Visual Communications

Computers

Charles Babbage

• The analytical engine

• First described in 1837

• Worked on until his death in 1871

• Never really built

• Mechanical

• Essentially a “modern design” in that it used algorithms

Herman Hollerith

• Statistical tabulator• Electrical device for completing

calculations• 1889• Hollerith combined his company with three

others to form a company called the Computing Tabulating Recording Company

• Became IBM

ENIAC

• Electronic Numerator Integrator and Comparator

• Electronic computer using vacuum tubes

• Designed to calculate artillery trajectories

• 1946

ENIAC

UNIVAC

• Universal Automatic Computer

• Designed for business applications

• Used by the U.S. Census Bureau

• 1950

UNIVAC

First personal computer

“SIMON”

ALTAIR 8800

ALTAIR 8800

• Introduced in 1975

• A kit computer designed to be assembled by hobbyists

• Used BASIC computer language

• ALTAIR BASIC was designed by Bill Gates and included with the machine

MICROSOFT

• Gates left Harvard to found Microsoft based on the success of BASIC

• Personal Computer Disk Operating System (PC-DOS) brought real success to Microsoft

• DOS allowed average users to operate the computer without knowing programming language

APPLE

• Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne

• Founded in 1976

• Incorporated the graphical user interface (GUI)

APPLE