Computing History Part 1

An Overview of the Computing Industry

Review of “A History of Modern Computing” by Paul E Cerruzi and

“Those who forget the lessons…” by John Lee

Those who forget the Lessons of History are bound to repeat it.

• Lack of proper archives or historians for computing.

• Difference between computer science and computing.

• A common myth is that history if preserving of Artifacts.

• What’s not a century old is not considered history by Historians.

History• 1st conf held at Los Almos Nat Lab in 1977• Contemporary history :Chronological history and the

emphasis on firsts.• With respect to Computing, its more about saving

documents and reasoning rather than code. • Document failures more than successes. • Firsts are a matter of definition rather than

chronology. • History is overloaded – use tools of analysis and

interpretation. • Shoulder of giants - look at what the giants had to go

through to achieve Gianthood.

History

• Good Judgment : Experience • Experience : Bad Judgment• When history is sound a certain problems are

not even considered problems.

Points

• Technology provides a better way of doing the same task with no Increase in productivity.

• Technology provides a faster way of doing things.

• Technology provides capability of sovling future problems or problems that seemed unsolvable.

Teachings from History

• Napiers Chessboard. • Von Neumann’s Parallel designs. • Da Vinci’s helicopter design.

A history of modern computing

Computing

• Arose as a part of the military need• ENIAC was the first of its kind to serve

American defense

Von Neumann’s Stored Program Principle

• 1945 report by John Von Neumann• The Neumann bottleneck• Univac was the first Stored program computer

whose first task was the census calculation• Automation – termed at the Ford Motor

Company• IBM responded with the 701(willians tubes)

The Univac

Early Machines

• Drum based memory• Speeds of about 11 multiplications/sec• A very different m/c Bendix G-15 built in UK

using Alan Turing's idea of a computer.

Early Drum based IBM’s

1956 - 1964

• Core memory was introduced. They were small, volatile and provided Random Access.

• SAGE project• GE, Honeywell, ERMA were the other players• Computer Architecture as its known today

started taking shape in terms of word length, Registers , Addresses, IO , special hardware for FLOPS

Rise of IBM

• Due to huge military presence • Emulators, OS were introduced in this era• Were Bashed for being a monolith; there were

even lawsuits for monopolizing the market.

Birth of Software

• Mainframes needed s/w to run that IBM developed inhouse.

• Concept of Reuse in Harvard Mark 3• Univac got its first Compiler.• Assemblers and other routines were being

developed to aid easy programmable machines

• SHARE (1955) – first user group for IBM 701 users.

Programming languages

• FORTRAN for IBM 704• COBOL 1959• Developed by Grace Hopper and standardized

in 1960 to run on all IBM hardware. • Early signs of Y2K• ALGOL written in BNF• OS originated from requirement of Batch

Processing.

1968

• Knuth’s Art of Computer Programming• German Conference for S/W Engg.• Intellectual Property Issues. • Unbundling of Software• Birth of UNIX

Mainframes and MiniComputers

• PDP8 , IBM 7074• Requirement of Federal Govt in funding and

the space program.• 1965 – SSN is introduced by IRS to ease

computing .• Apollo program and the need for real time

computation

IBM 7070

Minicomputer

• Teletype made PC smaller and easy to interact with.

• DEC was a major player• Low price and smaller computers.

Minicomputer PDP8

Teletypes

GO-GO Years

• IBM 360 line of computers.• Microprograms, control units simplification• Emulators for old machines.• Time Sharing systems.• Leasing companies, and tons of competitors• CDC 6600 or the CRAY computer.• Software houses • The Mythical man month

IBM 360’s

CRAY

Chip and its Impact -1965 -1975

• Grosch’s law• IC invented and perfected by TI and Fairchild• Clearly attributed to the Aerospace industry• Second generation minicomputers • RAM’s, BUS’s in PDP8 which eventually

become PDP11• CICS is reborn• BASIC at Darthmoth