Nowadays, there are some users interested in knowing the historical development of computer hardware. The first use of the word "computer" has been considered to be in 1613 and has been attributed to a person carrying about all sorts of calculations and computations. Later on, this meaning of the term computer was kept until the 20^th century. By the end of the 19^th century another meaning of this word began to be used and this meaning is nowadays very familiar among people: a machine dealing with carrying out all sorts of computations.

Every computer is known nowadays as being made up of hardware components and software. The hardware is considered the most important part within the computer. It has been considered the fact that all sorts of devices shave been using for many years in order to help computation. A computer is usually defined as a machine dealing with the manipulation of data by using certain instructions. The first electronic types of computers are considered to have been developed between 1940 and 1945. They were very big in size which led to very big power consumptions. Some of them have even been considered to be the size of large rooms and with a power consumption equal with that of ten modern computers used nowadays.

The historical development of computer hardware has been considered interesting to be studied by some users. Certainly, it is well known that modern computers that are used nowadays are much more capable than the old ones, and this is normal as the old one have very much been improved so as to be transformed into what we call nowadays modern technology. The new ones have included integrated circuits and occupy very little in comparison with the space that the old ones used to occupy. There are nowadays very small, simple computers present among the offers on the market, so small that some can even fit into a wristwatch, being powered by using watch batteries.

In the historical development of computer hardware the main difference between computers and calculators has been considered to be the fact that computers can store and execute instructions and programs. When discussing about modern computer monitors it is important to talk about two different technologies: automatic calculation and programmability. It has not really been possible to identify which of these two different technologies is the earliest one.

In the historical development of computer hardware the father of modern computer science is considered to be Alan Turing. He was considered to be one of the most influential persons of the 20^th century. George Stibitz is considered the father of the modern digital type of computer. Other important computing devices constructed in the 1930s and 1940 s are the electromechanical Z machines, the non-programmable Atanossoff- Berry computer, the British colossus computers, and others.

Some researchers have considered five generations of computers in the historical development of computer hardware. The first generation has been considered to include the types of computers used between 1951 and 1958. They were much less advantageous than the ones that we are using nowadays. This is because they used vacuum tubes and were consuming a lot of electricity. They also generated too much heat in comparison with the modern ones and were not too long-lasting. Their memory capacity was very weak, of almost 2 Kb and their design was kind of awkward when we see our modern computers nowadays.  The second period included the computers used between 1959 and 1963. They are already using less electricity than the ones from the previous period. Also, the heat generated by these computers was much lower than in the previous case. The memory was enlarges, being of 32 Kb and they used magnetic cores for their internal storage.

The third generation of computers in the historical development of computer hardware was the one represented by the computers used between 1964 and 1979. They had integrated circuits which are nowadays considered very simple. The maximum memory storage was of2 Mb. A very good improvement in these computers has been considered the possibility for some programs to run at once, which was not considered possible in the computers included in the previous two generations. The fourth generations, the computers used between 1980 and2005 were already much better than the all of the old ones. They already included complex circuits which had a very large capacity compared to the ones presented in the past. The memory storage was totally improved being able to reach several GB already, by using memory cards. The computers in the fourth generation included all sorts of new features such as printers, scanners, new monitors and text converters. In this period, the specialists have established the foundation of the computers that we nowadays consider modern.

The fifth generation of computers considered within the historical development of computer hardware includes the computers used since 2006 and until now. These computers are considered to be able to process information much faster. They are also considered to be biocomputers.

The first computers were considered to be all hardware. They only contained electronic and electromechanical types of elements: wiring, switches, vacuum tubes and others. Nowadays, computers consist of both hardware and software. They are considered much more improved than the old ones. There have been many types of computers since the first type of computer has been used. They have changed a lot because the specialists are always trying to improve them and to find new special accessories and features to include in them so as to make them work much better and to be a great aid for the users. The historical development of computer hardware has been considered very interesting to analyze by many users who have been curious to know how the old computers used to look, what kind of computer hardware components they consisted of and also, which are the main improvements that have been made to these computers in order to have nowadays modern PCs. There are important stages that have to be analyzed and considered in order to establish as best as possible the historical development of computer hardware.