COMP1116

Applications of ICT

Lecture # 03 History of Computers

Instructor: Dr. Aftab Akram (PhD CS)

Assistant Professor
History of Computers
• Mankind ever tried to develop machines which
eased their lives and improved their efficiencies
• History of developing a calculating device (now a
days Computer) is divided into three eras:
• Pre-historic Era
• Mechanical Era
• Electronic Era
Pre-historic Era
• The earliest evidence of calculating device dates
back to 4000 years ago
• Chinese invented Abacus
• Fundamentally Abacus is a wooden rack which has
metal rods with beads mounted on them
• Calculation are performed by moving beads on rods
• Abacus is still used in many countries to develop
mental math capabilities in young students
Pre-historic Era – Abacus
Mechanical Era
• This era starts with the advent of industrial
revolution in Europe
• Like inventions of other machines which eventually
served mankind, many tried to build a machine that
can perform calculations
• The time span of this era is from early 1600s to
early 20th century when electronic and
electromechanical computers were built
Napier’s Bones
• Invented by John Napier in 1617
• It was a manually operated calculating device
• This device was based on Lattice Multiplication,
which reduces multiplication to additions, and
divisions to subtractions
• For example, 2X3 can be performed as 2+2+2 or
3+3.
• And division as repeated subtractions until zero is
left or remainder is less than divisor
Napier’s Bones
Schickard’s Calculator
• Wilhelm Schickard was a famous German
Mathematician
• He designed a new calculating machine based on
Napier’s Bones
• He used a toothed wheel system to add and
subtract
• Schickard’s Calculator was earliest known four-
function calculator
Schickard’s Calculator
Pascaline-Pascal Calculator
• Blaise Pascal was a well known French
mathematician and scientist
• In 1642, he made a tax calculator for his father
• He named his machine Pascaline
• Pascaline was much better than Schickard’s
Calculator
• Blaise Pascal made 50 such machine but only 15 of
them sold, many attribute this low selling to high
price
Pascaline-Pascal Calculator
Stepped Reckoner
• In 1671, a renowned German Mathematician and
Co-inventor of Calculus Gottfried Wilhelm von
Leibniz designed a calculating machine
• He named his machine Stepped Reckoner
• He used Pascal’s idea to repeated addition and
subtraction for multiplication and division
• Leibniz was a strong advocate of Binary System,
however he used decimal system in his own
machine
Stepped Reckoner
Charles Babbage’s Contributions
• Charles Babbage was an English Mathematician and inventor
• He was a notable science figure of 19th century, and many of his
contributions in science and engineering were healed during his lifetime
• He was contracted by Royal Astronomical Society to update
astronomical maps and sea routes
• Babbage proposed building a steam powered machine to mechanize
calculations
• In 1823 a British scientist Charles Babbage invented his difference
engine
• Later he further improved it and made another machine, he called it
Analytical Engine
• Charles Babbage is said to be Father of Modern Computers
• Today computers are based upon the design of Difference Engine and
Analytical Engine
Difference Engine
• Babbage designed and built a calculating machine
to computer values of polynomial functions
• By using method of finite differences, the machine
was intended to calculate series of values
automatically
• The difference engine contained 25000 parts and
weighed around 13 tons, and was 8 feet tall.
• But this machine was never completed despite
ample funding from British Government, a total of
which were £17,000
Analytical Engine
• After Difference Engine, Babbage designed a more
elaborated machine called Analytical Engine
• Analytical Engine was designed to be programmed
using punched cards, a method used in power looms at
that time
• The machine was also intended to employ several
features subsequently used in modern computers,
including sequential control, branching and looping.
• But, unfortunately Analytical Engine was never built
physically and remained a ambitious design until
modern technology made possible to build electronic
computers
Analytical Engine
• It has four parts:
• A Punch Card Reader to input data through Punched Cards,
• A memory unit for Storage,
• A Mill for processing,
• A Program Controller to control the process
• Modern Digital Electronic Computers also contain similar architecture,
i.e., Von Neumann Stored Program Architecture
• Analytical Engine could be run on instructions
• Ada Byran was first computer programmer, because she wrote some
programs for Babbage’s Analytical Engine
Difference and Analytical Engine

Difference Engine Analytical Engine

 Disadvantages of Mechanical Computers
• Not Reliable
• Mechanical Computers were not reliable due to mechanical
parts which can break easily
• They were very difficult to build
• They were very difficult to operate
• Their cost was very high
• They run on steam power i.e. untidy working climate
• They had limited calculating power i.e. not so powerful
• They had little or no memory
• They were huge in size
• Their maintenance cost was very high
Electronic Era
• In the start of 20th century, the need of a reliable
calculating and computing device was even more
demanding
• Many scientist and companies begum their focus to
build computing machines to perform complex
calculation
• To their relief, there were devices available which
can be used to build such machines
• First electromechanical devices, then vacuum tubes
and transistors, electronic computers were more
reliable and easy to built than mechanical
computers
Electronic Era
• As compared to mechanical era computers, the
computers in electronic era are:
• Reliable
• Smaller in size
• Use neat energy source
• Inexpensive
• Have very high computation power
• Very large memories
• Fully automated and programmable
 IBM Mark-I
• In 1938-39 Prof. Howard A. Aiken, Director of Mathematics Dept.,
Howard University, U.S.A and an American company IBM (International
Business Machines) signed an agreement to design an automatic
machine
• IBM arranged the money and lab. for research
• The dream came true in 1944, they named it A.S.C.C (Automatic
Sequenced Controlled Calculator), later it was known as IBM Mark-I
• It was an electro-mechanical machine
• Punched Cards were used to input data
• Punched Card printers or electronic typewriter were used for output
• ASCC was able to perform all types of mathematical calculation
• It was able to work on instructions and work independently
IBM Mark-I
ENIAC
• In 1945 Sir Ambrose Fleming developed Vacuum Tubes, which were
used as electronic switches
• Vacuum tubes were electronic devices and were made of glass
• Two American scientist J. Prosper Eckert and John Mauchly started their
research at Moore School of Engineering, University of Pennsylvania
• Their aim was to build an all electronic machine with the help of
Vacuum Tubes
• They were successful in 1946
• ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator)
• ENIAC contained about 18000 vacuum tubes
• Each vacuum tube can hold one bit and 6 bits were required to
represent one character
• ENIAC was about 5000 times faster then IBM-Mark I
ENIAC
Disadvantages of ENIAC
• The size of machine was very large and its memory was very small
• It consumed very high power
• During working it produced lot of heat due to vacuum tubes
• This heat had to be taken out, otherwise it could damage vacuum
tubes
• For that purpose heavy duty air conditioning system was required
• That also consumed lot of energy
• Further vacuum tubes working life was very short and they
required frequent replacement
IBM 7090
• In 1948 transistors were invented at Bell Labs
• Transistors are similar device as that of Vacuum Tubes, they work in the
same way as the Vacuum Tubes do
• But transistors are better then Vacuum Tubes
• Because they consume less power and generate less heat then Vacuum
Tubes
• Their size is very small as compared to Vacuum Tubes
• Their working life is longer then Vacuum Tubes
• Machines made of transistors are smaller in size, lesser in cost and more
energy efficient
• Transistors brought a revolution in computer technology
• IBM-7090 was first computer entirely made of transistor technology
• IBM-7090 was smaller in size then its predecessors
• It can run continuously for many hours
IBM 7090