The credit for the first programmable digital computer goes to Colossus which was an Allied WWII code-breaking machine at Bletchley Park. For other uses of the term computer besides the modern "digital computer" one, an earlier answer might apply. For additional information including a discussion of analog and mechanical computers, non-programmable digital computers, and the general history of machine computation, see the Wikipedia article on "Computer".
A full timeline is very hard to piece together and would likely be hundreds of pages long. However I will make an attempt at touching some highlights:1822, Difference Engine #1, London England, special purpose mechanical digital computer (never built).1837, Analytical Engine, London England, programmable mechanical digital computer (never built).1849, Difference Engine #2, London England, special purpose mechanical digital computer (not built until 1991 by the London Science Museum).1931, Bush Differential Analyzer, MIT, programmable mechanical analog computer.1931, Mark XV Norden Bombsight, Carl L. Norden Company, special purpose electromechanical analog computer (gravity bomb fall solution).1938, Zuse Z1, Germany, programmable mechanical digital computer (floating point).1941, Zuse Z3, Germany, programmable electromechanical digital computer (floating point).1942, ABC, University of Iowa Ames Iowa, special purpose electronic digital computer (array/vector processor solving simultaneous equations up to 29 variables).1943, Torpedo Data Computer (TDC) Mark IV, Arma Corporation, special purpose electromechanical analog computer (submarine torpedo aiming solution).1944, Colossus Mark I, Bletchley Park, programmable electronic digital computer (cryptanalytic).1944, Harvard Mark I, Harvard, programmable electromechanical digital computer.1945, Zuse Z4, Germany, programmable electromechanical digital computer (floating point).1946, ENIAC, University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia Pennsylvania, programmable electronic digital computer.1948, Manchester Baby, Victoria University of Manchester, programmable electronic digital computer (first computer built using a stored program).1949, CSIRAC, Australia, programmable electronic digital computer.1951, UNIVAC I, Remington Rand, programmable electronic digital computer.1951, UNIVAC 1101, Remington Rand, programmable electronic digital computer.1952, IBM 701, IBM, programmable electronic digital computer.1953, IBM 702, IBM, programmable electronic digital computer.1953, UNIVAC 1103, Remington Rand, programmable electronic digital computer.1953, IBM 650, IBM, programmable electronic digital computer.1954, IBM 704, IBM, programmable electronic digital computer (first US computer w/ floating point).1954, IBM NORC, IBM, programmable electronic digital supercomputer (usually credited as being the first supercomputer).1956, IBM 705 Model I, IBM, programmable electronic digital computer.1956, IBM 305 RAMAC, IBM, programmable electronic digital computer (w/ the first harddisk, the IBM 350).1957, UNIVAC 1104, Remington Rand, ruggedized programmable electronic digital computer (designed for the BOMARC missile but never used, replaced by a version of the AN/USQ-20, designated the G-40).1958, AN/FSQ-7, IBM, programmable electronic digital computer (part of the air force's SAGE air defense system, the largest computer ever built).1959, DEC PDP-1, DEC, programmable electronic digital computer (the first computer sold that focused on user interaction rather than just efficient use of computer time).1960, UNIVAC LARC, Sperry Rand, programmable electronic digital supercomputer (designed as a dual CPU computer but neither of the 2 systems built had the second CPU).1961, IBM 7030 Stretch, IBM, programmable electronic digital supercomputer, failed to meet its ambitious performance goals (100 times the speed of an IBM 704) so considered a failure and withdrawn from production with only 9 machines built, however it introduced many concepts and features present in many modern computers: the byte, memory protection, generalized interrupts, cache memory, instruction pipelining, prefetch and decoding, memory bank interleaving, etc.1961, AN/USQ-20, Sperry Rand, ruggedized programmable electronic digital computer.1962, UNIVAC 1107, Sperry Rand, programmable electronic digital computer.1962, D-17B the Minuteman I missile guidance computer, Autonetics Division of North American Aviation, ruggedized programmable electronic digital computer.1964, IBM System 360, IBM, programmable electronic digital computer.1964, CDC 6600, Control Data Corporation, programmable electronic digital supercomputer, with over 600 systems built it is considered to be the first mass produced supercomputer.1964, D-37C the Minuteman II missile guidance computer, Autonetics Division of North American Aviation, ruggedized programmable electronic digital computer.1965, DEC PDP-8, DEC, programmable electronic digital computer (several versions small enough to fit on a desktop).1966, Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC), MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, ruggedized programmable electronic digital computer (moon landings).1971, IBM System 370, IBM, programmable electronic digital computer (used writable microcode storage, introduced the first floppy disc as a method of loading this microcode storage with microinstructions when the machine was turned on).1971, Intel 4004, Intel, first microprocessor available to the public.1974, STAR-100, Control Data Corporation, programmable electronic digital supercomputer (vector processor).1976, Cray-1, Cray Research, programmable electronic digital supercomputer (vector processor).1977, DEC VAX, DEC, programmable electronic digital computer (usually considered the pinnacle of the CISC architecture machines).
who discribed many elements of the modern digital computer ? who discribed many elements of the modern digital computer ?
the first known computer, a mechanical analog computer, was invented and built circa 100BCthe first digital computer, a programmable mechanical decimal computer, was invented circa 1840 but never builtthe first electronic digital computer, an electronic binary computer, was invented circa 1936 and built in 1942. it was dismantled later that yearthe first programmable electronic digital computer, was invented in 1943 and 11 of them in 2 different models were built between 1944 and the end of the war in Europe. this is the only digital computer built built in a quantity greater than 1 until the early 1950sthe first stored program electronic digital computer, was built in 1948 based on a variety of concepts invented between 1936 and 1946. all modern digital computers are derivatives of this architecture
Yes, Babbage invented the first fully automatic programmable digital computer. However his machine was entirely mechanical and he was never able to get supporters or funding to build it. It took another century before the automatic programmable digital computer was reinvented, but this time it was electronic. The inventor Tommy Flowers, built 11 of them during WW2 between 1944 and 1945 for Bletchley Park to use for breaking the German "tunny" teletype cypher, but these machines were kept classified by the British until the late 1970s so are usually not in the history books. The people that most history books credit for the invention of the modern automatic programmable digital electronic computer worked on ENIAC but it is not known who in this group got the idea first, only that the idea came in early 1945.
Well, darling, a freely programmable computer is just a fancy way of saying a computer that can run a variety of software and be customized for different tasks. It's like having a versatile tool that can adapt to whatever you need it to do. So, in simpler terms, it's a computer that can be easily tailored to suit your needs.
The credit for the first programmable digital computer goes to Colossus which was an Allied WWII code-breaking machine at Bletchley Park. For other uses of the term computer besides the modern "digital computer" one, an earlier answer might apply. For additional information including a discussion of analog and mechanical computers, non-programmable digital computers, and the general history of machine computation, see the Wikipedia article on "Computer".
A full timeline is very hard to piece together and would likely be hundreds of pages long. However I will make an attempt at touching some highlights:1822, Difference Engine #1, London England, special purpose mechanical digital computer (never built).1837, Analytical Engine, London England, programmable mechanical digital computer (never built).1849, Difference Engine #2, London England, special purpose mechanical digital computer (not built until 1991 by the London Science Museum).1931, Bush Differential Analyzer, MIT, programmable mechanical analog computer.1931, Mark XV Norden Bombsight, Carl L. Norden Company, special purpose electromechanical analog computer (gravity bomb fall solution).1938, Zuse Z1, Germany, programmable mechanical digital computer (floating point).1941, Zuse Z3, Germany, programmable electromechanical digital computer (floating point).1942, ABC, University of Iowa Ames Iowa, special purpose electronic digital computer (array/vector processor solving simultaneous equations up to 29 variables).1943, Torpedo Data Computer (TDC) Mark IV, Arma Corporation, special purpose electromechanical analog computer (submarine torpedo aiming solution).1944, Colossus Mark I, Bletchley Park, programmable electronic digital computer (cryptanalytic).1944, Harvard Mark I, Harvard, programmable electromechanical digital computer.1945, Zuse Z4, Germany, programmable electromechanical digital computer (floating point).1946, ENIAC, University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia Pennsylvania, programmable electronic digital computer.1948, Manchester Baby, Victoria University of Manchester, programmable electronic digital computer (first computer built using a stored program).1949, CSIRAC, Australia, programmable electronic digital computer.1951, UNIVAC I, Remington Rand, programmable electronic digital computer.1951, UNIVAC 1101, Remington Rand, programmable electronic digital computer.1952, IBM 701, IBM, programmable electronic digital computer.1953, IBM 702, IBM, programmable electronic digital computer.1953, UNIVAC 1103, Remington Rand, programmable electronic digital computer.1953, IBM 650, IBM, programmable electronic digital computer.1954, IBM 704, IBM, programmable electronic digital computer (first US computer w/ floating point).1954, IBM NORC, IBM, programmable electronic digital supercomputer (usually credited as being the first supercomputer).1956, IBM 705 Model I, IBM, programmable electronic digital computer.1956, IBM 305 RAMAC, IBM, programmable electronic digital computer (w/ the first harddisk, the IBM 350).1957, UNIVAC 1104, Remington Rand, ruggedized programmable electronic digital computer (designed for the BOMARC missile but never used, replaced by a version of the AN/USQ-20, designated the G-40).1958, AN/FSQ-7, IBM, programmable electronic digital computer (part of the air force's SAGE air defense system, the largest computer ever built).1959, DEC PDP-1, DEC, programmable electronic digital computer (the first computer sold that focused on user interaction rather than just efficient use of computer time).1960, UNIVAC LARC, Sperry Rand, programmable electronic digital supercomputer (designed as a dual CPU computer but neither of the 2 systems built had the second CPU).1961, IBM 7030 Stretch, IBM, programmable electronic digital supercomputer, failed to meet its ambitious performance goals (100 times the speed of an IBM 704) so considered a failure and withdrawn from production with only 9 machines built, however it introduced many concepts and features present in many modern computers: the byte, memory protection, generalized interrupts, cache memory, instruction pipelining, prefetch and decoding, memory bank interleaving, etc.1961, AN/USQ-20, Sperry Rand, ruggedized programmable electronic digital computer.1962, UNIVAC 1107, Sperry Rand, programmable electronic digital computer.1962, D-17B the Minuteman I missile guidance computer, Autonetics Division of North American Aviation, ruggedized programmable electronic digital computer.1964, IBM System 360, IBM, programmable electronic digital computer.1964, CDC 6600, Control Data Corporation, programmable electronic digital supercomputer, with over 600 systems built it is considered to be the first mass produced supercomputer.1964, D-37C the Minuteman II missile guidance computer, Autonetics Division of North American Aviation, ruggedized programmable electronic digital computer.1965, DEC PDP-8, DEC, programmable electronic digital computer (several versions small enough to fit on a desktop).1966, Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC), MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, ruggedized programmable electronic digital computer (moon landings).1971, IBM System 370, IBM, programmable electronic digital computer (used writable microcode storage, introduced the first floppy disc as a method of loading this microcode storage with microinstructions when the machine was turned on).1971, Intel 4004, Intel, first microprocessor available to the public.1974, STAR-100, Control Data Corporation, programmable electronic digital supercomputer (vector processor).1976, Cray-1, Cray Research, programmable electronic digital supercomputer (vector processor).1977, DEC VAX, DEC, programmable electronic digital computer (usually considered the pinnacle of the CISC architecture machines).
Most of the early work that lead to the modern programmable electronic digital computer was prompted by military needs in WW2. IBM was prompted into developing their first commercially available programmable electronic digital computer, the IBM 701, by the Korean War. The Cold War in general prompted many developments in miniaturization of digital computers, especially for military avionics and missile guidance systems. Any specific war you were thinking of?
who discribed many elements of the modern digital computer ? who discribed many elements of the modern digital computer ?
Alan Turing, I think. He made the computer, I am not to sure. Turing was British not American. The first American to invent a programmable computer was likely Vanevar Bush in 1929, but his was analog electromechanical, it was called the Differential Analyzer. The first American to invent an electronic digital computer was John Vincent Atanasoff, but his was not programmable, while it had no name at the time it was built it was later called the Atanasoff-Berry Computer. The first American to invent a programmable digital computer was Howard Aiken, but his was electromechanical, it was called the Harvard Mark I. The first programmable electronic digital computer was invented by Thomas Flowers of the British Post Office in 1942, called Colossus it was used to crack the German high command's cyphers (with 11 machines built prior to the end of the war, it was the only digital computer built prior to 1950 in a quantity greater than 1). The first Americans to invent a programmable electronic digital computer were John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert, but their machine ENIAC was a dead end architecture that was very difficult to program. The first programmable electronic digital computer resembling modern ones in architecture, called the Manchester Baby, was built by the British in 1948, but it had a minuscule memory of only 32 words of 32 bits each. Practical programmable electronic digital computers resembling modern ones in architecture really had to wait for the early 1950s and by then inventions only covered improvements in specific design detail, not whole computers.
One of the first programmable computers built was Vannevar Bush's Differential Analyzer at MIT. But it was analog and mechanical with electronic torque amplifiers. It was finished around 1930. The first programmable electronic digital computer was a Tommy Flower's Colossus at Bletchley Park. But it was classified and the public knew nothing of it. It was finished early in June 1944, followed by nine more before the end of WW2. The first programmable electronic digital computer that the public was aware of was John Mauchley's and Presper Eckert's ENIAC. It was finished late in November 1945. However its programming system was based on the Differential Analyzer and was a dead end that no later digital computer used. The first programmable electronic digital computer with a "modern" architecture was a prototype machine called the Manchester Baby. This lead to the design of the Manchester Mark I, which was commercialized by Ferranti, becoming the first programmable electronic digital computer that was sold in quantity in the UK, the Ferranti Mark I. The first programmable digital computer that was sold in quantity in the US was the Remington UNIVAC I, designed by John Mauchley and Presper Eckert. It became known among the public when it correctly predicted the results of the 1952 presidential election. There were many other computers that I cannot list here.
the first known computer, a mechanical analog computer, was invented and built circa 100BCthe first digital computer, a programmable mechanical decimal computer, was invented circa 1840 but never builtthe first electronic digital computer, an electronic binary computer, was invented circa 1936 and built in 1942. it was dismantled later that yearthe first programmable electronic digital computer, was invented in 1943 and 11 of them in 2 different models were built between 1944 and the end of the war in Europe. this is the only digital computer built built in a quantity greater than 1 until the early 1950sthe first stored program electronic digital computer, was built in 1948 based on a variety of concepts invented between 1936 and 1946. all modern digital computers are derivatives of this architecture
Alan Turing is considered to be the father of the modern computer. He was a mathematician and is the creator of the Turing machine which was the precursor to modern computers.
Sort of! Babbage conceived of the first programmable computer. His design was mechanical and mainly intended for the calculation of mathematical tables which were used by the navy for navigation. So if you looked at Babbage's computer (and there's a reconstruction the London science museum) it doesn't look anything like a modern computer. However, logically, it is a programmable computer so in that sense it's the first computer.
Charles Babbage in 1840s, but he never built it.First electronic computer built was Atanasoff-Berry Computer in 1942, but it wasn't programmable and was never patented.First programmable computer was Harvard Mark I, designed by Howard Aiken, built by IBM in 1942, but it wasn't electronic.First electronic programmable computer was ENIAC, designed by Eckert & Mauchly, built in 1945, but programming was cumbersome as it involved manually rewiring the connections between the 40 modules of the machine as well as setting manually roughly 1000 switches.First modern type electronic programmable computer that stored instructions and data in the same memory was the british EDSAC in 1948. Soon followed by the US EDVAC in 1949.Note: all above are digital computers, I am ignoring analog computers.
No, your desktop computer is a digital computer as are virtually all modern computers.