The abacus, a simple counting aid, may have been invented in Babylonia (now Iraq ... Babbage's next idea is the Analytical Engine - a mechanical computer that can solve any mathematical problem.

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long before most of the technologies necessary to build it were even invented. That design was the Dynabook, and its author was computer scientist Alan Kay. Its intended audience was children.

Presper Eckert at the University of Pennsylvania into the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, or ENIAC. This was the first electronic computer used for general purposes. The Army wanted ...