Today, most of the things we can solve using computers (smartphones, tablets, etc.). Transferring money to an electronic bank account, writing letters, documents or surfing the Internet for many hours has become the norm for modern people.
It seems to us that this is an integral element of our life, but not so long ago, this was completely impossible. The evolution of the simplest computing technology to ultra-modern computers capable of performing the most incredible tasks is very exciting and full of stunning achievements of programmers and engineers around the world.
Nowadays, computer science is called the science of the future; therefore, it is important for a modern person to have an idea of the most basic achievements of this technical discipline. Introducing the 10 most interesting facts about computer science.
10. The birthday of Soviet computer science is celebrated on December 4, 1948
In 1957, the concept of “computer science” was first introduced by Karl Steinbuch.. This term denoted the technical field of knowledge, which related to the automated processing of information using computers (electronic computers).
At the official level, this holiday is not recognized in the post-Soviet states, however, all who are engaged in computer science and programming professionally celebrate this day.
In fact, this date was not chosen by chance for the celebration of Informatics Day. On this day, a digital electronic computer was registered - the invention of B. Rameev and I. Brook. This device was registered under number 10475 in the State Committee of the Council of Ministers of the USSR for the introduction of advanced technology in the national economy.
This is the first document in the USSR that is related to the development of domestic computer science and programming.
9. 5th Generation Computer Development Program Adopted in Japan
In the early 80s of the last century, leading world programmers assumed that by 1991 fundamentally new PCs would be created that were designed to solve the basic tasks of artificial intelligence.
Using the Prolog language and innovations in the design of computers, it was planned to get as close as possible to solving one of the main goals of this area of computer technology - the task of storing and processing data. Simply put, for computers of the “fifth generation”, it would not be necessary to write programs, but it would only be necessary to explain in “almost natural” language what is required of them.
8. QWERTY
Today, a huge number of people use the “QWERTY” key combination. However, it was not originally provided on computer keyboards. First, an alphabetical system was used, which, however, proved to be ineffective.
The currently used keyboard layout was invented by Christopher Latham Scholes. Later, many alternatives arose, for example, the Dvorak keyboard, but they did not take root.
7. Punch cards
Files are the main building block in computing. They consist of a PC operating system, photos, computer games, and even viruses. Files exist almost from the very beginning of computer technology.
When computers were the size of a middle room and served primarily as a complex calculator, files were written to punch cards. Then the computer, despite its large size, did not have a data carrier. All data was stored on special cards.
6. Deleted files
The moment we give our computer or smartphone a command “Delete” it seems to us that the file will be completely and irretrievably destroyed. The word “seems” is key here. Files will actually be destroyed only when there is not enough disk space. Therefore, you can use special programs so that deleted files can be restored without problems.
By the way, despite the fact that we usually do not consider folders as a file, they are files. The folder contains information about which files it stores and links where exactly they are stored on the disk.
5. Antikythera mechanism
In 1900, at the bottom of the sea near one of the Greek islands, a complex mechanical device was discovered, which probably occurred between 150 and 100 AD e.
Devices of a similar level of complexity began to be built only in the 18th century, therefore this find is referred to as an ancient computer. There is a theory that the so-called Antikythera mechanism served to determine the position of celestial bodies.
It is likely that a genius lived in ancient Greece, whose talents were thousands of years ahead of time. It is surprising that in the following years the craftsmen of Antiquity tried to repeat the feat of the creator of the Antikythera mechanism, however, they could not achieve such accuracy in many years.
Scientists who studied this find came to the conclusion that the creator of this mechanism could be Posidonius, an astronomer and philosopher from the island of Rhodes, who was the mentor of Cicero himself. Cicero himself mentioned a similar device, the author of which, according to him, is Archimedes. Other researchers suggest that the creation of the mysterious device involved the astronomer Hipparchus.
4. The origin of computers
The first devices that can be called computers were designed during the Second World War. The three powers of those times, that is, the USA, Great Britain and Germany, worked on their own designs of the first computers. The fastest of all, the Germans succeeded, who already in 1941 had a Z3 model developed by Konrad Zuse.
3. The first mouse on the market
A computer mouse is a kind of veteran in the computer market because its prototype was created more than 50 years ago, that is, in 1963. Its designer was Douglas Engelbart.
The device was made of wood, inside of which two gear wheels were installed, which determined the movement of the mouse in two directions perpendicular to each other.
2. Computer on board Apollo 11
The very dynamic development of computer technology may be evidenced by the fact that on the Apollo 11 mission ship (1969) there was a computer, the computing power of which was significantly less than that of modern smartphones!
1. The first PC, laptop and smartphone
In 1979, William Mogridge created a device called the Grid Compass Computer 1109. This device was the first laptop on the market. Initially, this equipment was used by NASA in the spacecraft program. Its market value was between 8,000 and 10,000 dollars.
Unfortunately, the lack of compatibility with the IBM PC standard has led to the fact that the Grid Compass Computer 1109 has not gained wide popularity among ordinary consumers.
Atari Portfolio was the first PC to hit the market. This happened in 1989. It was equipped with an 80C88 processor with a frequency of 4.91 MHz. The device was running the DIP-DOS 2.11 operating system. In addition, Atari Portfolio had a screen with a resolution of 240 × 60 pixels, 128 KB of RAM and 256 KB of ROM memory.
The first smartphone was created in 1992 - It was a prototype device called Simon. In addition to the functions of a mobile phone, he offered a calendar, address book, calculator, notepad, email and games.