History of the Computer

1. History of the Computer Module 1 COEN 1

2. What makes a Computer a Computer? • Computer in the Manhattan Project (1940-44) • Humans (mostly women) calculating according to strict rules and under strict supervision. • Did not understand the purpose of the calculations. • Calculations were checked by assigning them to different computers.

3. What makes a Computer a Computer?

4. What makes a Computer a Computer? • Calculators • Abacus • Slide Rule • Mechanical Adders and Calculators • Blaise Pascal 1632-1662 • Gottfried Leibnitz 1646-1716 • Charles de Colmar 1785-1870 • Arithmometer: 4 basic operations

6. What makes a Computer a Computer? • Computers are more autonomous than calculating machines. • A computer is programmed, given a set of instructions. • Behavior of computer radically changes with different instructions.

7. Computer History • Pioneers (1930 – 1946) • First Generation (1946 – 1955) • Humungous, power-hungry, unreliable • Because they used Vacuum Tubes • Second Generation (1956-1963) • Vacuum Tubes replaced by transistors. • Programming done very close to machine

8. Computer History • Third Generation (1964-1971) • Integrated Circuit: Many transistors in a single chip. • Pushed by needs of the space program. Apollo Computer Interface Box

9. Computer History • Fourth Generation (1971 - 1993) • Computer on a chip • Personal computers • Alto (HP labs, Palo Alto) • Apple (Job, Wozniak) • IBM PC

10. Early Beginnings • First Programmable Device: Jacquard Loom • Draw loom controlled by master weaver: • Commands a draw boy to raise hooks that controlled harnesses. • All in order to produce intricate floral patterns. Modern Draw Loom Jacquard Loom

11. Early Beginnings • First Programmable Device: Jacquard Loom • Jacquard (1800) used punch cards to control the harnesses. • Set of punch cards now controlled pattern. • Master weaver skill was codified in cards. Draw Loom

12. Early Beginnings • What was the impact of the Jacquard loom? • Who were the stake-holders. • How did they see the introduction of the Jacquard loom?

13. Early Beginnings • Luddites (1811) • social movement of English textile workers • protested — often by destroying textile machines — against the changes produced by the Industrial • named after a mythical leader, Ned Ludd.

14. Early Beginnings • Jacquard Loom • 11000 Jacquard looms in 1812 in France • Jacquard received official French pension in 1806 • Economic effects: • Lowered prices for complicated patterns • Increased demand for master weavers.

15. Early Beginnings • Analytical Engine of Charles Babbage (1791-1871) • Gentleman scientist: • Rich banker’s son, lost access to family fortune, but remained independently wealthy. • 1821: Babbage and John Herschel bemoan the poor quality of astronomical tables. Why is this important?

16. Early Beginnings • Navigation is based on astronomical tables. • Errors lead to loss of ship, life, and cargo.

17. Early Beginnings • British government funds research on the “Difference Engine No. 1” • Steam-run machine • Replaces human computers of astronomical tables. • Consists of 25,000 precision parts. • Babbage abandons project after 10 years to work on “Difference Engine No. 2” • Expenditures so far, ££17470.- • And no more funding. • Difference Engine No. 2 is also abandoned.

18. Early Beginnings • Analytical Engine: • An input unit to receive instructions in the form of punched cards. • A processing unit that would follow these instructions. • A storage unit that would store intermediate results. • An output unit that would print the results on paper. • A steam power unit to provide the energy for it all. • Never completed, completely forgotten.

19. Birth of the Computer • Hollerith • US constitution requires a census every 10 years. • 1880 census was finished in 1887. • Needed to process 50 million records. • Herman Hollerith used punch card technology to produce a sorting and tabulating machine. • 1880 census finished in 6 weeks. • Hollerith’s Tabulating Machine Company became International Business Machine Company.

20. Early Beginnings • Atanasoff • Applications: Physics. • Atanasoff had to solve linear equations for his thesis in Physics. • With assistant Berry worked on a machine that could do the job for him. • Used electronic vacuum tubes. • Atanasoff-Berry machine was forgotten.

21. Early Beginnings • Konrad Zuse • German aerospace engineer • Proposed a computing device to solve aerodynamics equations • Used mechanical relays (as used in telephone switching) • None of his machines were completed due to the German loss of WWII

22. Early Beginnings • Howard H. Aiken (1900 – 1973) • Harvard Scientist, interested in numerical problems • Secured 1 million dollars in research funding from IBM • Further funding from Navy • 1944: IBM’s Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (Harvard Mark 1) first operational electro-mechanical computer.

23. Early Beginnings • Turing and the Colossus • Task: Breaking the Enigma code in WW2 • Polish cryptographers found a weakness in the code • English set up a deciphering effort • Supported by special hardware • Bombe (electro-mechanical device) • Turing proposed a more general machine, Colossus. • Special purpose digital computerbuilt under Max Newman from 1943-1945.

24. Early Beginnings • Turing: • Developed first mathematical theory of computability • Proposed Turing machine as a computer with primitive operations • Turing – Church Thesis: Everything that can be computer can be computed on a Turing machine. • Started Philosophical investigation of Artificial Intelligence. • Turing Test

25. Early Beginnings • John W. Mauchly and Presper Eckert • Problem: Artillery Tables for US Army • Mauchly proposes construction of a general computer • Results in ENIAC: • Feb. 1946 • 18000 vacuum tubes • 2.5 m high, 24 m wide • 1000 times faster than electromechanical predecessors • 5000 additions per second • Predecessor of computers designed for nuclear weapons work (Von Neumann) • Mauchly and Eckert started Eckert-Mauchly Computer Cooperation which designed the UNIVAC