Transcript Facts Related in DVD “Computers”

Facts Cited in DVD
“Computers”
Computing Speed
• Current personal computers can do 100
million calculations per second.
• The most powerful computer, like ASCI
White, can reach 12 trillion calculations per
second.
Mechanical Computers
• Charles Babbage designed the first
mechanical computer, which was composed
of gears and shafts, in early 1800s to
compute the chart of logarithm.
• Herman Hollerith built a machine to process
‘punch cards’ of the population census in
1890. Hollerith later founded IBM.
Early Electronic Computers (1)
• Collossus: Built by Allan Turing in British
in WWII, which was specially for breaking
the code of German army.
• ENIAC: Built by John Mauchly and J.
Presper Eckert in University of
Pennsylvania in 1945, three months after
WWII, for calculating artillery-firing tables.
Early Electronic Computers (2)
• ENIAC: Electronic and Numeric Integrator
And Computer.
• ENIAC:
100 foot long, 30 tons,
70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors,
6,000 switches, 18,000 vacuum tubes,
$500,000.
Fundamental Idea of Modern
Computers
• John van Neuman initiated the logic map of
architecture of modern computer:
– Processor;
– Internal memory storing commands and data;
– Input and output devices.
First Commercial Computer
• UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer):
Built by Eckert and Mauchly, which was
used to analyzed the polls and successfully
predicted the victory of Eisenhower in the
presidential election in 1952.
Efforts of Miniaturization
and Personalization (1)
• Computers were elite’s machines before
personal computers.
• Three in Bell Lab invented transistor, 1947.
• Robert Noyce and Jack Kilby independently
invented integrated circuits, 1959.
• In 1969, computers with integrated circuits
made it possible for human (Neil
Armstrong) landing on the moon.
Efforts of Miniaturization
and Personalization (2)
• Ted Hoff of Intel made the first
microprocessor in 1969.
• Doug Englebart in 1968 put forward the
idea of mouse, hypertext, and graphic
interface on a conference in San Francisco.
• Xerox’s Alto computer in 1973 was the first
computer using a mouse, with a graphic
interface. Price: $18,000.
Efforts of Miniaturization
and Personalization (3)
• Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak made their
Apple I in 1975.
• Their Apple II was put into market in 1977,
which has 4,000 kilo-bytes memory and
priced at $1,200.
• IBM PC came to market in 1981.
Efforts of Miniaturization
and Personalization (4)
• Macintosh came to market in 1984, which
has a user-friendly operating system of
graphic interface.
• Operating system MS DOS went with each
IBM PC and its compatibles in 1980s and
early 1990.
• Internet went popular in 1990s. Internet vs.
personal computers resemble streets vs.
cars.
Miscellaneous Facts
• A chip contains up to 100 million
transistors.
• 700 million computers were sold in 1999.
• Computer Deep Blue beat the world chess
champion Garry Kasparov in 1990s.
Non-Electronic Computers in
Future
• Molecular computer
• DNA computer
• Biological computer
The Computer Era
• Computing speed has increased 100
million times in the past 50 years.
• It is expected to increase 100 million
times in the coming 50 years.
• “The age of computer is still at its
beginning.”
• “We are still in the dark age.”