Реферат: Development Of Computers And Technology Essay Research

Watson, IBM became a force to be reckoned with in the business machine market,

first as a purveyor of calculators, then as a developer of computers.

IBM’s entry into computers was started by a young person named Howard

Aiken. In 1936, after reading Babbage’s and Lovelace’s notes, Aiken thought

that a modern analytical engine could be built. The important difference was

that this new development of the analytical engine would be electromechanical.

Because IBM was such a power in the market, with lots of money and resources,

Aiken worked out a proposal and approached Thomas Watson. Watson approved the

deal and give him 1 million dollars in which to make this new machine, which

would later be called the Harvard Mark I, which began the modern era of

computers.

Nothing close to the Mark I had ever been built previously. It was 55

feet long and 8 feet high, and when it processed information, it made a clicking

sound, equivalent to (according to one person) a room full of individuals

knitting with metal needles. Released in 1944, the sight of the Mark I was

marked by the presence of many uniformed Navy officers. It was now W.W.II and

Aiken had become a naval lieutenant, released to Harvard to help build the

computer that was supposed to solve the Navy’s obstacles.

During the war, German scientists made impressive advances in computer

design. In 1940 they even made a formal development proposal to Hitler, who

rejected farther work on the scheme, thinking the war was already won. In

Britain however, scientists succeeded in making a computer called Colossus,

which helped in cracking supposedly unbreakable German radio codes. The Nazis

unsuspectingly continued to use these codes throughout the war. As great as

this accomplishment is, imagine the possibilities if the reverse had come true,

and the Nazis had the computer technology and the British did not.

In the same time frame, American military officers approached Dr.

Mauchly at the University of Pennsylvania and asked him to develop a machine

that would quickly calculate the trajectories for artillery and missiles.