History of Computer Hardware

HISTORY OF

COMPUTER

HARDWARE

THE FIRST CPU CHIP

November 15, 1971 — Intel placed an advertisement for the

first single-chip CPU, the Intel 4004, in Electronic News.

Designed by the fantastically-forenamed Federico Faggin,

Ted Hoff, and Stanley Mazor, the 4004 was a 4-bit, 16-pin

microprocessor that operated at a mighty 740KHz — and at

roughly eight clock cycles per instruction cycle (fetch,

decode, execute), that means the chip was capable of

executing up to 92,600 instructions per second.

By 1964, MIT, Bell Laboratories and General Electric had collaborated to

create a computer system called Multics ; a time sharing, multi-user

system. Multics encouraged the development of a new user interface,

the video display terminal. The video display terminals (VDT) combined

the technology of the cathode ray tube used in televisions and electric

typewriters. Computer users could now see what text they were typing

on their display screens making text easier to create, edit and delete,

and computers easier to program and use.

The first computer mouse was invented in 1963 by Douglas Engelbart at the Stanford Research Institute. (He is also one of the inventors of hypertext.) The first

mouse used two wheels positioned at a 90-degree angle to each other to keep track of the movement (see picture below). The ball mouse wasn’t invented until 1972, and the optical mouse was invented circa 1980 although it didn’t come to

popular use until much later.

Douglas Engelbart never received any royalties for his invention and his patent had run out by the time the mouse became commonplace in the era of home PCs.

• C.W. Rice of General Electric and E.W. Kellogg of AT&T worked

together in Schenectady, New York to develop the modern speaker

and first electric amplification system. They created a working

prototype in 1921. Rice and Kellogg solved the final problems

which led to a nice crisp sound. This muffled sound was not good

enough to compete with the horn which was well established in the

market. Rice and Kellogg were able to fully understand the

reproduction of all the frequencies necessary to create an accurate

audio sound. Their prototype had enough of a dynamic range in

frequencies to be better than the horn, while possessing the ability

to greatly increase loudness (dB). In 1925 they filed for patents

and made a speech in St. Louis to the AIEE. After several years of

work they perfected it as the first commercial product of it's kind

called the Radiola Loudspeaker

Arguably the first (writable) random access memory was Magnetic Core

Memory (also called Ferrite-Core Memory) and was invented in 1951 as a

result of work done by An Wang at Harvard University’s Computation Lab

and Jay Forrester at MIT.

Core memory was a family of related technologies that used the

magnetic properties of materials to give them a similar functionality to

transistors. They stored their information using the polarity of tiny,

magnetic ceramic rings with wires threaded through them. Unlike today’s

RAM, core memory could keep its information even after the power was

turned off.

Core memory was common until it was replaced by integrated silicon

RAM chips in the 1970s. The “core” in core memory is why a memory

dump is called a “core dump” even today.

The laser printer was invented by Gary Starkweather at XEROX in 1969. His initial prototype was a modified laser copier where he had disabled the imaging system and introduced a spinning drum with eight mirrored sides. The first commercial implementation of a laser printer didn’t happen until IBM released the IBM model 3800 in 1976. It could pretty much fill up a room on its own.

THE FIRST HARD DISK DRIVE

The IBM Model 350 Disk File was the first hard disk drive and was part of the IBM 305

RAMAC computer that IBM started delivering in 1956 (mainly intended for business

accounting). It had 50 24-inch discs that together could store about 4.4 MB of data. The

Model 350 spun at 1200 rpm, had a data transfer rate of 8,800 characters per second and an

access time of approximately one second.

The diskette, or floppy disk (named so because they were

flexible), was invented by IBM and in common use from the

mid-1970s to the late 1990s. The first floppy disks were 8

inches, and later in came 5.25 and 3.5-inch formats. The first floppy disk, introduced in 1971, had a capacity of 79.7 kB,

and was read-only. A read-write version came a year later.

The first Laserdisc

We mention it here mainly because it was the precursor to the CD-ROM and other optical storage solutions. It was mainly used for movies. The first commercially available laserdisc system was available on the market late in 1978 (then called Laser Videodisc and the more funkily branded DiscoVision) and were 11.81 inches (30 cm) in diameter. The discs could have up to 60 minutes of audio/video on each side. The first laserdiscs had entirely analog content. The basic technology behind laserdiscs was invented all the way back in 1958.Above left: A Laserdisc next to a regular DVD. Above right: Another Laserdisc

The first scanner developed for use with a computer, was a drum scanner . It was built in 1957 at the US National Bureau of Standards by a team led by Russell A. A serial-parallel converter (staticizer) was connected to the SEAC memory, enabling a stored image to be displayed on a cathode ray oscilloscope, thus making it possible for the researchers to see what the computer saw. And when they could see binary images, they realized the limitations of binary representation. So they experimented with superimposing multiple scans at different scanning thresholds and the use of time varying thresholds for pulse density modulation to represent multiple graylevels in an image.

THE FIRST SCANNER

THE FIRST MAGNETIC TAPE

Magnetic tape was first used for data storage in 1951. The tape device was

called UNISERVO and was the main I/O device on the UNIVAC I

computer. The effective transfer rate for the UNISERVO was about 7,200

characters per second. The tapes were metal and 1200 feet long (365

meters) and therefore very heavy.Above left: The row of tape drives for

the UNIVAC I computer. Above right: The IBM 3410 Magnetic Tape

Subsystem, introduced in 1971.

The first compact cassette

• It was a popular way of data storage for personal computers

in the late 70s and 80s. Typical data rates for compact

cassettes were 2,000 bit/s. You could store about 660 kB per

side on a 90-minute tape. Above left: The standard compact

cassette. Above right: The Commodore Datassette is sure to

bring up fond memories for people who grew up in the 80s.

PUNCHED TAPE

Same as with punch cards, punched tape was

originally pioneered by the textile industry for use with

mechanized looms. For computers, punch tape could

be used for data input but also as a medium to output

data. Each row on the tape represented one

character.8-level punch tape (8 holes per row).

Early computers often used punch cards for input both of programs and data. Punch cards were in common use until the mid-1970s. It should be noted that the use of punch cards predates computers. They were used as early as 1725 in the textile industry (for controlling mechanized textile looms).

The First Punch Card

A punched card reader or just card reader is a computer input device used to read executable computer programs, source code, and data from punched cards. A card punch is an output device that punches holes in cards under computer control. Sometimes card readers were combined with card punches and, later, other devices to form multifunction machines. Most early computers, such as the ENIAC, and the IBM NORC, provided for punched card input/output. Card readers and punches, either connected to computers or in off-line card to/from magnetic tape configurations, were ubiquitous through the mid-1970s

THE FIRST TRACKBALL

The trackball was actually invented 11 years BEFORE the

mouse, in 1952. It was invented by Tom Cranston and Fred

Longstaff as part of a computerized battlefield information

system called DATAR, initiated by the Canadian Navy. It

used a standard five-pin bowling ball as its trackball, which

is smaller than the more common 10-pin bowling ball.

The Selectron tube had a capacity of 256 to 4096 bits

(32 to 512 bytes). The 4096-bit Selectron was 10

inches long and 3 inches wide. Originally developed in

1946, the memory storage device proved expensive

and suffered from production problems, so it never

became a success. The 1024-bit Selectron.

It had been invented all the way back in 1932 (in Austria), it was

widely used in the 1950s and 60s as the main working memory of

computers. In the mid-1950s, magnetic drum memory had a capacity

of around 10 kB. The magnetic Drum Memory of the UNIVAC computer.

Above right: A 16-inch-long drum from the IBM 650 computer. It had 40

tracks, 10 kB of storage space, and spun at 12,500 revolutions per minute.

THE FIRST MAGNETIC DRUM MEMORY