Today it is difficult to imagine that at least one house does not have a computer or laptop. , that they even stopped remembering, or even didn’t know where the history of these devices began. In order to find out who invented the first computer, you need to clarify what kind of device we are talking about. After all, simple computing machines were also considered a computer, and the invention of the electronic version of this device happened a little later. Let's try to figure out who invented the first computer and when did it happen?

Who created the very first computer: the first computing machines of antiquity

If we rely on historical facts, we can say that the first computer device existed three thousand years BC. The sages of Ancient Babylon came up with a certain computing device that was quite capacious and very inconvenient to use. Then they were interested in this issue during the Middle Ages, but no one was able to fully realize their ideas. This happened because the people who lived in these times behaved as follows:

• they were afraid of everything new and unknown, and the ideas of scientists seemed to them something funny and even scary;
• they believed that this could not really happen and that these machines threatened their family;
• they didn’t want to support talented inventors just because they would have to sacrifice their savings to bring the scientist’s idea to life.

TO then came up with the first computer: Pascal language

Time passed, generations changed, and with them came a new worldview.

IN mid-17th century Pascal invented the first computer- a digital computer, and this is where progress temporarily stopped. It is traditionally believed that the binary system he invented laid the foundation for programming, and he became the pioneer of technology. However, this is not quite true.

After Pascal's efforts, everyone forgot about computer technology for a while. But already in the 20th century, this topic again interested scientists, and enormous efforts were expended to ensure that progress began in the field of high technology.

Who createdfirst computer?

The issue of creating “artificial intelligence” has become urgent in Europe. The military were especially interested in this topic. Already in 1941, a trial, programmed computer Z1 appeared. Following it came a more convenient modification - Z3. They became prototypes of modern technology. The latest model was assembled by Condor Zuse. In 1942, the famous American physicist John Atanasov and his young graduate student Clifford Berry began installing the world's first electronic computer. At that time it was called ENIAK.

They assembled the first electronic computer perfectly, but still, who came up with the first computer, or rather, the actual design of it?

Founder of the idea and inventor of the first electronic computer in the world became a famous American engineer and physicist John Mauchly. This is the only correct answer to the question of who invented the first electronic computer. But people could not use this device for a long time due to the fact that:

• the first electronic computer was huge in size and its correct placement required a space that was equal to the area of ​​three apartments;
• working with such a giant was inconvenient and very difficult;
• the weight of the device was 28 tons, which is thousands of times more than the weight of a modern computer;
• It was very unprofitable to produce such technical devices, and this forced them to be completely abandoned.

But science does not stand still and progress moves forward, and now the first personal computer has appeared.

The invention of the personal computer is an event that changed the world

After a successful attempt to create an electronic computer, other scientists decided to repeat and even surpass the success of their colleague John Mauchly and worked on the invention of the PC. Such personal computers were in everyone's homes until recently; they appeared in 1970. And it all started with simple computers.

New functions were added to the device, which subsequently began to be used in the development of laptops, tablets, mobile phones, and smartphones. Just like that, less than a hundred years have passed since an entire technical industry emerged from the first electronic computer.

The computer era began with one very simple but interesting invention. And even though the bulk of humanity is no longer interested in who invented the first computer and how it appeared, people who are engaged in the production of modern technology of this kind will always remember the name of John Moccley. It was this person who gave a good impetus and gathered talented individuals into a team and made them believe in their project. Who knows, if not for his inventions, perhaps all the ideas would have remained at the level of simple, unfulfilled plans. Thanks to this invention, the world has become simpler and...

First computer: video

According to statistics, the number of computers on our planet exceeds two billion, and this figure is increasing every day. Now it is difficult to imagine the modern world without computers and programmable devices. Every day we start a computer for work, communication, entertainment, use smartphones, tablets and other smart devices. All these devices are the result of the continuous development of computer technology. How did it all begin? What was the very first computer in the world? In this article we will delve a little deeper into the history of computing.

The history of the world's first computer

ENIAC was the first electronic device that could be programmed to solve mathematical problems. ENIAC was created in 1943 at the University of Pennsylvania for the US Army. It was developed by computer scientist John Presper Eckert and physicist-engineer John William Mauchly.

The main task of the ENIAC computer was to calculate ballistic firing tables, which were extremely necessary for artillerymen during the war. The shooting tables contained information about the distance to the target, sight adjustments and other important calculations. Before the appearance the world's first computer, these tables were compiled by clerks using adding machines. One clerk, or “calculator,” could compile such a table in 4 (!) years.

Naturally, to solve such a problem, a fairly powerful device was needed. In April 1943, the “Electronic Diff. analyzer”, later ENIAC, was presented at the Ballistic Laboratory conference. After the project was approved, more than 60 thousand US dollars were allocated for the creation of ENIAC.

From 1943 to 1945, active development of ENIAC took place under the command of Eckert and Mauchly. . Development was completed in 1945, when the need for artillery tables disappeared, because. the war was over. The United States decided to use ENIAC for calculations when creating thermonuclear weapons, aviation, and even weather forecasts. The United States spent 486 thousand dollars on the creation of ENIAC.

Specifications

This “monster” weighed 27 tons, consumed 174 kW of energy, and could perform 5 thousand addition operations, or multiply numbers 357 times per second. It operated at a frequency of 100 KHz and had a memory capacity of 20 number-slots. It is worth noting that the computer worked in the decimal number system.

ENIAC consisted of seventeen thousand vacuum tubes, about seven thousand diodes, 1,500 relays, 70,000 resistors and ten thousand capacitors. The breakdown of at least one lamp or diode meant a breakdown of the entire system. This device worked without transistors, because at that time they did not yet exist.

Programming such a computer was a very difficult task. For more than a week, engineers could develop calculations that the machine performed in 5 minutes. Due to frequent breakdowns, lamp burnouts and overheating, ENIAC could operate for no more than 20 hours at a time, performing a large amount of work.

Bottom line

ENIAC is a computer developed for military purposes that made major breakthroughs in computer engineering. Electronics and computers began to actively develop thanks to ENIAC. Now we are sitting at a small laptop, or holding a smartphone in our hands and don’t even think that the “ancestor” of this device was a device that occupied an area of ​​200 m2 and weighed as much as a tram.

2 The first computer................................................... ........................................................ ................4

3 Generations of computers................................................... ........................................................ .........6

3.1 First generation of computers.................................................... ........................................6

3.2 Second generation of computers.................................................... ........................................7

3.3 Third generation of computers.................................................... ..............................................8

3.3.1 Minicomputer................................................... ........................................................ ........9

3.4 Fourth generation of computers.................................................... ......................................10

3.4.1 Supercomputer................................................... ........................................................ .......12

3.5 Fifth generation of computers.................................................... .............................................13

History of the invention of computers

1 How it all began

At the end of the 19th century, Herman Hollerith in America invented counting and punching machines. They used punched cards to store numerical information.

Each such machine could execute only one specific program, manipulating punched cards and numbers punched on them.

Counting and punching machines performed perforation, sorting, summing, and printing numerical tables. These machines were able to solve many typical problems of statistical processing, accounting and others.

G. Hollerith founded a company producing counting and punching machines, which was then transformed into IBM, now the world's most famous computer manufacturer.

The immediate predecessors of computers were relay computers.

By the 30s of the 20th century, relay automation was greatly developed, which made it possible to encode information in binary form.

During the operation of a relay machine, thousands of relays switch from one state to another.

In the first half of the 20th century, radio technology developed rapidly. The main element of radio receivers and radio transmitters at that time were electron vacuum tubes.

Electron tubes became the technical basis for the first electronic computers (computers).

2 First computer

The first computer - a universal machine using vacuum tubes - was built in the USA in 1945.

This machine was called ENIAC (stands for: Electronic Digital Integrator and Calculator). The designers of ENIAC were J. Mauchly and J. Eckert.

The counting speed of this machine exceeded the speed of relay machines of that time by a thousand times.

The first electronic computer, ENIAC, was programmed using the plug-and-switch method, that is, the program was built by connecting individual blocks of the machine with conductors on a switchboard.

This complex and tedious procedure for preparing the machine for work made it inconvenient to use.

The basic ideas on which computer technology developed for many years were developed by the greatest American mathematician John von Neumann

In 1946, the journal Nature published an article by J. von Neumann, G. Goldstein and A. Burks, “A Preliminary Consideration of the Logical Design of an Electronic Computing Device.”

This article outlined the principles of the design and operation of a computer. The main one is the principle of stored program, according to which the data and the program are placed in the general memory of the machine.

The fundamental description of the structure and operation of a computer is usually called computer architecture. The ideas presented in the above-mentioned article were called “J. von Neumann’s computer architecture.”

In 1949, the first computer with Neumann architecture was built - the English EDSAC machine.

A year later, the American EDVAC computer appeared. The named machines existed in single copies. Serial production of computers began in developed countries in the 50s.

In our country, the first computer was created in 1951. It was called MESM - small electronic calculating machine. The designer of the MESM was Sergei Alekseevich Lebedev.

Under the leadership of S.A. Lebedev in the 50s, serial tube computers BESM-1 (large electronic calculating machine), BESM-2, M-20 were built.

At that time, these cars were among the best in the world.

In the 60s S.A. Lebedev led the development of semiconductor computers BESM-ZM, BESM-4, M-220, M-222.

The BESM-6 machine was an outstanding achievement of that period. This is the first domestic and one of the first computers in the world with a speed of 1 million operations per second. Subsequent ideas and developments by S.A. Lebedev contributed to the creation of more advanced machines of subsequent generations.

From Apple) creates a personal computer and receives a patent for it!

Did you know that the world's first personal computer was created not by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in a Palo Alto garage, but by a simple Soviet designer Arseny Anatolyevich Gorokhov at the Omsk Research Institute of Aviation Technologies?

Let's rewind time.

1950s. Computers are huge, bulky and expensive. The Soviet "Whirlwind" of 1951, the first machine with data output to the screen, has only 100% RAM. 512 bytes, occupies a two-story house. American "peer" - Univac– has a magnetic metal tape drive, a high-speed printer, but weighs 13 tons and costs about $1.5 million. Bendix G-15, released in 1956, is called a mini-computer - in fact it weighs 450 kg and costs at least $50,000. Not a single car deserves the title of personal car.

1960s. Computers are becoming faster, more powerful, and more compact. The first commercial computer equipped with a keyboard and monitor is released in the USA - "PDP-1". The dimensions of the new device are the size of three refrigerators, the price is tens of times lower than the cost of a regular large computer. A big step forward, but not enough for the widespread introduction of technology. Total only 50 copies were sold.

The first “home” computer claims to be Honeywell Kitchen Computer, introduced in the US in 1969. It weighed about 65 kg, cost 10600$ , was a pedestal with a built-in cutting board, a panel of lights and buttons. It performed only one function - storing various recipes. Working with the “kitchen computer” required two weeks of training because recipes were displayed on the screen in binary code. There were no people willing to purchase such an expensive “cookbook”.

1970s. With the creation of the first microprocessor, the era of personal computers begins. Inventors compete to build their own models. American entrepreneur Edward Roberts is the first to realize how great the potential of the 8-bit microprocessor is. Intel 8080, released in 1974, and creates a microcomputer based on it "Altair 8800". Thanks to a deal concluded with Intel for the wholesale purchase of microprocessors ($75 per unit, with a retail price of $360), Roberts sets a record price for his invention - only 397 “buckets”! Advertising on the cover of a respected magazine "Popular Electronics" behind 1975 the year is doing its job. In the first month, developers sell several thousand copies "Altair 8800". However, the received order comes as a surprise to buyers: the kit consists of a set of parts and a box for the case. Users have to solder, test, and create programs in machine language themselves. (Which, of course, is also not bad, because it is on "Altair 8800" founders "Microsoft" Bill Gates and Paul Allen are testing their famous program - "Basic").

Be that as it may, Roberts’ computer is a godsend for inventors, and “mere mortals” are still left without technology. To help them in 1976 year, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs come, deciding to sell their "Apple I" , assembled for personal use in a garage in Palo Alto (California). The cost of a new computer is 666,66$ . And the main advantage is that, unlike "Altair 8800" and many other cars of that time, "Apple I" offered already assembled. All you need is a case, a keyboard and a monitor. But they will also be included in the kit 2 years later, in the serial production of color, sound "Apple II". This is the history of the personal computer.

Stop, stop, stop... But what about the Soviet scientist and the Research Institute of Aviation Technologies?!

Oh yes! Completely forgot. There are in the history of personal computers and dark page.

Here is how it was. In the distant 1968 year, 8 years before the first Apple, Soviet electrical engineer Arseny Anatolyevich Gorokhov invented the car entitled “Device for specifying a program for reproducing the contour of a part.” So, in any case, it is indicated in the patent, copyright certificate № 383005 , dated May 18, 1968. The name is not accidental, because the developed device was intended primarily for creating complex engineering drawings. The inventor himself prefers to call the device a “programmable device intellect.”

According to the drawings, the “intellector” had a monitor, a separate system unit with a hard drive, a device for solving autonomous problems and personal communication with a computer, motherboard, memory, video card and other things, with the exception of a computer mouse.

Omsk electromechanical engineer Arseny Gorokhov 45 years ago invented a device that is now called a Personal Computer

According to the website “Omsk Time”, today, unfortunately, it is impossible to see the world’s first personal computer; the institution where it was created, the “mailbox” Omsk Research Institute of Aviation Technologies, has been closed for several years. The author of the invention still has patent, with description "Programmable intellect device" and an entry in the Russian book of records DIVO: 45 years ago in 1968, Omsk electromechanical engineer Arseny Gorokhov invented a device that is now called a Personal Computer.

Now Gorokhov uses his personal computer mainly as a typewriter. According to him, it was new 5 years ago, and to do an “upgrade”, that is, to modernize, is expensive, the pension will not be enough.

The components of a modern computer - a monitor, a system unit, a keyboard - were also in Gorokhov’s “intellector,” although under different names. The device was intended primarily for creating complex engineering drawings. Gorokhov also developed his own “software” - a way to dialogue with a machine without thick packs of punched cards and a team of programmers. But further All-Union patent things didn’t work out - the invention was not given the green light, and in 1975 they learned that the term “personal computer” was given to the world by the American company Apple.

40 copyright certificates and patents of Arseny Gorokhov over three decades are just moral satisfaction from his work. Traces of material remained in the patent records - 20 rubles for each, not included in the series. If a new product was still allowed to make its way into the “series,” the author received 1000 times more. Just to recognize the mysterious "law of luck" The inventor did not always succeed. And now Gorokhov calculates the probable profits from the opposite, not “how much they received, but how much they could not.”

“It is not oil that is the future of Russia, but inventors”- the leitmotif of Gorokhov’s next article, “The System for Accelerated Development of Inventions,” published in the last, 12th, 2003 issue of the magazine “Intellectual Property.” It is a pity that in Russia there is no practice, like in the United States, where the President meets with the head of the Patent Office twice a year. Increasingly, instead of a sense of pride, one has to use irony, says the author. Prospects are fading.

Now on the inventor’s desktop is a new type of periodic table, and a blank for spatial television. It’s just that there were no people interested in the idea, except for rare guest journalists.

About the invention cell phone article “The Mystery of the Cell”...

The history of the creation of a modern computer does not even go back a hundred years, although the first attempts to make counting easier were made by man 3000 BC in Ancient Babylon. However, today not every user knows what he looked like. It's worth noting that it had little in common with a modern personal device.

Excursion into history

Although the first computer was not introduced to the public until the end of World War II, work on it began at the beginning of the 20th century. But all the computers created before ENIAC never found practical application, nevertheless, they also became certain stages in the movement of progress.

• Russian researcher and scientist A. Krylov developed the first machine that solved differential equations in 1912.
• 1927 USA, scientists developed the first analog device.
• 1938 Germany, Konrad Tzue created the Z1 computer model. Three years later, the same scientist developed the next version of the Z3 computer, which was more similar to modern devices than others.
• 1941 USA, the first automatic computer “Mark 1” was created under a subcontract agreement with IBM. The following models were created successively at intervals of several years: “Mark II”, “Mark III/ADEC”, “Mark IV”.
• 1946 USA, presented to the publicthe very first computer in the world- ENIAC, which was practically applicable in military calculations.
• 1949 Russia, Sergei Lebedev presented the first Soviet computer in drawings; by 1950, MESM was built and put into mass production.
• 1968 Russia, A. Gorokhov created a project for a machine containing a motherboard, an input device, a video card and memory.
• 1975 USA, the first serial computer Altair 8800 was created. The device was based on an Intel microprocessor

As you can see, developments did not stand still and progress moved by leaps and bounds. Very little time passed and massive, ridiculous devices were transformed into the modern personal computers we are familiar with.

ENIAC- the very first computer in the world

I would like to pay a little more attention to this device. It was he who was awarded the title of the world's first computer, despite the fact that some models had been developed before it. This is due to the fact that ENIAC became the first computer to find practical application. It is worth noting that the machine was put into operation in 1945 and was finally disconnected from power in October 1955. Agree, 10 years of continuous service is a considerable period for the first computer that has found practical application.

How the computer was used

Initially the very first computer in the worldwas created to calculate firing tables required for artillery troops. The teams of calculations could not cope with their work, since the calculations took time. Then, in 143, a project for an electronic computer was presented to the military commission, which was approved, and active construction of the machine began. The process was completed only in 1945, so it was not possible to use ENIAC for military purposes and it was taken to the University of Pennsylvania to carry out calculations in the development of thermonuclear weapons.

Mathematical modeling became a difficult task for the first computer, so the formation of models took place according to the most simplified schemes. Nevertheless, the desired result was achieved and the possibility of creating a hydrogen bomb was proven with the help of ENIAC. In 1947, the machine began to be used for calculations using the Monte Carlo method.

In addition, in 1946, an aerodynamic problem was solved at ENIAC; physicist D. Hartree analyzed the problem of air flowing around an aircraft wing at supersonic speeds.

In 1949, Von Neumann calculated the constants Pi ande.ENIAC presented the data with an accuracy of 2 thousand decimal places.

In 1950, a numerical calculation of the weather forecast was made on a computer, which turned out to be quite accurate. Despite the fact that the calculations themselves took a lot of time.

The creators of the machine

It is difficult to name the sole creator of the first computer. A large team of engineers and programmers worked on ENIAC. Initially, the creators of the project were John Mauchly and John Eckert. Mauchly was a faculty member at the Moore Institute at the time, and Eckert was enrolled as a student there. They began developing a computer architecture and presented the computer project to the commission.

In addition, the following people took part in the creation of the machine:

• battery development - Jack Davey;
• data input/output module – Harry Husky;
• multiplication module - Arthur Burks;
• division module and root extraction - Jeffrey Chuan Chu;
• Lead Programmer – Thomas Kite Sharples;
• function tables - Robert Shaw;
• scientific consultant - John von Neumann.

Also, a whole staff of programmers worked on the machine.

Device settings

As mentioned above,the world's first computerwas completely different from modern devices. It was a very massive structure, consisting of more than 17 thousand lamps of 16 types, more than 7 thousand silicon diodes, 1.5 thousand relays, 70 thousand resistors and 10 thousand capacitors. As a result, the weight of the first operating computer was 27 tons.

Specifications:

• device memory capacity – 20 number of words;
• the power consumed by the machine is 174 kW;
• computing power 5000 addition operations per second. For multiplication, the machine used multiple addition, so the performance dropped and amounted to only 357 operations.
• clock frequency – 100 kHz;
• punched card tabulator for input and output of information.

The decimal number system was used to carry out calculations, although the binary code was already known to scientists.

It is worth noting that during the calculation process, ENIAC required so much electricity that the nearest city was often left without power for many hours. To change the calculation algorithm, reconnection of the device was required. Von Neumann then improved the computer and added memory containing basic computer programs, which greatly simplified the work of programmers.

ENIAC became a zero generation computer. In its design it is impossible to guess the prerequisites for the creation of modern devices. The calculation processes were also not as productive as scientists might have wanted. Nevertheless, it was this machine that proved that it was possible to create a completely electronic computer and gave impetus to further development.

Some details todaythe very first computer in the worldare kept in the National Museum of American History. The complete structure takes up too much space to be presented for review. Despite the fact that this was one of the first attempts to create a working machine, the computer remained in working order for 10 years and at the time of its creation played a huge and irreplaceable role in the development of computer technology.

Subsequently, the machines became smaller and smaller, and their capabilities became more extensive. The first Apple 1 was released in 1976. And the first computer game was released back in 1962. Even now, the development of computer technology does not stand still. What do you think awaits us in the future?