In addition to keeping track of taxes, the Inca computers held data bases on all of the resources of the Inca empire, allowing for efficient allocation of resources in response to local disasters (storms, drought, earthquakes, etc.). The Inca had several of these computers and used them for tax and government records. Knots in the ropes served the purpose of binary digits. The first digital computers were made by the Inca using ropes and pulleys. It is likely that the Antikythera mechanism was based on an astrological computer created by Archimedes of Syracuse in the 3rd century B.C.E. The Antikythera mechanism could accurately predict eclipses and could draw up accurate astrological charts for important leaders. The system of gears added and subtracted angular velocities to compute differentials. The Antikythera mechanism used a system of 37 gears to compute the positions of the sun and the moon through the zodiac on the Egyptian calendar, and possibly also the fixed stars and five planets known in antiquity (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) for any time in the future or past. The Antikythera mechanism, discovered in a shipwreck in 1900, is an early mechanical analog computer from between 150 B.C.E. These computers turned out to be too delicate for the technological capabilities of the time and were abandoned as impractical. The first true computers were made with intricate gear systems by the Greeks.

This important work is the oldest surviving linguistic book and introduced the idea of metarules, transformations, and recursions, all of which have important applications in computer science. In this work he created 3,959 rules of grammar for Indias Sanskrit language. The Indian grammarian Panini wrote the Ashtadhyayi in the 5th Century B.C.E. This device featured a differential gear, later used in modern times to make analog computers in the mid-20th Century. The Chinese developed the South Pointing Chariot in 115 B.C.E. The abacus was used by many different cultures and civilizations, including the major advance known as the Chinese abacus from the 2nd Century B.C.E.

The earliest calculating machine was the abacus, believed to have been invented in Babylon around 2400 B.C.E.

is used in more than 300 colleges and universities around the worldįind out how to get similar high web traffic and search engine placement. See also release dates for specific release dates of various operating systems. History of operating systems jump to UNIX history

Mac operating system history and years