History of Computing

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History of Computing
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The original need for computers and other devices

• --- to serve as counting machines

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The real early years

• An abacus, developed by the Babylonians _at_300 BC
  is a calculating tool for performing arithmetic
  processes. The abacus was in use centuries before
  the adoption of the written modern numeral system
  and is still widely used by merchants and clerks
  in China, Japan, Africa, India and elsewhere

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More on the abacus

• A modern abacus consists of rings that slide over
  rods, but original ones used pebbles (the word
  calculus comes from the Latin word for pebble)

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Other Early Attempts (da Vinci)

• Leonado da Vinci (1452-1519) made drawings of
  gear-driven calculating machines but apparently
  never built any.
• Da Vinci known as a painter sculptor but also
  was an architect, engineer, and scientist.
• His contributions to mechanical calculation
  remained hidden until the rediscovery of two of
  his notebooks in 1967.

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Other Early Attempts (Schickard)

• 1623 -- Wilhelm Schickard designed a machine
  called the Speeding Clock for calculating
  astronomical tables. It could add and subtract up
  to 6-digit numbers.

• (got little publicity Schickard died soon
  afterward in the bubonic plague)

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Other Early Attempts(Pascal)

• 1642 -- Blaise Pascal made a mechanical
  calculator called the Pascaline could add and
  subtract to help his father a taxcollector
  (wasnt very accurate gears couldnt be made
  with the required precision)
• Until car odometers went digital, they used the
  same mechanism as the Pascaline to increment

Have you ever heard of Pascal?
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Other Early Attempts (Leibniz)

• Baron Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz
• 1672 -- Made a 4-function mechanical calculator
  called the Stepped Reckoner
• Still reliability of results was an issue

What do you think those 4 functions were?
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Other Early Attempts (Leibniz)

• Leibniz also introduced concept of Base 2
  (binary) number system-- In this system, all
  numbers are represented using only two symbols
  0 and 1

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Other Early Attempts (Boole)

• 1854 -- George Boole published an algebra based
  on this Base 2 system called Boolean algebra.
  
• Boolean Algebra
• Based on Leibnizs concept of using 0s and 1s
• No-yes,
• False-true,
• Off-on
• Took around 30 years before its potential use in
  electrical logic circuits was realized.
• Was instrumental in the design of digital
  electronic circuitry (still used today for that
  purpose)
• 0 off and 1 on

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Practical uses of math in the early 1800s..

• Anyone needing results of complicated
  calculations relied on printed numeric tables
• Engineers, architects, astronomers, navigators,
  etc
• Printed numeric tables were generated by
  mathematicians by hand.
• Tedious and prone to error
• An example the British Govt published a 7-vol
  set of navigation

• tables (which came with another huge volume
  containing corrections (over 1000 numerical
  errors!!!)

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Other Early Attempts (Babbage)

• Charles Babbage (a mathematician inventor) got
  quite frustrated trying to use these error-laden
  tables and decided to build a machine that would
  eliminate the errors and be more reliable when
  working on complicated calculations

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Other Early Attempts (Babbage)

• His machine was called the Difference Engine.
• (because it was based on the mathematical concept
  of finite differences an advanced math concept
  used to work thru complicated mathematical
  procedures)
• Babbages approach was to use the concept of
  repeated addition to replace the multiplication
  division that had been done by hand.
• Using gearwheels to implement addition much
  easier to implement than trying to also do
  multiplication division

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Other Early Attempts (Babbage)

• Babbage contacted members of the British
  Government to fund his project
• The British Government did fund Babbages work
  primarily for the overriding concern for the
  safety of sailors at sea (astronomy calculations
  were used for navigation)
• This is regarded as one of the worlds first
  government grants for research and technology
  development!

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Other Early Attempts (Babbage)

• Much time effort was put into the design
• HOWEVER
• As for the construction
• Government changed
• Funding often ran out
• Limitations of Victorian age tools
• Babbage had personality differences with many
  of those around him
• After 10 years, all funding dried up, and it was
  never finished.

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Other Early Attempts (Babbage)

• The design called for
• 25,000 parts
• An estimated weight of 15 tons
• A height of 8 ft
• (Note that even though it wasnt implemented,)
  Charles Babbage is credited with inventing the
  first mechanical computer (in 1822)
• Another note His design also included a printer!

One HUGE machine!
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Other Early Attempts (Babbage)

• Interesting sidenote (Babbage later designed
  an improved Difference Engine which was never
  implemented as well.)In 1991, a perfectly
  functioning Difference Engine was constructed
  from Babbages original plans

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Babbage (cont)

• The calculating engines of Charles Babbage are
  among the most celebrated icons in the prehistory
  of computing.
• Babbages Difference Engine (1st attempt) was the
  first successful automatic calculator and remains
  one of the finest examples of precision
  engineering of the time.
• Babbages Analytical Engine (yet another later
  effort) possesses all the essential logical
  features of the modern general purpose computer.

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Babbage (cont)

• Babbage is known as the father of the computer

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Interesting Babbage quote

• On two occasions I have been asked,
• Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong
  figures, will the right answers come out?"

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Other Early Attempts (Lovelace)

• Ada Lovelace, a mathematician who understood
  Babbages ideas, created a program for one of
  Babbages machines (for a machine that had not
  yet been built!)
• Shes credited with being the first computer
  programmer
• The program she wrote is recognized as the
  worlds first computer program
• In 1979, the programming language Ada was named
  in her honor.

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The early attempts..

• How useful were these devices and concepts?
• Not very practical back then. Tools not
  available to fully develop them
• So, fast-forward to the 1900s

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Inventions are typically the result of a need

• What was a significant event in the late 1930s
  early 1940s that stimulated computer interest
  and development?????

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Needs of the army during WWII

• Needed a more efficient way to calculate
  ballistic tables used for artillery and bombing
  trajectories.
• Doing calculations by hand was too slow (took
  about 15 minutes each)
• (Ballistic table contained details on how various
  factors affect the flight of a projectile such as
  angle of fire, muzzle velocity, time of flight,
  etc)

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A new electronic computer..

• John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert proposed an
  electronic (not mechanical) computer that
• Could do ballistic calculations in 30 seconds
• Would require 18,000 vacuum tubes and require
  simultaneous function of almost all of them

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A new electronic computer (cont) ..

• Reaction to Mauchly and Eckerts proposal
• OUTLANDISH!!!
• Mathematicians said A vacuum tube typically
  fails every 15 minutes and on average, it took
  MORE than 15 minutes to find the bad tube. No
  useful work could EVER be done with this!!
• In spite of misgivings, army funded project in
  1943
• Machine called ENIAC (Electronic Numerical
  Integrator and Computer)

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And ENIAC was born

• Time to complete
• 3 years
• Cost
• 400,000
• Weight
• 30 tons (..and how many pounds are in a ton?)
• Size
• 30 by 50 ft

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Other uses for ENIAC

• Weather prediction, atomic energy calculations,
  cosmic ray studies

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• Replacing a bad tube meant checking around 18,000
  tubes

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To reprogram required rearranging patch cords (on
the left) and resetting some of the 3000 switches
(on the right)
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Other computers of the time..

• 1945 Dr. John von Neumann developed EDVAC
• (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic
  Computer)
• Introduction of stored program concept
• Computer instructions are stored in main computer
  memory instead of requiring switches and wires to
  be changed whenever a new program was to be
  executed.
• Main application of computers
• Scientific or engineering applications

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Women were involved too..

• Rear Admiral Dr. Grace Hopper
• Was a visionary who realized that computers would
  reach a wider audience if they were more user
  friendly. She worked to develop an easier
  programming language (Cobol)

• Invented the compiler an intermediate program
  that translates English language instructions
  into the language of the target computer
• Often cited as being the first recording of an
  actual computer "bug" a moth stuck in the
  computer (but term used previously)

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Then a shift in computer usage (toward business
applic)

• 1947 Mauchly and Eckert (from the ENIAC team)
  designed and built computers for government and
  industry.
• UNIVAC 1
• Used for 1950 govt census
• Also used by GE for payroll processing

The first commercially available digital
electronic computer
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Question

• What is a significant event that happens
  periodically in November that computers are used
  for today?

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1952 presidential election

• Who became president?
• Who was the opponent?

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UNIVAC 1 in the 1952 election

• UNIVAC 1 predicted the results (Dwight D.
  Eisenhower vs Adlai Stevenson after only
  analyzing 5 of the tallied vote.
• CBS (TV) didnt believe the computer and withheld
  the info until it could be confirmed by actual
  votes

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(No Transcript)
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More details about UNIVAC 1

• Size
• 14 feet by 8 feet by 8.5 feet hig
• of vaccuum tubes required
• 5200
• Weight
• 29,000 lbs

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1st Generation of Computers(1940s 1950s)

• Primary Characterisic of 1G
• Electronic circuitry consisted of vacuum tubes
• Purpose
• Act like an amplifier could take very weak
  signals and make it stronger
• Act like a switch stop and start the flow of
  electricity instantly
• Disadvantages
• Generated lots of heat
• Not very reliable
• Required lots of space
• Slow in processing data

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Vaccuum tubes (not yet extinct)

• Until quite recently, what consumer items used
  vaccuum tubes as their most common technology?

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TVs and Computer Monitors
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Question..

• What did 3 scientists (Bardeen, Brattain, and
  Shockley) invent in 1947 which led to 2nd
  generation of computers?

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2nd Generation of Computers(late 1950s mid
1960s)

• Primary Characteristic of 2G
• Electronic circuitry consisted of transistors
• More reliable and less costly than vacuum tubes
• 1 transistor replaced the equivalent of 40 vacuum
  tubes
• Part of it made from silicon found in beach
  sand and glass thus cheap to produce
• Transistors conducted electricity faster and
  better than vacuum tubes
• Purpose was the same amplify or switch
  electronic signals

Vacuum tube vs transistor
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The Transistor..

• Gave off virtually no heat compared to vacuum
  tubes
• Computers than become more reliable and cheaper
• But still had to be soldered into the circuits by
  hand, so size was still limited (resulted in
  mid-sized devices from radios to computers)

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The Transistor.. (cont)

• The transistor is the key active component in
  practically all modern electronics.
• The transistor is often cited as being one of the
  greatest achievements in the 20th century and
  some consider it one of the most important
  technological breakthroughs in human history.

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Getting better.. But still falling short

• At this point, computers contained circuits that
  contained hundreds or thousands of components
  such as transistors (amplifies or switches
  signals), diodes (allows current flow in one
  direction only), and capacitors (stores
  electrical charge)
• These components were hand-soldered together with
  wires.
• Time consuming, unreliable.

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More inventions..

• Jack Kilby Robert Noyce independently invented
  the integrated circuit (IC) where components and
  connections were edged directly onto
  semi-conductor material
• Chips could then be printed as a unit by
  photolithography and not constructed one
  transistor at a time.

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The IC

• The first integrated circuits contained only a
  few transistors
• Known as Small Scale Integration
• HUGE impact in the development of computers

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3rd generation of computers(1965-1970)

• Primary Characteristic of 3G
• Electronic circuitry consisted of integrated
  circuits (also known as semiconductor chip) --
  1958
• Characterized by the ability to pack a huge
  number of transistors on a single wafer of
  silicon.
• It allowed the entire circuit (transistors,
  capacitors, resistors, wires, etc) to be made out
  of silicon on a single board taking up much
  less space
• Integrated circuitry was reliable, compact, and
  cheap to manufacture.

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3rd generation (cont)

• The concept of integrated circuits was
  intricately tied to aerospace projects --
• Space missiles needed lightweight digital
  computers
• The use of ICs in the space program forced IC
  into mass-production (reducing costs)

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Sidenote about transistors chips

• Recall that circuits contain many many
  components
• Note that electricity travels about a foot in a
  billionth of a second.
• Thus, the smaller the distance, the greater the
  speed of computers
• Consequently the more components that can be
  squeezed on a chip the faster the computer can
  process

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Some other computer-related events during 3rd
generation ..

• 1968 8-inch floppy introduced
• 1969 ARPANET network, predecessor to internet,
  is established
• Mainframes primary computer type in existence
  although mini computers were starting to
  permeate..

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IC Development during that time

• Medium Scale Integration (late 1960s)
• Hundreds of transistors on a given chip
• Large Scale Integration
• Thousands of transistors on a given chip
• Early 1970s low 1000s
• Mid-late 1970s 10,000 transistors
• These improvements allowed more complex systems
  to be produced using smaller circuit boards,
  requiring less assembly work (because of fewer
  separate components)

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Mainframe
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Integrated circuits..

• -- a picture of a microchip with a transparent
  window showing the integrated circuit inside

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Mini-computers
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Getting closer, but still some shortfalls

• Key weakness of the chips they were hardwired
  for specific jobs
• In other words, if you wanted a computer to do
  different tasks, it needed a chip per task

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Another invention

• Ted Hoff designed the first microprocessor
• Consisting of a general-purpose logic device at
  its core
• Could be programmed by instructions stored on the
  semiconductor chip
• This was the first true CPU -- which could
  handle many tasks
• Hoff was an employee of Intel (name ring a
  bell???)
• This design led to the development of desktop
  computers (and the 4th generation!!)

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4th generation of computers(1971 today)

• Characterized by two concepts
• Invention of the microprocessor a single chip
  that can do all the processing of a full-scale
  computer.
• Monolithic integrated circuits (Very Large Scale
  Integration) millions of transistors on one
  integrated circuit chip (Recall that the more
  components on a single chip the faster the
  computer!!)

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Microprocessors
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The Digital Revolution..

• Computers, cell phones, and other electronic
  systems are now inextricable parts of the
  structure of modern societies.
• It has been stated that the digital revolution
  brought about by the microchip was one of the
  most significant occurrences in the history of
  mankind

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Some events during 4th generation..

• 1976 Apple Computer Inc was formed
• 1977 First popular home computers Apple II,
  TRS-80, Commodore 64
• 1981 IBM PC running MS-DOS is introduced
• 1984 Apple introduces the Macintosh and the
  first graphical user interface (with a mouse..)

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The original IBM Personal Computer
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Other 4th generation events..

• 1987 3.5 floppy disk introduced
• 1989 WWW is created
• 1992 Linux operating system introduced
• 1993 Pentium processors introduced
• 1994 Yahoo is founded Bluetooth was invented
• 1990s-2000s Windows 95, 98, 2000, XP, etc
• 1997 DVD technology introduced
• 1998 Google is founded

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Other 4th generation events (cont)

• 1998 e-commerce (marketing goods and services)
  becomes popular
• 2001 wireless technology becomes common
• 2004 Blu-ray invented
• 2007 iPhone invented
• .. and on and on.

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Just for fun Twenty Key Inventions of the last
25 years Do you agree? Do you have others?