Transcript History of Computers - University of Rhode Island

History of Computers
CSC101: Introduction to Computing Concepts
February 3, 2004
Providence Campus
Shephard 301C
Instructor: Cynthia N. Prudence
1847 – 1854 Boolean Logic
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Invented by George Boole
It is lattice where all values are broken into
two cateogories: True and False
Why is this important to Computer Science?
(hint: binary numbers)
Boolean logic allows the use of and, or, not
operators.
Also have the more complicated operators
not or (nor), not and (nand), exclusive or
(xor).
Involves some set theory (union, intersection,
compliment).
1869 – Jevons Logic Machine
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The Jevons' Logic Machine was notable because it
was the first machine that could solve a logical
problem faster than that problem could be solved
without using the machine.
This device, which was about 3 feet tall, consisted
of keys, levers, and pulleys, along with letters that
could be either visible or hidden.
When the operator pressed keys representing
logical operations, the appropriate letters appeared
to reveal the result.
The machine was a cross between an abacus and
a piano.
1874 – Sholes (Qwerty)
Keyboard
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Sholes keyboard which is known to us as the
QWERTY keyboard, because of the ordering
of the first six keys in the third row.
Sholes also craftily ensured that the word
"Typewriter" could be constructed using only
the top row of letters. This was intended to
aid salesmen when they were giving
demonstrations.
1883-1906 Vacuum Tube
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Edison discovered while working on lightbulbs that
you could detect electrons flowing through the tube,
this is called the Edison Effect.
An english physicist, John Ambrose Fleming,
discovered that you could use the Edison Effect to
detect radio waves and convert them to electricity.
Fleming invented a two element vacuum tube
called a diode
Later, the american inventor Lee De Forest,
introduced a third element to the tube, the resulting
triode could both act as an amplifier and a switch.
De Forest's invetion was used in early radio
transmitter.
1926 - Transistors
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1926, Dr. Julius Edgar Lilienfield from New
York filed for a patent on what we would now
recognize as an NPN junction transistor
being used in the role of an amplifier.
Transistors are made of semiconductor
material.
Unfortunately, in depth research on
semiconductors would not get underway till
WWII.
1936 - Z Series Computers
A series of automatic calculators
● Invented by Konrad Zuse, who worked in
Berlin during WWII.
● The Z1 was the first binary calculator.
● The Z2 was the first fully functioning electromechanical computer.
● The Z3, built from recycled materials, was the
world's first electronic, fully programmable
digital computer based on a binary floatingpoint number and switching system.
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1942 – ABC Computer
In late 1939, John Atanasoff teamed up with
Clifford Berry to build a prototype.
● They created the first computing machine to
use electricity, vacuum tubes, binary numbers
and capacitors.
● The final product was the size of a desk,
weighed 700 pounds, had over 300 vacuum
tubes, and contained a mile of wire.
● It could calculate about one operation every 15
seconds, today a computer can calculate 150
billion operations in 15 seconds.
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1944 – Harvard Mark Series
Howard Aiken and Grace Hopper designed the
MARK series of computers at Harvard University.
● The MARK series of computers began with the Mark
I in 1944.
● Imagine a giant roomful of noisy, clicking metal parts,
55 feet long and 8 feet high.
● The 5-ton device contained almost 760,000 separate
pieces.
● Used by the US Navy for gunnery and ballistic
calculations, the Mark I was in operation until 1959.
● By today's standards, the Mark I was slow,
requiring 3-5 seconds for a multiplication
operation.
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1946 – ENIAC I
In 1946, John Mauchly and J Presper Eckert
developed the ENIAC I
● Electrical Numerical Integrator And Calculator
● The U.S. military sponsored their research; they
needed a calculating device for writing artillery-firing
tables (the settings used for different weapons under
varied conditions for target accuracy).
● The ENIAC contained 17,468 vacuum tubes, along
with 70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors, 1,500
relays, 6,000 manual switches and 5 million soldered
joints. It covered 1800 square feet (167 square
meters) of floor space, weighed 30 tons, consumed
160 kilowatts of electrical power.
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1948 – The Williams Tube
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The Williams Tube provided the first large amount
of random access memory (RAM), and it was a
convenient method of data-storage. It did not
require rewiring each time the data was changed,
and programming the computer went much faster. It
became the dominant form of computer memory
until outdated by core memory in 1955.
Core Memory - The old term for main memory,
which was composed of doughnut-shaped magnets
called cores.
1947-1948 The Transistor
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A device composed of semiconductor
material that amplifies a signal or opens or
closes a circuit.
Prior to the invention of transistors, digital
circuits were composed of vacuum tubes,
which had many disadvantages. They were
much larger, required more energy,
dissipated more heat, and were more prone
to failures. It's safe to say that without the
invention of transistors, computing as we
know it today would not be possible.
1951 - UNIVAC
The Universal Automatic Computer or UNIVAC was a
computer milestone achieved by Dr. Presper Eckert
and Dr. John Mauchly, the team that invented the
ENIAC computer.
● There research was funded by the US Census
Bureau
● The Bureau needed a new computer to deal with the
exploding U.S. population (the beginning of the
famous baby boom).
● The project went badly overbudget and took for
longer then expected, orginally given $300,000 to
build this, it ended up costing close to a million
dollars to deliver the first UNIVAC to the government.
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1953 – IBM 701 EDPM Computer
The year 1953 saw the development of IBM's 701 EDPM,
which, according to IBM, was the first commercially
successful general-purpose computer.
● The 701's invention was part of the Korean War effort.
● Only 19 were built, but they could be rented for $15,000 a
month.
● The first 701 went to IBM's world headquarters in New
York. Three went to atomic research laboratories. Eight
went to aircraft companies. Three went to other research
facilities. Two went to government agencies, including the
first use of a computer by the U.S. Department of
Defense. Two went to the navy and the last machine
went to the U.S. Weather Bureau in early 1955.
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1958 – The Integrated Circuit
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A collection of transistors and electrical circuits all
built onto a single crystal. Today's integrated circuits
are no more than a centimeter long, and they can
carry millions of microscopic transistors. All
computers have integrated circuits inside.
Important Dates
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1962 – The first computer game, Space.
1964 – The computer mouse, names so
because thee wirecoming out of it resembled
a tail.
1964 – the idea of a window invented (think
of the various windows you have open when
you use Microsoft Windows).
1969 – Arpanet, the orginal (grandfather)of
the internet
Important Dates
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1971 – The Intel 4004 Computer
Microprocessor, the first microprocessor.
1971 – The Floppy disk, named so for its
flexibility.
1973 – Ethernet Computer Networking
1979 – Wordstar Software – first word
processor
We will discuss some of these topics with
more depth later.
1981 – IBM PC
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The first IBM PC ran on a 4.77 MHz Intel 8088
microprocessor. The PC came equipped with 16
kilobytes of memory, expandable to 256k.
The PC came with one or two 160k floppy disk
drives and an optional color monitor.
The price tag started at $1,565, which would be
nearly $4,000 today.
What really made the IBM PC different from
previous IBM computers was that it was the first
one built from off the shelf parts (called open
architecture) and marketed by outside distributors
(Sears & Roebucks and Computerland).
1981 - MS-DOS
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The OS for IBM's PC.
The "Microsoft Disk Operating System" or
MS-DOS was based on QDOS, the "Quick
and Dirty Operating System" written by Tim
Paterson of Seattle Computer Products, for
their prototype Intel 8086 based computer.
Gates then talked IBM into letting Microsoft
retain the rights, to market MS DOS separate
from the IBM PC project, Gates proceeded to
make a fortune from the licensing of MSDOS.
1983 – The Apple Lisa
Computer
The Lisa was the first personal computer to use a
GUI,Graphical User Interface.
● Other innovative features for the personal market
included a drop-down menu bar, windows, multiple
tasking, a hierarchal file system, the ability to copy
and paste, icons, folders and a mouse.
●It cost Apple $50 million to develop the Lisa and $100
million to write the software, and only 10,000 units
were ever sold.
●One year later the Lisa 2 was released with a 3.5"
drive instead of the two 5.25" and a price tag slashed
in half from the original $9,995.
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1985 – The Apple Macintosh
Computer
CPU: MC68000
●CPU speed: 8 Mhz
●RAM: 128k
●ROM: 64k
●Serial Ports: 2
●Floppy: 1 3.5" 400k
●Monitor: 9" 512x384 square pixels built-in B/W
●Power: 60 Watts
●Weight: 16.5 lbs.
●Dimensions: 13.6" H x 9.6" W x 10.9" D
●System Software: Mac OS 1.0
●Production: January 1984 to October 1985
●Cost: $2,495
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1985 – Microsoft Windows
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On November 10, 1983, at the Plaza Hotel in New York
City, Microsoft Corporation formally announced
Microsoft Windows, a next-generation operating system
that would provide a graphical user interface (GUI) and
multitasking environment for IBM computers.
Microsoft Windows faced potential competition from
IBM's own Top View, and there were others. VisiCorp's
short-lived VisiOn, released in October 1983, was the
official first PC-based GUI.
The second was GEM (Graphics Environment
Manager), released by Digital Research in early 1985.
Both GEM and VisiOn lacked support from the allimportant third-party developers--and, if nobody wanted
to write software programs for an operating system,
nobody would want to buy it.