Transcript module 1

CMPT100
Introduction to Computers

Time: Mon-Wed-Fri 8:30 – 9:20

Room: Arts146

Instructor: Jay Srinivasan

Email: [email protected]
Expectations

Attend class regularly

arrive on time, stay until the end

be quiet and respectful of others in the class

Attend all 5 Lab tutorials

Attempt all assignments


even if you can’t finish them - submit *something*
Do not cheat on assignments or exams

Academic honesty
policyhttp://www.cs.usask.ca/classes/academichonesty.shtml

Ask questions sooner rather than later

Check class website and i-help*often*

http://www.cs.usask.ca/classes/100/t2/index.htm
What you can expect from me




email / i-help responses within a day
class notes available before class
available to answer questions - ask!
straightforward midterm/exam


no trick questions but must know covered
material
interested in your success in this class

Late submissions will never be accepted.
(except under extremely strenuous circumstances)
History of Computing
-Important Inventions
1823 – Difference Engine
Babbage


Never built
Intended to be:



Real Dream = Analytical
Engine




Steam powered, fully automatic
Calculate log tables
General Purpose Programmable
Computer
Four basic components: Input,
Output, Processing & Storage.
Too advanced for its time
Babbage considered “Father
of Computers”
1890 – Tabulating Machine
Hollerith




Beginning of IBM!
Electromechanical
device
Input via punch cards
US Census Bureau had
crisis


would take 10 yrs to
tabulate census!
Hollerith’s machine took
6 weeks
1944 – Harvard Mark 1
Aiken and Hopper

First working computer




51 ft long, 8ft high
760 000 parts
900 km of wire
weighed 5 tons
• Punch cards
• Used by US Military
• Term “Computer Bug”
1946 – ENIAC
Mauchly and Eckert



1000 X faster than Mark 1
“programmed” by
rewiring and setting 6000
switches
Size:




18 000 vacuum tubes
30 tons
2 stories high
Tube failure every 7
minutes
1951 – UNIVAC I
Mauchly and Eckert



Used by US Census
Bureau
CBS borrowed it for
predicting the
presidential elections
in 1952
First mass produced
general purpose
computer (46 !!)
Computer Generations…
st
1

Generation of Computers
1950s




Vacuum tubes
Huge machines 30 x 50 feet
1 computer used energy of one block of homes
Used by





large corporations
research
military
government
“needs of the world can be met by a few dozen
computers”
nd
2

Generation of Computers
1958 – 1960s


Transistors instead of tubes (thumbnail size)
Improvements






Faster
Smaller
less electricity
more reliable
Available to other markets such as airlines / small
business
Primary programming languages:



Fortran (scientific)
Cobol (business)
Basic (education)
rd
3

Generation of Computers
mid 1960s – 1970

Integrated circuits combine transistors, wires, etc.
on one silicon chip


Start of embedded computers


Thousands of times smaller than original transistors
Traffic signals, elevators, pocket calculators
Hand-held calculator



weighs 0.5 lbs
faster than ENIAC
1/10 000th the cost of ENIAC
th
4

Generation of Computers
1970s – early 1980s

Large scale integration




smaller size
many more circuits (15 000 vs. 1000 in 1965)
“no use for these micro computers in homes”
Apple Computer



started in a garage in 1976
In top 500 US companies by 1982
First “Mac” introduced in 1984
5th (?) Generation of
Computers

Today

Moore’s Law: “doubling of transistor density on a
manufactured die every year”



silicon chip’s capacity doubles every year.
More like once every 18 months now.
If automotives progressed as fast as computer
technology, today’s car would have:





1/10 inch engine
get 120 000 miles per gallon
run 240 000 MPH
cost $4
And with a software like Microsoft’s O/S it will likely crash
every few Km.!!
Today’s Computers
Today’s Computers

Mainframes and Supercomputers

Time sharing systems for large applications


Cray -1 in 1975 was the first supercomputer



Airline ticket booking, banking, weather predictions
Vector instructions/computing.
Room sized machines (even by today’s standards).
Workstations and PCs

Intensive computations


In computer animations, as network servers
PCs for word processing, accounting and
multimedia.
Today’s Computers

Portable Computers

Light weight and full
functionality like a PC.


Personal Digital
Assistants


Notebook/laptop
computers
Multiple functionalities
(cell phone, games,
organizer, browse web)
Pocket PCs
Today’s Computers

Embedded and Special purpose computers

Dedicated microprocessors that are
embedded in your day-to-day uses.


Cars, VCRs, toys, traffic signals
Firmware : It consists of programs installed
semi-permanently into memory
(Programmable ROM, Flash memory)

“software” written “into” the system.

Will not be erased when the system powers down.





Main people / inventions
General idea of Computer Generations
Four types of today’s computers
Read chapter 1 in Beekman book
Be able to answer




multiple choice
fill-in blanks
name some main people and inventions
Will NOT ask you to


name specific dates
write essay / paragraph