Basic introduction Chinese name: Digital electronic computer components: central processing unit, storage system and input system Date of birth:1February 946 14 Inventor:? Mochili abbreviation: digital computer, digital electronic computer, birth of the first computer, 50th anniversary, development history, classification, and digital electronic computer referred to as digital computer. The information transmitted, stored and operated is digital information in the form of electromagnetic signals. A typical digital electronic computer consists of a central processor, a computer storage system and a computer input/output system. A computer storage system includes a main memory and an auxiliary memory. Central processing unit and main memory are collectively referred to as central processing unit; Computer input and output devices and auxiliary memory are collectively referred to as computer peripherals. Computers can't work without hardware, and there must be a set of "programs" to determine the rules and order of information processing. The same hardware with different programs can solve different types of problems. Computer programs and corresponding data and documents are collectively referred to as computer software, including computer system software, computer application software and computer support software. An organic whole consisting of computer hardware and software is called a computer system. The first computer was born1Feb. 946 14 The world's first electronic digital computer ENIAC was born. The original design scheme of "Eniac" computer was put forward by 36-year-old American engineer Mochri 1943. The main task of the computer is to analyze the trajectory of the projectile. The United States Ordnance Department allocated funds to support research and development, and set up a special research team, which was headed by Mochiri. The chief engineer is eckert, who is only 24 years old. Team member Geers is a mathematician and a logician Boxer. "Eniac”* * * uses 65,438+08,000 electron tubes, plus 65,438+0500 relays and other equipment. It has a total volume of about 90 cubic meters, weighs 30 tons, covers an area of 170 square meters, and needs a large room more than 30 meters long to store it. This is a complete monster. This computer with power consumption of 140 kW has an operation speed of 5000 additions or 400 multiplications per second, which is 1000 times faster than the mechanical relay computer. When "Eniac" is publicly displayed, the trajectory of a shell can be calculated in 20 seconds, which is faster than the flight speed of the shell. Eniac's memory is an electronic device, not a rotating "drum". It can complete tens of millions of multiplication operations a day, which is equivalent to a person working with a desktop computer for 40 years. It runs in decimal instead of binary. However, there are also a few electron tubes that work in binary mode, so the machine has to convert decimal into binary in its work, and then back to decimal when data is input and output. "Eniac" was originally a special computer designed for ballistic calculation. But later, by changing the wiring mode inserted into the control panel to solve various problems, it became a universal machine. Its improved version was used in the development of hydrogen bombs. The "Eniac" program uses external plug-ins, and every time a new calculation is made, the line has to be reconnected. Sometimes it takes several hours or 1~2 days to prepare a few minutes or dozens of calculated line connections, which is a fatal weakness. Its other weakness is that its storage capacity is too small, and it can only store 20 decimal numbers with 10 bits at most. General mountbatten of the British Society of Radio Engineers praised the emergence of "Eniac" as "the birth of electronic brain", from which the word "computer" came. 50th Anniversary1996 February 15, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of "Eniac", US Vice President Al Gore once again pressed the start button of this huge electronic computer that had been sleeping for 40 years at the grand commemorative ceremony held at the University of Pennsylvania. Gore is addressing the scientists who participated in the development of "Eniac" and are still alive today: "I want to congratulate the pioneers who developed this computer that year." The two rows of lights on Eniac flashed to 46 with accurate rhythm, which indicated that it appeared in 1946, and then flashed to 96, marking the 50 years since the beginning of the computer age. The first electronic computer came out on February 1946. The full name is "electronic numerical integration and computer", and the English name is "electronic numerical integrator and computer", abbreviated as ENIAC. It was developed by Moore Group at Moore College of the University of Pennsylvania. It consists of 17468 electron tubes, 60000 resistors, 10000 capacitors and 6000 switches. It weighs 30 tons, covers an area of 160 square meters, consumes electricity of 174 kilowatts, and costs $450,000. This computer can only perform 5000 additions or 400 multiplications per second. The development history computer is a kind of modern intelligent electronic equipment, which can automatically perform a large number of numerical calculations and various information processing at high speed according to pre-stored programs. The scientific name of computer is electronic digital computer, which is developed from the early electronic calculator. Generally speaking, "the first electronic digital computer recognized in the world" is considered by most people as "ENIAC" which came out in 1946, and is mainly used to calculate ballistics. It is manufactured by Moore Institute of Electrical Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, USA, but it is huge, covering an area of 170 square meters, weighing about 30 tons, and consumes nearly 140 kilowatts of electricity. Obviously, such computers are expensive and inconvenient to use. This statement is widely used in basic computer textbooks. In fact, according to the ruling of the US Supreme Court 1973, the earliest electronic digital computers should be john atanasoff, an associate professor in the Department of Physics of He Hua University, and Clifford Berry, his graduate assistant (19 18- 1963). The reason for this misunderstanding is that a man named Moakley in the "ENIAC" research group copied john atanasoff's research results at 194 1 and applied for a patent at 1946. For various reasons, this error was not reversed until 1973. (Please refer to the entry "john atanasoff" for details. I hope everyone will remember ABC and john atanasoff, and I hope this mistake can be corrected in future textbooks). Later, in order to commend and commemorate john atanasoff's great contribution in the computer field, former US President Bush awarded john atanasoff the highest American science and technology award-"National Science and Technology Award" from 65438 to 0990. 1956, the transistor electronic computer was born, which is the second generation electronic computer. Only a few larger cabinets can be installed, and the operation speed is greatly improved. The third generation of integrated circuit computers appeared in 1959. 1946, the calculator invented by john von neumann was as big as three warehouses, and it was gradually developed. This is the latest stage of computer development since 1970s. By 1976, "Cray" made of LSI and VLSI made the computer enter the fourth generation. With the invention of VLSI, electronic computers are constantly upgrading to miniaturization, miniaturization, low power consumption, intelligence and systematization. In the 1990s, computers developed in the direction of "intelligence", creating computers similar to human brains, which can do thinking, learning, memory and network communication. In the 265,438+0th century, computers have become more notebook-oriented, miniaturized and specialized, with an operation speed of over 65,438,000 billion times per second. It is not only easy to operate and cheap, but also can replace part of people's mental work and even expand people's intelligence in some aspects. Therefore, today's microcomputers are vividly called computers. The first personal computer in the world was introduced by IBM in 1980. IBM introduced a personal computer based on Intel x86 hardware architecture and Microsoft MS-DOS operating system, and formulated the PC/AT specification. Since then, the development of Intel's microprocessor and Microsoft's operating system is almost equivalent to the development history of personal computers. Wintel architecture completely replaced IBM's dominant position in the field of personal computers. Classification According to data representation, computers can be divided into three categories: digital computers, analog computers and hybrid computers. Digital computers are divided into mechanical computers and electromechanical computers, current electronic computers, optical computers, quantum computers, biological computers, neural computers and other electronic computers under study. According to its scale or system function, it can be divided into giant, large, medium, small, microcomputer and single chip microcomputer.