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<a class="a3" href="digitalpractice.html">Summary</a><b class="b1">  |  </b><a class="a3" href="digitalpractice-technical.html">Technical Details</a><b class="b1">  |  </b><a class="a3" href="references.html">References</a><b class="b1">  |  </b><a class="a3" href="links.html#digital">Links</a>
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The computer has existed in different forms since the early Greek and Roman periods of History in the form of the abacus, however in comparison to modern standards the abacus is comparable to a data storage facility. The abacus stores values of numbers in varying positions along its frame but it still requires the logic of a human to operate it and help perform the calculations.
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The last millennium saw the invention of the computer as it is now thought of, but not before several versions of these machines existed. In the 1600's Pascal and Leibniz created machines that performed calculations and used special algorithms to do so. The machines operated using a gearing system to store values, data was inputted mechanically. The algorithms could not be adapted once the machine was built, so compared to modern standards the machine could be called a semi automatic, data storage facility to use a rough term, but this would be analogous to a primitive calculator.
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The 1800's saw the specification of a computing device by Charles Babbage. The specification theoretically would allow the machine to perform calculations of relative complexity. The importance of the machine that Babbage designed is that it was programmable, it would read programs through punched cards, and it would print readouts on paper to prevent transcription error. His assistant Ada Byron Lovelace speculated that the machine would facilitate composition of complex music, be capable of producing graphics, and would be used for practical and scientific applications. She also specified a method for calculating Bernoulli numbers using the Babbage device. The fact that the machine specified by Babbage was programmable, means that it is regarded in some accounts as the worlds very first computer, Ada Lovelace is seen as the very first computer programmer and her specification for the calculation of Bernoulli numbers the very first computer program respectively.
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The modern computing age began in the 1940's with the creation of several computers that compete for the title of the very first modern computer. Two machines of significant importance are the Z3 created by Konrad Zuse in Germany, 1941, and Colossus created by Alan Turing and other colleagues in Great Britain in 1943. The Z3 was based on electromechanical relays, however Colossus was the first digital electronic machine.
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Both machines have factors that make them equally viable for being the first modern computer. However the irony lies in a theory developed by Turing himself:
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<b>A Turing machine consists of an infinite amount of memory, a finite set of symbols and an instruction set. Re-arranging these symbols in memory and utilising an instruction set on these symbols allows mathematical functions to be calculated. A mathematical function exists if and only if it can be computed using a Turing machine. The Universal Turing machine is one that can imitate any other Turing machine. Any machine with the computational power the same as a Universal Turing machine is described as Turing-complete.</b>
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Colossus created by Turing was an electronic machine it was also programmable, however it was incapable of certain mathematical tasks and therefore was not Turing-complete. The Z3 was completely programmable, if it was possible to give the Z3 an infinite amount of memory it could imitate any other Turing machine. Therefore it is described as Turing-Complete, and by this standard can be called the first modern computer.
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In 1950's and 1960's America, a new revolution began in terms of computers…
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