History of Computing

1. History of Computing • Prehistoric People Groups • Used fingers for counting, and length of hands and arms for measurements • Kept track of larger numbers, such as number of animals in herds, using small pebbles

2. History of Computing • People of Egypt, China and ancient Babylonia • By 3000 B.C., had developed written symbols to represent numbers • Performed simple arithmetic operations applied to government and business tasks • Developed geometry to solve practical engineering and agricultural problems (applied mathematics) • Some uses of mathematics included measuring time, straight lines, counting money, and computing taxes

3. History of Computing • Practical examples of geometry in ancient Egypt • Land surveying and navigation • Egypt was the “bread basket” of the world • Annual Nile River flooding fertilized plains but made it difficult to mark property • Geometry used to survey fields and reestablish property boundaries • Navigation required for food distribution • Building of pyramids required extensive measurements • People of Egypt, China and ancient Babylonia • By 3000 B.C., had developed written symbols to represent numbers • Performed simple arithmetic operations applied to government and business tasks • Developed geometry to solve practical engineering and agricultural problems (applied mathematics)

4. History of Computing • Greece • Between 600 and 300 B.C., inherited mathematical knowledge from Egypt and Babylon • Were the first people to separate mathematics from application to practical problems • Developed abstract and logical mathematical reasoning • Pythagoras, Euclid, Archimedes, Ptolemy, and others developed extensive knowledge of geometry, trigonometry, algebra, astronomy and physics • Rome • Applied mathematics to practical tasks in business, civil engineering, and military work • Had little interest in study of pure mathematics

5. History of Computing • Middle Ages • No new mathematical advances in Europe for hundreds of years after fall of Rome in 476 A.D. • Arabs preserved mathematical knowledge developed by Greeks and Romans and expanded algebraic concepts • Concept of zero and decimal number system developed in India and used by Arabs • After 1100, growing commerce in Europe required an easier numbering system for merchants than Roman numerals • Europeans started using decimal number system and studying Arabic mathematical texts • During late Middle Ages, European mathematicians such as Fibonacci contributed to algebra and geometry

6. History of Computing • Renaissance • From 1400’s to 1600’s exploration of new lands required improved mathematics to support navigation • Development of capitalism and trading led to development of faster and better methods of computation • Invention of mechanical printing press allowed rapid spread of new math texts • Many advances occurred in algebra, including in the 1500’s Francois Viete’s introduction of letters used to stand for unknown numbers in formulas and equations (use of variables, important in computer science) c2 = a2 + b2

7. History of Computing • Renaissance (continued) • Astronomers Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler advanced mathematics through their work in astronomy • Scottish mathematician John Napier invented logarithms and slide rule that took advantage of fact that addition is easier than multiplication: log (a * b) = log a + log b • Logarithms are inverse of power function: log2 8 = 3 because 23 = 8 • Slide rule used extensively by students, engineers, scientists, military, and others until largely replaced by hand-held calculators, starting with HP models in 1970’s

8. History of Computing • Here’s Robby the Robot holding a giant-sized slide rule:

9. History of Computing • But the actual size was hand-held, with a middle sliding rule:

10. History of Computing • Renaissance (continued) • Rene Descartes developed analytic geometry, and Blaise Pascal and Pierre Fermat developed mathematical theories of probability • Pascal developed version of mechanical calculator called “Arithmometer” to improve speed and accuracy of calculations, especially needed in business • Modern computer programming language named after Pascal • Toward end of period, Sir Isaac Newton was a main inventor of calculus, marking beginning of modern mathematics

11. History of Computing • 1700’ and 1800’s • Wide applications of calculus developed, especially in physics and mathematical analysis • Many inventions during Industrial Revolution led to automation of tasks formerly done by hand • Joseph-Marie Jacquard of France invented automatic loom in 1804, improving on earlier punch card concept • Holes in card controlled which doors opened or closed for thread patterning • This invention was instrumental in development of modern computers

12. History of Computing • Jacquard Loom:

13. History of Computing • 1700’ and 1800’s – Charles Babbage • A prominent English mathematician with interest in inventing calculating machinery • In 1800’s England’s sea power required accurate computations for calculating cannon shots from moving ships • Babbage obtained 10 years of funding to develop a solution for this problem, but never implemented one • Invented a “Difference Engine” in 1821 to produce math tables • Continued investing time, fortune, and government funding on a general device for any kind of calculation and symbol manipulation • Unfortunately never able to complete any designs for his general “Analytic Engine,” which had some characteristics of modern computers

14. History of Computing • 1700’s and 1800’s – Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace • Daughter of the famous English poet Lord Byron, and trained in mathematics and science • Heard Babbage’s ideas for “Analytic Engine” at a dinner party, and later translated and added notes to an article about the machine • Over a period of years, corresponded by letter with Babbage, discussing ideas for use of engine • Predicted in 1843 engine could be used for scientific use as well as practical uses such as composing music and producing graphics • Considered to have invented the first “computer program” for her idea of how engine could be used to calculate Bernoulli numbers • In 1979, U.S. Department of Defense developed programming language named Ada in her honor

15. History of Computing • Late 1800’s and 1900’s - Herman Hollerith • Considered father of modern automatic computation • Worked on 1880 U.S. census and saw need for mechanization of recording and tabulating process as immigration increased • Won design competition for 1890 census by inventing equipment to tabulate and sort punched cards similar to ones used on Jacquard loom • Founded company Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) that later changed name to IBM in 1924

16. History of Computing • Late 1800’s and 1900’s - Herman Hollerith (cont’d.) • In Hollerith’s own words (“An Electric Tabulating System,” 1889): “Few, who have not come directly in contact with a census office, can form any adequate idea of the labor involved in the compilation of a census of 50,000,000 persons, as was the case in the last census, or of over 62,000,000, as will be the case in the census to be taken in June, 1890… Although our population is constantly increasing, and although at each census more complicated combinations and greater detail are required in the various compilations, still, up to the present time, substantially the original method of compilation has been [-239-] employed; that of making tally-marks in small squares and then adding and counting such tally-marks. While engaged in work upon the tenth census, the writer's attention was called to the methods employed in the tabulation of population statistics and the enormous expense involved. These methods were at the time described as "barbarous…” Some machine ought to be devised for the purpose of facilitating such tabulations.”

17. History of Computing • 1900’s • First modern computers developed in 1940’s • Government and military requirements drove many early advances in computing: • Accurate artillery tables needed for WWII, 1939-1945 • Automatic computations needed for atomic bomb development • Increasingly larger and more powerful computing machines were developed

18. History of Computing • 1900’s – ENIAC • Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, world’s first electronic digital computer, developed by Army Ordnance to compute WWII ballistic firing tables • Completed in 1945, served as prototype for development of most other modern computers • Weighed over 30 tons, and stored a maximum of twenty 10-digit decimal numbers • Included logic circuitry design now standard in computers

19. History of Computing • 1900’s – ENIAC

20. History of Computing • 1954 - IBM's Naval Ordinance Research Calculator, the first “supercomputer”

21. History of Computing • 1954 – Tubes in IBM's NORC