History of Computer Science: Who invented computer?

There is no easy answer for the question who invented the computer. Computer was not invented by one person, but many. It was not invented in a single break through but a series of incremental steps. It continues even today as new generations.

First automatic computing engine concept

Charles Babbage is known as the “father of computer”. He created the first Analytical Engine which contained the Arithmetic Logic Unit(ALU). It also had integrated memory and it is the first general purpose computing concept.

First concepts modern computer

Alan Turing proposed a concept of Turing machine to print symbols in 1936. It is considered as the first modern computer. The Turing machine has a tape of symbols which computes the logic of any computer algorithm.

First digital computer

ENIAC is the first electronic general-purpose computer. It has individual panels which perform different functions. The ENIAC was invented by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly at the University of Pennsylvania and began construction in 1943.

First commercial computer

In 1942, Konrad Zuse begin working on the Z4, which later became the first commercial computer after being sold to Eduard Stiefel a mathematician of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich on July 12, 1950.

The first PC (IBM compatible) computer

The first personal computer was introduced by IBM in 1981. The computer is referred to as the Acorn and had an 8088 processor, 16 KB of memory, which was expandable to 256 and utilizing MS-DOS.