ENIAC

What was the first computer in history? It depends on what we mean by “computer”

The ENIAC computer. Credit: TexasDex at English Wikipedia., CC BY–SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Whether you are reading this article from a PC or a smartphone, you are still using a computer. By this term, in fact, we mean «a machine that is capable of accepting and storing within it a large amount of information in a specific form, processing it and providing the results of the processing in the form of digital data”to use the dictionary definition of “computer”. Treccani. This is why to answer the question that forms the basis of this article – What was the first computer in history? – we answer “Depends”.

If we refer to the computer as an electronic machine, theENIAC (1945) – a 30-ton beast that contained 18,000 valves and occupied a room of 140 square meters, created by John W. Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert at the University of Pennsylvania – represents in fact the first computer in history to fall within this category, that is, it was the first entirely electronic programmable computer. If we refer to the concept of computing automation, however, the history of the computer begins much earlier, with machines Babbage (1820) or Atanasoff (1941). Let’s retrace together the fundamental stages that led to the development of what we now call “computer”.

1820-1958: from the first “mechanical” computer in history to the birth of integrated circuits

The Difference Engineconceived in 1820 by the English mathematician Charles Babbageis considered the first “mechanical” computer in history. Powered by steam via a hand crank, the machine was able to calculate a series of values ​​and print the results in a table.

Babbage's Computer
Babbage’s Difference Engine. Credit: geniuses. CC BY–SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Over a century later, in 1941, John Vincent Atanasoffprofessor of physics and mathematics at Iowa State University and his graduate student, Clifford Berrythey design the first digital electronic computerwhich went down in history as ABC (Atanasoff-Berry Computer). It was the first computer to store information in its main memory.

The first electronic and programmable computer in historyinstead, it was the gigantic machine ENIAC (Electrical Numerical Integrator And Calculator), conceived in [1945 from John W. Mauchly And J. Presper Eckert from the University of Pennsylvania. This machine is considered the first «electronic, automatic, general purpose decimal digital computer”at least according to the book Milestones in Computer Science and Information Technology by Edwin D. Reilly. ENIAC used a word of 10 decimal places (rather than binary) and was the first machine to use 18,000 vacuum tubesmaking it occupy over 167 square meters of surface area.

ENIAC
ENIAC. Author unknown. Credit: US Army Photo, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain photo).

In the 1950sthe use of transistor – invented in 1947 from William Shockley, John Bardeen And Walter Brattain of Bell Labs – retired vacuum tubes in computers, as well as radios and other electronic devices. This was because vacuum tubes were highly inefficient, required a lot of space, and had to be replaced often. And since computers of the 1940s and 1950s contained 18,000 valves, which produced enormous heat that needed to be cooled, using transistors solved many of these problems. Even the transistors, however, had some problems. In particular, since they needed to be soldered together, as the circuits became complex, the connections between individual transistors became more intricate, increasing the likelihood of faulty wiring.

In the 1958this problem was also solved by Jack St. Clair Kilby of Texas Instruments, which designed the first integrated circuit or chip (which earned him the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2000), which essentially represents a collection of tiny transistors connected to each other when they are produced, thus eliminating the need to solder a large number of transistors together.

The development of technology led in the following years to the birth of first supercomputer in history: The CDC 6600made by Control Data Corporation. The year was running 1963.

1970s: The era of personal computers begins

The evolution of technology has opened up in 70s the era of personal computer. In the 1976 Steve Jobs And Steve Wozniak they found Apple Computer together and introduced it to the world Apple IThe first computer with a single circuit board And ROM (Read Only Memory).

In the 1983 Apple launched theApple Lisawhich was the first personal computer with a graphical user interface or GUI (Graphical User Interface) and a mouse. In the same year, the Gavilan SCThe first laptop to boast a design flip-form and the first ever to be officially marketed as a “laptop”.

Apple Lisa
Apple Lisa. Credit: Timothy Colegrove, CC BY–SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.