Computer: What is a Computer? Who Invented The Computer? Its History.
Who Invented the Computer?
In 1975, after the launch of the Altair 8800, Ed Roberts coined the word "personal computer." Though many find the first personal computer to be the KENBAK-1, which was first released in 1971 for $750.
What is a Computer?
An electronic system for the storing and processing of data, usually in binary form, as instructed in a variable program.Computer History.
There are several candidates for the role of 'Personal Computer' for the first time. However, in 1973 it was Xerox PARC that created possibly the most groundbreaking design in computer history, a personal computer that we still recognize today. The Alto, named after the California Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) where it was built, consisted of a cabinet (contains a custom-designed 16-bit processor and disk storage), a display, a keyboard, a mouse, and a 'what you see first is what you get' graphical user interface with windows and clickable icons.
The Alto was specifically built for research and had to be lightweight enough to maintain a user interface when exchanging information between machines. This has contributed to innovative developments that would not be popular until a decade later, in the 1990s, a would still be cutting edge. This included an operating system oriented to an object and the first Ethernet networking chips. It came with the most critical of research instruments, a pinball game, too. Xerox donated its Alto Machines to various research organizations, and they soon became the benchmark that would evaluate all potential personal computer designs.
The Alto is also believed to have influenced others, including Steve Jobs, Apple's co-founder, and his team who were impressed with the sleek graphics and user interface of the Alto. The team that produced the Xerox alto was honored as the catalyst of a "Golden Age" of computer research with the prestigious Draper engineering prize in 2004.
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