The History of Computers

The History of Computers Past, Present, and Beyond Topics Famous Predictions about Computers Prehistory Early History of Computers The First Generation of Computers The Second Generation of Computers The Third Generation of Computers The Fourth Generation of Computers The Future of Computing References Famous Quotes about Computers “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” – Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943 “Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.” – Popular Mechanics, 1949 “There is no reason anyone in the right state of mind will want a computer in their home.” – Ken Olson, President of Digital Equipment Corp, 1977. Famous Quotes about Computers "So we went to Atari and said, 'Hey, we've got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we'll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we'll come work for you' And they said, 'No.' So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, 'Hey we don't need you. You haven't got through college yet.'" - Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get Atari and HP interested in his and Steve Wozniak's personal computer. The Prehistory of Computers The Abacus Blaise Pascal Joseph Jacquard Charles Babbage Ada Lovelace The Abacus The abacus, a simple counting aid, may have been invented in Babylonia (now Iraq) in the fourth century B.C. Wilhelm Schickard's Mechanical Calculator First known mechanical calculator Capable of simple arithmetic Blaise Pascal’s Mechanical Calculator Blaise Pascal Born on June 19, 1623 in France  Builds the first operating mechanical calculator in 1642 called the Pascaline  Calculator limited to addition and subtraction of decimal numbers  Metal wheels used to enter numbers, results appear in the calculator’s window  Pascal’s Calculator Gottfried Leibniz's More advanced Mechanical Calculator German mathematician Calculator purely mechanical with no source of power Calculator capable of multiplication and division Joseph Jacquard’s Programmable Loom Joseph-Marie Jacquard Invents an automatic loom controlled by punch cards in 1801  First machine programmed with punched cards   People rioted over the loss of jobs it produced Punch cards for a loom Jacquard Loom Charles Babbage, The Father of Computers Charles Babbage Born December 26, 1792.  Known as the Father of Computers  Devises the Difference Engine in the early 1820s.  Mechanical, steam powered machine for calculating astronomical tables.  Works on the project for 20 years before the project is cancelled by the British government in 1842.  Babbage Difference Engine, constructed by the British Government in 1991. Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine The Analytical Engine A mechanical computer that can solve any mathematical problem.  Includes these features crucial to future computers:       An input device (punch cards) A storage facility to hold numbers for processing A processor or number calculator A control unit to direct tasks to be performed An output device. Ada Byron, The First Computer Programmer Countess Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace Born December 10, 1815, daughter of the poet Lord Byron  Meets Babbage in 1833  Often called the first computer programmer  Ada Byron Ada Lovelace, Continued  Publishes an analysis of the Analytical Engine.  Outlines the fundamentals of computer programming, including data analysis, looping and memory addressing. Early History of Computers Herman Hollerith Mark 1 The Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC) The ENIAC Herman Hollerith and the 1890 US Census Herman Hollerith     The 1880 US Census took almost seven years to count. Using punch cards, developed an electromechanical machine that counted the 1890 Census in six weeks. Brought his punch card reader to the business world in 1896 when he founded Tabulating Machine Company, which later merged with International Business Machines (IBM). Punch cards remained in use for data processing until the 1960’s. Mark 1 An electromechanical computer developed in 1944 by Howard Aiken Developed to calculate ballistics charts for the US Navy Was about half as long as a football field and contained 500 miles of wire Used electromagnetic signals to move mechanical parts Was obsolete by the time it was complete The Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC) The world’s first digital electronic computer. Built by John Atanasoff and Clifford Berry around 1940. Used the binary number number system, regenerative memory, and separated memory and computing functions. The ENIAC The world’s first large-scale, general purpose electronic computer Developed in 1946 by J. Presper Eckert and Vacuum John W. Mauchly Tube Used 18,000 vacuum tubes Occupied a 30 by 50 ft room Computed at speeds up to 1,000 times faster than the Mark 1 Used for ballistics, weather prediction, and for atomic energy calculations. To program, hundreds of wires and thousands of switches had to be set by hand The ENIAC John van Neumann Architecture Stored-programming concept Suggested that programs and data could be represented in the same internal memory. All modern ocmputers store programs in internal memory. First Generation of Computers: 1951 - 1958 Vacuum Tubes Punch Cards The UNIVAC The size of a cell phone built with Vacuum Tubes The size of a pager built with vacuum tubes The size of a home computer built with vacuum tubes Punch Cards At the time, the primary way to enter information and programs into a computer The UNIVAC Built in 1951 by Remington Rand The first computer mass produced for general use Used magnetic tape instead of punch cards for input and output Predicted the winner of the 1952 presidential election Second Generation of Computers: 1959 - 1964 Transistors Admiral Grace Hopper Transistors The transistor (on/off switch) was invented in 1948 and began to replace vacuum tubes in computers by 1956. Developed by a team at Bell Labs, won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1956. Transistors allowed computers to become smaller, faster and more reliable. Today, transistors are about .25 microns in size, that is smaller than the width of a human hair. The First Transistor Grace Hopper revolutionizes computer programming Rear Admiral Grace Hopper Born December 9, 1906 in New York City  One of the first US computer programmers  A leader in the field of compilers   Believed that programming languages should be more like English Was a leading force in the development of the COBOL business programming language  Coined the term “Debugging”  Rear Admiral Grace Hopper Third Generation of Computers: 1965 - 1970 The rise of operating systems, minicomputers, and word processing Integrated Circuits IBM 360 PDP-8 Development of the first computer networks Integrated Circuits Integrated circuits (computer chips) began replacing transistors An integrated circuit contains many transistors and electronic circuits on a single wafer of silicon or chip. The IBM 360 Developed in 1964, the first computer to use integrated circuits. Became the basic model for other mainframes produced by IBM and other companies. Price: Up to a million dollars Number sold: 14,000 by 1968 The IBM 360 The PDP-8 The first microcomputer, produced by Digital Equipment Co. (DEC) in 1965. Cost: $5,000 Number Sold: 50,000 The PDP-8 Fourth Generation of Computers: 1971 - Present The Microprocessor The First Microcomputers The Microprocessor A computer chip that contains on it the entire CPU Mass produced at a very low price Computers become smaller and cheaper Intel 4004 – the first computer on a chip, more powerful than the original ENIAC. The Microcomputer 1975 - The first microcomputer, the Altair 8800 was introduced. The BASIC translator used by the Altair was developed by Bill Gates 1975 – The first super computer, the Cray –1, was announced 1976 – DEC introduces its minicomputer, the VAX The Microcomputer 1977 – Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak begin producing Apple computers in a garage 1978 – The first spreadsheet for Apple is introduced 1981 – IBM introduces the IBM Personal Computer. Uses the MS-DOS operating system (birth of Microsoft)  By 1982, 835,000 IBM PCs had been sold The Microcomputer 1982 – Sun Microsystems introduces its first workstation 1984 – Apple produces the first Macintosh 1985 – Microsoft introduces Windows Summary Generation 1st Generation 2nd Generation 3rd Generation 4th Generation Technology Vacuum Tubes Transistors Integrated Microchips Circuits Size Filled a room Filled half a room Smaller Tiny, palm top The Future of Computing Bleeding Edge Technology Molecular Computing  DNA Computing  Biological Computing  Quantum Computing  Molecular Computing The amount of circuitry that can be placed on a silicon chip is limited.   As more transistors are crammed onto a silicon chip the process becomes complex and expensive. Today about 28 million transistors can be placed on a computer chip. Molecular chips that contain billions or trillions of switches and components. Molecules are much smaller than transistors.  Advantages of Molecular Computing Main Advantages Potential to pack vastly more circuitry onto a microchip than will ever be possible with silicon chips  Astonishing fast  Potentially cheap and easy to produce  Potential Uses of Molecular Computing Potential Uses Molecular memories with a million times the storage of today’s chips  Supercomputers the size of a wrist watch  Current Work   Creating switches using molecules  Molecules do not usually carry a current Small molecular devices that could be integrated with today’s silicon chips DNA Computing DNA is a unique data structure  Has enormous data density – up to 1 million Gbits of data per inch  Today’s best hard drive store about 7Gbits psi  Double stranded nature has potential for error correction Using enzymes, which operate on one DNA at the same time Massively Parallel Operations  DNA Computing Main Advantages Massively parallel operations  Huge memory capacity  Possible Uses  Solving computational problems that can never be solved using silicon-based computers. Biological Computing Creating devices out of cells that can compute and be programmed Probably not a replacement for traditional computers Biological computing is at the stage that traditional computing was in the 1920s. Biological Computing Possible Uses Process control for biochemical systems  Insulin delivery systems that could sense the amount of glucose in the blood and deliver the right amount  Devices that detect food contamination or toxins in the air  Quantum Computing Computers based on quantum mechanics Building block of data is the quantum bit (or qubit)  A qubit can exist in two states at the same time, so it can hold a value of both one and zero simultaneously  Potential for parallel computation Disadvantages   Fragile and difficult to control The whole system can lose coherence and collapse. References Quotes http://lalaland.cl.msu.edu/~vanhoose/humo r/0261.html  http://aspire.virtualave.net/quotes.phtml  http://www.funehumor.com/fun_main/comp uter.htm  References Prehistory http://www.allsands.com/History/Objects/ba bbagecomputer_yy_gn.htm  http://sol.brunel.ac.uk/history/hist1910.html  References History of Computers http://www.cnet.com/techtrends/0-15443187-1656936.html?tag=st.cn.1.tlpg.15443187-1656936  http://www.digitalcentury.com/encyclo/updat e/comp_hd.html  http://www.cln.org/themes/computer_history .html  References The Future of Computing  http://www.techreview.com/articles/may00/ full_text.htm