Difference between revisions of "Computing device"

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'''Computing devices''' are a more general class of devices which could perform complicated calculations than 'computers', the meaning of which is generally now 'stored-program computing device' (i.e. the control [[program]] is stored in [[memory]] that the computer can modify, allowing the program to change itself if it desires). They generally preceded the creation of computers (as defined above); although as Michael Williams observed, "If you add enough adjectives to a description you can always claim [a particular machine to be the 'first']."
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'''Computing devices''' (not a standard term in the field) are a class of devices which could perform complicated calculations, but are not [[computer]]s (i.e. 'stored-program computing devices'); instead, they are members of a more general class. I.e. all devices which can perform complex calculations, but are not 'computers', fall in this class. (A good example is the [[Atanasoff-Berry Computer]], which was hard-wired to only be able to solve systems of simultaneous equations.)
  
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==Notable early computing devices==
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Complex computing devices (i.e. things considerably more complex than a simple adding machines) generally preceded the creation of computers. Note that the operation of these devices often did proceed through a list of more basic operations (the definition of a [[program]]) - e.g. the operations controlled by the timing cams in [[Charles Babbage‎‎]]'s [[Difference Engine]]. However, true computers are designed so that they can be easily changed to run ''any'' program.
  
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Some of the first powerful computing devices were those of [[Charles Babbage]]: a prototype of the first, the [[Difference Engine]], was started in the 1820's, but never finished. (The Museum of Science recently built an actual difference engine, using a later design he created, but never attempted to build; it worked reasonably well.) His later proposed [[Analytical Engine]] (1870's) was the first ''programmable'' computing device, and a general-purpose one, but its program was fixed (in [[read-only memory]], effectively). His engines were all [[digital]], but entirely mechanical.
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==See also==
  
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Vannevar Bush created his Differential Analyzer at [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]] in 1928–1931; it was an [[analog]] device, mostly mechanical. Many similar machines were then created in the US, UK, Norway, etc.
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* [[Notable early computing devices]]
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Howard Aiken, inspired by Babbage's work, began the design of his [[Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator]] in 1937; actually completed and used, it was a large programmable (but not stored program) electro-mechanical digital device. Later successors from IBM were entirely [[relay]]-based, not partially mechanical, as the ASCC was, and eventually (in the [[Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator]]) partly [[electronic]]. Very slightly later than the ASCC, the [[Bell Telephone Laboratories relay computing devices]] of [[George Stibitz]] were also entirely relay-based, and digital.
 
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At about the same time, in 1938, [[John Vincent Atanasoff]] took the next step, and began the creation of the first [[electronic]] digital computing device, later called the [[Atanasoff–Berry Computer]]. It was not at all programmable; it could only solve systems of simultaneous equations. It was notable for having inspired [[John Mauchly]] when he later set out to build the [[ENIAC]]; and also for being the first digital electronic computing device to use [[capacitor]]-based memory - an approach to memory now ubiquitous in the [[Dynamic RAM]] of all modern computers.
 
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The [[Colossus]] digital electronic code-breaking devices of [[Tommy Flowers]], built in the UK during World War Two (construction of the first one started in 1943), were notable because they showed that large electronic computing devices could be made to operate reliably, because quite a few were produced, and because many of the post-War computer pioneers in the UK learned about the suitability of electronics for digital computing devices from them. They are often described as 'programmable', but this is incorrect - they had no program of any form, and they were not general-purpose; a better description is 'configurable'.
 
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Effectively the last step before true computers was the ENIAC, a large digital electronic computing device. As originally designed, it was only configurable, requiring considerable effort to re-configure it to perform a different computation (although it was general-purpose, unlike the Atanasoff–Berry Computer and Colossus). In 1947 an effort was started to re-configure it in a way that added a certain amount of programmability, via a program stored in the 'function-table switches' (originally intended as a ROM data source). Later, minor [[hardware]] modifications improved ENIACs efficiency when configured as a stored-program machine; it started to operate in that mode in 1948.
 
  
 
==Further reading==
 
==Further reading==
  
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* Editor - Brian Randell, [https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-642-96145-8 ''The Origins of Digital Computers: Selected Papers''], Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, 1973, 1982 (3rd edition)
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* Paul E. Ceruzzi, [https://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/Reckoners.html ''Reckoners: The Prehistory of The Digital Computer, From Relays to the Stored Program Concept, 1935-1945''], Greenwood, Westport, 1983
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* Editors - Nicholas Metropolis, Jack Howlett, Gian-Carlo Rota, [https://www.sciencedirect.com/book/9780124916500/a-history-of-computing-in-the-twentieth-century ''A History of Computing in the Twentieth Century''], Academic Press, New York, 1980
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* William Aspray (editor), [https://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/CBC.html ''Computing Before Computers''], Iowa State University Press, Ames, 1990
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* Editors - Raúl Rojas, Ulf Hashagen, ''The First Computers: History and Architectures'', MIT Press, Cambridge, 2002
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* Brian Randell (editor), [https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-642-96145-8 ''The Origins of Digital Computers: Selected Papers''], Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, 1973, 1982 (3rd edition)
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==External links==
 
  
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* [https://www.gleech.org/first-computers Disambiguating the first computer]
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<!-- ==External links== -->
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* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_computer Colossus computer] - a good and detailed description
 
  
 
[[Category: Early Computing Devices]]
 
[[Category: Early Computing Devices]]

Latest revision as of 14:22, 7 December 2023

Computing devices (not a standard term in the field) are a class of devices which could perform complicated calculations, but are not computers (i.e. 'stored-program computing devices'); instead, they are members of a more general class. I.e. all devices which can perform complex calculations, but are not 'computers', fall in this class. (A good example is the Atanasoff-Berry Computer, which was hard-wired to only be able to solve systems of simultaneous equations.)

Complex computing devices (i.e. things considerably more complex than a simple adding machines) generally preceded the creation of computers. Note that the operation of these devices often did proceed through a list of more basic operations (the definition of a program) - e.g. the operations controlled by the timing cams in Charles Babbage‎‎'s Difference Engine. However, true computers are designed so that they can be easily changed to run any program.

See also

Further reading

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