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Computers have become so fundamental to modern society that without them, our economy would grind to a halt. They are such flexible tools that most people in the business community use them every day.
In general terms, a computer is an electronic device used to process data. Today’s computers are continuously becoming smaller, faster and more powerful then the computers used in 50 years ago.
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DENNIS RITCHIE
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KEN THOMPSON
In 1969, "Dennis Ritchie" and "Ken Thompson" created UNIX and open operating system for mini computers. It was a scaled-down version of the MULTICS operating system. UNIX helped users with general computing, work processing and networking and soon became standard language and is the most powerful operating system in modern world.
"Dennis Ritchie" is best known as the author of the "C PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE".
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The Fist Computer
"Konrad Zuse" is largely unknown in North America but is a celebrated computer pioneer in his native Germany. Zuse developed functioning program controlled computing machinery as early as 1936 and went on to form a successful European computer business in the 1950’s.
Many encyclopedias and other reference work states that the first large-scale automatic digital computer was the "HARVARD MARK 1". However, in the aftermath of World War II it was discovered that a program-controlled computer called "Z3" had been completed in Germany in 1941, which means that Z3 pre-dated the "HARVARD MARK 1". The Z3’s architect was "Konrad Zuse" who developed his first machine, "Z1" in his parent’s living room in Berlin in 1938.
It is necessary to understand that his background was in construction and civil engineering (not electronics). He was completely unaware of any computer-related developments in Germany or in any other country. Today Z3 is widely acknowledged as being the first fully functional automatic digital computer.
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ENIAC AND UNIVAC
In early 1940's and 50's, computers were massive special purpose machines that only huge institutions such as governments, the military and universities could afford. The giant computers such as ENIAC (Electronic Numeric Integrator and Calculator) and UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computers) were big enough to fill a large room. Even with their enormous electronic "brains", these wondrous machines had a little more real computing power than a modern day digital wristwatch or hand held calculators.
TOM KILBURN
"Tom Kilburn" dominated the field of British computer engineering in its formative years. His early work with "Frederic Williams" at the University of Manchester in 1947 concentrated on the digital storage of information on a cathode-ray rube.
The result of their work was the WILLIAMS-TUBE the first random access electronic storage device. To test it, in 1948 Kilburn led the work on designing and building of "THE BABY", a small scale experimental machine. The BABY was the first stored-program computer, the first computer in the world that could hold user program and data in electronic speeds. By 1949, the BABY had developed into the full sized "MANCHESTER MARK 1".
In the early fifties, Kilburn led the development of two new pioneering computer, a point contract transistor computer (1953) and a floating-point computer (1954). Local manufacturers turned all three computers into commercial machines.
Kilburn then led the development of the ATLAS system, which pioneered many modern concepts such as paging virtual memory and multiprogramming and influenced the development of computer systems through out the world. In 1962, it was considered the most powerful computer in the world.
Tom Kilburn was Professor of Computer Engineering (1960) the Computer Science (1964) at the Manchester University, retiring in 1981. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, a founder member of the Fellowship of Engineering and a recipient of the Royal Medal of the Royal Society.
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THE WHIRL WIND I
In 1945, "Jay Forrester" graduating with an MS degree from M.I.T worked on a number of analog computer projects for the U.S. Navy. In 1948, when the demands of an aircraft stability analyzer appeared to outstrip the analog computer techniques of the day, Forrester began work on a digital machine, The "WHIRLWIND 1". It would advance the state of the computer art in many fundamental ways, including the development of high-speed circuits.
The "WHIRL WIND 1" was the first "real time" computer, made possible by Forrester’s development of "coincident-current" magnetic core memory, which remained the dominant memory technology until the 1970’s.
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IBM SYSTEM/360
In 1960's, modern computer began to revolutionize the business world. During 1960's, "Gene Amdahl", the director of IBM’s Advanced Computing System Laboratory in Menlo Park, California, led the design of the IBM System/360 mainframe computer and ultimately sold more than 33,000 of these machines, Fred Brooks Jr. also worked with Gene Amdahl in designing System/360. Due to the commercial success of IBM System/360. IBM became standard against the other computer manufacturers.
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