Abacus – 1100 BC
Slide rule - 1617Mechanical calculator - 1642
Automatic loom (punched cards) - 1804
Babbage’s computer – 1830sBabbage’s computer – 1830sBoolean logic – 1850sBoolean logic – 1850s
Hollerith’s electric tabulator - 1880Hollerith’s electric tabulator - 1880Analog computer – 1927Analog computer – 1927
EDVAC – 1946EDVAC – 1946ENIAC - 1947ENIAC - 1947
Transistor - 1947Transistor - 1947
Integrated circuit – late 1950sIntegrated circuit – late 1950sUNIVAC – 1951UNIVAC – 1951
Microprocessor – 1971Microprocessor – 1971Altair 8880 – 1975Altair 8880 – 1975
Apple II – 1977Apple II – 1977IBM PC – 1981IBM PC – 1981
World Wide Web – 1990sWorld Wide Web – 1990s
• First true calculating machine
• In use since 1100 B.C.• Still used in some countries
• In 1617, Scottish mathematician John Napier created a device to perform logarithm calculators
• Soon after an English clergyman named William Oughtred created a device based on this and named it the “slide rule”
• It remained in use for the next 350 years until the electronic calculator was invented.
• In the early 1830s, English mathematician Charles Babbage designed the analytical engine.• Intended to be used to create math tables for navigation at sea
• Completely mechanical and powered by steam
• Could be programmed to perform different tasks
• First major development in computing hardware came after the results of the 1880 US Census took 7 years to tabulate
• US Census Bureau conducted a contest for a faster method, and Herman Hollerith invented the punched card.
• He formed company which later became IBM
• Mark I and ENIAC arrived onthe scene during WWII. They were used to calculate weapon trajectories and help build atomic bombs.
• The early computers used punched cards
• They were VERY expensive and used enough electricity to light up a small town.
• In 1951, the UNIVAC was first mass-produced. It was the first general purpose computer.
• In 1953, IBM started selling computers
• VERY expensive and HUGE – required large rooms and a lot of A/C
• Used vacuum tubes (slow/hot, similar to light bulbs)
Grace Hopper coined the term “bug” when there was a computer malfunction. The original “bug” was a moth that was lodged in the circuitry and created a hardware problem in a Mark I computer. Hopper “debugged” the computer byremoving the moth.
• Major breakthrough
• In 1947, engineers from Bell Laboratories invented the transistor
• It replaced the vacuum tubes
• Much smaller, faster and more reliable
• Relied on other electronic components to form circuits
Portable transistor radio
• An even bigger breakthrough
• In the late 1950s, engineers from Texas Instruments created integrated circuit
• Instead of soldering components after the are made, they were manufactured all together on a chip of silicon
• Also known as the microchip
• Advanced the integrated circuit even further
• In the 1971, engineers from Intel Corporation designed the first microprocessor
• All chips needed for the CPU were put together on one chip
• Made the PC possible
• Altair 8800 created in 1975 as a mail-order kit
• Also in 1975, Bill Gates, Paul Allen, and Monte Davidoff wrote BASIC programming language
• Meanwhile Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs were busy creating the Apple II in 1977
• At this time Visicalc (spreadsheet program) was created for the Apple
• In 1981, the IBM PC was created and shortly after Microsoft was formed and the MS-DOS operating system was created
• In the 1990s the internet was born. This was a very significant revolution
• The World Wide Web allowed us to connect to servers across the world
• We can now to go to our favorite websites, to order products, to communicate via email or facebook, etc.
• In early 2000’s there was an explosion of handheld computers
• Examples are GPS units, tablets, smart phones
• Smart phones can now do the following: handle phone calls, take pictures, run apps, do calculations, browse the internet, etc.
• Personal translators act as speaking dictionaries
• “Cloud computing” refers to the cloud of powerful computers (servers) on the internet
• The servers provide “temporary” software that we can use at home
• Examples: tax software, photoshop
• Software is stored inPC memory (not yourhard drive)
As a group, take the different events in computer history and place them in the correct order
How has the computer affected society, science and technology?
Abacus – 1100 BC
Slide rule - 1617Mechanical calculator - 1642
Automatic loom (punched cards) - 1804
Babbage’s computer – 1830sBabbage’s computer – 1830sBoolean logic – 1850sBoolean logic – 1850s
Hollerith’s electric tabulator - 1880Hollerith’s electric tabulator - 1880Analog computer – 1927Analog computer – 1927
EDVAC – 1946EDVAC – 1946ENIAC - 1947ENIAC - 1947
Transistor - 1947Transistor - 1947
Integrated circuit – late 1950sIntegrated circuit – late 1950sUNIVAC – 1951UNIVAC – 1951
Microprocessor – 1971Microprocessor – 1971Altair 8880 – 1975Altair 8880 – 1975
Apple II – 1977Apple II – 1977IBM PC – 1981IBM PC – 1981
World Wide Web – 1990s World Wide Web – 1990s