History of the computer
- a series of articles

Now on its own website - "Computer History and Development"!

CONTENTS - History of the Computer Series introduction The emergence of electronics Analog or Digital? How computers count How computers add Flip-Flops a basic Counter How computers multiply Negative numbers for subtraction Floating point numbers Core memory Cache memory Machine code programs Data handling peripherals Handshaking Codes for data transfer The bootstrap Mass storage Real-time systems Redundancy Cooling Memory ECC Electrostatic damage Artificial intelligence

We look at the development of the computer from the inside. What we are interested in is how the different elements of a digital computer have been developed over the years. We take a very simple approach (computers are composed of very many simple components).

We mention basic electronic circuits, so anyone interested can follow the simple descriptions, however it is not necessary to understand these.

In the tradition of Star Wars (what better recommendation!) we start our story in the middle.

This is the stage in the 1940's when electronics had seen rapid development during the second world war.

Secret 'unbreakable' codes used to make critical radio messages secure were developed and refined, in parallel with code-breaking techniqes used to crack these codes.

Gun trajectories, a complicated calculation, needed to be completed with speed and accuracy.

Another ballistic calculation was for the V2 rockets, later developed for the Space Program - almost back to Star Wars!

The 'first' article - "The emergence of Electronics" discusses these developments in more detail, subsequent articles look at how these techniques were applied and refined into the present level of technology.

Subsequent articles - more than 20 - see history of the computer Contents at the top of this page - each deal with an area of the technology. The articles are written in easy-to-understand language, technical concepts are explained in layman's terms.

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Now updated and on its own site

History of the Computer will give you a behind-the-scenes look at computers from mainframes to laptops.