History of digital computers

HISTORY of DIGITAL COMPUTERS Before Digital Computers Early Systems Contemporary systems

Before Digital Computers The Abacus Napier’s Bones Pascal’s Arithmetic Machine Leibniz and the Stepped Reckoner Jaquard’s Loom Babbage’s Analytical Engine Lady Lovelance Boolean Logic Hollerith’s Punched-Card Tabulating Machine Powers and the Simultaneous Punching Machine

The Abacus 3000 B.C. until now used by the

Chinese

Bead at centercounts 5

counts 1

0 0 7 2 3 0 1 8 9

Napier’s Bones 1615 Scottish John Napier invented

a computing device that facilitated multiplications and divisions

1620 the principle was used to invent the first slide rule

The slide rule disappeared in the 1970’s by introducing the electronic calculator

Pascal’s Arithmetic Machine 1642 Blaise Pascal (19 years old)

designed the Pascal’s arithmetic machine. Via wheels and gears calculations were

possible. Principle nowadays still used in

automobile odometers to record mileage. The machine revealed to the public in

1645 was not a success because it required considerable skill to operate.

The machine performed +, -, *, /

Pascal’s arithmetic machine

Leibniz and the Stepped Reckoner 1673 Gottfried Leibniz modified Pascal’s

machine to perform * and / more directly.

Multiplication was implemented automatically via a number of additions. Divisions via a number of subtractions.

The machine turned complex arithmetic into a series of steps involving simpler operations.

Stepped Reckoner

Jaquard’s Loom Major contribution to computer

methods came from the weaving industry.

1801 Joseph Marie Jacquard developed an attachment for weaving looms that used punched cards to “program” a loom to a specific pattern.

Babbage’s Analytical Engine 1830 Babbage worked on the Difference

Machine which was abandoned in 1834 for the Analytical Engine.

The Analytical Engine was designed to have a store to hold data and results of calculations a mill was to be a central mechanism for performing

mathematical operations a systems of gears and levers was to transfer data back

and forth between the store and the mill the input/output unit was to read data from outside the

machine into its store and display the results of the calculations

Effort stopped in 1842.

Babbage

Remake of Diff. Machine

Lady Lovelance 1842 Augusta Ada Byron, Countess of

Lovelance, daughter of the poet Lord Byron, translated a paper on Babbage’s Analytical engine from French to English.

She made so much notes and examples which were later considered as the first computer programs.

The ADA programming language is named after her.

Boolean Logic The application of the binary

system to computers was facilitated by work performed in the mid 1800s by George Boole.

1854 publishing of the Principles of Boolean logic

Hollerith’s Punched-Card Tabulating Machine (1) US census every 10 years. Manual

treatment took 7 years if only heads were counted.

tabulation of social, ethnic and economic data would take 12 years to treat manually.

John Billing suggested the used of punched cards for recording the facts and a machine to treat them.

Herman Hollerith (Billings’s associate) made the design which was patented on March 31, 1884.

Hollerith’s Punched-Card Tabulating Machine (2) The census of 1890 used the machine and

took only 2,5 years to complete. Hollerith started the Tabulating Machine

Company in 1896 which became the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company after a series of mergers.

In 1924, under the leading of J. Watson, Sr. the company was renamed International Business Machines (IBM) which is now the largest computer company.

EARLY SYSTEMS Aiken and the Harvard Mark I Atanasoff and the ABC Mauchly, Eckert and the ENIAC Von Neuman and the Stored Program

Concept Wilkes and the EDSAC UNIVAC: the first commercial computer IBM: the Giant Awakens

Aiken and the Harvard Mark I

If Babbage had lived 75 years later, I would have been out of job. Howard Aiken

1939 H. Aiken of Harvard University began working on a machine to perform scientific calculations faster.

IBM sponsored Aiken and the MARK I was completed in 1944 (IBM ASCC)

The first real computer was born. the first general purpose digital electro-

mechanical computer The MARK I performed faithfully for 10 years.

Mark I 51 feet long, 8 feet high, 3 feet deep weight: many tons 3000 mechanical switches 750.000 electronic components 500 miles of wiring Controlled by punched paper tape Stored its numbers in mechanical switches Used decimal numbers Accuracy: 23 digits 3 +/s, 1 * in 6 s, 1 / in 12 s

Mark I

Atanasoff and the ABC 1942 John Vincent Atanasoff of Iowa

State College and Clifford Berry (his graduate student) completed work on an electronic vacuum tube computer.

The Antony, Berry Computer (ABC) is the first electronic digital computer

Used the binary system Designed for solving simultaneous

equations

Antanasof

ABC

Mauchly, Eckert and the ENIAC John W. Mauchly of the University of

Pennsylvania together with J. Presper Eckert, Jr. a graduate student, built the first electronic general purpose computer.

The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) was funded by the U.S. Army as the need for computing accurate ballistic tables in WW II.

Completed in 1945.

Eckert & Mauchly

ENIAC 1500 square feet of floor - 30 tons 19.000 vacuum tubes 500.000 soldered joints and no moving parts Decimal arithmetic in 1 sec: 5000 + or 300 * of 10 digit numbers Needed a lot of power Big problem to keep the machine working

(vacuum tubes were relatively short-lived)

  ENIAC 150MHz Pentium

Speed 5,000 additions / second 300,000,000

Memory

200 digits 16,000,000

Elements

18,000 vacuum tubes6,000 switches10,000 capcitors70,000 resistors1,500 relays

4,000,000 transistors (CPU)

Size 10 feet tall x 1,800 square feet

9" x 12" x 3"

Weight 30 tons 6 pounds

Bug

Von Neuman and the Stored Program Concept 1946: John von Neumann joined Mauchly &

Eckert and began working on an improved version of the ENIAC called EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer).

von Neumann proposed that the program as well as the data it operated should be stored in the computer’s memory perform a program from memory is much faster

than performing it from punched cards. This is one of the most important

developments in the computer field in the 1900s

Edvac

Von Neuman

Wilkes and the EDSAC 1949 (before EDVAC) the first stored

program computer was developed by Maurice Wilkes at the University of Cambridge in England: EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator)

As soon as we started programming, we found to our surprise that is wasn’t as easy to get programs right as we had thought. Debugging had to be discovered. I can remember the exact instance when i realized that a large part of my life from then on was going to be spent in finding mistakes in my own program.

M. Wilkes at the opening of the Digital Computer Museum in Marlboro, Massachusetts (now in Boston) in 1979.

Wilkes

UNIVAC: the first commercial computer 1946: Echert and Mauchly left the University of

Pennsylvania to form Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation which was acquired by Remington Rand three years later.

Remington Rand intended for commercial data processing systems.

They delivered a computer called UNIVAC I in 1951 at the Bureau of Census in the US.

The computer was used reliably until 1963. The UNIVAC I computer was used in 1952 to

predict the election of Eisenhower with only 3 percent of the popular vote counted.

Univac

IBM: the Giant Awakens Early 1950s: IBM was a large company

specializing in typewriters, adding machines, and punched-card processing machines.

Thomas J. Watson Sr. dominated the company for the last 3 decades.

Thomas J. Watson, Jr. convinced his father to enter the computer field.

1953: IBM introduced its model 701. 1954: introduction of the model 650 which

was the first success.

IBM 70x

Contemporary systems The First Generation: 1951-1959 The Second generation: 1959-1964 The Third Generation: 1964-1970 The Fourth Generation: 1970 -

1990 The Fifth Generation: 1990 - ...

The 1st Generation:1951-1959 1951: UNIVAC I Vacuum tubes

bulk consumed a great deal of electricity gave an enormous amount of heat prone to failure

Difficult to operate the computer for more than a few hours reliably

The 1st Generation:1951-1959 (2)

Use of magnetic core memory (Whirlwind)

Most successful computer: IBM 650 market estimated at 40-50 650 were finally installed

IBM 650

IBM 650

The 2nd generation:1959-1964 Transistor invented at bell

laboratories in 1948 1959: first computers delivered

with transistors Sharing of machine via

multiprogramming

The 2nd generation:1959-1964 (2) Early 1960s: time sharing invented

+ terminals CDC comes on the scene IBM: model 1401: more than

10.000 of these installed = more than all other computers systems in the world combined

IBM 1410

The 2nd generation:1959-1964 (2) IBM’s competition

Univac Burroughs NCR RCA Control Data Corporation (CDC) Philco/Ford General Electric Honeywell

By 1970 following companies left the computer business:

GE, Ford, RCA

The 3d Generation:1964-1970 Introduction of ICs IBM: April 7 1964: System/360 was going

to replace all previous IBM computers. Several models

from small data processing computers for business

to large-scale supercomputer for scientific applications

upward compatible

The 3d Generation:1964-1970 CDC strengthen its position in the

supercomputer field: first delivery of CDC6000 in 1964: 3 MIPS machine.

CDC introduces a 36 MIPS machine in 1969

IBM360

The 3d Generation:1964-1970 (2) Minicomputers: 1965 Digital Equipment

Corporation (DEC) introduces the PDP-8. first use of computers for Process Control

DEC: leading manufacturer of minicomputers. Competitors in this business

Data General (with NOVA) Varian HP Computer Automation

Primarily intended for dedicated operations, but users changed this.

PDP 8

PDP 11

The 4th Generation:1970 - 1990 Introduction of LSI IBM: System 370 (360 compatible) No more core memory

The 4th Generation:1970 - 1990 A series of court decision changed industry:

programs, programming systems and related documents should be available for a price to anyone who wanted it.

result: plug compatible mainframers: make hardware cheaper than IBM and use IBM software on it.

Gene Amdahl: left IBM in 1970 and started Amdahl Corporation: its first 470 V/6 system sold for less than one of

the larger IBM 370s being considerably more powerful and using existing IBM software

470 V/6

Vax 780

The 4th Generation:1970 - 1990 (2) Supercomputer field:

Seymour Cray left CDC in 72 to form Cray Research Inc.

CRAY-1: 80 MIPS 1982: CRAY X-MP: 1000 MIPS

Introduction of the microcomputer VLSI, ULSI

Cray-2

XMP

IBM PC

Apple

Pet Commodore

The 5th Generation:1990 - ... Previous generation characterized by hardware

breakthroughs Next generation to be characterized by a major

software breakthrough? make intelligent machines: AI & expert systems ??

Or is it the introduction of the PC Or the introduction of RISC processors? Or the introduction of the GUI on Apple’s

MacIntosh? Or the merger of computers with

communications?

Conclusions Is this just the beginning?? Hardware evolution: OK Software evolution: NOK