History of computing

   The first working machine with a Von Neumann architecture was the Manchester «Baby» - Small-Scale Experimental Machine (Small experimental machine), established in Manchester University in 1948 and in 1949 was followed by a computer Manchester Mark I, which is a complete system, with Williams tube and a magnetic drum as a memory, as well as index registers. Another contender for the title "the first digital stored program computer" was EDSAC, designed and constructed at the University of Cambridge. Operational less than one year after «Baby», he could be used to solve real problems. In fact, EDSAC was based on computer architecture EDVAC, heir to ENIAC. Unlike the ENIAC, which used parallel processing, EDVAC a single processing unit. The decision was easier and safer, so this option became the first to be implemented in each succeeding wave of miniaturization. Many believe that the Manchester Mark I / EDSAC / EDVAC become "Evami", from which trace their architecture almost all modern computers.

   The first universal programmable computer in continental Europe was created by a team of scientists under the leadership of Sergei Alekseevich Lebedev from Kiev Institute of Electrotechnology, Soviet Union, Ukraine. COMPUTER SECM (Small Electronic Calculating Machine) earned in 1950. It contained 6000 vacuum tubes and consumed 15 kW. It could perform approximately 3,000 operations per second. Another machine was the Australian CSIRAC, which completed its first test program in 1949.

   In October 1947, Director of the company Lyons & Company, a British company that owns a network of shops and restaurants, decided to take an active part in the development of the commercial development of computers. LEO I computer was working in 1951 and the world's first regular routine office work.

   Machine University of Manchester has become the prototype for the Ferranti Mark I. The first such machine was delivered to the university in February 1951, and at least nine others were sold between 1951 and 1957.

   In June 1951, UNIVAC 1 was installed in the U.S. Census Bureau. The machine was developed in the company of Remington Rand, which eventually sold 46 machines at more than $ 1 million each. UNIVAC was the first mass produced computer and all his predecessors had in a single item. The computer had 5200 vacuum tubes and consumed 125 kW of power. Used mercury delay lines, keeping the 1000-word memory, each 11 decimal digits plus sign (72-bit words). Unlike machines IBM, Markets card reader, UNIVAC has used input from the metallized tape style 1930, so to ensure compatibility with some existing commercial storage systems. Other computers of that time used a high-speed input from punched tape and input / output using more advanced tape.

   The first batch of Soviet computer boom began, produced from 1953 to the Moscow plant eam. "Arrow" refers to a class of large general-purpose computers (mainframe) with a three-address system commands. Computers had the speed of 2000-3000 operations per second. As an external memory used two tape drive capacity of 200 000 words, the amount of RAM - 2048 cells from 43 of the discharge. The computer had 6200 tubes, 60 000 of semiconductor diodes, and consumed 150 kW of power.