The first computers used in business in the sixties were huge complicated machines that needed people with special training. They were in separate rooms, and people in white coats looked after them and kept them going.

This is a computer in a company, in 1963.

Having a computer was expensive, and not something that small firms could manage. Certainly there were no computers in homes, and the idea of letting children use a computer in school was unthinkable.

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Compare the 1960's IBM stand-alone machine with a new server that could just sit in a corner out of the way. The one on the right is incredibly more powerful, even though it is a fraction of the size. This is because scientists have learned to miniaturize circuits and transistors on to tiny silicon chips, instead of using big ones.

At first components of circuit boards, which give the instructions to a computer so it knows what to do, had to be made by hand and soldered.

This meant they were bulky and cumbersome. By comparison, a modern silicon chip is tiny. Click here to find out how a silicon chip is made for one of today's computers.

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