Machines that Think? Electronic Computers

1. Machines that Think?Electronic Computers Sketch 23 Presented By: Peter Haagenson

2. The Beginning • Centuries ago the first attempts were made to attempt to streamline calculations by using some kind of mechanical device. • About 5000 years ago, the Oriental abacus, was the first known calculating device. • The Oriental abacus was a calculating device of beads and rods. • The abacus was used by merchants who needed ways to keep track of what they bought and sold. • However, the abacus was still not mechanical. The person operating the abacus still had to do the calculations in their head.

3. Napier’s Bones • 1617- John Napier used a set of logarithms along with movable sticks numbered so that when slid together correctly, multiplication was done automatically! • The chart could multiply any numbers from 2-9! 3x4= 12

4. The Pascaline • Between 1642 and 1652, Blaise Pascal designed an adding and subtracting machine called the Pascaline. • The machine works somewhat like a car’s odometer. • Uses base-ten system • Used dials numbered 0 through 9 • One full revolution on one dial would automatically move the next dial to the next number. Pascaline Demonstration

5. The Difference Engine • Invented by Charles Babbage in 1822. • Built to generate accurate logarithmic and astronomical tables. • Also used for navigation • Became obsolete when Joseph-Marie Jacquard invented a loom that was guided by cards with holes punched in them.

6. The Analytical Engine • Also designed by Babbage • Made calculations by accepting data from punched cards. • The engine was run with the same technology that was used to run locomotives… steam! • Led to the writing of the first significant computer program. The program was a “loop” and was used for repeating steps automatically.

7. Boolean Algebra • Invented in the mid-1800s by George Boole. • Boole thought that his findings would never have any practical application. • Set of algebraic rules in which 0 and 1 are equated to TRUE and FALSE. • Boolean Operators: AND, OR, NOT, NAND(not And), NOR(not or), and XOR(exclusive OR). • These can be used to manipulate TRUE and FALSE values. • Boolean algebra has become the theoretical key to all the “thinking” circuitry of today’s computers • Used to search databases to find results that are relevant to the search.

8. 1930s & 40s • Konrad Zuse • Invented an electromechanical binary computer called “Z1” • The computer read instructions from punched tape. • Words could be read from and written to by the punch cards • John Atanasoff & Clifford Berry • Built a programmable computer (The ABC Computer) that solved systems of linear equations by storing numbers in a capacity drums and then adding or subtracting the numbers from other numbers stored in other drums.

9. The Colossus • Designed to break the German “Enigma code” • Used around 1500 vacuum tubes. • Decoded messages in hours rather than weeks or months. • Twice as fast as a modern Pentium PC doing the same decoding task. • Ten were made, but all were dismantled and their diagrams were burned after the war. • Some of their decryption algorithms are still confidential.

10. The ENIAC-1946 • Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator • Built by J. Presper Eckert & John Mauchly • Used to help in WWII by calculating naval artillery firing charts, but the war ended before it could be used. • Dimensions • Forty-two 9x2x1 ft. panals! • More than 18,000 vacuum tubes! • 1500 electrical relays! • Weighs more than 30 tons! • Programming had to be done by rearranging external wiring and throwing switches manually. • Had virtually NO data storage capacity

11. EDSAC-1949 • Electronic Delayed Storage Automatic Computer • The world’s first ever practical stored program electronic computer. • Used mercury delay lines for memory • The input consisted of a 5-hole punched tape and the output came through a teleprinter • Instructions available: • Add, subtract, multiply, collate, shift left, shift right, load multiplier register, store (and optionally clear) accumulator, conditional skip, read input tape, print character, round accumulator, no-op and stop. • There was no division instruction.

12. Important Advances • Early 1950s Bell Labs invented the transistor • Device used as an amplifier • The transistor led to “second generation” technology which was a large step in making technology smaller, faster and more powerful. • Mid-1960s- circuitry was introduced • This invention led to the availability of personal computers. • Since this invention circuitry has become much smaller, much more powerful, and much faster.

13. Fastest Growing Technology in the World! • “There has never been a technology in the history of the world that has progressed as fast as computer technology… If automotive technology progressed as fast as computer technology between 1960 and today, the car of today would have an engine less than one tenth of an inch across; the car would get 120,000 miles to a gallon of gas, have a top speed of 240,000 miles per hour, and would cost $4.” -The Analytical Engine(1990)

14. THE END!