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Computer History

From Babbage's mechanical engine to the iPhone — how computers transformed everything.

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The history of computing begins with Charles Babbage's design for the Analytical Engine (1837, never completed) and Ada Lovelace's first algorithm (1843). The first electronic general-purpose computers: ENIAC (1945, US, 30 tonnes, 18,000 vacuum tubes, programmed by plugboard); Manchester Baby (1948, first stored-program computer). The transistor (1947, Bell Labs) replaced vacuum tubes; the integrated circuit (1958, Texas Instruments and Fairchild) enabled miniaturization. Moore's Law (Gordon Moore, 1965 — transistor count doubles every ~2 years at constant cost) held approximately true for 50 years, producing a billion-fold improvement in computing power per dollar. The PC revolution (Apple II 1977, IBM PC 1981, Macintosh 1984) put computers in homes. The internet (1990s), smartphone (2007), and cloud computing (AWS 2006) are successive chapters. A modern iPhone has more computing power than NASA had during the Apollo Moon missions.

# Top 10 computing facts

  1. 1ENIAC (1945, first electronic computer)
  2. 2transistor (1947)
  3. 3Moore's Law
  4. 4Apple II/IBM PC
  5. 5Macintosh (1984)
  6. 6Windows 95
  7. 7internet browser (Mosaic 1993)
  8. 8iPhone (2007)
  9. 9cloud computing
  10. 10quantum computing (next chapter)

Fascinating Facts

  • ◆The ENIAC (1945) — the first general-purpose electronic computer — weighed 30 tonnes, filled an entire room, and required 6 programmers to rewire it for each new calculation
  • ◆Moore's Law (transistor count doubles every 2 years) held for 50 years — producing a billion-fold increase in computing power per dollar, the most sustained improvement in any technology in history
  • ◆A modern iPhone 15 has approximately 100,000 times more processing power than the computers that guided Apollo 11 to the Moon — more than enough computing power to fly the entire Apollo program simultaneously
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