Transcript Slide 1

History of the
Computer
Module 1
COEN 1
What makes a Computer a
Computer?

Computer in the Manhattan Project (194044)
 Humans
(mostly women) calculating
according to strict rules and under strict
supervision.
 Did not understand the purpose of the
calculations.
 Calculations were checked by assigning them
to different computers.
What makes a Computer a
Computer?
What makes a Computer a
Computer?

Calculators
 Abacus
 Slide
Rule
 Mechanical Adders and Calculators
Blaise Pascal 1632-1662
 Gottfried Leibnitz 1646-1716
 Charles de Colmar 1785-1870


Arithmometer: 4 basic operations
What makes a Computer a
Computer?
Computers are more autonomous than
calculating machines.
 A computer is programmed, given a set of
instructions.
 Behavior of computer radically changes
with different instructions.

Computer History
Pioneers (1930 – 1946)
 First Generation (1946 – 1955)

 Humungous,
power-hungry, unreliable
 Because they used Vacuum Tubes

Second Generation (1956-1963)
 Vacuum
Tubes replaced by transistors.
 Programming done very close to machine
Computer History

Third Generation (1964-1971)
 Integrated
Circuit: Many transistors in a single
chip.
 Pushed by needs of the space program.
Apollo Computer Interface Box
Computer History

Fourth Generation (1971 - 1993)
 Computer
on a chip
 Personal computers
Alto (HP labs, Palo Alto)
 Apple (Job, Wozniak)
 IBM PC

Early Beginnings

First Programmable Device:
Jacquard Loom
 Draw
loom controlled by
master weaver:


Commands a draw boy to raise
hooks that controlled harnesses.
All in order to produce intricate
floral patterns.
Modern Draw
Loom
Jacquard Loom
Early Beginnings

First Programmable
Device: Jacquard Loom
 Jacquard
(1800) used
punch cards to control the
harnesses.
 Set of punch cards now
controlled pattern.
 Master weaver skill was
codified in cards.
Draw Loom
Early Beginnings
What was the impact of
the Jacquard loom?
 Who were the stakeholders.
 How did they see the
introduction of the
Jacquard loom?

Early Beginnings

Luddites (1811)
 social
movement of English textile workers
 protested — often by destroying textile
machines — against the changes produced
by the Industrial
 named after a mythical leader, Ned Ludd.
Early Beginnings

Jacquard Loom
 11000
Jacquard looms in 1812 in France
 Jacquard received official French pension in
1806
 Economic effects:
Lowered prices for complicated patterns
 Increased demand for master weavers.

Early Beginnings

Analytical Engine of Charles Babbage
(1791-1871)
 Gentleman

scientist:
Rich banker’s son, lost access to family fortune,
but remained independently wealthy.
 1821:
Babbage and John Herschel bemoan
the poor quality of astronomical tables.
Early Beginnings

Navigation is based on astronomical
tables.
 Errors
lead to loss of ship, life, and cargo.
Early Beginnings

British government funds research on the
“Difference Engine No. 1”
 Steam-run
machine
 Replaces human computers of astronomical tables.
 Consists of 25,000 precision parts.

Babbage abandons project after 10 years to
work on “Difference Engine No. 2”
 Expenditures so far, ££17470. And no more funding.
 Difference
Engine No. 2 is also abandoned.
Early Beginnings

Analytical Engine:
 An
input unit to receive instructions in the form of
punched cards.
 A processing unit that would follow these instructions.
 A storage unit that would store intermediate results.
 An output unit that would print the results on paper.
 A steam power unit to provide the energy for it all.

Never completed, completely forgotten.
Birth of the Computer

Hollerith
 US
constitution requires a census every 10 years.
 1880 census was finished in 1887.

Needed to process 50 million records.
 Herman
Hollerith used punch card technology to
produce a sorting and tabulating machine.
 1880 census finished in 6 weeks.
 Hollerith’s Tabulating Machine Company became
International Business Machine Company.
Early Beginnings

Atanasoff
 Applications:
Physics.
Atanasoff had to solve linear equations for his
thesis in Physics.
 With assistant Berry worked on a machine that
could do the job for him.
 Used electronic vacuum tubes.
 Atanasoff-Berry machine was forgotten.

Early Beginnings

Konrad Zuse
 German
aerospace engineer
Proposed a computing device to solve
aerodynamics equations
 Used mechanical relays (as used in telephone
switching)
 None of his machines were completed due to the
German loss of WWII

Early Beginnings

Howard H. Aiken (1900 – 1973)
 Harvard
Scientist, interested in numerical
problems
 Secured 1 million dollars in research funding
from IBM
 Further funding from Navy
 1944: IBM’s Automatic Sequence Controlled
Calculator (Harvard Mark 1) first operational
electro-mechanical computer.
Early Beginnings

Turing and the Colossus
 Task:



Breaking the Enigma code in WW2
Polish cryptographers found a weakness in the code
English set up a deciphering effort
Supported by special hardware

 Turing

Bombe (electro-mechanical device)
proposed a more general machine, Colossus.
Special purpose digital computerbuilt under Max Newman
from 1943-1945.
Early Beginnings

Turing:
 Developed
first mathematical theory of
computability
Proposed Turing machine as a computer with
primitive operations
 Turing – Church Thesis: Everything that can be
computer can be computed on a Turing machine.

 Started
Philosophical investigation of Artificial
Intelligence.

Turing Test
Early Beginnings

John W. Mauchly and Presper Eckert
 Problem: Artillery Tables for US Army
 Mauchly proposes construction of a general computer
 Results in ENIAC:
 Feb. 1946
 18000 vacuum tubes
 2.5 m high, 24 m wide
 1000 times faster than electromechanical predecessors
 5000 additions per second
 Predecessor of computers designed for nuclear
weapons work (Von Neumann)
 Mauchly and Eckert started Eckert-Mauchly
Computer Cooperation which designed the UNIVAC