the former mechanical means.
Z1 to Z4 - the ancestors of all the electronic brains
Konrad Zuse
Since the 1920s, an electromagnetic switch and memory element had in the automatic telephone exchange technology proven, the relay. It basically consists of a wire coil with an iron core, before, is attached a movable piece of sheet metal, the so-called anchor. If the coil traversed by a direct current, so it attracts the armature closes or opens one or more mechanically coupled contacts. With this device began in 1936, the German mechanical engineer Konrad Zuse (1910-1995) to construct a calculating machine, which should relieve him of the lengthy calculations. So a two times two meters large unit, the Z1 was built. In the period of World War II, the Z3, the arithmetic unit consisted of 2,000 relay originated. A functional replica is located in the Deutsches Museum in Munich. With the Z4 Zuse had yet another machine to follow, but the line of the German Wehrmacht did not recognize the importance of its development.
Intensifier tubes instead of relays: The USA win the race
In the US, computer development has been heavily promoted during the 2nd World War.1945 the first large-scale computer system was completed with a total of 17,000 intensifier tubes, the "ENIAC". She counted a thousand times faster than the systems with relays. At the same time, the American mathematician John von Neumann described the structure of today's computers with arithmetic unit, control unit and memory, as well as input and output devices.
Transistors make the breakthrough
Advances in electronics have benefited even the computers. In the 1960s, the tubes were replaced by transistors, the revenue only 1/100 of the power and 1/100 of the volume of tubes and also were more reliable. With the so-called planar technique, it was possible to produce a plurality of transistors and other components on a silicon wafer at the same time. The previously soldered onto printed circuit boards assemblies were in a tiny package to a so-called integrated circuit - called IC - -. In English Integrated Circuit united, not only at least 100 times smaller, special also to manufacture much cheaper. Today up to 100 million transistors on a so-called. Microchip integrated and the development is not yet over. In parallel with the advances in hardware and operating systems and application software have been continuously improved and adapted to the needs of even computer laymen.
With purely mechanical means already in the Baroque era mathematician calculators had built. Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) constructed a calculating machine, which worked with the familiar decimal system and was very awkward to use. But they nevertheless facilitated the addition of large numbers. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz (1646-1716) built a little later a calculating machine that already mastered all basic arithmetic operations.
Punch cards to control looms
The Frenchman Joseph Marie Jacquard (1752-1834) used to control its mechanical loom already punched cards. On this principle the end of the 19th century the German-Americans Hermann Hollerith resorted (1860-1929), as of the data of that census in the United States was punch in punch cards, which were then evaluated by counting in electromechanical time unmatched speed. This machine sat soon in general authorities and offices by.
The Unfinished professor of mathematics
Far more demanding computing tasks should resolve as early as 1830, the "difference machine" of the English mathematics professor Charles Babbage (1791-1871), a behemoth with hundreds of gears, which, however, was never quite finished. Later, he planned a more universal purpose machine incorporating a calculating device and control work, but could not be built with the former mechanical means.
Z1 to Z4 - the ancestors of all the electronic brains
Konrad Zuse
Since the 1920s, an electromagnetic switch and memory element had in the automatic telephone exchange technology proven, the relay. It basically consists of a wire coil with an iron core, before, is attached a movable piece of sheet metal, the so-called anchor. If the coil traversed by a direct current, so it attracts the armature closes or opens one or more mechanically coupled contacts. With this device began in 1936, the German mechanical engineer Konrad Zuse (1910-1995) to construct a calculating machine, which should relieve him of the lengthy calculations. So a two times two meters large unit, the Z1 was built. In the period of World War II, the Z3, the arithmetic unit consisted of 2,000 relay originated. A functional replica is located in the Deutsches Museum in Munich. With the Z4 Zuse had yet another machine to follow, but the line of the German Wehrmacht did not recognize the importance of its development.
Intensifier tubes instead of relays: The USA win the race
In the US, computer development has been heavily promoted during the 2nd World War.1945 the first large-scale computer system was completed with a total of 17,000 intensifier tubes, the "ENIAC". She counted a thousand times faster than the systems with relays. At the same time, the American mathematician John von Neumann described the structure of today's computers with arithmetic unit, control unit and memory, as well as input and output devices.
Transistors make the breakthrough
Advances in electronics have benefited even the computers. In the 1960s, the tubes were replaced by transistors, the revenue only 1/100 of the power and 1/100 of the volume of tubes and also were more reliable. With the so-called planar technique, it was possible to produce a plurality of transistors and other components on a silicon wafer at the same time. The previously soldered onto printed circuit boards assemblies were in a tiny package to a so-called integrated circuit - called IC - -. In English Integrated Circuit united, not only at least 100 times smaller, special also to manufacture much cheaper. Today up to 100 million transistors on a so-called. Microchip integrated and the development is not yet over. In parallel with the advances in hardware and operating systems and application software have been continuously improved and adapted to the needs of even computer laymen.
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