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The abacus, which emerged about 5,000 years ago in Asia Minor and is still in use today, may be considered the first computer. This device allows users to make computations using a system of sliding beads arranged on a rack; it was simply a counting device.
It took long for the next significant advance in computing devices to emerge. In 1642, Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), the 18-year-old son of a French tax collector, invented what he called a numerical wheel calculator to help his father with his duties but which used eight movable dials to add sums up. It was not until the 1940s that the electronic computers emerged.
In the 1820s, Charles Babbage designed the ‘Difference Engine’, a machine which could perform mathematical calculations. A six-wheeled model was initially constructed and demonstrated to a number of audiences. He also worked on another invention, the more complex Analytical Engine, a revolutionary device which was intended to be able to perform any arithmetic calculation using punched cards that would deliver the instructions, as well as a memory unit to store numbers and many other fundamental components of today's computers. Lady Ada Lovelace produced programs to be used by the analytical machine. She is claimed to be possibly the first programmer.
Kavungya answered the question on May 17, 2019 at 07:37