INTRODUCTION

Computer are machines that perform tasks or calculation according set of instructions,
or program. Computer also capable of receiving information(data) in a particular form and of
performing a sequence of operations in accordance with predetermined but variable set of
procedure instructions (program)to produce a result in the form of information or signal.The
first fully electronic computer, introduced in 1940s, were huge machines that required teams
of people to operate. Compared to those early machines, todays computer are amazing. Not
only are they thousands of times faster. Computer work through an interaction hardware and
software. Hardware refers to parts of computer that you can see and touch, including the
cases and every things inside it. The most important piece of hardware is tiny triangular chip
inside computer called central processing unit (CPU), or microprocessor. Its the brain of
your computer which part that translates instruction and perform calculations. Hardware item
such as monitor, keyboard, mouse, pimter, and other components often called hardware
devices, or devices
Software refers to the instructions, or program, that tell the hardware what to do. A
word processing-program that can be used to write on your computer is a type of software.
The operating system (OS) is software that manages computer and devices connected to it.
Window is a well-known operating system.
FATHER OF COMPUTER
Charges Babbage was an English polymath. He was a mathematician, philosopher,
inventor and mechanical engineer, who is best remembered more for originating the concept
of programmable computer. He is considers as a Father of the computer . he is creadited
with inventing the first mechanical computer that eventually led to more complex design.
COMPUTER HISTORY
FI RST GENERATI ON(1940-1956) VACUUM TUBES

The first computer used vacuum tube for circuitry and magnetic drums for memory,
and were enormous, taking up entire rooms. They were very expensive to operate and use lots
of electrical energy, generated lot of heat, which often cause malfunction.
First generation computer relied in machine language, the lowest-level programming
language understood by computer, to perform operation, and they could only solve one
problem at one time. Input was based in punch card and paper tape and output was displayed
on printsout. The first general purpose electronic computer was ENIAC ( Electronic
Numerical Integrator And Computer). It was digital, although it didnt operate with binary
code and was reprogrammed to solve a complete range of computing problems. It was
programmed using plugboards and switches, supporting input from IBM card reader, and
output to an IBM card punch. It took up 167 square meter, weighed 27 tons and consuming
150 kilowatts of power. It used thousands of vacuum tubes, crystal diodes, relay, resistor and
capasitors. The first non-general purpose computer was ABC(Atanasoff-Berry computer),
and other similar computers of this era included german Z3 British Colossus computer, LEO,
Havard Mark 1 and UNIVAC
SECOND GENERATI ONS(1955-1960)
By 1948, the invention of transistor greatly changed the computers
development. The transistor replaced the large, cumberstone vacuum tube in television,
radios and computer. The transistor was at work on computer by 1955. Coupled with
advances in magnetic core memory, transistor led to second generations computer that were
smaller, faster, more reliable and more energy-efficient than previous generation. The first
large-scale machines to take advantage of this transistor technology were early
supercomputers, Strech by IBM and LARC by Sperry-Rand. These computer, both developed
for atomic energy laboratories, could handle an enormous amount of data, a capability much
in demand by atomic scientist. Second generation was the introduction of assembly language.
When assembly language replaced machine language, abbreviated programming codes to
replaces long, difficult binary codes( Gersting 35).
Through the early 1960s, there were a number of commercially successful second
generation computer used in businesses, universities and government from companies such as
Burroughs, Control Data, Honeywell IBM, Sperry-rand and other. These second generation
computer were also of solid state design, and contained transistor in place vacuum tubes.
They also contained all the components associate with the modern day computer. One
important example was the IBM 1401, which was universally accepted throughout industry
and is considered by many to be Model T of the computer industry. In the field of
programming language, there were superior introduction like FOTRAN(1956),
ALGOL(1958) and COBOL (1959). The second generation also witnessed the development
of two supercomputer-i.e. the most powerful device amongst the peers. Those two were the
Liverpool Atomic Research Computer(LARC) and IBM7030. these machines overlapped
memory operation with processor operations and had primitive type of parallel processing.
Some of the important commercial machines of this were IBM 704,709 and 7094
THI RD GENERATI ONS(1960s)
The invention of integrated circuits (ICs), also known as microchips, paved the way
for computer as we known them today. Making circuits out of single pieces of silicon, which
is a semiconductor, allowed them to be much smaller and more practical to produce. This
also started the ongoing process of integrating an ever larger number of transistors onto single
microchip. During the sixties microchips started making their way into computer, but the
process was gradual, and second generation of computer were still held on/
First appeared minicomputers, first of which were still based on non-microchip
transistor, and later version of which were hybrids, being based on both transistor and
microchip, such as IBMs System/360. They were much smaller and cheaper than the
previous generation also has a mainframes. Minicomputer can be seen as a bridge between
mainframe and microcomputer, which came later as the proliferation of microchips in
computer grew.


FORTH GENERATI ON (1971-PRESENT)


After the invention of the integrated circuit, the next step in the computer design
process was reduce the overall size. Large scale integration (LSI) could fit hundreds of
component onto on chip. By the 1980s very large scale integration(VLSI) squeezed
hundreds of thousands of components onto a chip. Ultra-large scale integration (ULSI)
increased that number into the millions. The ability to fits so much onto an area about half
size of a U.S dime helped diminish the size and price of computers. It also increased their
power, efficiency and reliability. The Intel 404 chip, developed in 1971, took the integrated
circuit one step further by locating all the components of a computer on minute chip.
In 1981, IBM introduced its personel computer(PC) for use in the home, office and school.
The 1980s saw an expansion in computer use in all three area as clones of IBM PC made the
personel computer more affordable. The number of personel computer in use more than
doubled from 2 million in 1981 to 5.5 million in 1982. Ten years later, 65 million PCs were
being used. Computer continued their trend toward a smaller size, working their way down
from desktop to laptop computer to palmtop. In direct competition with IBMs PC was
Apples Macintosh line, introduced on 1984. Notable for its user-friendly design, the
Macintosh offered an operating system that allowed users to move screen icons instead of
typing instruction. Computer became more powerful, they could linked together, or network,
to shared memory space, software, information and communicate with each other. As
opposed the mainframe computer, which was one powerful computer that shared time with
many terminal for many applications, networked computer allowed individual computer to
form electronic gateways. Using either direct wiring called a Local Area Network(LAN) or
telephone lines. These networks could reach enormous proportion. A global web computer
circuitry, the Internet for example, links computer worldwide into a single network of
information.
The most recent technology is CPU corperation has release their 4
th
generation intel core
i3,i5 and i7 and the latest Microsoft window is window 8.1.