The Earliest Processors

English mathematician Charles Babbage is credited with having assembled the first mechanical computers — at least technically speaking. His early 19^thcentury machines featured a way to input numbers, memory, a processor and a way to output the results. The initial attempt to build the world’s first computer, which he called the “Difference Engine,” was a costly endeavor that was all but abandoned after over 17,000 pounds(INR 1617596.87)sterling was spent on its development. The design called for a machine that calculated values and printed the results automatically onto a table.

It was to be hand cranked and would have weighed four tons(4000 kgs). The project was eventually axed after the British government cut off Babbage’s funding in 1842.

This forced the inventor to move on to another idea of his called the analytical engine, a more ambitious machine for general purpose computing rather than just arithmetic. And though he wasn’t able to follow through and build a working device, Babbage’s design featured essentially the same logical structure as electronic computers that would come into use in the 20^th century. The analytical engine had, for instance, integrated memory, a form of information storage found in all computers. It also allows for branching or the ability of computers to execute a set of instructions that deviate from the default sequence order, as well as loops, which are sequences of instructions carried out repeatedly in succession.