History of Computers – Long, Long Ago

3 years ago

History of Computers – Long, Long Ago Definition of a ComputerSimplest definition of a computer: A device that processes input and generates output Key words: Input Output Processes Information Modern Computers are electronic, complex, and interactive, but can be reduced to simple input-output processing devices   History of Computers: 3000 […]

History of Computers – Long, Long Ago

Definition of a Computer
Simplest definition of a computer: A device that processes input and generates
output

Key words:

  • Input
  • Output
  • Processes
  • Information

Modern Computers are electronic, complex, and interactive, but can be reduced
to simple input-output processing devices

 

History of Computers: 3000 BC to Present

History of Computers – Long, Long Ago
The Abacus

  • beads on rods to count and calculate
  • still widely used in Asia!

 

History of Computers – Way Back When
The Slide Rule 1630

  • based on Napier’s rules for logarithms
  • used until 1970s

 

 

History of Computers – 19th Century
Jacquard Loom

  • used metal cards with punched holes to guide weaving process
  • first stored program – metal cards
  • first computer manufacturing
  • still in use today!

 

 

Charles Babbage – 1792-1871
Difference Engine c.1822

  • huge calculator, never finished

Analytical Engine 1833

  • could store numbers
  • calculating “mill” used punched metal cards for instructions
  • powered by steam!
  • accurate to six decimal places
 Babbage's Analytical Engine

Ada Augusta – First Programmer

  • Worked with Charles Babbage
  • Programmed Analytical Engine

Discussion Question

  • What was the biggest advance that led to modern computers?
  • Electricity
  • Transistor
  • Microchip
  • Data storage

Vacuum Tubes – 1930 – 1950s

  • First Generation Electronic Computers used Vacuum Tubes
  • Vacuum tubes are glass tubes with circuits inside.
  • Vacuum tubes have no air inside of them, which protects the circuitry.
UNIVAC – 1951

  • First commercially available computer
  • sold to censu bureau
  • “a big pocket calculator”
  • until 1970 was standard computer, but very expensive
  • http://www.letsfindout.com/subjects/space/univac.html

Grace Hopper
  • Programmed UNIVAC
  • Recipient of Computer Science’s first “Man of the Year Award”
  • http://www.ce.vt.edu/evd/Htmls/P375994.html

First Computer Bug – 1945

  • Relay cards carried information
  • Grace Hopper found an actual moth stuck to card responsible
    for a malfunction
  • Called it “debugging” a computer
 First computer bug is a moth

First Transistor

  • Uses Silicon
  • developed in 1948
  • won a Nobel prize
  • on-off switch
  • Second Generation Computers used Transistors, starting in 1956

Integrated Circuits
 

  • Third Generation Computers used Integrated Circuits (chips).
  • Integrated Circuits are transistors, resistors, and capacitors integrated
    together into a single “chip”

 

Birth of Personal Computers –

Kenbak I – 1971

  • Very primitive, just flashing lights and buttons
  • about $750

MITS Altair – 1975 (pictured)

  • 256 byte memory
  • 2 MHz Intel 8080 chips
  • Just a box with flashing lights
  • cost $395 kit, $495 assembled.

 

The First Microprocessor – 1971
 

  • The Intel 4004 had 2,250 transistors
  • four-bit chunks (four 1’s or 0’s)
  • 108Khz
  • 0.6 Mips (million instructions/sec)
  • Pentium 133 – 300 Mips
  • Called “Microchip”

Inside the Intel 4004 Microchip – 2250 Transistors

Inside the Intel 4004 - 2250 Transistors
 

Generations of Electronic Computers

Generation First

Generation

I

 Second Gen.

II

 Third Gen.

III

 Fourth Gen.

IV
Technology Vacuum Tubes Transistors Integrated Circuits (multiple transistors) Microchips (millions of transistors)
Size Filled Whole Buildings Filled half a room Smaller Tiny – Palm Pilot is as powerful
as old building sized computer

 

 

Over the past 50 years, the Electronic Computer has evolved
rapidly.

  • Using the following advancements, draw an “evolutionary chart” of how computers
    evolved:
    • vacuum tube
    • integrated circuit
    • transistor
    • microchip

IBM PC – 1981

  • IBM-Intel-Microsoft joint venture
  • First wide-selling personal computer used in business
  • 8088 Microchip – 29,000 transistors
  • 4.77 Mhz processing speed
  • 256 K RAM (Random Access Memory) standard
  • One or two floppy disk drives

Apple Computers

  • Founded 1977
  • Apple II released 1977  – widely used in schools
  • Macintosh (left) – released in 1984, Motorola 68000 Microchip processor
    (below)
  • Macintosh is first commercial computer with graphical user interface
    (GUI)     and pointing device (mouse)

1990s: Pentiums and Power Macs

  • Early 1990s began penetration of computers into every niche: every desk,
    most homes, etc.
  • Faster, less expensive computers paved way for this
  • Windows 95 was first decent GUI for “PCs”
  • Macs became more PC compatible – easy file transfers
  • Prices have plummeted

   

How Electronic Computers Have Progressed

 

 

UNIVAC

(1951-1970)

(1968 vers.)
Kenbak 1

(1971)
IBM PC

(1981)
Macintosh

(1984)
Pentium III
Circuits Tubes,

Transistors, Integrated Circuits*

 130 Integrated Circuits Intel 8088

Microchip – 29,000 Transistors

 Motorola 68000  Intel P-III

Microchip – 7.5 million transistors
Generation I-II-III* III IV IV IV
RAM Memory 512 K 265 Bytes 256 K 640 K 128 Mb
Speed 1.3 MHz 1 KHz 4.77 Mhz 8 MHz 1000 MHz
Storage 100 MB Hard Drive none Floppy Drive Floppy Drives Hard Drive, Floppy, CD-Rom
Size Whole Room Briefcase

(no monitor)

 Briefcase + Monitor Two shoeboxes (integrated monitor) Small Tower
Cost $1.6 million $750 $1595 ~$4000 $1500

*Early UNIVACs had vacuum tubes, middle models had transistors,
and by the end they used integrated circuits

 

What’s next for computers?

  • Use your imagination to come up with what the next century holds for computers.
  • What can we expect in two years?
  • What can we expect in twenty years?

Source Article

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