Significant Feature of Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine
The engine is regarded as the first computer that was designed and built by Charles Babbage, an English inventor of the 19th century. As Babbage was working on a Difference Engine, a machine that was commissioned by the UK government to perform simple calculations, he noted that he could improve the engine. Primarily, Babbage thought about the way he could generalize its activities to ensure it performed a wide range of calculations. In 1833, there was a lack of adequate funds to continue developing the Difference Engine, but by this time, Babbage has revolutionized the Analytical Engine.
One of the most significant features of the Analytical Engine was the store. The store was important for the engine since it was meant to store information, including numbers, constants, and variables. With such information, it was possible to compute subsequent calculations. Babbage intended to enlarge the store and make it hold approximately 1000 40-digit number or slightly more than 16 kilobytes (Week 3 – Computing Machines). The mill was another vital component of the Analytical Engine. This component of the engine was meant to perform the major calculations through mechanical operations. In addition, the mill based its operations on the information and instructions that were stored in the store. The reader was also an important feature in the engine. This part was the major input section whose role was taking in punched cards. On the other hand, the printer was essential in the engine since it was the outside section that printed out the outcome of the calculations done by the machine.
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Week 3 – Computing Machines