Tech Topic: The History & Future of Computers
The History of Computers According to Professors Frank Vahid & Susan Lysecky, who developed ZyBooks, “Computing Technology for All”, computers originated from telephone switches in the 1900's. Engineers at the time discovered that switches could perform calculations using the positions of the switches based on meaning such as 1 for ON, and 0 for OFF. In the 1940's the first of these computers were built and required were large and only available in certain areas of the world for computing large amounts of data. In 1943, the ENIAC was created as the first U.S. general purpose computer by the Army’s Ordnance Proving Ground. According to Professor Maarten Bullyok, it’s intended purpose was to computate ballistic trajectories, but it proved to be capable of much more. The idea of having a personal computer was far-fetched due to the laborious tasks of operating them because they had to be kept in air-conditioned rooms that required special wir...
