Earliest true hardware
The abacus was early used for arithmetic tasks. What we now call the Roman abacus was used in Babylonia as early as 2400 BC.
Several analog computers were constructed in ancient and medieval times to perform astronomical calculations. These include the Antikythera mechanism and the astrolabe from ancient Greece (c. 150–100 BC), which are generally regarded as the earliest known mechanical analog computers.
In Japan, Ryōichi Yazu patented a mechanical calculator called the Yazu Arithmometer in 1903. It consisted of a single cylinder and 22 gears, and employed the mixed base-2 and base-5 number system familiar to users to the soroban (Japanese abacus).
1801: punched card technology
- In 1801, Joseph-Marie Jacquard developed a loom in which the pattern being woven was controlled by punched cards.
- In 1833, Charles Babbage moved on from developing his difference engine (for navigational calculations) to a general purpose design, the Analytical Engine, which drew directly on Jacquard's punched cards for its program storage.
- In 1837, Babbage described his analytical engine. It was a general-purpose programmable computer, employing punch cards for input and a steam engine for power, using the positions of gears and shafts to represent numbers.
Early computer characteristics
| Name | Country | Date | System | Mechanism |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zuse Z3 | Ger. | May 1941 | Bin. float pt | Electro-mech |
| Colossus Mk 1 | UK | Feb 1944 | Binary | Electronic |
| ENIAC | US | Jul 1946 | Decimal | Electronic |
