Tech Topic Connection

The topic that I would like to learn more about is the history and future of computers.  The earliest computers have been around since the 1900s.  Those computers were vastly different from what we are used to today.  The first computers were used primarily for military purposes.  Those computers were the size of the entire room.  

Transitioning from the early computers to the computers of today, there is a major difference in both size and functions.  The computers we are all familiar with today easily fit onto a desk in a room an entire computer used to occupy.  Moore’s law states that switches reduce in size every two years. Due to this, computers that used to take up entire rooms can fit on your fingertip.

Computers originated in the early 1900s and were immeasurably different from the computers we know today.  The earliest computers evolved from telephone switches.  The first computers built in the 1940s contained thousands of switches and were big enough to take up an entire room.  Early versions of the computer were originally designed to be used for calculations.  Computers continued to evolve, and as they evolved, they began to shrink in size.  Now those computers that took up entire rooms continued to evolve and, in the 1970s, could fit onto a chip the size of a pinhead. 

Konrad Zuse created the first programmable computer in his parent's living room in the late 1930s.  Konrad created the first electromechanical binary programmable computer.  This is considered to be the first functional modern computer.  Konrad Zuse is also credited with designing the first commercial computer in 1942.  The 1930s and 1940s brought a major boom in computer development and function.  In 1940 we also saw the first computer to electronically store and execute a program.  

In 1950 we have IBM entered their first computer into the world.   In 1952 the IBM 701 Defense Calculator was created.  The 701 was primarily used for scientific calculation.  IBM boasted the 701 could send electrical impulses faster than one millionth of a second.  

In the 1960s and 1970s, we now start to see computers develop into what we recognize computers as today.  In 1968, Hewlett Packard (HP) designed the 9100A, also known as the first mass-marketed desktop computer.  In 1974, the Xerox Alto was introduced and considered to be the first workstation.  The Alto design included a monitor, computer, and mouse.  This is also the first instance of an operating system that used windows, menus, and icons as an interface.  

In the 1970s, we also get some controversy over who is credited with creating the first personal computer.  In 1975, Ed Roberts introduces the Altair 8800, while dubbing it a “personal computer”.  Many historians consider the KENBAK-1, introduced in 1971, to be the first personal computer.  

Also in 1975, IBM introduces their 5100 as the first portable computer, weighing in at 55 pounds, with a 5-inch display screen.  It isn’t until 1981 that a genuinely portable computer is born.  The Osborne I weighs in at just under 25 pounds, with a 5-inch display screen, 64 KB of memory, and included a modem.  We are now beginning to enter the modernization of computer and laptop development. 

Enter Steve Wozniak in 1976 and the first Apple computer, the Apple 1.  The Apple 1 contained a 6502 8-bit processor and 4kb of memory.  The 4kb of memory could be upgraded to 8 or even 48kb via expansion cards.  In 1981 IBM introduced its first design of the personal computer, known as Acorn.  It had an 8088 processor and used MS-DOS.  The 16 kb of memory was also upgradable to 256.  In 1983 we also get gifted what is considered the modern Internet.  

It seemed like the smaller computers became, the more power they began to contain.  I remember the first laptop I owned for college in 2006 was three times the size of the laptop I have now, which is still over ten years old.  That first laptop couldn’t perform half as fast as my current.  My current laptop also has more functionality than just Microsoft Office and Internet.  It also felt like my original laptop had to be rebooted every other day because it froze while trying to multitask the simplest requests. 

As for where computers are going in the future.  The possibilities are limitless.  It used to be that we would see “futuristic” movies about artificial intelligence or facial recognition technology and chalk it up to being decades away from reality, if not more.   Today we have self-driving cars, and artificial intelligence is starting to make some massive waves with ChatGPT.  At this point, the limit of computer technology is only our imaginations.