History of Computer

 Abacus 
- 3000 BCE, early form of beads on wires, used in China
- From semitic abaq, meaning dust.


Charles Babbage (1791-1871) 

Born: December 26, 1791 

son of Benjamin Babbage a London banker (part of the emerging middle class: property, education, wealth, and status) 

Trinity College, Cambridge  [MA, 1817]with John Herschel and George Peacock, produced a translation of LaCroix’s calculus text.  

December 1830, a dispute with his chief engineer, Joseph Clement, over control of the project, ends work on the difference engine

Clement is allowed to keep all tools and drawings by English law

Importance of the Difference Engine

1. First attempt to devise a computing machine that was automatic in action and well adapted, by its printing mechanism, to a mathematical task of considerable importance.

2. An example of government subsidization of innovation and technology development

3. Spin offs to the machine-tool “industry”

Ada Augusta Byron, 1815-1852

born on 10 December 1815.

named after Byron's half sister, Augusta, who had been his mistress.

After Byron had left for the Continent with a parting shot -- 'When shall we threemeet again?' -- Ada was brought up by her mother.

Translated Menebrea’s paper into English

Taylor’s: “The editorial notes are by the translator, the Countess of Lovelace.”

Footnotes enhance the text and provide examples of how the Analytical Engine could be used, i.e., how it would be programmed to solve problems!

Myth: “world’s first programmer”

Herman Hollerith (1860-1929)

Born: February 29, 1860

Columbia School of Mines (New York)

1879 hired at Census Office

1882 MIT faculty (T is for technology!)

1883 St. Louis (inventor)

1884 Patent Office (Wash, DC)

1885 “Expert and Solicitor of Patents”


Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer

•1st large scale electronic digital computer

•designed and constructed at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering of the University of Pennsylvania

–since 1920s, faculty had worked with Aberdeen Proving Ground’s Ballistics Research Laboratory (BRL)

•1943 Mauchly and Eckert prepare a proposal for the US Army to build an Electronic Numerical Integrator

–calculate a trajectory in 1 second

•May 31, 1943 Construction of ENIAC starts

•1944 early thoughts on stored program computers by members of the ENIAC team

•July 1944  two accumulators working

Early Thoughts about Stored Program Computing

•January 1944  Moore School team thinks of better ways to do things; leverages delay line memories from War research

•September 1944  John von Neumann visits

–Goldstine’s meeting at Aberdeen Train Station

•October 1944  Army extends the ENIAC contract  to include research on the EDVAC  and the stored-program concept

•Spring 1945  ENIAC working well

•June 1945  First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC: Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer

First Draft Report (June 1945)

•John von Neumann prepares (?) a report on the EDVAC which identifies how the machine could be programmed (unfinished very rough draft)

–academic: publish for the good of science

–engineers: patents, patents, patents

•von Neumann never repudiates the myth that he wrote it; most members of the ENIAC team ontribute ideas

Manchester Mark I (1948)

•Freddy Williams and Tom Kilburn

•Developed an electrostatic memory

•Prototype operational June 21, 1948 and machine to execute a stored program

•Memory: 32 words of 32 bits each

•Storage: single Williams tube (CRT)

•Fully operational: October 1949

•Ferranti Mark I delivered in February 1951

EDSAC

•Maurice Wilkes, University Mathematical Laboratory, Cambridge University

•Moore School Lectures

•Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator, EDSAC operational May, 1949

•J. Lyons Company and the LEO, Lyons Electronic Office, operational fall 1951

National Physical Laboratory

•Alan Turing

•Automatic Computing Engine (ACE)

•Basic design by spring, 1946

•Harry Huskey joins project

•Pilot ACE working, May 10, 1950

•English Electric: DEUCE, 1954

•Full version of ACE at NPL, 1959

Remington Rand UNIVAC

•43 UNIVACs were delivered to government and industry

•Memory: mercury delay lines: 1000 words of 12 alphanumeric characters

•Secondary storage: metal oxide tape

•Access time: 222 microseconds (average)

•Instruction set: 45 operation codes

•Accumulators: 4

•Clock: 2.25 Mhz

Additional Information:

Computer History

The history of the computer owes its existence to the fact that people, who are lazy by nature, have always sought to improve their ability to calculate, in order to reduce errors and save time.

Origins: The abacus

The "abacus" was invented in the year 700; it was in use for a long time, and still is in some countries.

Then came the logarithm

The invention of the logarithm is generally credited to the Scotsman John Napier (1550-1617). In 1614, he showed that multiplication and division could be performed using a series of additions. This discovery led, in 1620, to the invention of the slide rule.

However, the true father of logarithm theory is Mohamed Ybn Moussa Al-Khawarezmi, an Arab scholar from the Persian town of Khawarezm. This scholar also developed algebra, a term which comes from the Arabic "Al-Jabr", meaning compensation, with the implication being "looking for the unknown variable X in order to compensate by balancing the results of the calculations."

The first calculating machines

In 1623, William Schickard invented the first mechanical calculating machine.

In 1642, Blaise Pascal created the arithmetic machine (called the Pascaline), a machine that could add and subtract, intended to help his father, a tax collector.

In 1673, Gottfried Wilhelm Von Leibniz added multiplication and division to the Pascaline.

In 1834, Charles Babbage invented the difference engine, which could evaluate functions.

However, once he learned that a weaving machine (called a Jacquard loom) was programmed with perforated cards, he started building a calculating machine that could take advantage of this revolutionary idea.

In 1820, the first four-function mechanical calculators debuted. They could:

• add

• subtract

• multiply

• divide

By 1885, they were being built with keyboards for entering data. Electrical motors quickly supplanted cranks.

Programmable computers

In 1938, Konrad Zuse invented a computer based around electromechanical relays: The Z3. This computer was the first to use binary instead of decimals

In 1937, Howard Aiken developed a programmable computer 17 metres long and 2.5 metres high, which could calculate 5 times faster than a human.

It was IBM's Mark I.

It was built using 3300 gears and 1400 switches linked with 800 km of electrical wiring.

In 1947, the Mark II appeared, with its predecessor's gears being replaced by electronic components.