. Or so it seems. But in real they were only developed over the last few decades.
The first computers were massive and needed special rooms for safe-keeping. They were a huge investment that couldn't be afforded by individuals. They needed a lot in air-conditioning to keep them cool and false floors to hide the coils of cable they used.
The power in early computers was controlled by electron tubes also called valves. These were made of glass which became too hot when in use. They needed tremendous amount of power.
During the 1950s transistors were developed. They replaced the valves and were less expensive too. Their small size led to the computers being compact too.
In the 1960s chips were developed. These were tiny electrical circuits built on a bar of silicon which replaced transistors. They were further modified to form the microprocessor chips which were equivalent to a million transistors.
Interestingly the development of the computers came about with the US Soviet race into the outer space. Even when the cold war is behind us this development continues with more enthusiasm ni the IT sector as ever before. Today the basic home personal computers are a lot more powerful than those used by the first of the astronauts and even more powerful than the enormous machines installed in corporations less than 40 yrs ago.
The latest development in the field of computers has been the introduction of a tablet computer by the name of iPad by Apple in the market. It is a platform where e-books, periodicals, games, multimedia, music, movies, and all the web applications converge together to give a complete feel to the user. It weights only about 700 grams.
The iPad uses multi-touch finger sensitive technology without a pressure-triggered stylus. The iPad is mobile so it uses the 3G mobile data connection to browse the internet. In the first three months of its launch it was able to sell 3million devices worldwide