Computer Generations

COMPUTER GENERATIONSBy: Agulto, Bangayan and Santos

HISTORY OF COMPUTERS

The first computer were people. That is, electronic computers (and the earlier mechanical computers) were given this name because they performed the work that had previously been assigned to people.

HISTORY OF COMPUTERS

"Computer" was originally a job title: it was used to describe those human beings (predominantly women) whose job it was to perform the repetitive calculations required to compute such things as navigational tables, tide charts, and planetary positions for astronomical almanacs.

History of Computers

This picture shows what were known as "counting tables" [photo courtesy of IBM] A typical computer operation back when computers were people.

A very old abacus

A more modern abacus. Note how the abacus is really just a representation of the human fingers: the 5 lower rings on each rod represent the 5 fingers and the 2 upper rings represent the 2 hands


In 1617 an eccentric (some say mad) Scotsman named John Napier invented logarithms, which are a technology that allows multiplication to be performed via addition. The magic ingredient is the logarithm of each operand, which was originally obtained from a printed table. But Napier also invented an alternative to tables, where the logarithm values were carved on ivory sticks which are now called Napier's Bones.


An original set of Napier's Bones [photo courtesy IBM]

A more modern set of Napier's Bones


Napier's invention led directly to the slide rule, first built in England in 1632 and still in use in the 1960's by the NASA engineers of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs which landed men on the moon.


Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) made drawings of gear-driven calculating machines but apparently never built any.

A Leonardo da Vinci drawing showing gears arranged for computing

History of ComputersThe first gear-driven calculating machine to actually be built was probably the calculating clock, so named by its inventor, the German professor Wilhelm Schickard in 1623. This device got little publicity because Schickard died soon afterward in the bubonic plague.


In 1642 Blaise Pascal, at age 19,invented the Pascaline as an aid for hisfather who was a tax collector. Pascalbuilt 50 of this gear-driven one-functioncalculator (it could only add) butcouldn't sell many because of theirexorbitant cost and because they reallyweren't that accurate (at that time itwas not possible to fabricate gears withthe required precision).


Pascal's Pascaline [photo © 2002 IEEE]


A 6 digit model for those who couldn't afford the 8 digit model


A Pascaline opened up so you can observe the gears and cylinderswhich rotated to display the numerical result


Just a few years after Pascal, the German GottfriedWilhelm Leibniz (co-inventor with Newton of calculus)managed to build a four-function (addition, subtraction,multiplication, and division) calculator that he called thestepped reckoner because, instead of gears, it employedfluted drums having ten flutes arranged around theircircumference in a stair-step fashion. Although thestepped reckoner employed the decimal number system(each drum had 10 flutes), Leibniz was the first toadvocate use of the binary number system which isfundamental to the operation of modern computers.Leibniz is considered one of the greatest of thephilosophers but he died poor and alone


Leibniz's Stepped Reckoner (have you ever heard "calculating" referred to as "reckoning"?)


In 1801 the Frenchman Joseph Marie Jacquard invented a power loom that could base its weave (and hence the design on the fabric) upon a pattern automatically read from punched wooden cards, held together in a long row by rope. Descendents of these punched cards have been in use ever since (remember the "hanging chad" from the Florida presidential ballots of the year 2000?).


Jacquard's Loom showing the threads and the punched cards


By selecting particular cards for Jacquard's loom you defined the woven pattern [photo © 2002 IEEE]


A close-up of a Jacquard card

History of ComputersThis tapestry was woven by a Jacquard loom

Jacquard's technology was a realboon to mill owners, but put manyloom operators out of work. Angrymobs smashed Jacquard loomsand once attacked Jacquardhimself. History is full of examplesof labor unrest followingtechnological innovation yet moststudies show that, overall,technology has actually increasedthe number of jobs.


By 1822 the English mathematician Charles Babbagewas proposing a steam driven calculating machine the size of a room, which he called the Difference Engine. This machine would be able to compute tables of numbers, such as logarithm tables.


A small section of the type of mechanism employed in Babbage's Difference Engine [photo © 2002 IEEE]

History of ComputersBabbage was not deterred, and by then was on tohis next brainstorm, which he called the AnalyticEngine.This device, large as a house and powered by 6steam engines, would be more general purpose innature because it would be programmable, thanksto the punched card technology of Jacquard.But it was Babbage who made an importantintellectual leap regarding the punched cards. Inthe Jacquard loom, the presence or absence ofeach hole in the card physically allows a coloredthread to pass or stops that thread (you can seethis clearly in the earlier photo).


Babbage saw that the pattern ofholes could be used to representan abstract idea such as a problemstatement or the raw data requiredfor that problem's solution.Babbage saw that there was norequirement that the problemmatter itself physically pass thruthe holes.


Furthermore, Babbage realized that punched paper could be employed as a storage mechanism, holding computed numbers for future reference.Because of the connection to the Jacquard loom, Babbage called the two main parts of his Analytic Engine the "Store" and the "Mill", as both terms are used in the weaving industry. The Store was where numbers were held and the Mill was where they were "woven" into new results.In a modern computer these same parts are called the memory unit and the central processing unit (CPU).


Babbage befriended Ada Byron, the daughter of the famous poet Lord Byron (Ada would later become the Countess Lady Lovelace by marriage). Though she was only 19, she was fascinated by Babbage's ideas and thru letters and meetings with Babbage she learned enough about the design of the Analytic Engine to begin fashioning programs for the still unbuilt machine.


While Babbage refused to publish his knowledge for another 30 years, Adawrote a series of "Notes" wherein she detailed sequences of instructions she had prepared for the Analytic Engine. The Analytic Engine remained unbuilt(the British government refused to get involved with this one) but Ada earned her spot in history as the first computer programmer.


Ada invented the subroutine and was the first to recognize the importance of looping. Babbage himself went on to invent the modern postal system, cowcatchers on trains, and the ophthalmoscope, which is still used today to treat the eye.


Hollerith's invention, known as theHollerith desk, consisted of a cardreader which sensed the holes in thecards, a gear driven mechanism whichcould count (using Pascal's mechanismwhich we still see in car odometers),and a large wall of dial indicators (a carspeedometer is a dial indicator) todisplay the results of the count.


An operator working at a

Hollerith Desk like the

one below


A few Hollerith desks still exist today [photo courtesy The Computer Museum]

History of ComputersIncidentally, the Hollerith census machine was the firstmachine to ever be featured on a magazine cover.


A central shaft driven by an outside waterwheel and connected to each machine by overhead belts was the customary power source for all the machines in a factory

History of ComputersHere's a close-up of one of the Mark I's four paper tape readers. A paper tape was an improvement over a box of punched cards as anyone who has ever dropped -- and thus shuffled -- his "stack" knows.


One of the primary programmers for the Mark I was a woman, Grace Hopper. Hopper found the first computer "bug": a dead moth that had gotten into the Mark I and whose wings were blocking the reading of the holes in the paper tape. The word "bug" had been used to describe a defect since at least 1889 but Hopper is credited with coining the word "debugging" to describe the work to eliminate program faults.

COMPUTER GENERATIONS

The history of computer development is often referred to in reference to the different generations of computing devices. A generation refers to the state of improvement in the product development process. This term is also used in the different advancements of new computer technology.


Each generation of computers is characterized by major technological development that fundamentally changed the way computers operate, resulting in increasingly smaller, cheaper, more powerful and more efficient and reliable devices.

FIRST GENERATION

1940 – 1956 VACUUM TUBESThe first computers used vacuum tubes for circuitry and magnetic drums for memory, and were often enormous, taking up entire rooms.

FIRST GENERATION

Front View of Vacuum Tubes

FIRST GENERATION

Rear View of Vacuum Tubes

FIRST GENERATIONThe First High-Speed, General-Purpose Computer Using Vacuum Tubes:Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC)The ENIAC team (Feb 14, 1946). Left to right: J. Presper Eckert, Jr.; John Grist Brainerd; Sam Feltman; Herman H. Goldstine; John W. Mauchly; Harold Pender; Major General G. L. Barnes; Colonel Paul N. Gillon.

FIRST GENERATION

Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC)

1946Used vacuum tubes (not mechanical devices) to do its calculations

The first electronic computer

Funded by the U.S. ArmyCould not stored programs (its set of instructions)

FIRST GENERATION

The first stored computer program used for EDVAC (Electronic Discreet Variable Computer)

FIRST GENERATION

The Manchester University Mark I (prototype)

FIRST GENERATION

Max Newman headed up for the effort at Manchester University

Where the Manchester Mark I went into operation in June 1948 – becoming the First Stored-Program ComputerMaurice Wilkes, a British scientist at Cambridge University completed the EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator) in 1949 – two years before EDVAC was finished

History of ComputersThe first computer bug [photo © 2002 IEEE]


On a humorous note, the principal designerof the Mark I, Howard Aiken of Harvard,estimated in 1947 that six electronic digitalcomputers would be sufficient to satisfy thecomputing needs of the entire United States.IBM had commissioned this study todetermine whether it should botherdeveloping this new invention into one of itsstandard products (up until then computerswere one-of-a-kind items built by specialarrangement).


(that's just the operator's console, here's the rest of its 33 foot length:)



The Apple 1 which was sold as a do-it-yourself kit (without the lovely case seen here)


Typical wiring in an

early mainframe computer

[photo courtesy The

Computer Museum]

History of ComputersIt's humorous to remember that in between the Stretch machine (whichwould be called a mainframe today) and the Apple I (a desktopcomputer) there was an entire industry segment referred to as mini-computers such as the following PDP-12 computer of 1969:

History of ComputersThe Atanasoff-Berry Computer [photo © 2002 IEEE]


Another candidate for granddaddy of the moderncomputer was Colossus, built during World War II byBritain for the purpose of breaking the cryptographiccodes used by Germany.Britain led the world in designing and buildingelectronic machines dedicated to code breaking, andwas routinely able to read coded Germany radiotransmissions.But Colossus was definitely not a general purpose,reprogrammable machine. Note the presence ofpulleys in the two photos of Colossus below:

History of ComputersTwo views of the code-breaking Colossus of Great Britain


The Harvard Mark I: an electro-mechanical computer


The Harvard Mark I, the Atanasoff-Berrycomputer, and the British Colossus all madeimportant contributions.American and British computer pioneers

were still arguing over who was first to dowhat, when in 1965 the work of the GermanKonrad Zuse was published for the first timein English.Scooped! Zuse had built a sequence ofgeneral purpose computers in Nazi Germany.The first, the Z1, was built between 1936and 1938 in the parlor of his parent's home.


The Zuse Z1 in its residential setting


The title of forefather of today's all-electronic digital computers is usually awarded to ENIAC, which stood for Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator.


ENIAC was built at the University of Pennsylvania between 1943 and 1945 by two professors, John Mauchly and the 24 year old J. Presper Eckert, who got funding from the war department after promising they could build a machine that would replace all the "computers", meaning the women who were employed calculating the firing tables for the army's artillery guns.


The day that Mauchly and Eckert saw the first small piece of ENIAC work, the persons they ran to bring to their lab to show off their progress were some of these female computers (one of whom remarked, "I was astounded that it took all this equipment to multiply 5 by 1000").


Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator


To perform this computation on ENIAC you had to rearrange a large number of patch cords and then locate three particular knobs on that vast wall of knobs and set them to 3, 1, and 4.

FIRST GENERATION

UNIVERSAL AUTOMATIC COMPUTER (UNIVAC) – the first general purpose computer for commercial use

SECOND GENERATION

TRANSISTORS

SECOND GENERATION

Crystalline mineral materials called semiconductors could be used in the design of a device called TRANSISTORTransistor replaced vacuum tubesTransistor is a device composed of semi-conductor material that amplifies a signal or opens or closes a circuitInvented in 1947 at Bell Labs

SECOND GENERATION

Magnetic tape and disks began to replace punch card as external storage devices

SECOND GENERATION

Magnetic cores (very small donut –shaped magnets that could polarized in one of two directions to represent data) strung on wire within the computer became the primary internal storage technologyUses high level programming languages

FORTRANCOBOL

THIRD GENERATION

THIRD GENERATION

The development of the integrated circuit was the hallmark of the third generation of computers. Transistors were miniaturized and placed on silicon chips, called semiconductors, which drastically increased the speed and efficiency of computers.

THIRD GENERATION

Individual transistors were replaced by integrated circuits

THIRD GENERATION

Magnetic tape and disks completely replace punch cards as external storage devices

THIRD GENERATION

Magnetic core internal memories began to give way to a new form, METAL OXIDE SEMICONDUCTOR (MOS) memoryOperating System was bornAdvanced programming language like BASIC was developedBill Gates and Microsoft started in 1975

THIRD GENERATION

Intel 4004 had 2,250 transistors

THIRD GENERATION

The First Microprocessor in 1971

Intel 4004 had 2,250 transistorsFour-bit chunks (four 1’s and 0’s)108 KHz0.6 Mips (million instructions/sec)Pentium 133 – 300 MipsCalled MICROCHIP

THIRD GENERATION

The Birth of Personal ComputerMITS ALTAIR – 1975

256 byte memory2 MHz Intel 8080 chipJust a box with flashing lightsCost $395 kit, $495 assembled

FOURTH GENERATION

MICROPROCESSORS

FOURTH GENERATIONThe microelectronics revolution is what allowed the amount of hand-crafted wiring seen in the prior photo to be mass-produced as an integrated circuitwhich is a small sliver of silicon the size of your thumbnail .

FOURTH GENERATION

Large Scale and Very Large Scale Integrated CircuitsMicroprocessors that contained memory, logic and control circuits (an entire CPU) on a single chipApple II was released to public in 1977 by Stephen Wozniak and Steven Jobs

Initially sold for $1,195 (no monitor) had 16k RAM

FOURTH GENERATION

IBM PC was introduced in 1981Debut with MS – DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System)

First Apple Mac was released in 1984Fourth generation language was released

Visicalc, Lotus 123, dBase, MS Word, etc.

GUI was used in PC’s

FOURTH GENERATION

Ms Windows debuts in 1983Windows 3.11 was released in 1990

FIFTH GENERATION

Fifth generation computing devices, based on artificial intelligence, are still in development, though there are some applications, such as voice recognition, that are being used today.

FIFTH GENERATION

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the area of computer science focusing on creating machines that can engage on behaviors that humans consider intelligent. The ability to create intelligent machines has intrigued humans since ancient times, and today with the advent of the computer and 50 years of research into AI programming techniques, the dream of smart machines is becoming a reality. Researchers are creating systems which can mimic human thought, understand speech, beat the best human chess player, and countless other feats never before possible. Find out how the military is applying AI logic to its hi-tech systems, and how in the near future Artificial Intelligence may impact our lives.

FIFTH GENERATION

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. Artificial intelligence includes:

Games PlayingExpert SystemsNatural LanguageNeural NetworksRobotics

FIFTH GENERATION

Sample Videos for Artificial Intelligence:WonderbotsAstroboyRobotics


Bibliography Kenneth C. Laudon, Carol Guercio Traver, Jane P. Laudon, Information Technology and Systems, Cambridge, MA: Course Technology, 1996. Stan Augarten, BIT By BIT: An Illustrated History of Computers (New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1984). R. Moreau, The Computer Comes of Age: The People, the Hardware, and the Software, translated by J. Howlett (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1984). Telephone History Web Site. http://www.cybercomm.net/~chuck/phones.htmlMicrosoft Museum. http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/museum/home.aspPhilip B. Meggs, A History of Graphic Design, 2nd ed., New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1992.

http://www.cybercomm.net/~chuck/phones.html

http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/museum/home.asp

Computer Generations

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