History of programming language COBOL

COBOL is one of the oldest programming languages, primarily designed by coding pioneer Grace Hopper who is commonly referred to as “the mother of the COBOL language.” This early programming language was invented in 1959.

It was only in August 1968 that a standard version of the language was approved by the American National Standards Institute. This version known as ANSI-68 COBOL or COBOL-68 is the first official standard of COBOL.

COBOL is short for common Business-Oriented Language. It allows coders to program computers using English words rather than a complex series of numbers. COBOL also made it possible for many companies to use the same software. This saved a lot of money.

The language continues to evolve, as the OCBOL 2002 standard includes support for object-oriented programming and other modern language features.
History of programming language COBOL 

Early history of personal computer

Before the introduction of the microprocessor in the middle 60’s and early 1970s, computers were generally large costly systems owned by large corporations, universities, government agencies and similar-sized institutions.

The first of the programmable pocket calculators was Hewlett-Packard’s HP-65, introduced in early 1974 for $795.

Texas Instruments and other followed. As powerful as they were, the trade press was hesitant to called computers, even if Hewlett-Packard introduced the HP-65 as a ‘personal computer’ (possibly the first use of that term in print).

In April 1974, Intel introduced the 8080 microprocessor, which was 10 times faster than the earlier 8008 chip and addressed 64 KB of memory.

In July 1974, Radio –Electronics described the Mark-8 and featured Johnathan Titus, who developed early personal computer which though not commercially produced.

In late December 1974, subscribers to Popular Electronics received their January 1975 issue in the mail, with the prototype of the ‘Altair’ minicomputer on the cover, and article describing how readers could obtain Altair kit for less than $400 and had to be assembled. The Altair kit, considered the first personal computer, included an 8080 processor, a power supply, a front panel with a large number of lights and 256 bytes of memory.

The designers hoped to sell a few hundred build-it-yourself kits to hobbyist and were surprised when they sold thousands in the first month.

H. Edward Roberts, the Altair’s designer, served as credit as the inventor of the personal computer. The Altair was a capable, inexpensive computer designed around the Intl 8080 microprocessor.

IBM introduced their first personal computer in September 1975, six years before the IBM PC. The model 5100 had 16 KB of memory, a built in 16 line-by-64-character display, a built in BASIC language interpreter and a built-in DC-300 cartridge tape drive for storage.

In 1977, Apple Computer Corporation founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, released Apple I containing a system board with 4 KB of RAM. It sold for $666.66.
Early history of personal computer

Early History of Computing Hardware

Many people believe that Stonehenge the famous collection of rock monoliths in Great Britain, is an early form of calendar or astrological calculator.

The abacus which appeared n the sixteenth century BC, was developed as an instrument to record numeric values and on which a human can perform basic arithmetic.

In the middle of the seventeenth century, Blaise Pascal, a French mathematician, built and sold gear- driven mechanical machines, which performed whole number addition and subtraction.

Later in the seventeenth century, a German mathematician, Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, built the first mechanical device designed to do all four whole number operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

Unfortunately, the state of mechanical gears and levers at that time was such that the Leiniz machine was not very reliable.

In the late eighteenth century, Joseph Jacquard developed what became known as Jacquard’s loom, used for weaving cloth. The loom used a series of cards with holes punched in them to specify the used of specific colored thread and therefore dictate the design that was woven into the cloth.

Although not a computing device, Jacquard’s loom was the forts to make use of an important form of input: the punched card.

It wasn’t until the nineteenth century that the next major step was taken this time by a British mathematician, Chares Babbage designed what he called his analytical engine.

His design was too complex for him to build with the technology of his day, so it was never implemented.

His vision however, included many of the important component of today’s computer.

Babbage’s design was the first to include a memory so that intermediate values did not have to be reentered.

His design also included the input of both numbers and mechanical steps making used of punched cards similar to those used in Jacquard’s loom.

During the later part of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, computing advances were made rapidly. William Burroughs produced and sold a mechanical adding machine.

Dr. Herman Hollerith developed the first electro mechanical tabulator, which read information from a punched card.

His device revolutionized the census taken every ten years in the United States. Hollerith later formed a company today known as IBM.
Early History of Computing Hardware