The History of Computing :: Essays Papers

The History of Computing In 1842 Babbage’s Difference Engine and the Analytical Engine Convinced his machine would benefit England, Babbage applied for and received one of the first government grants to build the difference engine. Hampered by nineteenth century machine technology, cost over runs, and the possibility his chief engineer was padding the bills, Babbage completed only a portion of the difference Engine before the government with drew its support in 1842, deeming the project â€Å"worthless to science†. Meanwhile Babbage had conceived of the idea of a more advanced â€Å"analytical engine†. In essence, this was a general-purpose computer that could add, subtract, multiply, and divide in automatic sequence at a rate of 60 additions per second. His 1833 design, which called for thousands of gears and drives, would cover the area of a football field and be powered by a locomotive engine. Babbage worked on this project until his death. In 1991 London’s Science Museum spen t $600,000 to build a working model of the difference engine, using Babbage’s original plans. The result stands 6 feet high, 10 feet long, contains 4000 parts, and weighs 3 tons. The Honeywell 400 and the second Generation of Computers. The invention of the transistor signaled the start of the second generation of computers (1959-1964). Transistorized computers were more powerful, more reliable, less expensive, and cooler to operate that their vacuum-tubed predecessors. Honeywell established itself as a major player in the second generation of computers. Burroughs, Univac, NCR, CDC, and Honeywell IBM’s biggest competitors during the 1960s and early 1970s became as the BUNCH. The IBM system 360 and the third generation of computers. The third generation was characterized by computers built around integrated circuits. Of these, some historians consider IBM’s system 30 line of computers, introduced in 1963, the single most important innovation in the history of computers. System 360 was conceived as a family of computers with upwards compatibility; when a company outgrew one model it could move up to the next model without worrying about converting its data. System 360 and the other lines built around intergraded circuits made all previous computers obsolete, but the advantages were so grate that most users wrote the costs of conversion off as the price of progress. In the early 1960’s, Dr thoms Kurtz and Dr. John Kemeny of Darmouth College began develoing a programming language that a beginner could learn and use quickly. Their work culminated in 1964 with BASIC.