Computer hardware: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 06:36, 12 August 2025

Revision as of 15:15, 12 August 2025

Line 13:

==History==

{{further|History of computing}}

Early computing devices were more complicated than the ancient [[abacus]] date to the seventeenth century. French mathematician [[Blaise Pascal]] designed a gear-based device that could add and subtract, selling around 50 models. The [[stepped reckoner]] was invented by [[Gottfried Leibniz]] by 1676, which could also divide and multiply. Due to the limitations of contemporary fabrication and design flaws, Leibniz' reckoner was not very functional, but similar devices ([[Leibniz wheel]]) remained in use into the 1970s.{{sfn|Blum|2011|p=13–14}} In the 19th century, Englishman [[Charles Babbage]] invented the [[difference engine]], a mechanical device to calculate [[polynomial]]s for astronomical purposes.{{sfn|Blum|2011|p=14}} Babbage also designed a general-purpose computer that was never built. Much of the design was incorporated into the earliest computers: [[punch card]]s for input and output, [[memoryBlujhjkhjkhjk

ory (computing)|memory]], an arithmetic unit analogous to [[central processing unit]]s, and even a primitive [[programming language]] similar to [[assembly language]].{{sfn|Blum|2011|p=15}}

In 1936, [[Alan Turing]] developed the concept of the [[universal Turing machine]] to model any type of computer, demonstrating that no machine could solve the [[Entscheidungsproblem|decision problem]].