Analytical Engine

The Analytical Engine was an early concept of a general-purpose mechanical computer designed by Charles Babbage in the 1830s. It aimed to perform various calculations automatically by using mechanisms similar to modern computers: punched cards for input, a central processing unit (the "mill") for calculations, and memory (the "store") for data. Although it was never completed, it laid foundational ideas for computing, such as programmability and stored instructions, influencing the development of modern digital computers. Essentially, it was a visionary machine that anticipated how computers would process information systematically.