Then and Now: The Evolution of Computers

In the past century technology has been developing at a rapid pace. Just think that 32 years ago Apple released the Powerbook100, an early laptop with a keyboard and a track mouse. It could only hold about 2-8 MB of memory. Now we have computers that can hold Gigabytes full of memory. So today we are going to go over the evolution of computers.

1940’s:

John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert created the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) in 1946. It weighed around thirty tons. It was utilized by the US Army to determine artillery firing tables during World War II. It was referred to as the first electronic digital general-purpose computer in history. With its ability to complete complex calculations in a matter of seconds.

1950’s and 60’s:

Throughout the development and use of large-scale computing systems, mainframe computers have been fundamental to computing history. Mainframes were first introduced in the 1950s and grew in popularity over the years that followed due to their strength, dependability, and large processing capacity. Originally, government organizations, big businesses, and educational institutions used these huge, room-sized computers for data processing, scientific calculations, and transaction processing. As centralized computer centers, mainframes supported numerous users at once and handled huge amounts of data. 

1970’s and 80’s:

The arrival of personal computers (PCs) in homes, offices, and schools during the 1970s and 1980s changed computing. Popular devices with flexible architecture and user-friendly interfaces that made computing accessible to a wider audience like the Apple II and IBM PC. Accessibility greatly improved with the development of graphical user interfaces (GUIs), best represented by the Apple Macintosh in 1984. The 1980s also saw the birth and expansion of the internet, which many of us use in our daily lives today.

2000’s onward:

From the year 2000 onward, computers became a part of our daily lives with multiple companies announcing new computer models every year. Microsoft announced the Windows 2000, Apple released the Power Mac G4 Cube. Virtual reality would advance at a rapid rate as well as generative AI. New machines such as smartphones and tablets were introduced. And computers are now everywhere, in schools, offices, and at homes. Laptops would keep becoming more and more portable with the introduction of the Macbook Air in 2008. Operating systems have become very advanced with Windows 10 released in 2015. 

For the past 80 years, computers have gone from thousands of dollars, large machines only used by private companies, to being used by people around the world, portable, and as cheap as 150 USD, possibly cheaper. Technology is advancing at a rapid rate and it doesn’t look like it’s slowing down from here.

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