Overview/Questions Where did computers come from? When were - - PDF document

1

CS101 Lecture 29: Brief History of Computing

1

John Magee

1 August 2013

Some images courtesy Wikimedia Commons, IBM, DEC

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."

• - Ken Olson, founder and CEO of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977

Overview/Questions

– Where did computers come from? – When were computers first discovered? – Why should you care about the history of computing?

2

2

Why should we care?

“Predictions are that by 2013 a supercomputer will be built that exceeds the computation capability of the human brain.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljbI-363A2Q

Is this for real?

3

Why should we care?

“Predictions are that by 2049 a $1000 computer will exceed the computational capabilities of the human race.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljbI-363A2Q

Is this for real?

4

3

Early History of Computing

5

Abacus (2400 BC) Ancient device to record numeric values Above: a reconstructed Roman abacus

Early History of Computing

6

Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) Mechanical device to add, subtract, divide & multiply

4

Early History of Computing

7

Joseph Jacquard (1801) Jacquard’s Loom, the punched card

Programmability

8 3

What tricks does your computer do?

– Web browsing, email, instant messenger – Play games – Watch movies, organize photos – Word processing, spreadsheets, database

Programmability is the ability to give a general- purpose computer instructions so that it can perform new tasks.

5

Difference Engine

Charles Babages’ mechanical calculating machine, designed in 1820s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8tmfcOg8l8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0anIyVGeWOI

9

Finite State Machines

– AKA Finite State Automata – Think about a Traffic light operation

• There are only a limited number of “states” –

configurations of lights.

• Each state transitions into a new state.
• E.g. Green  Yellow  Red

10

6

Turing Machines

Alan Turing

• Considered to be the father of Computer Science
• Also known for the “Turing Test” for Artificial

Intelligence

Turing Machine - 1936

• A turing machine is an abstract thought

experiment.

• Mathematical proof of computability of algorithm.
• Basis for Computer Science Theory.

11

Early Digital Computers

12

Harvard Mark I (1944)

7

Harvard Mark I

13

IBM Archives

Early Digital Computers

14

Harvard Mark I (1944) First fully automatic digital computer to be completed

• 51 feet wide, 8 feet high, 2 feet deep
• Built out of switches, relays, and rotating

mechanical shafts/clutches

• Storage for 72 numbers, each 23 decimal digits

in length

• Read instructions from paper tape, one at a time

8

Early Digital Computers

15

ENIAC (1946)

Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer

• first general-purpose electronic computer
• 80 feet wide, 8.5 feet high, 3 feet deep
• No moving parts
• Ability to conditional branch – do the next operation based
• n the result of the previous operation.
• 17,468 vacuum tubes, 7,200 crystal diodes, 1,500 relays,

70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors and around 5 million hand-soldered joints.

• 5,000 Hz, 324 multiplications/second

ENIAC

16

9

First Computer Bug

17

Log of first computer bug, discovered by Grace Hopper, 1945 A Computer Science Pioneer, she later wrote the first Compiler.

Architecture

 Harvard Architecture:

– Instructions separate from data.

 Von Neumann Architecture:

– Instructions = data. – All stored in the same memory. – A program can write a program! (Compilers) – All modern computers based on this.

18

10

Mainframes

19

Univac 1108 (1964) IBM 704 (1954)

First floating point hardware mass produced

1960’s-1970’s

 Interactive sessions  Multi-user systems

– Time-sharing – Terminals

 “mini”computers

20

DEC PDP-7

11

Rise of the PC

PBS Series hosted by Bob Cringely http://www.cs.bu.edu/courses/cs101/movies/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFL9IyJ_qHk 0 – 9:24 – Stuff about nerds. Skip it if you want. 9:24 - Cringely explains digital computing, program, 10:00 - data, instructions in binary, flipping switches, etc. Grace Hopper, programming COBOL, mainframe computers, punch cards, Wozniak, Jobs on programming, 12:58 - microprocessor (vacuum tubes, transistors, chips ), Intel 15:30 - Altair 8800 19:20 - Homebrew computer club 20:30 - Mellon/Garland @ computer club, binary addition by flipping switches 22:30 - programming language/basic interpreter, Paul Allen, Bill Gates // 27:00

21

Video: Triumph of the Nerds

Rise of the PC

PBS Series hosted by Bob Cringely 27:00 - Microsoft in Albuquerque, basic for the Altair 29:12 - Steve Jobs, Jim Warren, sixties counter culture 31:30 - Apple Computer, Apple I, II // 35:00 35:00 - venture capital for apple, apple II, manufacture 37:10 - computer fair 40:00 - Intro VisiCalc on an Apple II 44:38 - wall street use of PC 46:15 - wrap up characters 48:50 - closing remarks

22

Video: Triumph of the Nerds

12

Rise of the PC

What happened next?

– IBM PC and Microsoft

• Disk Operating System (DOS)

– Apple, Amiga, Tandy, Atari, IBM… – IBM “Clones” / PC Compatibles – … the Internet… to be continued… – What is a “killer app”? – What’s next?

23

Moore’s Law

24

The number of transistors doubles every 18 months. (Computing hardware will keep getting better, faster, cheaper for the rest of our lives.)

13

Take-Away Points

– Mechanical Computers – Programmability (revisited)

• Jacquard’s Loom

– Digital Computers – Moore’s Law

25

Early Personal Computers

Computer Ads:

http://blogs.pcworld.com/techlog/archives/002950.html

 Atari 400 (1980)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sr28fygmOQ

 Commodore VIC-20 (1981)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVX5cyMOGAk

 Compaq portable computer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTMdXZ_QwTo

26

14

Covered in videos (more or less)

27

Additional Pictures:

First Generation Hardware (1951-1959)

28 8

Vacuum Tube

Stored a single element of memory (on or

• ff)

15

First Generation Hardware (1951-1959)

29 8

Magnetic Drum

Memory device that rotated under a read/write head

First Generation Hardware (1951-1959)

30 8

Punch Card

16

First Generation Hardware (1951-1959)

31 8

Magnetic Tape Drives

Auxiliary storage devices.

Second Generation Hardware (1959-1965)

32 9

Transistor

Replaced vacuum tube, fast, small, durable, cheap

17

Second Generation Hardware (1959-1965)

33 9

Circuit Boards

Transistors were soldered together

Second Generation Hardware (1959-1965)

34 9

Magnetic Disks

18

Third Generation Hardware (1965-1971)

35 10

Integrated Circuits

Replaced circuit boards; transistor on a silicon wafer chip – smaller, cheaper, faster, more reliable

Third Generation Hardware (1965-1971)

36 10

Terminal

An input/output device with a keyboard and screen

The Digital Equipment Corporation VT05, introduced 1970

19

Fourth Generation Hardware (1971- ?)

37 11

Large-scale Integration

Thousands of transistors on a single chip

Die of an Intel 80486DX2 microprocessor (actual size: 12×6.75 mm) in its packaging. Released in 1992, it has 1.2 million (1.2 X 106) transistors.

Fifth Generation Hardware (1990-?)

38 11

PCs, the Commercial Market, Workstations

Personal Computers and Workstations emerge New companies emerge: Apple, Sun, Dell …

Laptops, Cellphones, PalmPilot, iPod, etc.

Everyone has his/her own portable computer - or several

• f them.

Internetworking

Virtually all computing devices connected to the Internet. High-speed and wireless connections are common.