what is the first generation of computer?

Answer 1

"In 1901, divers discovered a shoebox sized, gear-filled box from a 2000-year-old shipwreck." So begins a story in this month's Discover.

After quite a bit of research, it was determined that "It's an all-in-one astronomical device," where "the 30-odd bronze gears and 2,000 inscribed Greek characters in the Anikythera Mechanism helped ancient Greek scientists track the cycles of the solar system and calculate the motions of the sun, the moon, and the planets."

Further, astrophysicist Michael Edmunds says "the box technically qualifies as a computer."

Answer 2

the first generation of computers start from 1940s-1956
vacuum tubes process data by allowing the passage of electrons while magnetic drums use magnetic material to store data. The 1st generation computers were also extremely slow. However, despite their great number of downfalls, these computers have gradually evolved into computers, as we know them today.

computers:

1939-1942: Atanasoff-Barry Computer
1941: Z3
1943: Colossus 1943: Colossus
1944: Harvard Mark I
1943-1946: ENIAC
1945: EDVAC
1944-1945: Plankalkul
1947: Transistors
1948: SSEC
The Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator (SSEC)
1949: EDSAC
1945-1951: Whirlwind
1951: UNIVAC
1953: IBM 701
1954: IBM 650

Answer 3

Originally, the term "computer" referred to a person who performed numerical calculations, often with the aid of a mechanical calculating device or analog computer. Examples of these early devices, the ancestors of the computer, included the abacus and the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient Greek device for calculating the movements of planets which dates from about 87 BC.[1] The end of the Middle Ages saw a reinvigoration of European mathematics and engineering, and Wilhelm Schickard's 1623 device was the first of a number of mechanical calculators constructed by European engineers.[2]

In 1801, Joseph Marie Jacquard made an improvement to existing loom designs that used a series of punched paper cards as a program to weave intricate patterns. The resulting Jacquard loom is not considered a true computer but it was an important step in the development of modern digital computers.

Charles Babbage was the first to conceptualize and design a fully programmable computer as early as 1820, but due to a combination of the limits of the technology of the time, limited finance, and an inability to resist tinkering with his design, the device was never actually constructed in his lifetime. By the end of the 19th century a number of technologies that would later prove useful in computing had appeared, such as the punch card and the vacuum tube, and large-scale automated data processing using punch cards was performed by tabulating machines designed by Hermann Hollerith.

During the first half of the 20th century, many scientific computing needs were met by increasingly sophisticated special-purpose analog computers, which used a direct mechanical or electrical model of the problem as a basis for computation. These became increasingly rare after the development of the programmable digital computer.

A succession of steadily more powerful and flexible computing devices were constructed in the 1930s and 1940s, gradually adding the key features of modern computers, such as the use of digital electronics (largely invented by Claude Shannon in 1937)[3] and more flexible programmability.

Defining one point along this road as "the first digital electronic computer" is exceedingly difficult. On 12 May 1941 Konrad Zuse completed his electromechanical Z3, being the first working machine featuring automatic binary arithmetic and feasible programmability (therefore the first digital operational programmable computer, although not electronic); other notable achievements include the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (shown working around Summer 1941), a special-purpose machine that used valve-driven (vacuum tube) computation, binary numbers, and regenerative memory; the secret British Colossus computer (demonstrated in 1943), which had limited programmability but demonstrated that a device using thousands of valves could be both made reliable and reprogrammed electronically; the Harvard Mark I, a large-scale electromechanical computer with limited programmability (shown working around 1944); the decimal-based American ENIAC (1946) — which was the first general purpose electronic computer, but originally had an inflexible architecture that meant reprogramming it essentially required it to be rewired.

More on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer

Answer 4

the very first computer was a calculator.

Answer 5

I would say the first computer was the Jacquard loom
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Marie_Jacquard

The first digital computer most likely being the Eniac
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ENIAC

First person computer being the altair 8800
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altair_8800

Answer 6

With or Without Circuits...

Answer 7

The first non-circuit computer is the abacus. ^_^

Answer 8

the first computer ever made was made by god.it is called the brain.then came the calculator.

Answer 9

should be the MS Dos system by IBM.

Answer 10

If I am not wrong, it should be microprocessor 4004 from Intel.