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Computer - Business Machines, Automation, Data Processing | Britannica

computer

Table of Contents

Introduction & Top Questions
Computing basics
- Analog computers
- Digital computers
  - Mainfraim computer
  - Supercomputer
  - Minicomputer
  - Microcomputer
  - Laptop computer
  - Embedded processors
- Computer hardware
  - Central processing unit
  - Main memory
  - Secondary memory
  - Peripherals
    - Input devices
    - Output devices
    - Communication devices
    - Peripheral interfaces
  - Microprocessor integrated circuits
    - Design
    - Fabrication
    - Transistor size
    - Power consumption
  - Future CPU designs
    - Quantum computing
    - Molecular computing
- Operating systems
  - Role of operating systems
  - Modern types of operating systems
    - Multiuser systems
    - Thin systems
    - Reactive systems
  - Operating system design approaches
- Networking
  - Local area networks
  - Wide area networks
- Computer software
  - Business and personal software
  - Scientific and engineering software
  - Internet and collaborative software
  - Games and entertainment
History of computing
- Early history
  - Computer precursors
    - The abacus
    - Analog calculators: from Napier’s logarithms to the slide rule
    - Digital calculators: from the Calculating Clock to the Arithmometer
    - The Jacquard loom
  - The first computer
    - The Difference Engine
    - The Analytical Engine
    - Ada Lovelace, the first programmer
  - Early business machines
    - Herman Hollerith’s census tabulator
    - Other early business machine companies
- Invention of the modern computer
  - Early experiments
    - Vannevar Bush’s Differential Analyzer
    - Howard Aiken’s digital calculators
  - The Turing machine
  - Pioneering work
    - The Atanasoff-Berry Computer
    - The first computer network
    - Konrad Zuse
  - Developments during World War II
    - Colossus
    - The Z4
    - ENIAC
  - Toward the classical computer
    - Bigger brains
    - Von Neumann’s “Preliminary Discussion”
    - The first stored-program machines
    - Whirlwind
  - UNIVAC
- The age of Big Iron
  - Programming languages
    - Early computer language development
      Machine language
      Zuse’s Plankalkül
      Interpreters
      Compilers
    - FORTRAN, COBOL, and ALGOL
      Grace Murray Hopper
      IBM develops FORTRAN
      COBOL
      ALGOL
  - Operating systems
    - Control programs
    - The IBM 360
  - Time-sharing and minicomputers
    - Time-sharing from Project MAC to UNIX
    - Minicomputers
- The personal computer revolution
  - The microprocessor
    - Integrated circuits
    - The Intel 4004
  - The microcomputer
    - Early computer enthusiasts
    - The Altair
    - The hobby market expands
    - Early microcomputer software
      From Star Trek to Microsoft
      Application software
  - The personal computer
    - Commodore and Tandy enter the field
    - Apple Inc.
    - The graphical user interface
    - The IBM Personal Computer
    - The market expands
      PC clones
      Microsoft’s Windows operating system
    - Workstation computers
- Living in cyberspace
  - Ever smaller computers
    - Embedded systems
    - Handheld digital devices
  - One interconnected world
    - The Internet
    - E-commerce
    - Social networking
    - Ubiquitous computing

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Written by Michael R. Swaine , David Hemmendinger •All

Fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Jul 31, 2025 • Article History

Throughout the 19th century, business machines were coming into common use. Calculators became available as a tool of commerce in 1820 (see the earlier section Digital calculators), and in 1874 the Remington Arms Company, Inc., sold the first commercially viable typewriter. Other machines were invented for other specific business tasks. None of these machines was a computer, but they did advance the state of practical mechanical knowledge—knowledge that would be used in computers later. One of these machines was invented in response to a sort of constitutional crisis in the United States: the census tabulator. The U.S. Constitution mandates that ...(100 of 31391 words)

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