History of Computers

This chapter is a brief summary of the history of Computers. It is

supplemented by the two PBS documentaries video tapes "Inventing the
Future" And "The Paperback Computer". The chapter highlights some of the
advances to look for in the documentaries
The progression in hardware representation of a bit of data:
Vacuum Tubes (1950s) - one bit on the size of a thumb;
Transistors (1950s and 1960s) - one bit on the size of a fingernail;
Integrated Circuits (1960s and 70s) - thousands of bits on the size of a hand
Silicon computer chips (1970s and on) - millions of bits on the size of a finger
nail.

The progression of the ease of use of computers:

Almost impossible to use except by very patient geniuses (1950s);
Programmable by highly trained people only (1960s and 1970s);
Useable by just about anyone (1980s and on).
to see how computers got smaller, cheaper, and easier to use.

First Computers

Eniac:
Eniac Computer
The first substantial computer was the giant ENIAC machine by John W.
Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert at the University of Pennsylvania. ENIAC
(Electrical Numerical Integrator and Calculator) used a word of 10 decimal
digits instead of binary ones like previous automated calculators/computers.
ENIAC was also the first machine to use more than 2,000 vacuum tubes,

using nearly 18,000 vacuum tubes. Storage of all those vacuum tubes and
the machinery required to keep the cool took up over 167 square meters
(1800 square feet) of floor space. Nonetheless, it had punched-card input and
output and arithmetically had 1 multiplier, 1 divider-square rooter, and 20
adders employing decimal "ring counters," which served as adders and also
as quick-access (0.0002 seconds) read-write register storage.

The executable instructions composing a program were embodied in the

separate units of ENIAC, which were plugged together to form a route through
the machine for the flow of computations. These connections had to be
redone for each different problem, together with presetting function tables
and switches. This "wire-your-own" instruction technique was inconvenient,
and only with some license could ENIAC be considered programmable; it was,
however, efficient in handling the particular programs for which it had been
designed. ENIAC is generally acknowledged to be the first successful highspeed electronic digital computer (EDC) and was productively used from 1946
to 1955. A controversy developed in 1971, however, over the patentability of
ENIAC's basic digital concepts, the claim being made that another U.S.
physicist, John V. Atanasoff, had already used the same ideas in a simpler
vacuum-tube device he built in the 1930s while at Iowa State College. In
1973, the court found in favor of the company using Atanasoff claim and
Atanasoff received the acclaim he rightly deserved.
Progression of Hardware
In the 1950's two devices would be invented that would improve the
computer field and set in motion the beginning of the computer revolution.
The first of these two devices was the transistor. Invented in 1947 by William
Shockley, John Bardeen, and Walter Brattain of Bell Labs, the transistor was
fated to oust the days of vacuum tubes in computers, radios, and other
electronics.
Vaccum Tubes
The vacuum tube, used up to this time in almost all the computers and
calculating machines, had been invented by American physicist Lee De Forest
in 1906. The vacuum tube, which is about the size of a human thumb, worked
by using large amounts of electricity to heat a filament inside the tube until it
was cherry red. One result of heating this filament up was the release of
electrons into the tube, which could be controlled by other elements within
the tube. De Forest's original device was a triode, which could control the flow
of electrons to a positively charged plate inside the tube. A zero could then
be represented by the absence of an electron current to the plate; the
presence of a small but detectable current to the plate represented a one.

Transistors
Vacuum tubes were highly inefficient, required a great deal of space, and
needed to be replaced often. Computers of the 1940s and 50s had 18,000
tubes in them and housing all these tubes and cooling the rooms from the
heat produced by 18,000 tubes was not cheap. The transistor promised to
solve all of these problems and it did so. Transistors, however, had their
problems too. The main problem was that transistors, like other electronic
components, needed to be soldered together. As a result, the more complex
the circuits became, the more complicated and numerous the connections
between the individual transistors and the likelihood of faulty wiring
increased.

In 1958, this problem too was solved by Jack St. Clair Kilby of Texas
Instruments. He manufactured the first integrated circuit or chip. A chip is
really a collection of tiny transistors which are connected together when the
transistor is manufactured. Thus, the need for soldering together large
numbers of transistors was practically nullified; now only connections were
needed to other electronic components. In addition to saving space, the
speed of the machine was now increased since there was a diminished
distance that the electrons had to follow.
Circuit BoardSilicon Chip
Mainframes to PCs
The 1960s saw large mainframe computers become much more common in
large industries and with the US military and space program. IBM became the
unquestioned market leader in selling these large, expensive, error-prone,
and very hard to use machines.
A veritable explosion of personal computers occurred in the early 1970s,
starting with Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak exhibiting the first Apple II at the
First West Coast Computer Faire in San Francisco. The Apple II boasted built-in
BASIC programming language, color graphics, and a 4100 character memory
for only $1298. Programs and data could be stored on an everyday audiocassette recorder. Before the end of the fair, Wozniak and Jobs had secured
300 orders for the Apple II and from there Apple just took off.

Also introduced in 1977 was the TRS-80. This was a home computer
manufactured by Tandy Radio Shack. In its second incarnation, the TRS-80
Model II, came complete with a 64,000 character memory and a disk drive to
store programs and data on. At this time, only Apple and TRS had machines

with disk drives. With the introduction of the disk drive, personal computer
applications took off as a floppy disk was a most convenient publishing
medium for distribution of software.

IBM, which up to this time had been producing mainframes and

minicomputers for medium to large-sized businesses, decided that it had to
get into the act and started working on the Acorn, which would later be called
the IBM PC. The PC was the first computer designed for the home market
which would feature modular design so that pieces could easily be added to
the architecture. Most of the components, surprisingly, came from outside of
IBM, since building it with IBM parts would have cost too much for the home
computer market. When it was introduced, the PC came with a 16,000
character memory, keyboard from an IBM electric typewriter, and a
connection for tape cassette player for $1265.

By 1984, Apple and IBM had come out with new models. Apple released the
first generation Macintosh, which was the first computer to come with a
graphical user interface(GUI) and a mouse. The GUI made the machine much
more attractive to home computer users because it was easy to use. Sales of
the Macintosh soared like nothing ever seen before. IBM was hot on Apple's
tail and released the 286-AT, which with applications like Lotus 1-2-3, a
spreadsheet, and Microsoft Word, quickly became the favourite of business
concerns.

That brings us up to about ten years ago. Now people have their own
personal graphics workstations and powerful home computers. The average
computer a person might have in their home is more powerful by several
orders of magnitude than a machine like ENIAC. The computer revolution has
been the fastest growing technology in man's history.