Did you know?

The Computer

The Computer

At the moment, the computer has become indispensable for most of us, whether we are in the office or at home. We have very few activities left that are not related to or do not involve the use of a computer.

But the evolution of computer was a long and laborious process that spanned decades and to which many inventors contributed, each of them bringing their input, to a lesser or greater extent, today's PC being unable be considered the invention of a single man.

The first programmable computer was invented by the German engineer Konrad Zuse. He introduced the Z3 machine, which operated at a frequency of 5.33 Hz, in 1936. Six years later, John Atanasoff, a lecturer at IOWA State University, introduced the first digital computer.

World War II was a major catalyst for the development of computers - one of the greatest challenges of the war was to crack the German "Enigma" codes. The British achieved this and once this was achieved, the possibility of breaking into more sophisticated communications was also sought, with the 'Tunny' carrying high level military information. Tommy Flowers, who was instrumental in turning telephone exchanges into electronic networks, was contracted to build a machine that could run the decryption. Flowers designed the COLOSSUS, which was the world's first programmable digital electronic computer.

ENIAC, the 30-tons computer

Then, in 1946, John Presper Eckert and John W. Mauchly created ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer).It had 17,468 electronic tubes, 7,200 crystal diodes, 1,500 relays, 70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors and about 5 million hand-soldered connections. ENIAC weighed 30 tons and was designed and built for the US military.

COLOSSUS and ENIAC remain important in computer history, not only because of their contribution to the Allied victory over the Germans, but because they set a precedent. It was imprinted on the collective mind, once and for all, that on a large scale, computers were not only a possibility,but  they had become a practical thing. 

After ENIAC came EDVAC (the Electronic Discrete Variable Computer) and UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer I). With the invention of the transistor, at the beginning of the 50s, we can talk about the beginning of the miniaturization of computers.