Rise of Computer Technology


	As computer technology becomes more and more advanced, we fail to look back at what caused it. The advancement in computer technology distracted the users away from the origins and causes of its rapid growth. This paper’s intent is to enlighten and inform you of the cause of the advancement of computers.	
	
The first cause for the rapid rise in computers was started during WWII. In order for the Axis forces to keep their plans and messages secret, they encrypted (or ciphered) their messages. When the Allied forces intercepted theses messages, they had to decrypt (or decipher) them. It took a human decipher too long to decipher the code in time for the allies to effectively plan a retaliation. The allied forces realized they needed a faster decipher, one that could do it in a quarter of the time it took for a human to decipher the code. That’s when the allied forces created the second fully electronic computer (first being Atanasoff-Berry's Computer "Colossus"). As the war progressed, the ciphered codes became more advanced, creating the need for more advanced computers to fit the job.
	It wasn't until the home computer industry came around that computers really hit their rise. As computers in the military matured, they hadn't gone widespread yet and knowledge of them was limited to only those who were in the military. It wasn't until a group of hobbyist that created a company knows as Apple that the computer started to become popular to the public. Apple launched the first successful personal computer know as the Apple 1.  After the widespread success of the Apple 1, company's started to design their own personal computers, such as: IBM's PC, Xerox's Alto, and HP's 9830. As companies competed, they had to make their computers better than those of the competitors company. Companies started making their computers faster and more powerful. The increase in speed and power happened so fast that the computer’s RAM grew from 6kb (kilobytes) ram to 256mb (megabytes) ram within the span of 20 years.

	As computers joined the battlefields, no longer was war about who had the biggest army or the most equipment. It was about who had the most advanced computer defense system, who had the most advanced combat system, and who had the most advanced weaponry. Computers did more for the military than decipher codes. Computers kept the military safe; it protected their lives and bases. Computers are the military's safety net. With the military relying more and more on computer research, computer science has sky rocketed. In less than two years of the introduction of the dual core processor, the quad core processor was being announced.