Objectives

• Learn why today almost everyone is a computer

operator

• Learn about the predecessors of modern computer

hardware and software

• Trace the development of computer hardware and

software through several generations

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 Objectives (continued)
• Learn that sometimes good ideas flop and bad ones
survive

• Meet some interesting figures—some famous, some

infamous, some wealthy, and some obscure

• See some issues facing modern computing

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 Why You Need to Know About
the History of Computing
• Computers are everywhere
– Communication device
– Tool for artists, architects, and designers
– Information archive
– Entertainment device
– Trains, planes, automobiles
• What caused the revolution?
• What lies ahead?
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 Ancient History
1950s Vacuum tubes worked as memory
First Data(MD,MT,PaperT,Card...)
Generation
Late 1950s Software
Second innovations(H.L.Lang.)
Second half of 1960s
Generation Hardware development(Tr. &
Operation
RAM) System
Third Hadware development(IC,
Generation
Early 1970s Chip)
LSI,VLSI
Forth Mini-. Micro computer
Generation
1990
Parallel computing
Fifth SIMD, MIMD
Generation
Now What will be happened?
In the future What will need?

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 Pascal and Leibniz
Start the Wheel Rolling
• Paper, wood, stone, papyrus tables, abacuses as
“computers”

• 1622: invention of slide rule

• 1642: invention of mechanical calculator by Blaise

Pascal (+ & -)

• 1694: Leibniz Wheel expands arithmetic operations

(+, -, * and /)

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 Pascal and Leibniz
Start the Wheel Rolling (cont.)
• Blaise Pascal’s mechanical calculator:

• Leibniz’s machine:

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 Joseph Jacquard
• Invents programmable loom in 1801

– Jacquard loom weaves patterns in fabric

– Allows input and storage of parameters

– Selection pins oriented with punch cards

– Similarities with player piano

• Concept of the stored program

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Connecting with Computer Science 9
 Charles Babbage

• Invents Difference Engine in 1823

– Device adds, subtracts, multiplies, divides
• Designs Analytical Engine
– Components of modern computer
• Input and output devices, memory and CPU
– Not built due to lack of funds
• Collaborates with Ada Lovelace Byron
– Attribution of program loop concept
– Ada programming language namesake
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 Herman Hollerith
• Invents electromechanical counter in 1880s
– Serves tabulation role in 1890 US census
– Machine uses punch cards as input
– Single-purpose machine
• Company created around technology becomes
IBM
– IBM rolls out multi-purpose Mark I in 1944
– Mark I rapidly made obsolete by vacuum tubes

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Connecting with Computer Science 12
 Progression of
Computer Electronics
• Charles Sanders Peirce extends work of Boole
– Electric switches emulate the true/false conditions of
Boolean algebra
– Benjamin Burack implements concepts in 1936 logic
machine
• John Atanasoff and Clifford Berry build computer
using vacuum tubes
• World War II as developmental turning point

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 Wartime Research Drives
Technological Innovation
• Military need: trajectory tables for weapons testing

– U.S. Navy Board of Ordinance helps fund Mark I

– U.S. Army funds ENIAC (Electronic Numerical

Integrator and Computer)

• ENIAC runs 1000 times faster than Mark I

• ENIAC and Mark I too late to assist in war effort

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 ENIAC and EDVAC
• ENIAC’s overhead
– Loud and large at 30 tons: fills a huge basement
– 18,000 vacuum tubes need constant attention
– 6,000 switches need for arithmetic operations
• ENIAC’s strengths
– Performs arithmetic and logic operations
– Made multi-purpose with symbolic variables
• ENIAC’S other weaknesses
– Could not modify program contents
– Had to be programmed externally

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Connecting with Computer Science 16
 ENIAC AND EDVAC
(continued)
• EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic
Computer) created in 1944
– Recognized as the Von Neumann machine
– Superior model for descendant computers
– Operation governed by program in memory
– Programs could be modified
– Stored program concept: programs reusable
• The British response: Colossus
– Colossus helps crack German U-boat Enigma code
– All machines destroyed by 1960s
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Connecting with Computer Science 18
 The Computer Era Begins:
The First Generation
• 1950s: First Generation for hardware and software
– Vacuum tubes worked as memory for the machine
– Data written to magnetic drums and magnetic tapes
– Paper tape and data cards handled input
– The line printer made its appearance
• Software separates from hardware and evolves
– Instructions written in binary or machine code
– Assembly language: first layer of abstraction
– Programmers split into system and application
engineers
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Connecting with Computer Science 20
 UNIVAC
• UNIVAC: first commercially viable computer
– US Census Bureau is first customer
– Faces skepticism from Howard Aiken, Mark I
builder
• UNIVAC and the 1952 Presidential election
– Successfully predicts outcome during CBS
broadcast
– Quickly adopted by all major news network

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 IBM (Big Blue)
• IBM dominates mainframe market by the 1960s
– Strong sales culture
– Controlled 70 percent of the market
• IBM vision
– Sharp focus on a few products
– Leverage existing business relationships
– Introduce scalable (and hence flexible) systems
– Lease systems with 10 to 15 year life spans

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Connecting with Computer Science 23
 Transistors in the
Second Generation
• Software Innovations
– Assembly language limitations
– Appearance of high-level languages: FORTRAN,
COBOL, LISP
• Hardware Development
– Transistor replaces vacuum tube
– RAM becomes available with magnetic cores
– Magnetic disks support secondary storage

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 Circuit Boards in
the Third Generation
• Integrated Circuits(IC) or Chips
– Miniaturized circuit components on board
– Semiconductor properties
– Reduce cost and size
– Improve reliability and speed
• Operating Systems (OS)
– Program to manage jobs
– Utilize system resources
– Allow multiple users

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 Time-Sharing
• Allocates system resources to multiple users
– Input with long paper rolls instead of punch cards
– Productivity gains offset by increased response time
• General purpose machines broaden appeal
• Programmers gear software toward end user
– Distinctions between application level and OS level
– Statistical and accounting programs hide
implementation details

Connecting with Computer Science 27

 Living in the ‘70s
with the Fourth Generation
• The era of miniaturization
– LSI chips contain up to 15,000 circuits
– VLSI contain 100,000 to 1 million circuits
• Moore’s Law
– Circuit density doubles every 1.5 years
– Memory capacity and speed rise while costs drop
• Minicomputer industry grows
• Microcomputer makes appearance

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 The Personal
Computer Revolution
• Causes
– Hardware vision of engineers
– Iconoclastic software developers seeking challenges
– Electronic hobbyists realizing a dream

• The role of will

– Components previously developed
– Social and economic support
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 Intel
• The Intel 4004 chip
– 4004 transistors aboard
– Accrues greater functionality
– Precursor to central processing unit (CPU)
• Gary Kildall writes OS for Intel microprocessor
• Software and hardware become separate
commodities

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 The Altair 8800
• Development spurred by Popular Electronics
• Ed Roberts reports on the Altair 8800
– Kit based on Intel 8080
– Generates 4000 orders within three months
• Altair 8800 features
– I/O similar to ENIAC’s
– Open architecture provides adaptability
– Portable
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Connecting with Computer Science 32
 Enter Bill Gates,
Paul Allen, and Microsoft
• Gates and Allen develop a BASIC interpreter

– High level language for microcomputer programmers

• Briefly associate with MITS

• Form Micro-Soft company in 1975

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Connecting with Computer Science 34
 The Microcomputer
Begins to Evolve
• Microcomputer’s profitability lures more players
– Enter Radio Shack, IMSAI, Sphere and others
• Altair’s bus becomes S100 industry standard
• MITS stumbles
– Links prices of faulty hardware to BASIC
– Develops new model incompatible with 8080
• 1977
– MITS sold off
– Hardware companies introduce competing models

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 An Apple a day…

• 1976: Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak offer Apple I

• 1977: Apple II developed and released
– Based on Motorola 6502 processor
– Gains respect in industry as well as among hobbyists
– Promotes application development
• VisiCalc spreadsheet program
– Drives Apple II sales
– Earns new title: killer app
– Draws attention of wider business community

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Connecting with Computer Science 37
 IBM Offers the PC

• IBMS builds a microcomputer with new ways

– Adopts the Intel 8088 off the shelf
– Uses a non-proprietary CPU
– Create approachable documentation
– Offer open architecture
• New product name: personal computer (PC)
• PC sold through retail outlets

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 MS-DOS
• IBM chooses Microsoft to develop OS

• Microsoft introduces MS-DOS

– Based on Kildall’s 8 bit CP/M

– Runs on 16 bit CPU (Intel 8088)

– Prevails over competition

• IBM calls operating system PC-DOS

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 The Apple Macintosh
Raises the Bar
• Steve Jobs visits Xerox PARC
– Alto: graphics, menus, icons, windows, mouse
– Observes functioning Ethernet network
– Learns about hypertext
• Jobs succeeds with Xerox ideas
– Picks up where Xerox, focused on copiers, leaves off
– Incorporates many Palo Alto components in Macintosh
• 1984: Macintosh unveiled
– Graphical user interface (GUI)
– Mouse: point-and-click and ease-of-use

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Connecting with Computer Science 41
Other PCs (and One Serious OS
Competitor) Begin to Emerge
• Microsoft two-fold argument to IBM
– Adapt open architecture concept to OS
– Allow Microsoft freedom to license its OS
• Microsoft answers Apple
– Windows 3.1 incorporates Mac’s GUI features
– Competing PC clones appear with Microsoft’s OS
• Microsoft leverages position
– OS presence drive application software sales
– Sales synergies and licensing give 90 % of PC pie
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 The Latest Generation (Fifth)
• Parallel computing
– Aka parallel architecture
– CPUs joined for simultaneous task execution
• Three approaches
– SIMD (single instruction, multiple data) stream
– MIMD (multiple instruction, multiple data) stream
– Internetworking
• Uses
– Control web pages, databases, networks
– Mathematical modeling and scientific research (Cray)
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 The Internet
• ARPA origins of new communication system
– Resource sharing
– Common protocols
– Fault tolerance
• 1969: ARPANET born
– Consisted of (4) computers at (4) locations
– Different systems linked with Interface Message
Processor (IMP)
• ARPANET grows rapidly
– Protocols allow easy entry into network
– Electronic mail comprises 2/3 of network traffic
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LANs and WANs and other ANs
• The Internet as network of networks
– Wide Area Network (WAN)
– Local Area Network (LAN)
– Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN)
– Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)
– Urban Area Network (UAN)
• Network technologies
– Ethernet
– Fiberoptics
– Wireless technologies

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 Super Software and the Web
• Object-oriented programming (OOP)
• Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE)
• Origin of the World Wide Web (WWW)
– 1990: Tim Berners-Lee develops hypertext
– Prototype browser created on NeXT computer
– Marc Andreesen and Mosaic
– Microsoft and Internet Explorer
• Web components
– Web pages
– Browser
– Network technology
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Connecting with Computer Science 47
 The Microsoft Era and More
• The “browser wars”
– Microsoft integrates IE browser into Windows
– Netscape opposes Microsoft: goes open source
• The wars continue in court
– US government file antitrust suit against Microsoft
– By 2001 most of antitrust suit dropped or lessened
• Linux OS threatens Windows
– Low cost, open source, reliability
• Microsoft in perspective
– Accounts for 10 percent of world’s software
– Microsoft a small software player outside of PC

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 What About the Future?
• Parallel Computing
– Massive amplification of computing power
– Can be hosted by local networks as well as Internet
• Wireless networking
– Bluetooth
– Embedded or ubiquitous computing
• Digitization of Economy
• Privacy and security
• Open source movement
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 One Last Thought
• Development as a product of needs and wants
• The mixture of forces driving innovation
– Commercial and physical requirements (IC)
– The need to solve a problem (Analytical Engine)
– The desire to create something new (Apple I)
– The goal of winning a war (World War II)
– The need to succeed (Bill Gates)
• The evolutionary view
• The purpose of historical study
– Avoid mistakes and emulate triumphs
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 Summary
• The evolution of computers is tied to the evolution
of mathematics and driven by the need to master
time and space
• From stone tablets to electronic machines, the
computer’s chief purpose has been to manipulate
mathematical and linguistic symbols
• Many civilizations from the times of the ancients
to the present have contributed to the development
of computers and their science

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 Summary (continued)
• Mechanical calculators were invented in the 17th century
by Pascal and Leibniz
• The Jacquard Loom of 1801 introduced the punch card
and the concept of a stored program
• Charles Babbage designed a prototype of the modern
computer: The Analytical Engine
• Herman Hollerith incorporated punch cards in his
mechanical tabulating machines

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 Summary (continued)
• World War II drove computer innovation in the
mid-twentieth century: ENIAC, Mark I, Colossus
• The EDVAC’s Von Neumann architecture has
become a basic model for all later development
• Progress from vacuum tubes to integrated circuits
has exponentially increased the computer speed
and simultaneously reduced the size and cost
• The microcomputer and Internet, latter 20th
century developments, have made computers
ubiquitous
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