The Computer

Origins

Calculating machines have a long history: from the abacus through Charles Babbage’s nineteenth-century designs to the mechanical tabulating machines Herman Hollerith developed for the 1890 census. But the electronic computer emerged from World War II. The need to calculate artillery tables, break codes, and simulate nuclear weapons drove massive investment in computing research.

ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), completed at the University of Pennsylvania in 1946, was the first general-purpose electronic computer. It filled a room, used 18,000 vacuum tubes, and required constant maintenance. But it could perform calculations thousands of times faster than any previous machine. The computer age had begun.

The stored-program concept—where instructions as well as data reside in memory—came from John von Neumann and transformed computer design. Commercial computers followed: UNIVAC I (1951) for business data processing, IBM’s 700 series for scientific computing. IBM’s dominance of the mainframe market began in the 1950s and would persist for decades.

Structure & Function

The computer industry evolved through generations defined by underlying technology: vacuum tubes, transistors, integrated circuits, and microprocessors. Each generation brought smaller, faster, cheaper, more reliable machines. The mainframe era (1950s–1970s) saw computers installed in large organizations for batch processing of data. Time-sharing systems (1960s) allowed multiple users to interact with single computers.

The industry developed distinctive business models. IBM leased rather than sold machines, binding customers through ongoing relationships. Software emerged as a separate product category; programming became a profession. Data centers, with their specialized facilities and operators, became new organizational units within corporations.

Historical Significance

The computer transformed information processing as profoundly as printing transformed information storage. Business operations from payroll to inventory to airline reservations were automated. Scientific research, from genome sequencing to climate modeling, became computationally driven. Government administration depended increasingly on computerized records.

The mainframe era established patterns that would persist: the importance of standards and compatibility, the challenge of software development, the centralization of computing power and expertise. The computer priesthood—specialized professionals managing mysterious machines—would only be challenged with the personal computer’s arrival.