A Short History of Computing
The Abacus
-
At least 5,000 years old
-
Memory aid for making mental calculations
-
Not a true mechanical calculating machine
-
Eventually replaced by pencil and paper
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
-
French mathematician
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Built the first mechanical adding machine in 1642 (the Pascalene)
Joseph Jacquard
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Invented Jacquard
loom in 1801
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Fabric patterns controlled by punched
cards
-
Could produce fabrics faster and more accurately than any human
-
Knowledge stored in cards could be spread easily
-
Machine could be tended by unskilled factory workers
-
Caused riots in 1811 by skilled craftsmen fearing for their
jobs (the Luddites)
Charles Babbage [2]
(1791-1871)
-
English mathematician and inventor
-
Frustrated by errors in mathematical and navigation tables
-
Produced prototype of Difference
Engine in 1822
-
Used clockwork technology (wheels, cogs, and shafts)
-
Designed to solve polynomial equations (e.g., 3.56x7
- 7.6x3 + 2.39x - 8.94 = 0)
-
Never completed
-
Working version built
in 1991 at the Science Museum of London using only technology available in Babbage's time
Analytical Engine
-
Difference Engine inspired Babbage to design the Analytical Engine in 1833
-
Steam-powered design
-
General-purpose programmable machine
-
Designed to store 1000 numbers of 50 decimal digits each
-
Composed of several devices:
- one to receive instructions coded on punched cards (like
Jacquard loom)
- one to perform the coded instructions
- one to store results of intermediate calculations
- one to print out information on paper
-
Virtually identical in design to a modern computer
-
Never built
Augusta Ada Byron, Countess of
Lovelace (1815-1852)
-
Daughter of Lord Byron
-
Babbage's patron, assistant, and chronicler
-
Wrote sets of instructions for the Analytical Engine
-
World's first computer programmer
-
U.S. Department of Defense named its programming language
Ada after her
-
"The Analytical Engine weaves algebraic patterns just as
the Jacquard loom weaves flowers and leaves"
Herman Hollerith
John Atanasoff
-
American physicist
-
Built ABC machine with Clifford
Berry in late 1930s at Iowa State College
-
Special-purpose calculator for finding solutions to systems of equations
-
All-electronic design used vacuum tubes
for switching elements
-
Never completed, due to insufficient funding
Konrad Zuse
-
German engineer
-
Built Z1, Z2, Z3, and Z4 in late 1930s and early 1940s with
Helmut Schreyer
-
Electromechanical design used relays for switching elements
-
General-purpose computing device
-
Controlled by perforated celluloid strips (like punched cards)
-
First machine to use binary number system
-
Never completed, due to insufficient funding from the Nazi government
Howard Aiken
-
American physicist and applied mathematician
-
Built Harvard Mark I in
collaboration with Grace Hopper and IBM engineers
in 1944
-
Inspired by Babbage's Analytical Engine
-
Electromechanical design used relays for switching elements
-
Handled 23-digit numbers, logarithms, trigonometric functions
-
Controlled by punched paper tape
-
Fully automatic but slow (3-5 seconds per multiplication)
-
Remained in use at Harvard until 1959
-
Grace Hopper found first actual computer bug while
working on Mark II in 1945
Alan Turing (1912-1954)
-
English mathematician and first true computer scientist
-
Described mathematical model of a computer in 1936 (Turing
Machine)
-
Proved fundamental theorems about the limitations of computers
-
Founded the field of Artificial Intelligence in 1950
-
Wrote seminal papers in other fields (self-organizing chemical
reactions)
-
Helped break secret German Enigma
codes in World War II [simulator]
-
Worked on British electronic code-breaking computer called
Colossus
-
Enabled Allies to read German military transmissions from
1942 on
-
Persecuted by British government for being homosexual
-
Committed suicide in 1954
ENIAC [2] [3]
[4]
John von Neumann (1903-1957)
[2]
-
Hungarian mathematician, computer scientist, cyberneticist,
all-around genius
-
Worked on atomic bomb project during World War II
-
Invented game theory and developed the theory of self-replicating
automata
-
Originated key concept of stored-program computer in 1945
-
Program instructions stored in memory along with data (program
= data)
-
Easily reprogrammable
-
Von Neumann computer architecture became universal standard
-
First stored-program electronic computers appeared in 1947
EDVAC
-
Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic
Computer
-
Designed by Mauchly, Eckert, and Von Neumann
-
Stored-program design
-
Used binary instead of decimal words
First Generation Computers
(mid 40s - late 50s) [2] [3]
-
Stored-program computers with random access memory (RAM)
of ~1000 words
-
Used vacuum tubes (but took up much less space than ENIAC)
-
Punched cards for input and
output
-
Vacuum tube
memory or magnetic core memory for data storage
-
Programmed directly in binary machine language
-
Included EDVAC and UNIVAC (first
commercially available computers)
Transistors
Integrated Circuits
-
Invented in late 1950s by Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments
-
Many transistors etched on a single
silicon chip as a single circuit
-
Faster due to decreased distance between transistors
-
Incorporated into Third Generation
computers (mid 60s - early 70s)
Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI)
High-Level Programming Languages
-
Programming in binary machine language very tedious and difficult
-
First compiler written in 1952 by Grace
Hopper
-
FORTRAN developed by John Backus and a team of IBM programmers
in 1957
-
ALGOL developed in 1958
-
COBOL developed in 1959 by Grace Hopper
-
LISP developed by John McCarthy at MIT in 1958
-
BASIC developed in 1964 by Thomas Kurtz and John Kemeny at
Dartmouth
-
Pascal developed by Niklaus Wirth in 1968
-
Prolog developed by Alain
Colmerauer and Phillip Roussel in 1972
-
C developed by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie at Bell
Labs in early 1970s
-
Ada developed by U.S. DOD in early 1980s (named in honor of Lady
Lovelace)
-
Java developed in 1990s by Sun Microsystems
Microprocessors
-
First microprocessor, the Intel
4004, released in 1971
-
Designed by Ted Hoff for Japanese calculator company Busicom
-
Followed by Intel 8008 and 4040 (1972) and 8080
(1974)
-
Entire computer packaged as a single integrated circuit chip
-
Equivalent to having an Analytical Engine the size of a shirt
button
-
Motorola 6800 (1974)
-
MOS Technology 6502 (1975)
-
Zilog Z80 (1976)
MITS Altair 8800
-
First popular and affordable microcomputer (~$375)
-
Based on Intel 8080 chip
-
Some assembly required
-
No software available
-
256 bytes of RAM
-
Programmed by manually flipping switches on front panel
-
Bill Gates and Paul Allen
promised MITS a BASIC interpreter for the Altair, leading to the creation
of Microsoft in 1975
Microcomputers
-
IMSAI 8080 was another microcomputer
similar to the Altair 8800
-
Doug Engelbart invented mouse at SRI in 1964
-
Xerox PARC Alto computer
(1974) used mouse, graphics, menus, icons
-
Apple Computer founded in 1976 by Steve
Jobs and Steve Wozniak
-
Apple I based on
6502 chip
-
Apple II had color graphics, BASIC,
4K RAM, cassette tape data storage ($1300)
-
Apple Computer's sales went from $2.5M to $583M in six years
(Fortune 500 by 1982)
-
Radio Shack TRS-80 [2]
introduced in 1977 (Z80 chip, 4K RAM, $600)
-
Commodore PET introduced
in 1977 (6502 chip, 4K RAM, $600)
-
VisiCalc for Apple II released in 1979
-
Steve Jobs visits Xerox PARC in 1979; inspired to develop
Macintosh
-
IBM PC introduced in 1981
-
Apple Macintosh [2]
introduced in 1984; first microcomputer with GUI
-
Dell Computer founded by Michael Dell in 1984
-
Compaq reverse-engineers IBM PC BIOS to produce first PC
clone
-
Steve Jobs quits Apple in 1985 to found NeXT
Computer, Inc.
The Internet and the World Wide Web
-
ARPANET created in 1969 by connecting together 4 computers
at UCSB, UCLA, Utah, and SRI
-
World Wide Web developed at CERN in Switzerland by Tim
Berners-Lee in late 1980s
-
First Web browser written in 1990 by Tim Berners-Lee using
a NeXT computer
-
Marc Andreesen and Eric Bina
at U. of Illinois develop Mosaic Web browser
-
Marc Andreesen and Jim Clark found Netscape Communications in 1994
-
Netscape goes public on August 9, 1995; worth $3 billion by the
end of the day
The Future . . . ?
- "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers"
Thomas Watson, Chairman of IBM, 1943
- "If automotive technology had progressed as fast as
computer technology between 1960 and today, the car today would have an
engine less than a tenth of an inch across, would get 120,000 miles per
gallon, have a top speed of 240,000 miles per hour, and would cost $4"
Rick Decker and Stuart Hirshfield, The Analytical Engine
For Further Reading
The best available history of the personal computer
revolution is
Fire in the
Valley: The Making of the Personal Computer (2nd Edition)
by Paul Freiberger and Michael Swaine