History of Computers

History of Computers

The Abacus

The First “Automatic” ComputerChinese Invented

first attempt at automating the counting process.

The abacus is a machine which allows the user to remember his current state of calculations while performing more complex mathematical operation.

Forefathers of Modern Computers

Gottfried Leibniz Wilhelm

Blaise Pascal

Charles Babbage

Invented one of the First Mechanical Calculators (The Pascaline)

Pascal’s Gear SystemIt worked like an odometer for counting kilometers.

Pascaline made for French currency.

Invented the Binary System

The binary system which is the foundation of virtually all modern computer architectures.

Used internally by modern computers.

Made up of 0s and 1s.

Used for card readers, electric circuits, and vacuum tubes.

Name J U L I EASCII 74 117 108 105 101

Binary 0 0 0 0 0

Code 1 1 1 1 1

0 1 1 1 1

0 1 0 0 0

1 0 1 1 0

0 1 1 0 1

1 0 0 0 0

0 1 0 1 1

Originated the concept of a programmable computer

*Babbage is credited with inventing the first mechanical computer, called the Difference Engine, that eventually led to more complex designs.

Part of Babbage's difference engine, assembled after his death by Babbage's son, using parts found in his laboratory.

In Babbage’s time, numerical tables were calculated by humans . At Cambridge, he saw the high error-rate of human calculations and started his life’s work of trying to calculate the tables mechanically.

The London Science Museum’s Difference Engine #2, built from Babbage’s design.

1st GenerationVacuum Tubes

1939 - 1954A device used to create an electrical signal by controlling the movement of electrons in a low-pressure space.

Critical to the development of electronic technology.

Were bigger, not as efficient or reliable, didn’t last as long, more expensive than a transistor.

ENIAC – Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer

1946The first general-purpose electronic computer. It was a digital computer capable of being reprogrammed to solve a full range of computing problems. ENIAC was designed to calculate artillery firing tables for the U.S. Army’s Ballistic Research Lab, but its first use was in calculations for the hydrogen bomb.

•It used 5,200 vacuum tubes.•Weight: 29,000 pounds (13 metric tons)•Consumed 125 kW•Performance: 1,905 operations per second running on a 2.25 MHz clock•The machine was 25 feet by 50 feet in length•It had an internal storage capacity of 1,000 words or 12,000 characters.

UNIVAC 11951 – First Commercial Computer

2nd Generation

Transistor 1954-1959

*Is commonly used to switch electronic signals.

*The fundamental building block of modern electronic devices, and is used in radio, telephone, computers and other electronic systems.

*Cited as being one of the greatest achievements in the 20th century, and some consider it one of the most important technological breakthroughs in human history.

Can be packaged individually but most are found in integrated circuits.

3rd GenerationIntegrated Circuit

1959 - 1971

First integrated circuit – Jack Kilby – Texas Instruments

Integrated circuits are used in almost all electronic equipment in use today and have revolutionized the world of electronics.

aka IC, microcircuit, microchip, silicon chip, or chip

ARPANET1969

The ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) created by ARPA of the United States Department of Defense during the Cold War, was the world's first operational packet switching network, and the predecessor of the global Internet.

4th GenerationMicroprocessor

1971 – 1991

incorporates most or all of the functions of a central processing unit (CPU) on a single integrated circuit.

reduced the cost of processing capacity.

Microsoft – 1975Bill Gates and Paul Allen approached Ed Roberts of MITS, creators of the new microcomputer, and promised to deliver the BASIC (Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) interpreter.

They did so and from the sale Microsoft was born.

Bill GatesHe is ranked consistently one of the world’s wealthiest and the wealthiest overall as of 2009. Net worth: 58 billion as of 2008.Gates is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution.

Seattle Weekly reports the 2008 tax of $1.06 million and the home's assessed value of $147.5 million

His 66,000 sq. ft. estate has a 60-foot swimming pool with an underwater music system, as well as a 2500 sq. ft. gym and a 1000 sq. ft. dining room.

Gates and his wife are very fond of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, and inscribed in the library a sentence from the last page of the novel: "He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it."

As of Oct. 1, 2008, he has donated 35.1 billion to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which focuses on Education, Health Care, & Poverty.

Paul AllenAllen also has a multi-billion dollar investment portfolio. Allen owns three professional sports teams: the Seattle Seahawks, the Portland Trail Blazers, and the Seattle Sounders FC – Major League Soccer, that began playing in the 2009 season.

According to Forbes Allen is the 32nd richest person in the world, worth about $10.5 billion.

Allen was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease in 1983. His cancer was successfully treated, however, he did not return to Microsoft and began distancing himself from the company.

BASIC- Beginner’s All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code (A programming language)

**Developed by Kemeny and Kurtz in 1964, two mathematicians at Dartmouth

**Simple, easy-to-understand syntax allowed students to quickly learn it.

**Provided ease of programming and easier debugging than machine code or assembly

Creation of Microsoft

FORTRAN-FORmula TRANslator

-Used for science, math, & engineering

PASCAL-Named after Blaise Pascal, forefather of modern computers

-Disciplined approach to structure and data

descriptionCOBOL

Common Business Oriented Language

Data description stored separately from the program.

CA general-purpose computer programming languagevery popular today for system programming

Other Programming Languages

First Apple ComputerApril 1, 1976

First IBM PC(International Business Machines Person computer)

August 1981

Cell Phones Available to Public in 1984

5th GenerationWorld Wide Web / Internet

1991 & BeyondThe Web can be used for:

Looking up information, Shopping for books, computers, or CD’sInvestigating or researchingDownloading pictures, games, or other files

The Web (World Wide Web) was developed at CERN lab in Zurich, Switzerland

Requires a client program (such as NetScape or Lynx) and a server (HTTP) to send information to the clientINTERNET

New form of communicating2 things needed to view the internet

Internet connectionBrowser

Windows 3.1 – April 1992

This year’s sophomores were born.

DVD Technology – December 1995

USB Flash Drives - 2000

First iPod Release Date – October 2001

Microsoft Office 2007 ReleasedJanuary 30, 2007

PCs Today*Fast

*Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) -Allows you to use a mouse to control the computer

-Can run thousands of different sets of instructions (programs).

220,141,969 Internet users as of June/08,

72.5% of the U.S. population

The Future Computer-Bring an ordinary tabletop to life.

-Touchscreen Computers.

http://video.forbes.com/fvn/tech/ms_touchscreen052907