Hardware Evolution

Our lives today would be different, and probably difficult, without the benefits
of modern computers. Computerization has permeated nearly every
facet of our personal and professional lives. Computer evolution has been
both rapid and fascinating. The first step along the evolutionary path of
computers occurred in 1930, when binary arithmetic was developed and
became the foundation of computer processing technology, terminology,
and programming languages. Calculating devices date back to at least as
early as 1642, when a device that could mechanically add numbers was
invented. Adding devices evolved from the abacus. It was a significant milestone
in the history of computers. In 1939, the Berry brothers invented an
electronic computer capable of operating digitally. Computations were performed
using vacuum-tube technology.
In 1941, the introduction of Konrad Zuse’s Z3 at the German Laboratory
for Aviation in Berlin was one of the most significant events in the evolution
of computers because this machine supported both floating-point
and binary arithmetic. Because it was a “Turing-complete” device,
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it is considered
to be the very first computer that was fully operational. A programming
language is considered Turing-complete if it falls into the same
computational class as a Turing machine, meaning that it can perform any
calculation a universal Turing machine can perform. This is especially significant
because, under the Church-Turing thesis,
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a Turing machine is the
embodiment of the intuitive notion of an algorithm. Over the course of the
next two years, computer prototypes were built to decode secret German
messages by the U.S. Army.