Preview

Computers in the 1950's

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1469 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Computers in the 1950's
Computers in the 1950 's
People have been in awe of computers since they were first invented. At first scientist said that computers would only be for government usage only. "Then when the scientists saw the potential computers had, scientist then predicted that by 1990 computers may one day invade the home of just about ever citizen in the world" ("History" Internet), the scientists were slightly wrong, because by 1990 computers were just beginning to catch on. Then a few years later when scientists when to major corporations to get help with a special project, the corporations said no, because computers would just be a fad and they wouldn 't make much money off of it. "By definition Abacus is the first computer (the proper definition of a computer is one who or that which computes) ever invented" (Internet).
The subject of this term paper will be about computers in the 1950 's. The divisions that will be covered are; the types of computers there were, the memory capacity of computers, the programming languages of that time, and the uses of the computers for that time. Information will be gathered from the Internet, from books, and from magazines, and from the encyclopedia.

Ali 2
In the fifties, computers were in the experimental stage they were extremely hard to work with, and were a constant technicians worst nightmare, because often enough you had to replace the fuses (s Appendix a).
The memory capacity of that time was rather limited. "There were not many external drives, the only external drives of that time were I/O cards, I cards and O cards"
("Whirlwind" Internet) "computers of that time were capable of a multitude of small tasks, like data processing (i.e. IRS related material, and information storage.), word processing (i.e. extremely early model of Microsoft word), data analysis (i.e. survey taking), complex calculations (i.e. weather prediction) communications (i.e., the telephone system (switching))" (" Computers" Internet).
The lack

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Events from the 1960s

    • 1532 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The 1960s was the most productive period for creating the modern computer (Barnes, 1997). By definition, a computer is a device that performs calculations and processes information. The first modern computers were very large, often filling up an entire room (Barnes, 1997). The 60s was a decade to introduce many advances in computer technology. In early 1960 digital equipment introduced the first minicomputer, named PDP-1, priced at $120,000 (Whithaus, 2004). PDP is the acronym for Program, Date, Processor and was the first commercial computer equipped with a keyboard and monitor (Whithaus, 2004).…

    • 1532 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    COS 101 WA1

    • 625 Words
    • 3 Pages

    3. How are computers today similar to those from World War II? How are they different?…

    • 625 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fashion Trends 1940-1950

    • 4817 Words
    • 20 Pages

    At the beginning of 1940, although the European war had been on for several months, extensive…

    • 4817 Words
    • 20 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    * Ken Polsson. "Chronology of Events in the History of Microcomputers". Archived from the original on September 19, 2011. http://web.archive.org/web/20080602225734/http://www.microprocessor.sscc.ru/comphist/. Retrieved September 19,2011.…

    • 761 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Computers have become one of our necessities in our daily life which makes it so hard to imagine a time when they did not really exist. And the birth of first computer occurred in 1950. It was the Electrical Numerical Integrator and Calculator or ENIAC. It was made out of 18,000 vacuum tubes which made it to consume about 180,000 watts of electrical power. However, it was only capable to give function such as multiplying numbers rapidly. Due to rapid growth in population, Census Bureau of United States decided to have a machine to tabulate the data, hence,…

    • 755 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the early years of computing, there was no real hard drives such as there are today. No, in the early days, you saved things, or programmed computers by punching holes in cards for the computer to read. The computers of that era not only had no true hard drives but were far from compact. No, the computers in fact took up entire warehouses occupying them entirely and leaving little room for their operators, which sometimes numbered in the dozens. Also in this period were computers that relied on vacuum tubes, and other now unimaginable forms of processing data, yes, things that were even slower than your iPhone is at booting up just to add a few…

    • 748 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Intro to Computers

    • 340 Words
    • 2 Pages

    How are computers today similar to those from World War II? How are they different? [RQ, no. 3]…

    • 340 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    References: Chee, H. W. (1997, Mar 27). Brief look at the history of computers. New Straits Times. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/269127308?accountid=458…

    • 748 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    How are computers today similar to those from World War II? How are they different? [RQ, no. 3]…

    • 1161 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Williams, Kenneth A. “History of Computing.” North Carolina A&T State University. N.p., 2011. Web. 4 May 2012.…

    • 2530 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Fourth Generation Computer

    • 1619 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Due to the reduction of cost and the availability of the computers power at a small place allowed everyday user to benefit. First came the minicomputers, which offered users different applications, most famous of these the word processors and spreadsheets, which could be used by non-technical users. Video game systems like Atari 2600 generated the interest of general populace in the computers.…

    • 1619 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Resaerch

    • 1073 Words
    • 5 Pages

    These first generation computers relied on ‘machine language’ (which is the most basic programming language that can be understood by computers). These computers were limited to solving one problem at a time. Input was based on punched cards and paper tape. Output came out on print-outs. The two notable machines of this era were the UNIVAC and ENIAC machines – the UNIVAC is the first every commercial computer which was purchased in 1951 by a business – the US Census Bureau.…

    • 1073 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    computer

    • 1803 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The computer was born not for entertainment or email but out of a need to solve a serious number-crunching crisis. By 1880 the U.S. population had grown so large that it took more than seven years to tabulate the U.S. Census results. The government sought a faster way to get the job done, giving rise to punch-card based computers that took up entire rooms. Today, we carry more computing power on our smartphones than was available in these early models. The following brief history of computing is a timeline of how computers evolved from their humble beginnings to the machines of today that surf the Internet, play games and stream multimedia in addition to crunching numbers.…

    • 1803 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Information Technology

    • 49988 Words
    • 200 Pages

    The first computers were people! That is, electronic computers (and the earlier mechanical computers) were given this name because they performed the work that had previously been assigned to people. "Computer" was originally a job title: it was used to describe those human beings (predominantly women) whose job it was to perform the repetitive calculations required to compute such things as navigational tables, tide charts, and planetary positions for astronomical almanacs. Imagine you had a job where hour after hour, day after day, you were to do nothing but compute multiplications. Boredom would quickly set in, leading to carelessness, leading to mistakes. And even on your best days you wouldn't be producing answers very fast. Therefore, inventors have been searching for hundreds of years for a way to mechanize (that is, find a mechanism that can perform) this task.…

    • 49988 Words
    • 200 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Computers

    • 1140 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Computers are integral to our daily lives and there are millions used daily. Computers are used at home, work, and school. They are also embedded into cars, phones, and cameras. Computers have many uses such as; word processing, internet, online banking, online classes, GPS systems, ATM machines, mobile phones, weather prediction. Computers go back all to the 1900’s, in 1939 the Hewlett-Packard. Hewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California. The company originated in a garage in nearby Palo Alto during a fellowship they had with a past professor during great depression. Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer increased computing speed by 1,000x and they were the first electronic general purpose computer, it was heralded in the press as a “Giant Brain”. ENIAC was financed by the United States Army during World War II. Commodore Business Machines are U.S. based computer and electronics manufacturer with headquarters in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Commodore played a vital role in the development of the home-personal computer. Xerox opens Palo Alto Research Center in 1970.Steve Wozniak designed the Apple I in 1976. IBM introduced the PC in 1981. Some more history of computers from 1990-2009 in order: HTML developed; World Wide Web, Netscape and Yahoo, Microsoft releases Windows 95, YouTube; Windows Vista announced, Amazon releases he Kindle; Google releases Android, Microsoft releases Windows 7.…

    • 1140 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays