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Sunday, December 19, 2010

ANALYTICAL ENGINE

BABBAGE'S ANALYTICAL ENGINE
Babbage, still wanted to design a bigger machine, called an Analytical Engine. The idea of an Analytical Engine developed in 1833 was considered as a most significant step in the history of computers, because of his idea only, the dream of modern computer has come true. That is why he is famous as "Father of Computer".
In addition to the arithmetic functions like addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, finding square root and percentage, Babbage wanted his Analytical machine to control itself (i.e. capacity to make decisions). He also wanted the machine to store numbers from where he could draw desired numbers. The machine would be able to store a thousand 50-digit numbers. It would be able to add or subtract two 50 digit numbers in one second and multiply two 50 digit numbers in one minute.
Babbage intended to have his machine to have a mechanism to input data and output the results. He wanted to input data with the help of punched cards and the output to be printed on copper plates. Babbage's analytical engine and modern day computers are similar in their structure. This engine had four major units.
1. Store     : A memory or store which could store data and intermediate results.
2. Mill       : An arithmetic unit which was called a 'Mill'. It could perform calculations.
3. His machine had mechanism having gears and shafts by which data and results were transferred between the store and the mill which is similar to the control unit of today's computer.
4. Input and Output devices.
Technology of the time of Babbage was not advanced enough to make gears, shafts and other mechanical devices. So the dream of Babbage could not become true in his life time.

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