Computer history: origins and development of the PC clearly explained

In this post we deal with the history of computers. The emergence of the PC, which has become an integral part of almost no household today, is not so long ago and development is progressing rapidly.

Computer history: "Computers" have been around since the Middle Ages

The term computer comes from the Latin word "computare", which means "calculate" or "add up".

• "Computo" means "I calculate".
• In the Middle Ages, computers were a job title. These people made calculations, such as performing complicated calculations for astronomers.
• Later there were calculators, the first ones were developed independently by Wilhelm Schickard and Blaise Pascal in the middle of the 17th century. The people who operated these machines were now called "computers".
• Today, a computer is generally understood to be a machine that processes data using programs.

Development of the PC: Many ideas - little implementation

• After the first calculating machines of the 17th century, new ideas for such machines were always conceived, but the problem was mostly the technical implementation of the theoretical templates.
• The first programmable "analytical machine" was designed by Charles Babbage in 1837. It was used to carry out the four basic arithmetic operations. Ada Lovelace can therefore count as the first programmer. The Babbage employee had written the language to the machine.
• The machine, which was to be operated with steam, was not built due to the lack of non-financial and technical means - today it is known that it would have worked.
• It wasn't until the end of the 19th century that simple calculators were built on a large scale and were mainly used in offices in the USA.
• The mass processing of data then took place for the first time with the use of punch card machines until the 1950s.

From the room for the computer to the computer for every room

The computer as we understand it today was then invented during World War II.

• At first, electromechanical, later fully electronic data processing systems were the forerunners of today's PCs.
• We owe the large computing systems to many outstanding engineers, including the German Konrad Zuse, after whom a computing machine was named. You can also read how an Zuse Z3 works from us. Other plants were called "Mark" or "ENIAC", for example.
• The monstrous systems not only had to be maintained constantly, they also had only a fraction of the computing power of a small PC today. In addition, there were only a handful of these computing systems worldwide.
• In the mid-1950s, the relays and tubes, which took up a lot of space, were finally replaced by smaller transistors, thus making the devices smaller.
• At the beginning of the 1970s, the Intel company surprised that it had succeeded in accommodating entire rows of these transistors on a small piece of silicon. That was the birth of the microprocessor and a milestone in computer history.

Rapid development of the PC

After the chip was developed, the size of the computers progressed rapidly.

• In 1975 Ed Roberts launched the Altair 8800 for $ 397, the first home computer kit. The computer had no keyboard or mouse. A monitor could not be connected and there was no software or application programs either. Nevertheless, the Altair 8800 became a legend.
• Legendary Altair clubs were formed - and Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, the founders of Apple, met in one of these clubs.
• What the computers at the time lacked was software. This was supplied by Bill Gates with his company Microsoft founded in a garage. The operating systems MS-DOS and Windows made him a billionaire.
• Today almost nothing works without a computer. Even in everyday private life, the computer is indispensable.

Computers are getting smaller and more powerful. Every smartphone can do a lot more than the first PC. Reason enough for us to ask how long mobile phones have been around. We will show the development over time in our next practical tip.