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3rd Term WEEK 3 Computer Note

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23 views4 pages

3rd Term WEEK 3 Computer Note

Uploaded by

abejideseyi12
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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WEEK 3

THE DEVICES
Learning Objective
- To define “device”
- To list type of devices.

Devices are instruments or equipment or machines made or use to perform a specific function.

CLASSES OF DEVICES
A. Early Counting devices: these are devices that were used in the early days to perform arithmetic
operations such as addition of numbers, subtraction and multiplication. Examples are:
1. Stones 2. Fingers 3. Toes 4. Pebbles 5. Sticks 6. Beads 7. Cowries etc

Cowries

B. Mechanical Counting Devices: as a result of the disadvantages of the early counting devices, more
advanced mechanical counting and calculating devices were invented.
Examples are
1. Abacus: was introduced as a result of difficulties encountered in the use of stones. It is made up of coloured
beads threaded on iron rods. The iron rods are fixed to a rectangular wooden frame. It is used for addition and
subtraction only.

2. Napier’s Bones: in 1617, John Napier, a Scotsman, developed a method known as numbering rods called
Napier’s Bones. The rods had numbers printed on them in the order that these numbers would appear in a
multiplication table. To perform a multiplication, individual strips are arranged so that they indicate the number to
be multiplied.

3. Slide Rule: slide rule is typically rectangular and about the size of a ruler. The slide rule adds and subtracts
lengths in order to calculate a total distance. But slide rules can also handle multiplication and division, find
square roots, and do the sophisticated calculations.

4. Pascaline Machine: the Pascaline, also called Arithmetic Machine was a French monetary (non-decimal)
calculator designed by Blaise Pascal between 1642 and 1644. It is the first calculator or adding machine. It could
only do addition and subtraction, with numbers being entered by manipulating its dials.

C. Electro-mechanical Counting Devices: These are counting devices that could be operated both
electrically and mechanically. Examples are;
1. Gottfried Liebniz Machine: In 1671, the German mathematician-philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm von
Leibniz designed a calculating machine called the Step Reckoner. (It was first built in 1673). The Step Reckoner
expanded on Pascal’s ideas and did multiplication by repeated addition and shifting.

2. Joseph Jacquard Loom: One of the early machines that was used to process information was invented
by a French Cloth manufacturer named Joseph Jacquard, he built a machine that can weave complicated patterns
in 1802. The Jacquard Loom is a mechanical loom which allows complex patterns to be woven. The punch cards
used in the Jacquard mechanism laid the foundation for modern computer programming.

3. Charles Babbage Analytical Engine: The Analytical Engine was a proposed mechanical general-
purpose computer designed by English Mathematician and computer pioneer called Sir Charles Babbage usually
referred to as the “Father of Computer”. It was first described in 1837, as the successor to Babbage’s difference
engine, a design for a simpler mechanical computer.

D. Electronic Counting Devices: Electronic counting devices are the modern computer used for
performing arithmetic and logical operations. The electronic counting devices are as follows:
1. Herman Hollerith Machine (1886)
2. ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator)
3. EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer)
4. UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer)
5. Connection Machine

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