Introduction to Computing
A Brief History of Computing
Once upon a time ...
It all started with the need of calculation. Ancient people implemented mathematical solutions to natural events such as the tidal cycles of the Nile, orbital calculations of the Moon, daily and annual position of the Sun, and so on. It all stemmed from the observations and the necessities.
How did people process vast amounts of calculations in a limited time?
As the civilization improved over time, the demand on the calculation capacity has increased significantly. To overcome this problem, people invented the concept of parallel computation by hiring more people to do the calculations manually and simultaneously.
Having no electronics invented yet, mechanical calculators were invented in the era of typewriters. So many magnificent mechanical machines were invented during the industrial revolution series (Industry 4.0 currently, and 5.0 is coming soon). When people started playing with electricity and invented the vacuum tubes, the era of electronics has begun. Although used in communication devices for a long time, it was practically possible to build a computer hardware based on tens of thousands of vacuum tubes in the beginning to the 20th century. These electro-mechanic computers would require manual adjustments for computation done by several operators.
Electronics has been improving ever since. Transistors replaced the vacuum tubes, allowing the computers to be built in much smaller sizes, which weighted tens of tons previously. Transistors have been grouped into microprocessors and today we have nano-scale transistors consisting of a few atoms (at least in the lab for the time being).