Computers In Society :: essays research papers

Computers in SocietyMy report is on the development of the calculating machine for face-to-face use by home consumers and their impact on society. Computers were being positive as earlier as the 1800s and were more of a simple machine than a calculating machine. The depression digital electronic calculator that worked electronically was built by Clifford Berry and Dr. basin V. Atanasoff in the late 30s and early 40s. The first computer as we know it was designed by Howard Aiken and built by IBM in 1944. This first computer was called the Mark I and was eight feet high and over fifty five feet long. It was made of vane and glass and was very unreliable and extremely noisy. The beginning of the commercial computer age was in June of 1951. This was when the UNIVAC (universal automatic computer) was delivered to a client. The client was the U.S. bureau of the census and was to be apply for calculating the previous years census. This was the first succession that a computer had been built for a business application alternatively than for the use of the military or for scientific or engineering use. These first computers came to be known as the first generation computers and used vacuity tubes, which were electronic tubes about the size of light bulbs as the internal computer components. However, due to the fact that literally thousands of these tubes were drived, they generated enormous amounts of heat that caused many problems in the temperature regulation and climate control inside these computers. In addition all(prenominal) tube had to be working simultaneously in order for the computer to function and due to the short tube life (one failed every pair of hours) the computer operators didnt know if the problem was due to a computer programming error or the machine itself. These first generation computers also used a language called machine language that used numbers preferably of todays languages that are more standardised English. In 1948 th ree Bell lab engineers John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley, developed the transistor, which was a small device that transfers electric signals across a resistor. The transistor would replace the vacuum tube that was being used in computers. The engineers later received the Nobel Prize for their invention. The transistor revolutionized the computer industry, because they were much smaller than vacuum tubes and had numerous advantages as well. They didnt require any warm up time, they consumed less energy, were faster, and more reliable.