What was the world's first personal computer, how it looked, size, who, where and when created the first computer in the world: the history of the development of the world's first computer world

Now computers are very diverse in performance and design. And what was the first computer?

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Modern life is very difficult to imagine without computers and everything that is connected with them. But more recently, they were not written about them even in fantastic novels - simply because this would not have occurred to anyone. Who came up with the computer? How did he look then and why was it created? To answer these questions, it will be necessary to scroll through the pages of history and imagine (or recall - to those who are older) the pre -computer era.

The birth of the first electronic computers

Back in 1941, an American mathematician Howard Eiksn Together with several of the same enthusiasts from the IBM corporation, work began on creating the first computer - a computer based on the idea of \u200b\u200bCharles Babbija. The process of creating the device lasted three years, after which the unit under the code name “Mark-1” officially began its work.

It is worth noting that he had nothing to do with the usual personal computers (and even more so laptops or tablets), because weighed 5 t, his the length was 17 m, height - over 2.5 m. Its cost was also prohibitive - half a million dollars.

It was a complex design consisting of all kinds of nodes and mechanisms - there were about 765 thousand pcs., And the wires took almost 800 km to create it.

Mark's functionality, despite the impressive dimensions, was very modest:

work with 72 numbers consisting of 23 decimal categories.
the simplest arithmetic actions (addition and subtraction, performed within 3 seconds).
multiplication and division (these “complex” calculations occupied 6 and 15 seconds).

Maybe someone will seem funny to someone today, but then it was a true technological breakthrough, which launched a computer era.

In parallel with Mark in the USA, work was going on to create another computer under the name "Eniac" - Its development was under the jurisdiction of the military department. About half a million dollars were allocated for the needs of the creators of the machine, because the country needed the latest types of weapons in the conditions of World War II.

In the test process, it turned out that Eniac was simply insatiable-he needed a huge amount of electricity, which was due to which he had to turn off the light in the entire nearby settlement.

The dimensions of "Eniac" They were also very impressive: weighing 27 tons at 135 sq.m of the occupied area. At the same time, his memory was only 4 KB, and all kinds of details and indicators contained about 18 thousand. Of course, the aggregate did not have a keyboard or a display - it was dozens of cabinets containing electric deposits and entangled with wires.

Due to overheating, this miracle of engineering thought often broke, although it functioned for ten years, contributing to the creation of hydrogen atomic weapons.

A little later, in the fifties of the last century, the efforts of scientists from the Soviet Union were also crowned with success - a “whirlwind” was born, which had a monitor and an operation of 512 bytes. To realize its size, imagine a two -story building - about this was the first Soviet computer. Around the same time, the Americans created Univac - an unit weighing 13 tons and worth more than one and a half million dollars. But it was equipped with a magnetic metal ribbon for recording information and a printer.

The invention of a personal computer

At first, we were not talking about personal computers at all, since they were huge, extremely expensive and absolutely useless for home use. But gradually, in the course of constant improvement, manufacturers began to put forward their products to the market.

In the 60s Last century, the Americans have been a proposal to sell the unit with a keyboard and a display called “PDP-1”, which occupied a space the size of three large refrigerators. Fifty cars were found their buyer.

In 1969 They came up with an “assistant in the kitchen” called “Honeywell Kitchen Computer”, in the memory of which culinary recipes recorded by binary code were introduced. For some reason, culinary lovers were not interested in this offer, although the car weighing 65 kg was even equipped with a cutting board.

70s They were marked by the invention of microprocessors, after which the boom in the creation and sales of personal computers began. It was then that the American Edward Roberts came up with an Intel 8080 brainchild under the 8-bit microprocessor under the name “Altair 8800”. Low retail cost (up to 400 dollars) allows you to increase the number of sales to several thousand.

In the collected form, they offered customers their invention called "Apple 1" Two Steve is a wolf and Jobs for $ 666.66. And his second version will already be color and sound, and in just two years.

Few people know, but long before the world famous “Apple” the personal computer was invented and patented in the Soviet Union by designer Arseny Gorokhov from the Omsk Scientific Research Institute-back in 1968. Only he was called Device for setting a program for playing the contour of the part And he was intended to create complex drawings.

Unfortunately, the then leadership of the country did not support the innovative idea, and it remained only an unrealized project.

Interesting Facts:

A computer prototype - scores - were invented in ancient Babylon 3 thousand years BC.
“Altair 8800”, which became the first well -sold computer, was just a set of parts and boxes, and buyers had to make a computer for themselves.