Retro (Sorry for the off-topic, nothing valuable except a gray story)

Hi, All!
Sorry for being off-topic!

Here, anyone who wants to read, read about the history of computers, which, strangely enough, are already over 350 years old ;)
There are a lot of quotes from a magazine article and a book, but there are also my thoughts
and comments. The main idea: how long has humanity been “toiling in foolishness”
for example in mutual destruction and the establishment of “world domination”
with the help of morons: barefoot, in sandals and boots, before
computers were invented. And how some of the modern morons
want to turn all the other thinking homosapiens into submissive, wordless
morons with the same gyrus as their own, who only know how to
sit their ass behind a monitor and move the mouse around the mouse room.

With respect to all _thinking_ spektrumist-computer specialists,
Andrey Savichev/CGS

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
BORN BEFORE THE ATOMIC BOMB.

"His father left his homeland more than 100 years ago.
Born on October 4, 1903 on a farm near the town of Hamilton
in the state of New York, John Vincent Atanasoff (American, Bulgarian
origin) formulated in 1937, and in 1939 published
the finala variant of his concept of a modern computing machine.
- in its operation the computer will use electricity and
advances in electronics;
- contrary to tradition, its work will be based on the binary and not
decimal number system;
- the basis of the storage device will be capacitors, the contents
of which will be periodically updated to avoid errors;
- calculations will be made using logical, rather than mathematical
actions.
In 1939 Atanasoff, together with his assistant, Clifford E. Berry, built and tested the first computer. It was called
ABC (Atanasoff Berry Computer). Due to lack of funds and
lack of interest on the part of the academic environment, they
had to interrupt the work, which was later completed by others.
During the military confusion, Atanasoff's attempts
to patent his invention ended in vain "Computer, N1, 1990.

PETER-I COULD SEE THEM!

"The first computer that produced summation
of numbers was invented by Blaise Pascal in 1642, and in 1674
Leibniz constructed a machine that performed basic
arithmetic operations and extracted square roots. However
attemptto create a machine that can be considered a prototype
of modern computers belongs to the Englishman Charles Babbage
(1792-1871).
In 1822. he began to develop a machine that he called analytical.
In Babbage's machine, data entered from punched cards had to
be processed in arithmetic devices that perform
the corresponding calculations. The results were supposed to be printed and
punched on cards.
The machine was supposed to have a storage device for storing 1000
numbers on punched cards. Cardboard cards with
holes printed on them had been used for about a hundred years before to control
weaving looms, but the idea of their use as a carrier
of information in a computer belonged to Babbage.
Babbage’s ideas were far ahead of the time and the technical capabilities of his
time.
The spread in communication technology of various methods of transmitting information
using electricity was also reflected in processing methods
data. Thus, historically, computers and communications go “hand in hand”
In 1884, the American Herman Hollerith used to process
the results of the population census (CENSUS rulez 4eva! :) A.S. )
electromechanical device.
As soon as the pin fell into the hole, it touched the mercury and closed
the electrical circuit, which caused the readings of the corresponding
counter to increase by one.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the theory of relay circuits was rapidly developing, in which
the algebra of logic, developed
in the middle of the 19th century by the English mathematician J. Boole, was rapidly developing.
All this paved the way for a return to ideas Babbage.
In 1936, an article by the English mathematician Alan Turing appeared in the Journal of the London Mathematical Society, in which he proved
that any algorithm can be implemented using a universal
discrete automaton. Turing proposed an abstract scheme for such an automaton (“Turing machine”), which provided a solution to any problem that could be algorithmized. Thus, the question was raised
about creating automatic digital computers capable of implementing transformations
of data theoretically feasible for a Turing machine.
The first universal automatically controlled computing machine
of the relay-mechanical type "Mark-1" was built
by Howard Aiken for Harvard University in 1944.
It performed the addition of two 23-bit numbers in0.3s,
multiplication in 6s, division in 11s.
However, the reliability of the electromagnetic relays did not live up
to the hopes of the creators of "Mark-1". The downtime of the machine was a very significant time, but the Mark-2 was born, built on an improved relay design. These two creations of the technical genius
of mankind clearly demonstrated the non-viability
ability of relay-mechanical computers.
But fortunately for the USA and all humanity, there was also a competing
direction in which colossal success was finally achieved.
At the Moore Electrical Engineering School of the University of Pennsylvania
under the leadership of J. Mauchli and J. Eckert was built (in the period
from 1942 to 1945) and for the first time publicly demonstrated in work
at the beginning of 1946, the first electronic automatic computing
machine ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Inegrator and Computer).
As you can see, the last word from its name became the generalized
common name for these “glorious smart pieces of iron” in all
human languages of our time :)
Oddly enough, it worked with 10-bit decimal numbers.
The speed of calculations was simply amazing.The addition of these numbers
Computer performed in 200 μs, multiplication in 2.8 ms, and division in
6 ms. Compare with 11 seconds "Mark-1", 2,000 times faster!!!
This is an absolute record for increasing computing performance.
The program was entered into the computer using wires on the plug field.
That's where the CO-DERs were! :) When moving from task to task, the emergency was
akin to a BATTLE ALARM on a large naval ship!
Although ENIAC was based on the principle of program control, some
other important principles were formulated a little later by the famous
mathematician J. von Neumann and his colleagues at the Princeton
Institute for Advanced Study G. Goldstein and A. Burks
in the report they compiled in the summer of 1946, “Preliminary
discussion of the logical design of an electronic computing
device.”
These principles are as follows:
1. The principle of program control as the basis for the construction of automatically operating digital computers.
2. The principle of conditional transition.
3. The principle of a stored program.
4. The use of the binary number system for presentation
of information processed by a computer.
5. Use incomputer multi-level (hierarchical) memory.

The merits of J. Von Neumann for the rapid development of computers are difficult
to overestimate.
In the spring of 1949. The EDSAC computer (Electronic
Delay Storage Automatic Computer) was put into operation. The development of this project
was carried out in the mathematical laboratory of Cambridge
University under the leadership of M. Wilkes.
It was the world's first computer with a stored program "

It is from 1949 that the NEW ERA OF HUMANITY should be counted -
the history of the INFORMATION (post-industrial) society.
In just some 20 years the first microprocessor will appear,
and in another 8 years the first personal computer, and in another
5 years our beloved Speccy. Just some 340 years from Blaise
Pascal to Sir Clive Sinclair! From more than a hundred thousand years
of human history.
So, what about Russia (sorry, USSR)?
The “Father of all nations” was very skeptical about computers and this
predetermined them. fate in the mid-40s and early 50s.
Moreover, during this period, Beria’s sharashki intensely competed
with the Americans in the creation of atomic and hydrogen bombs, and
free funds in a country devastated by a severe warthere was no country!
Soviet people continued to die of hunger (post-war famine in
Ukraine) and struggle for pennies to restore the “national” economy destroyed
by the war, so easily “seized”
in our days by the descendants of ““ people ” with Mausers in black jackets.” :(

Back in 1946 in Kyiv, at the Institute of Electrical Engineering of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, on
the initiative of Academician S.A. Lebedev, work was launched to
create a digital computer..."
----------------------------------------------------------------------

And then? ... further in the 1980 book "a blank spot".
But it is known that behind the "hobbies with computers" many talented
Soviet scientists and engineers had to suffer very much.

According to the book
V.O. Golubintsev, V.M. Kupaev, E.M. Sinelnikov
"The Evolution of Universal Digital Computers" M., "Sov.radio", 1980