<Tr> <Td> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> </Td> </Tr> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> <P> The Analytical Engine was a proposed mechanical general - purpose computer designed by English mathematician and computer pioneer Charles Babbage . It was first described in 1837 as the successor to Babbage's difference engine, a design for a mechanical computer . The Analytical Engine incorporated an arithmetic logic unit, control flow in the form of conditional branching and loops, and integrated memory, making it the first design for a general - purpose computer that could be described in modern terms as Turing - complete . In other words, the logical structure of the Analytical Engine was essentially the same as that which has dominated computer design in the electronic era . </P> <P> Babbage was never able to complete construction of any of his machines due to conflicts with his chief engineer and inadequate funding . It was not until the 1940s that the first general - purpose computers were actually built, more than a century after Babbage had proposed the pioneering Analytical Engine in 1837 . </P>

Why analytical engine often called the pioneer computer