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CSE1301Computer Programming:

Lecture 34Introduction to the

History of Computing

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Astronomical computers

• 4000 BC: sundials

Stonehenge (2800-1800B.C.)

Ancient stone sundial

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Abacus• 1000-500 BC (Babylonians):

mechanical aid used for counting

The Salamis Tablet

(Greek, 300BC)

The Roman Hand Abacus

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Abacus (cont.)

Modern: 1200 A.D to present

Middle Ages 5 A.D to c1400 A.D

Ancient times: 300 B.C. to c500A.D.

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Arabic Astrolabe

BackFront

From c700A.D.

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Da Vinci’s Mechanical Calculator

Notebook sketches c1500

Working model

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Napier’s Bones• Early 1600s• Multiplication tables inscribed

on strips of wood and bones

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Oughtred’s Slide Rule• Rev. William Oughtred

1621• Use logs to perform

multiplication and division by using addition and subtraction

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Pascal’s arithmetic engine• Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)• Mechanical calculator for addition

and subtraction

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Leibnez’s Step Reckoner• Gottfried von Leibnez

1670• Add, subtract, multiply,

divide, square roots

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Jacquard’s punch card• Joseph Marie Jacquard 1804 • punch cards used to operator

loom

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Babbage’s analytical engine• Charles Babbage

(1791-1871)

Design for the analytical engine

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The World’s First Programmer• Lady Ada Augusta

Byron, Countess of Lovelace (1815-1952) (1791-1871)

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Hollerith’s Tabulating Machine• Herman Hollerith (1860-1929)

• Invented a punched card device to help analyse the 1890 US census data

• Founded “Tabulating Machine Company” 1896

• 1924 – Tabulating Machine Company merges with others to form IBM

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MIT Differential Analyzer• Purpose: to solve differential

equations

• Mechanical computation with first use of vacuum tubes for memory

• Programmed by aligning gears on shafts

• 1930s

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Alan Turing (1912-1954)• Develops theory of computability

and the “Turing Machine” model – a simple but elegant mathematical model of a general purpose computer (~1936)

• Helped crack German codes in WWII (1939-1945)

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Konrad Zuse• 1936: Z1 first binary computer suing

Erector Set parts, keyboard and lights for output (relay memory)

• 1938: Z2 – using punched tape and relays

Z1

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The first computers• 1939 Atanasoff-Berry

Computer– First electronic-digital

computer?

– Binary numbers, direct logic for calculation, regenerative memory

• Prototype 1939

• 2 years then to build full scale model– One op per 15 secs, 300

vacuum tubes, 700 pounds, mile of wire

ABC Prototype

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The first computers (cont.)• 1943 British Colossus –

first all-electronic computer? (2,400 vacuum tubes)– Decipher enigma coded

messages at 5,000 chars/sec

– At peak, 10 machines ran 24 hours a day

A German enigma coding machine

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The first computers (cont.)• 1943-44 Aiken at Harvard/IBM “Mark 1” – first

electromechanical digital computer (electromagnetic relays – magnets open and close metal switches) (recreation of Analytical Engine)– 8 ft tall, 50 ft long, 1 million parts– 323 decimal-digit additions per sec– storage for 72 23-digit numbers.

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ENIAC (1946)• 18,000 tubes, 1500 sq ft

• Programmed by wire plugs into panels– 5,000 decimal-digit additions/sec

– 20 10-decimal digit “accumulators”

Von Neumann and ENIAC

• 1941 Von Neumann proposes EDVAC – Electronic Discrete Variable Computer

• Computer should– Use binary

– Have stored programs

– Be function-oriented

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UNIVAC-1• The world’s first commercially available

(non-military) computer

• “I think there is a world market for about five computers”– Thomas J. Watson, IBM Chairman

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Computer Generations• First: vacuum tubes• Second: semiconductor

transistor chips (Bell labs, 1950s)

• Third: support for multi-programming, including “mini-computers) : 1960s

• Fourth: no agreement!– VSLI super-computer– Micro-computer (PCs,

workstations) 1980s…

Whirlwind core memory 1951

IBM PC c1982

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Moore’s Law

1965: predicted exponential growth in transistors per integrated circuit would continue.