by Don Hildenbrand

Created on: February 05, 2009

Those of us who grew up in the digital age, or grew into the digital age, find the thought of life without computers almost unthinkable. In 30 short years, the world has gone from slow as a slug computers with no hard drives to faster than greased lighting computers with almost unimaginable storage space. We've gone from green monochrome monitors to graphics cards and monitors that can play uber realistic games like Crysis.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /

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But have you ever thought about the time before the first IBM PC, the computer that started the PC revolution? What led up to the development of the PC? Or, more to the point, what was the "first" computer?

This is really a difficult question to answer, as there are many definitions of the word "computer". In the 1700's and 1800's a "computer" was a person who did computations, such as the math needed to accurately fire field artillery. In ancient Roman times, a computer was an abacus, a hand held device used to calculate sums and figures.

But what was the first electronic computer? Even that is a difficult question, since even the experts disagree on what exactly was the first, or even which should be considered the first. So, we shall look at some of the firsts, and hopefully realize that all of these "firsts" helped to lead up to the concept of the computer we envision and enjoy today.

It's generally agreed that the first electrical programmable computer was a device called the Z1. The Z1 was developed in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Germany by Konrad Zuse, working out of his parent's living room. It was developed in 1936, and used punch tape for both input at output. It operated at the blazing speed of 1 MHz.

In 1937, John Vincent Atanasoff and his graduate student associate Cliff Berry began developing what became known later as the ABC. This was short for Atanasoff-Berry Computer.

The ABC was the first electronic digital computing device, but, it wasn't able to be programmed. It was designed for linear calculations only, and, unfortunately, due to its lack of programmability, and its paper punch card storage system, proved to be very unreliable. Work on the ABC was abandoned after 1942. Although the ABC was very distinct from modern computers, it actually pioneered many of the concepts we see today, including the breakthrough notion of binary arithmetic.

The computer that is considered by most to be the actual first modern computer was an 1800 square feet, 18,000 vacuum tube,50 ton monster known as ENIAC. ENIAC was invented by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly at the University of Pennsylvania in 1943. Construction was not fully completed until 1946, and even after that date, daily vacuum tube failures kept ENIAC from reaching its full potential. It operated almost continuously until 1955.

ENIAC is considered to be the first modern computer because, not only was it digital, and used binary arithmetic, but it was capable of being fully re-programmed for a number of different tasks. Like the ABC, ENIAC was the first to introduce many computing concepts, which have been improved upon, but still used to this day.

The modern marvels we know as computers didn't just spring forth from nothingness. Using concepts that sprang into the minds of humanity even many thousands of years ago, modern computers continue to use and improve upon the work of the early computer pioneers. It's safe to say that. Even in the future, the modern PC will continue to be built upon the early concepts pioneered by the ABC and the ENIAC.

Happy computing!

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