CMPTR1-Q

Computer Fundamentals
Arbelle S. Masaga
COMPUTER
HISTORY
Early Computing Devices
 Early Computing Devices
The computer history is spread over a period of 100 years. The story begins from the early
days when our ancients people used pebbles to count. Early Men were using lines for
counting on the stones of caves.

The earliest computers were people (predominantly women) whose job was to perform the
repetitive calculations required to compute such things as navigational tables, tide charts,
and planetary positions for astronomical almanacs.

These people were called computers as there primarily job was to compute. As the human
were involved, they were subjected to error. The Human being will get tired after few
hours, then the error rate will increase substantially. So slowly the need was arising to
mechanize this operation.
 Early Computing Devices

A typical computer operation back

when computers were people.
 Early Computing Devices

Abacus- known as the first invented manual

data processing device.
The abacus is a useful manual
mathematical computer. A well-trained abacus
operator can perform addition and subtraction
Figure. A very old Abacus
problems faster than a person equipped with a
hand calculator but slower in multiplication
and division. The oldest surviving abacus was
used in 300 B.C. by Babylonians but it is often
wrongly attributed to China.
Figure. A most modern Abacus
 Early Computing Devices

John Napier- A Scottish mathematician who is

known for his invention of logarithm in early
1600’s, a technology that allows multiplication to be
computed through addition.

Napier’s Bones- A device developed by John

Napier. It consist of a set of eleven rods made of Figure. A more modern set
ivory sticks with numbers carved on them. It can of Napier's Bones
perform multiplication and division by simply
placing the rods side by side.
 Early Computing Devices

William Oughtred- An English mathematician

who developed the slide rule.

Oughtred’s Slide Rule- It was first built in

England. It consists of two movable rulers
placed side by side and by sliding the rulers you Figure. A slide
rule
can quickly obtain the product and quotient of a
numbers.
 Early Computing Devices

Blaise Pascal- A seventeenth century French

mathematician and scientist. He was one of the
first modern scientists to developed and build a
calculator. In mid 1600’s he invented the
Pascaline as an aid for his father who was a tax
collector.
Figure. A 6 Digit model for those who
Pascaline or Pascal’s Calculator- A device that couldn't afford the 8-digit model

could perform addition and subtraction of

numbers of up to eight digits. A Pascaline
consisted of gears and cylinders which rotated to
display the numerical result.
 Early Computing Devices

Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz- A German

scientist and co-inventor with Newton managed
to build a calculator that could perform the four
basic functions: addition, subtraction,
multiplication, and division.

Leibniz Calculator- Considered as a modified

version of the work of Pascal’s Calculator, it
uses the same concept in adding and
subtracting numbers. It can also perform
multiplication and division and extract square
roots of a numbers.
 Early Computing Devices
Charles Babbage- An English mathematician of the
nineteenth century who proposed a steam-driven calculating
machine around 1800. He was considered to be the ‘’ Father
of the Modern Computer’’

Babbage’s Differential Engine- This machine would be

able to computes tables of numbers such as logarithm tables
and was designed to automate a standard procedure for
calculating roots of polynomials. But, unfortunately, the
construction of Babbage Difference Engine was never
finished because it was very complicated and very
expensive. Making it was the most expensive government-
funded project during that time. After ten years, the device
remained incomplete until funding dried up and it was
abandoned.
 Early Computing Devices

Babbage’s Analytical Engine- After abandoning the

Differential Engine, Babbage designed a more powerful
computing device, the Analytical Engine,. The device had two
main parts, the ‘’Store’’ and the ‘’Mill’’ as Babbage called it.
Both terms are used in the weaving industry. Number were
held in the Store and Mill was where they were ‘’woven’’ into
new results. These two main parts in modern computers are
called the memory unit and the central processing unit
(CPU). Unfortunately, he couldn’t get funding to develop the
precisely machined gears, wheels and lever systems of the
machine. Although he was never able to build the evidence,
his ideas included many concepts and features that were later
incorporated in present computers.
 Early Computing Devices

Augusta Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace- The daughter of the

illustrious poet, Lord Byron born on December 10, 1815, Ada
worked with Babbage. Ada wrote a series of ‘’Notes’’ where
she demonstrated the sequence of instructions she had
prepared for the Analytic Engine. This plan, is now regarded
as the first ‘’computer program’’. That is why many refer to
her as the ‘’First Programmer’’. In her honor in late 1900, a
software language developed by the U.S. Department of
Defense was named ‘’Ada’’.
 Early Computing Devices

Herman Hollerith- A statistician with the US Bureau of

the Census. The census bureau offered prize for an
invertor to help process the results of the 1890 census and
this was won by Herman Hollerith, who completed this
Figure. Hollerith 's Punched Card
machine.

Hollerith’s Punch Card- An electromagnetic counting

machine invented by Herman Hollerith. It used punch
cards to sort the data manually and tabulate the data
during the 1890 US census. It has a card reader which
senses the holes in the cards, a gear driven mechanism for
counting, and displays the results on a large wall of dial
indicators. Figure. Hollerith Machine
EARLY DEVELOPMENTS IN
ELECTRONIC DATA
PROCESSING
 EARLY DEVELOPMENTS IN ELECTRONIC
DATA PROCESSING

Mark I
• Developed by Howard Aiken.
• The official name is Automatic Sequence
Controlled Calculator
• Approximately 50 feet long and 8 feet high.
• Could perform the four basic arithmetic
operations.
• Process numbers up to 23 digits.
• Could multiply three-digit numbers in one
second.
 EARLY DEVELOPMENTS IN ELECTRONIC
DATA PROCESSING
ENIAC (Electronic Numerical
Integrator and Calculator)

• Developed by John Presper Eckert Jr. and

John Mauchly
• The 1st large-scale vacuum-tube computer.
• It was originally built for the US military to
calculate ballistic tables to aim their big guns.
• Could perform 300 multiplications per second
• Could perform 5000 additions of ten digits in one
second
• Its memory could only store 20 ten-digit numbers.
 EARLY DEVELOPMENTS IN ELECTRONIC
DATA PROCESSING

EDVAC (Electronic Discrete

Variable Automatic Computer)

• Developed by John Von Neumann

• A modified version of the ENIAC
• Has stored program capability
 EARLY DEVELOPMENTS IN ELECTRONIC
DATA PROCESSING

EDSAC (Electronic Delay

Storage Automatic Computer)

• Built by Maurice V. Wilkes and his team

at the University of Cambridge in
England and completed in 1949.
• It was one of the first stored-program
machine computers and one of the first to
use binary digits.
• Could perform 700 additions per second
and 200 multiplications per second.
 EARLY DEVELOPMENTS IN ELECTRONIC
DATA PROCESSING
UNIVAC (Universal Automatic
Computer)

• Developed by George Gray in Remington

Rand Corporation.
• Manufactured as the first commercially
available first-generation computer.
• It was first commercial computer made in the
United States, and the third commercial
computer worldwide.
• UNIVAC was designed by J. Presper Eckert
and John Mauchly.
 EARLY DEVELOPMENTS IN ELECTRONIC
DATA PROCESSING
IBM (International Business
Machines)

• By 1960, IBM was the dominant force in

the market of large mainframe computers.
 EARLY DEVELOPMENTS IN ELECTRONIC
DATA PROCESSING
IBM 650 (International Business
Machines)

• Built in the year 1953 by IBM and marked

the dominance of IBM in the computer
industry.
• It was the first general purpose computer to
be installed and used at Columbia
University.
 EARLY DEVELOPMENTS IN ELECTRONIC
DATA PROCESSING
IBM 701 (International Business
Machines)

• It was the first commercial business

computer (since the 701 was intended for
scientific use).
Computer Generations
 Computer Generations

First Generation (1951-1959)

• Consisted of vacuum tubes for storing data

in memory and used stored-program.
• Vacuum tubes consume lots of electrical
power and are prone to burning out, which
caused problems for early computers that
used thousand of them.
 Computer Generations

Main Features of First Generation (1951-1959)

• Vacuum tube technology

• Unreliable
• Very costly
• Generate lot of heat
• Huge size
• Non-portable (often taking up entire room)
• Consumed lot of electricity
 Computer Generations

Second Generation (1959-1963)

• Consisted of solid-state transistors and

diodes.
• The Transistor was developed at Bell Labs
by William Shockley and others in 1950’s.
• It was a solid-state semiconductor device
typically made of silicon or germanium. It
was much smaller, much more reliable,
and consumed much less energy than
vacuum tube.
 Computer Generations

Main Features of Second Generation

(1959-1963)
• Use of transistors
• Reliable as compared to First generation computers
• Smaller size as compared to First generation
computers
• Generate less heat as compared to First generation
computers
• Consumed less electricity as compared to First
generation computers
• Faster than first generation computers
• Still very costly
 Computer Generations

Third Generation (1963-1975)

• Consisted of solid-state IC (Integrated

Circuit)
• Integrated Circuit (IC) was invented by
Jack Kirby and Robert Noyce.
• The invention of integrated circuit allowed
computers to become even smaller, with the
whole central processing unit (CPU) of the
computer fitting onto one circuit board.
These minicomputers were cheaper and
smaller than a mainframe ( the computer
was roughly the size of a drawer in a large
filing cabinet.
 Computer Generations

Main Features of Third Generation

(1963-1975)
• IC used
• More reliable
• Smaller size
• Generate less heat
• Faster
• Lesser maintenance
• Still costly
• Consumed lesser electricity
 Computer Generations

Fourth Generation (1975-present)

• Fourth Generation computers became more

powerful, reliable, and affordable. As a result, it
gave rise to personal computer (PC) revolution.
• In this generation, Remote processing, Time-
sharing, Real- time, Multi-programming
Operating System were used.
• Main electronic component – Very large-scale
integration (VLSI) and microprocessor
• VLSI- thousand of transistors on a single
microchip.
 Computer Generations

Main Features of Fourth Generation (1975-present)

• Microprocessor used
• Very cheap
• Portable and reliable
• Use of PC's
• Very small size
• Concept of internet was introduced
• Computers became easily available
 Computer Generations

Fifth Generation (present-future)

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

• Artificial Intelligence is the branch of computer

science concerned with making computers behave
like humans. The term was coined in 1956 by
John McCarthy at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology.
• Main electronic component: based on artificial
intelligence, uses the Ultra Large-Scale Integration
(ULSI)
• ULSI- millions of transistors on a single microchip
Review
What is the main component in 1 st Generation
Computer?

-Vacuum Tube
What is the main component in 1 st Generation
Computer?

-Vacuum Tube
What is the main component in 2nd Generation
Computer?

-Transistor
What is the main component in 2nd Generation
Computer?

-Transistor
What is the main component in 3rd Generation
Computer?

-Integrated Circuit
What is the main component in 3rd Generation
Computer?

-Integrated Circuit
What is the main component in 4th Generation
Computer?

-Microprocessor
What is the main component in 4th Generation
Computer?

-Microprocessor
What is the main component in 5th Generation
Computer?

-Artificial Intelligence
What is the main component in 5th Generation
Computer?

-Artificial Intelligence
Thank You!