Information Technology and Its Evolution (Part 7)

(Continued)

Electromechanical Era (the 1800s-1940s) (Remaining)

Zuse Z1 (1938)

    Considered to be the first electro-mechanical, binary, programmable computer developed by Konard Zuse, German civil engineer, computer scientist, inventor, and businessman between 1936 and 1938. The subsequent model of 1941 "Z3" is considered World's first fully automatic programmable digital computer.

Atanasoff–Berry Computer (1942)

    First automatic-electronic-digital computer. However, it was neither programmable nor Turing-complete, unlike other computers of around the same time. It was a special-purpose computer designed for solving the systems of simultaneous linear equations, being capable of handling systems with up to twenty-nine equations. Inventor John Vincent Atanasoff worked in the physics department Iowa State College, USA and difficult problems of this scale were becoming common in physics so he came up with a solution in the form of this computer with the help of graduate student Clifford Berry.

Colossus Mark 1 (1943)

    The first electronic programmable computer, designed and developed by English engineer Thomas Harold Flowers. Britain utilized this computer in 1944 during World War II for code-breaking encrypted German military transmissions.

Harvard Mark 1 (1944)

    Also known as IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC) was the first general-purpose electromechanical computer. Conceived and designed in 1937 by a Harvard graduate student, Howard H. Aiken to solve advanced mathematical physics problems encountered in his research was developed and built by IBM. Dean of IBM's inventors and scientists, James Bryce liked the concept, and Thomas J. Watson, IBM President agreed to back the project in 1939. Bryce assigned a capable IBM inventor, Clair D. Lake, to serve as Aiken's chief engineer and chief contact. Lake was seconded by Benjamin M. Durfee and Frank E. Hamilton. The machine was used in the war effort during the last part of World War II. Harvard Mark I can be considered the first mainframe computer in many ways.

    With the usage of the word "Mainframe", it is pertinent to mention that computers (as we mean it nowadays, the general-purpose computers) are generally divided into four categories: 

1- Mainframe computers, 2- Minicomputers/Mid-range computers 3- Microcomputers and 4- Supercomputers.

    A "Mainframe" can be defined as a large, expensive, very powerful computer designed to handle intensive computational tasks. Because mainframes are the combination of memory (RAM) and many processors, one of the main characteristics of the mainframe is the ability to add or hot-swap system capacity without disrupting system function. It acts as a central processing unit for many terminals connected with it. Both mainframes and "Supercomputers" are large and powerful machines, but they are different. Mainframes primarily deal with problems constrained by input/output which demand reliability above all and are well suited for performing thousands upon thousands of concurrent transactions. On the other hand, supercomputers are primarily concerned with calculation speed and are ideal for performing complex calculations. The CDC 6600 is generally recognized as the first supercomputer. The other two categories will be discussed shortly in the next era.