Computer Research Paper, Including In-Text Documentation

Works Cited At Bottom of Paper.

Computers have made various tasks considerably simpler, such as writing a book or paper, sending information, or mathematics, and are as such, the most useful and one of the most advanced, if not the most of all the inventions of the last century. The computer has increased productivity throughout the world by offering a quality means to complete nearly every project presented and has been evolving since the start to meet those requirements. This is thusly one of the most important inventions of the 20th Century.

The computer has evolved massively since research and creation began, thusly, I’ll be mentioning important advances in computer technology. “The first major computer company Hewlett-Packard, was founded in 1939 and the HP 200A Audio Oscillator is the first invention from HP, Disney used the 200B model to create the sound effects for several of their movies” (Timeline of Computer History). “Though the first test was in 1943, in 1944 the Harvard Mark-1 is finished, the idea coming from Howard Hathaway Aiken” (Campbell-Kelly, 69 вЂ" 72). It weighed five tons, and was capable of various calculations, multiplication took a few seconds and larger more complex functions took over a minute” (Campbell-Kelly, 72 вЂ" 73). However, stored program computers quickly surpass it in technological superiority. “In 1946, work on the EDVAC (Electronic Delay Variable Calculator) began, the US Army, in collaboration with Moore School were the ones responsible for building it. Work on the EDVAC was finished in 1949, and had several problems, only a single full computer was built and made a minor impact on the computer world” (Hally 23 -24). “Nineteen Forty-Nine was a break-through year for the computer world, as it marks the emergence of the first stored-program computer, the EDSAC. Maurice Wilkes, the creator of the EDSAC, created subroutines on paper punch tapes for programming it, in May 1949 it successfully performed a mathematical calculation.” (Hally 111 вЂ" 113)

“In 1950, the ERA 1101 is built by the Engineering Research Associates of Minneapolis; it was the first commercially produced computer and was also the first to use magnetic storage. It could both read and store information; the early drums stored around 4,000 words. Nineteen Fifty-Three marks the date that IBM shipped its first electronic computer 19 of these were sold to several companies as well as the United States government. The next year IBM released the IBM 650, a magnetic drum computer that allowed considerably faster access to data than its predecessors. Four years later, in 1958, SAGE is set up, linking hundreds of radar stations together, it was the first large scale computer network” (Timeline of Computer History).

“In 1960, the PDP-1 is made; it had a cathode ray tube display, only needed a single operator, and required no air-conditioning. This resulted in an increased interest in computers and spurred hackers at MIT to create Space War! This was the first computer video game created and was later used as a demonstration of the PDP-1. Five years later, DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation), the creators of the PDP-1 release the PDP-8, it cost $18,000, only a fifth the IBM 360, which encouraged smaller business owners to buy. In 1968 DGC (Data General Corporation), which was created by former employees of DEC create the Nova, which had 32 kilobytes of memory, for only $8,000. This was a significant breakthrough as it was cheap and had a storage capability greater than most other computers” (Timeline of Computer History).

“The next decade, the 70s, marked the date of the creation of the first personal computer, the Kenbak-1, which ran at $750. Kenbak Corp. only sold 40 models before shutting down. In 1974 Xerox Palo Alto Research Center created the Alto, which had a built in mouse; it also had windows, icons, and other such menus. In 1976 Steve Wozniak created the Apple I. The next year the Apple II was released, it contained a circuit motherboard, power supply, keyboard, case, power cord, and a manual. It also came with the game Breakout, the Apple II could be hooked up to a color TV it had color graphics” (Timeline of Computer History).

“In 1982 Commodore released the Commodore 64, known most commonly as C64; it was a major improvement to the computer world, sporting 64 kilobytes of RAM along with improved graphical display capabilities of previous computers. The C64 had numerous types