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Early Expressions of Computing

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PCQ Bureau
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'Human Mind' the first computer has been the primary source of all modern day mechanisms that can be seen in a tablet or a laptop, not only in their engineering design but also in their manner of function. The idea behind a computer was to make our tasks simpler and quicker and to pass on the task to something smaller but as complex as the human brain.

Civilisations, from time to time, have demonstrated traces of genius and advanced technology. Be it the pyramids of the great Egyptian Empire or the Harappan town planning of 2500 BC. These engineering marvels were a major breakthrough in early civilisations. The work done by these civilisations pushes us towards understanding them to know the early human developments and laid the foundation for our present-day digital age.

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Mesopotamia, one of the earliest Bronze Age civilisations, invented a counting frame named Abacus in 2700 BC for addition and subtraction. Abacus was later modified and used in Egypt, Greece, Rome, Persia, China and in India, where by the end of the 5th century, Hindu texts were using the term shunya or zero to show the empty column on the Abacus. The Greeks came up with several other mathematical formulae and theorems.

16th century algorithms

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One of the earliest foundations of modern PC is the algorithm. Inspired by Brahmagupta's zero and conceived by Euclid, algorithm derived from the name of the 9th century Persian Muslim mathematician Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Musa Al-Khwarizmi. In the 12th century one of his books was translated into Latin, where his name was rendered in Latin as 'Algorithmi'.

An algorithm helps in optimizing a computer program. The efficiency of the algorithm usually determines the efficiency of the program as a whole. They embody the logic used to solve a problem. Written in words, they are computer language independent. The algorithm has come a long way from Al-Khwarizmi's work and has allowed man to write unbelievable set of numbers through a computer program with an algorithm within minutes.

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Calculators

A mechanical calculator was a popular and portable calculation aid that reduced multiplication and division to a series of additions and subtractions. It used a table-based calculation method that is believed to have originated in India in the Middle Ages. Later, Schickard combined Napier's bones for multiplication and division with a toothed-wheel system to add and subtract, and is the earliest known mechanical calculator.

In 1642, Blaise Pascal, a mathematician built the first mechanical adding machine based on a design by Hero of Alexandria, from 2nd century AD, to total the distance covered by a carriage. Instead of having a carriage wheel turn the gear, he enabled a ten-tooth wheel to be turned directly by a person's hand. When the wheels were turned in the proper sequence, a series of numbers was entered and a cummulative sum was obtained. His calculator was called Pascaline and was found to be a better way of doing calculations than doing them manually.

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18th century punch cards

In 1725, Basile Bouchon used perforated paper loop in a loom to establish the pattern to be reproduced on cloth, and in 1726 his co-worker Jean-Baptiste Falcon improved on his design by using perforated paper cards attached to one another, which made it easier to change the program quickly. This inspired Herman Hollerith to develop a punch card system for tabulating the results of the United States census in 1888.

Made of thin cardboard, the punch card represents information by the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions on the card. For the next 70 years punch cards were the primary medium for data entry, storage and processing. Later, punch cards were improved using computers created by International Business Machines (IBM), Remington etc. These computers used electromechanical devices in which electrical power provided mechanical motion like turning the wheels of an adding machine. Despite being slow, they were a big step in the field of computing.

Boolean Algebra

In 1847, British mathematician George Boole showed how using a specific set of logic one can manage piles of data to find the required information. This logic is still used in search engines and databases for modern-day operations. Boole, in his book, “An Investigation of the Laws of Thought” provided the basic logic for operations on binary numbers (1 and 0). Since modern business machines are based on a binary system, his algebra was found enormously valuable.

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