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'Computer' Word
The word 'computer' was first used in 1613. It was used to describe a human who performed calculations or computations. Mankind's definition of 'computer' remained the same until the 19th century, when people started realizing machines never get tired and can perform calculations faster and accurater than humans, therefore eliminating human error. -
Binary
Binary is the language of computers, made up of 2 numbers: 1 and 0. It was invented by Gottifred Leibniz, found in his article Explication de l'Arithmétique Binaire in 1679. Today, all computers see words and programs in binary code. Even though it looks like nonsense to us, computers full understand it and is capable of solving equations in binary. -
Analytical Engine
The Analytical Engine was the first fully-automatic calculating machine, made by British mathematician Charles Babbage. It was the successor to the DIfference Engine. The key function was the conditional statement, so the program acheives different results every time. He used one that could read punched cards, which made it programmable! Countess Lady Lovelace (Ada Byron), worked with him on the project and eventually became known as the first computer programmer. -
Hollerith Desk
In 1809, Herman Hollerith built a machine to help with USA's 1809 Census. Like the Analytical Engine, it used punch cards and gears, but it was run on electricity! It consisted of a card reader which sensed the holes in the punched cards, a gear driven mechanism that counted and a large wall of indicators to display the count. Gradually, his company grew into the biggest computer-maker in the world- IBM, which greatly increased the use of punch cards. -
Atanasoff-Berry Computer
The Atanasoff-Berry Computer was the first automatic electronic digital computer. It was invented in 1937 by Dr John Vincent Atanasoff and graduate student Clifford Berry. It was the first machine to implement 3 critical ideas that are now found in modern computers: using binary digits to represent numbers and data, performing calculations using electronics and organizing a system where computation and memory are separated. -
Colossus
The Colossus was the world's first electronic digital programmable computer .It was invented by a man called Tommy Flowers. The Colossus was used in World War 2 by the Allies to crack German codes. It attacked it's first message on the 5th of February 1944. Because it was built for war, their innovations were not available for commercial computer development for many years. The name 'Colossus' meant big, and the Colossus was certainly big! -
ENIAC
The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) was the first electronic general-use computer. It was invented in 1946 by John Mauchly and J Presper Eckert. It is considered the grandfather of digital computers. It was way bigger than modern computers, filling a 20 by 40 foot room with around 18,000 vacuum tubes. -
Transistor
The transistor was a revolutionary device. It was created by American physicts John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley. It is the key componenet in practically all modern electronics, because it is the building block of all microchips. It creates all the 1s and 0s of binary. Transistors help computers complete complex calculations. -
Touch screen
Touch screens are everywhere these days. On phones, on computers, on tablets...you name it! However, the touch screen is quite old. The first finger-driven touch screen was invented in 1965 by E.A. Johnson. The first touch screen computer was the HP-150, invented by HP in 1983. The first touch screen phone, the Simon Personal Communicator, was launched by IBM and BellSouth in 1993. In 1999 Intel invented the first touch screen tablet, the WebPAD, later known as the Intel Web Tablet. -
Microprocessor
The microprocessor is the heart of a computer. Also known as the central processing unit (CPU), it was invented in 1971 by Ted Hoff, Masatoshi Shima, Stanley Mazor and Federico Faggin. It is a complete computation engine on one chip. Nowadays, many transistors are built onto a microprocessor in a computer to calculate equations. -
Internet
The Internet is truly amazing. It is a huge network that links computers together all over the world.We use it daily, to talk with our friends and do work.However, even though it is always called the World Wide Web (WWW), it is not the same. The Internet was invented in 1973 by Americans Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf. -
Apple 1
The Apple 1 was the first computer made by the now world famous technology giant Apple. It was designed and built by Steve Wozniak, but his friend Steve Jobs decided to make a business by selling it. The Apple 1's built-in computer terminal was very special. All one needed was a computer keyboard and a TV set. This was what made the Apple 1 innovative. -
Windows
Windows is used in practically every computer, apart from Apple. It is a graphical interface operating system. It was developed on the 20th of November 1985 by Microsoft. Windows eventually dominated the world's personal computer market with over 90% market share. The first version, Windows 1.0 did not gain much popularity, losing in the battle against Apple's graphical user interface (GUI). The most recent verions, Windows 8.1 was released on October 17th 2013. -
WWW
We use the Web practically every hour. Without the Web, we would all be bored to death! But why has it played such an important part in our lives? The World Wide Web is software that allows you to access information on the Internet. It was proposed by Britsh computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee in 1989, and it officially began on August 7th 1991. -
USB Flash Drive
The Universal Serial Bus (USB) Flash Drive is something we use in our everyday lives. It is great for storing data, and is basically smaller than your pinkie. If your computer happens to be wiped out, then you can use your USB to get all your datta back. The USB was invented by Amir Ban, Dov Moran and Oron Ogdan in April 1999.
