How Computers Evolved

Computers were never created for entertainment, they were designed to fulfil human needs, and they were not that advanced either. But over the years, computers have evolved a lot. They have become an inseparable part of human life. Do you know what the first computer was? It was a calculator created to calculate numbers, and you will be astonished to know that its dimensions were approximately 8 by 3 by 98 feet which would occupy 167 meters square. It needed 150 KW electricity to function.

Now, we carry way more powerful computers in our pockets. Thanks to technology. Nevertheless, in this article, we will take a brief look at the evolution of computers. Here we go!

Charles Babbage is considered the inventor of the computer; he designed the first mechanical computer in 1822 that we use today. It weighed more than 700 pounds. Later in 1890, Herman Hollerith invented a punch card system to calculate the 1880 census and later founded a company named IBM.

Alan Turning in 1936 presented the notion of a universal machine which was further called a Turning Machine that had the capability to compute every computable thing. Later in 1941, Atanasoff and his graduate student, Clifford Berry, created a computer with the ability to solve 29 equations simultaneously.

And similarly, several people gave their contributions to create modern computers. Finally, in 1958, Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce developed a computer chip for which Kilby was bestowed with Nobel Prize in Physics.

Douglas Engelbart, in 1964 showed a prototype of a modern computer including a mouse and a graphical user interface. This design marked the evolution of computers. Before this, computers were only meant for scientists and mathematicians, but this prototype played a considerable role in making computers accessible to the general public.

Later in 1969, a group of developers at Bell Labs created an operating system written in C programming language, UNIX. But it was quite slow and hence never gained the attention of the crowd. After that, almost every year, something new was introduced that kept evolving the computers and made them what they are now. The first Apple computer was designed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in 1976.