History Of The Computer Industry In America
Only once in a lifetime will a new invention come about to touch
every aspect of our lives. Such a device that changes the way we work,
live, and play is a special one, indeed. A machine that has done all this
and more now exists in nearly every business in the U.S. and one out of
every two households (Hall, 156). This incredible invention is the
computer. The electronic computer has been around for over a half-century,
but its ancestors have been around for 2000 years. However, only in the
last 40 years has it changed the American society. From the first wooden
abacus to the latest high-speed microprocessor, the computer has changed
nearly every aspect of peoples lives for the better.The very earliest
existence of the modern day computers ancestor is the abacus. These date
back to almost 2000 years ago. It is simply a wooden rack holding parallel
wires on which beads are strung. When these beads are moved along the wire
according to “programming” rules that the user must me! morize, all
ordinary arithmetic operations can be performed (Soma, 14). The next
innovation in computers took place in 1694 when Blaise Pascal invented the
first “digital calculating machine”. It could only add numbers and they
had to be entered by turning dials. It
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