计算机系外文翻译---历史的计算.docVIP

毕业设计(论文)外文资料翻译 系 别 计算机信息与技术系 专 业 计算机科学与技术 班 级 姓 名 学 号 外文出处 附 件 1. 原文； 2. 译文 2012年3月 History of computing Main article: History of computing hardware The first use of the word computer was recorded in 1613, referring to a person who carried out calculations, or computations, and the word continued with the same meaning until the middle of the 20th century. From the end of the 19th century the word began to take on its more familiar meaning, a machine that carries out computations. Limited-function early computers The Jacquard loom, on display at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, England, was one of the first programmable devices. The history of the modern computer begins with two separate technologies, automated calculation and programmability, but no single device can be identified as the earliest computer, partly because of the inconsistent application of that term. A few devices are worth mentioning though, like some mechanical aids to computing, which were very successful and survived for centuries until the advent of the electronic calculator, like the Sumerian abacus, designed around 2500 BC of which a descendant won a speed competition against a modern desk calculating machine in Japan in 1946, the slide rules, invented in the 1620s, which were carried on five Apollo space missions, including to the moon and arguably the astrolabe and the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient astronomical computer built by the Greeks around 80 BC. The Greek mathematician Hero of Alexandria (c. 10–70 AD) built a mechanical theater which performed a play lasting 10 minutes and was operated by a complex system of ropes and drums that might be considered to be a means of deciding which parts of the mechanism performed which actions and when. This is the essence of programmability. First general-purpose computers Duri