Page 384 - Encyclopedia of Business and Finance

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HARDWARE and Apple’s Macintosh was introduced in 1984. The Mac-
intosh was the first popular computer with a graphical
The concept of inventing hardware to assist in commer-
cial productivity is not a modern concept. For example, user interface (GUI), and it also had a laser printer that
could combine text and pictures. A GUI operating system
thousands of years ago the Chinese sought greater effi-
receives input from both the keyboard and a pointing
ciency in calculating numbers and invented the abacus, a
handheld mechanical device. Another hardware milestone device (mouse). In the early twenty-first century all per-
was reached when Charles Babbage (1791–1871) pro- sonal computers use a mouse or trackball for point and
posed a machine in 1822 that would calculate mathemat- click ease of operation.
ical tables, and much of his design was used in later
computers. Later, Herman Hollerith (1860–1929) CLASSIFICATIONS AND
designed a method to store numbers onto punched cards, DEFINITIONS OF COMPUTERS
which was used to calculate the 1890 census, and the There are four main classifications of computers: main-
company he founded eventually became IBM Corpora- frame, minicomputer, microcomputer, and handheld.
tion. The first decade of the twenty-first century revealed The major categories can be used only as general guide-
hardware devices that may be easily carried in a pocket lines because of the huge variety in product lines. Cell
and are embedded with wireless links to people or data phones include a microprocessor, and along with personal
around the world. This significantly extends the arena of digital assistants (PDAs), are considered handheld com-
the workplace to cars, airplanes, and homes. puters. Computer servers have also been included in this
discussion because of their important role in networking
THE COMPUTER ERA BEGINS and Internet applications.
The first electronic computer, the ENIAC, was developed A mainframe computer is any large computer system
at the University of Pennsylvania in 1946. It used vacuum such as that used by the Internal Revenue Service.
tubes and weighed 30 tons. Remington Rand Corpora- Another example of mainframe use is by airlines, with
tion produced the first commercial computer, the UNI- thousands of users of the ticketing system connected
VAC, in 1951. Transistors, which replaced vacuum tubes, simultaneously to one computer. The next smaller-sized
were far smaller and took less power than tubes. Transis- computer is termed a minicomputer. It is of medium-scale
tors were shortly thereafter replaced by integrated circuits, and might serve up to several hundred users. Commonly
which further minimized size and lessened power require- known as personal computers (PCs), microcomputers are
ments. The availability of integrated circuits made the first small-sized computers, including desktops and laptops.
personal computer possible in 1977 when Steve Jobs Handheld computers, including cell phones, have consid-
(1955– ) and Steve Wozniak (1950– ) introduced the erable storage for their size and include the capability of
Apple II. IBM offered their first microcomputer in 1981, communications from virtually any place.

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