In What Year Was the First Computer Invented?
The history of computers has many firsts. For example, each different type of computer has a different date of creation. Some build off the prototypes and designs of others, but they can still be considered firsts. Also, every part of the computer had to be invented at some point, so all the pieces that make up the computer have creation dates as well. For these reasons, it’s difficult to narrow down one particular date for the first computer invented.
Early Computers
- Some people consider the abacus a type of computer. The abacus has been around since 500 B.C. Its purpose is to help people count large numbers without having to keep the numbers in their heads.
- Blaise Pascal invented another type of calculator in 1692.
- Charles Babbage developed another counting machine in 1833. This machine had memory storage, input and output capacity, control and computing units, all similiar to computers found today. However, steam was needed to operate this machine that contained over fifty thousand moving parts.
First Programmable Computer - Z1 (1936)
Assembled in his parent’s home, this computer took Konrad Zuse from 1936 to 1938 to complete. Besides having a 64 word memory, it was the first fully programmable computer in the world. It’s programming was based in binary code, and the computer was programmed using punch tape and a punch tape reader. Konrad Zuse created a replica of the Z1 in 1986, which can be found at the Deutsches Technik Museum in Berlin.
First Digital Computers -ABC (1942) and ENIAC (1946)
Created by John Atanasoff and Clifford Bell at Iowa State University in 1942, the Atanasoff Berry Computer (ABC) is now considered the first digital computer created. The computer was supposed to be able to solve large linear algebraic equations, though in reality it couldn’t handle the large numbers. It used binary numbers and had processing and memory as separate sections. Unlike the Z1, this computer was not programmable. The ABC computer was never completed because it’s creator stopped working on it to help the Navy during World War II.
The title of first digital computer originally went to the ENIAC, or Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, created by John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert in 1946. This computer used decimal arithmetic instead of binary code like the Z1 and ABC. The ENIAC weighed 30-tons, the equivalent of two tractor trailers and was filled with over 19,000 vacuum tubes. Capable of some amazing computations for the time, such as adding 5000 numbers in a second and predicting the trajectory of an artillery shell, the ENIAC grabbed media attention and the ABC was forgotten.
Atanasoff had never applied for a patent for the ABC, and the computer remained in obscurity until a lawsuit that began in the 1960s. After a long legal battle, in 1973, a judge negated the ENIAC patent in favor of the ABC. These two computers had vastly different capabilities, so the title of first digital computer should, perhaps, be split between them.
Other Computer Firsts
- 1949 - EDSAC - First computer to store programs and play computer games with graphics
- 1951 - UNIVAC - First commercial computer
- 1953 - IBM 701 - First PC
- 1956 - TX-O - First transistor computer
- 1960 - PDP-1 - First mini-computer
- 1964 - First computer mouse developed
- 1971 - Intel 4004 - First microprocessor
- 1971 - First floppy disk
- 1976 - Apple I - First Apple computer
- 1981 - First computer virus
The Z1, ABC and ENIAC are generally considered to be the beginning of the computer revolution. However, it’s important to note that with the computer come firsts in a host of other categories, including hardware and software.