Evolution of Computers
Computers are our world’s gateway and information super highway yet they were not always so complex, integrated and involved in our lives. The computer has been slowly developed over centuries and has taken the skills of many inventors. In the search of formalizing a counting mechanism, the concept of positional notation was introduced. In or around 3000BC the Chinese abacus was developed. The abacus was the only computing device in history for over four thousand years. In the 1600s German scientist Wilhelm Schikard invented a device that used eleven complete and six incomplete sprocket wheels that had the ability to add, multiply and divide.
It was not for another three-hundred years that the world first programmable computer was built. The Z1, created by Konrad Zuse in the late 1930s, had all the basics of our modern day computers, such as use of the binary system and separation of storage and control. Unlike the devices we use today, the Z1 weighed a little over two thousand pounds. Like the Z1, the ENIAC was very large; its size equaled to that of two semi-trucks and weighed over thirty tons. The ENIAC was built in the US in the mid 1940s by John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert and was the first electronic computer.
Over the next few decades the development of computer devices transformed from a machine that took up every bit of space in a room to a device that is as portable as a cellular phone. The Apple and IBM Companies built the first recognizable computers in the late seventies and early eighties. As years go by the size and speed of personal computers have changed for the better.
The internet as we know it has only been around in the last twenty years, yet we depend on it like the air we breathe. The World-Wide Web (WWW) was developed by Tim Berners-Lee in 1991 and since then has continuously added websites and services that were previously not available to a person from their home. There are a number of things available to you on the Net, you can find anything from simple word definitions to integrated personal or Corporate Training Solutions.
One of the items we, as the latest generation, can say is imperative to our everyday lives is a laptop. Due to their small size and portable functionality, people are able to do almost anything from a number of locations. This feature motivates businesses to offer Enterprise Learning Solutions to their employees. With the flexibility of such devices learning on and off the job is as simple as pressing the power button.