The History of the PC – In 500 Words

by: Sarah Maple | Total views: 11 | Word Count: 523 | View PDF

According to worldometers.info, at this very moment 241,037,155 computers have been sold so far this year, and it is increasing at an incredible rate. To put this in some kind of perspective, this is over half the amount of newspapers that have been circulated and more than twice the amount of bikes made. From Babbage to USB, this is the history of the PC in 500 words.

Taking into account that the modern definition of ‘computer’ refers to something that is programmable, the first primitive design of a programmable machine cold be The Jacquard Loom, invented in 1801. The design incorporated punched paper cards that would determine how the loom would weave.

In 1837, Englishman Charles Babbage became the first person to invent a programmable mechanical computer, The Analytic Engine. Although it was never built, he re-modified it’s designs until his death in 1871, whilst Ada Lovelace, a mathematician whom is now considered the first computer programmer, even created a program for Babbage’s machine.

The Z3, designed by German engineer Konrad Kuse was the first programmable automatic computer. Using a design that wasn’t too far from that of The Jacquard Loom, the Z3 used a punched film stock to program it.

In 1946, designers John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert announced the arrival of the “Giant Brain”, the Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer. This prime example of the second generation of computers was the first general purpose electronic computer. The machine took weeks to programme by a team of six women. It was huge and weighed 2 tonnes.

The first minicomputer design to achieve any commercial success was the PDP-8 designed by W.A. Clark and C.E. Molnar and released in 1965. It had 4k of memory. But by 1971 Intel released the first microprocessor, the 4004 CPU. This design leap heralded the introduction of the first personal computer, a title that is shared between two machines, the Kenbak-1 and the Datapoint 2200.

Throughout the remainder of the 70s and the beginning of the 80s, names such as Apple, Atari and Commodore gradually began to become household names with the latter names utilizing the typical design the primary component of a keyboard, to be connected to a TV screen and the additional tape-deck or cartridge slot.

In 1985 Microsoft launched the Windows 1.0 operating system, but it wasn’t until the release of version 3.0 in 1990 until this new interface became commercially popular. This coincided with an increase in home computing and the introduction of the CDROM, as well as growing popularity of the laser or ink cartridge computer printers for word processing and desktop publishing.

By the late 90s the notion of plug and play technology by way of digital cameras, scanners and flash drives was introduced by the increasingly incorporated USB ports. More expensive PCs began to utilize DVD into the new millennium, whilst LCD monitors have made PCs more integral to home entertainment and WiFi has allowed users to create their own networks and pushed computing even further.

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