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