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Information and Communication Technology Applications

1800, punched card was invented by Jacquard. It is an obsolete computer input device, mode of stiff
Notes paper that stores data in columns containing patter of punched holes.
In 1822, Charles Babbage, an English mathematician, designed a machine called Difference Engine to
compute tables of numbers for naval navigation. Later on, in the year 1834, Babbage attempted to
build a digital computer, called Analytical Engine. The analytical engine had all the parts of a modern
computer i.e. it had four components — the store (memory unit), the mill (computation unit), the
punched card reader (input unit) and the punched/ printed output (output unit). As all basic parts
of modern computers were thought out by Charles Babbage, he is known as Father of Computers.
The daughter of the poet Lord Byron, Augusta Ada became Charles Babbage’s most enthusiatic
supporter. She wrote programs for the Analytical Engine and made several innovations that are
central to programming today.
In later years, Herman Hollerith invented a machine for doing counting for 1880 US census, which
was called the Tabulating Machine. In 1944, Howard A. Eiken invented first American general purpose
electro-mechanical computer, called Mark I and later on its successor, Mark II. The zeroth generation
of computers or the era of mechanical computers ended in 1946, when vacuum tubes were invented.
Various inventions during era of mechanical computers are described in Table 2.1.

Table 2.1: History of Computers During the Year 1642–1946

Year Invention
1642 The Arithmetic Machine, invented by Blasic Pascal.
1800 First punched cards for storing data, invented by Jacquard.
1822 The Difference Engine, invented by Charles Babbage.
1834 The Analytical Engine, Invented by Charles Babbage
1857 Sir Charles Wheatstone used paper tape to store data.
1936 Dvorak keyboard, developed by August Dvarak and William L.
Dealyed.
1937 Konrad Zuse completed the first fully functioning electro-mechanical
computer of the world.

2.1.3 First Generation Computers (1946–1954)

The first generation of computers (1946–1954) was marked by the use of vacuum tubes or valves as
their basic electronic component. Although these computers were faster than earlier mechanical
devices, they had many disadvantages. First of all, they were very large in size. They consumed too
much power and generated too much heat, when used for even short duration of time. They were
very unreliable and broke down frequently. They required regular maintenance and their
components had also to be assembled manually.

(i) ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator). It was the first electronic computer
using vacuum tubes. It was the first stored-program computer, built by John Mauchly and J. Presper
Eckert. It took up 1,000 square feet of floor space. Cards, lights, switches, and plugs were the
input/output device of this computer as shown in Figure 2.2. The speed of this Computer was 5,000
operations per second.

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