What Is A Computer? History of Computers Introduction to Computers Adapted from slides by Prof. Polly Huang and Prof. KM Chao (National Taiwan University) com put er Pronunciation: kâm-'pyü-ter Function: noun Usage: often attributive Date: 1646 : one that computes; specifically : a programmable usually electronic device that can store, retrieve, and process data (Source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/ ) Ancient Tools for Computation Egyptian Numbers
The First Computing Devices It is difficult to imagine a world without numbers, but there was a time when numbers didn t exist. So our ancestors used their fingers instead. Then, as bigger numbers (larger than what ten fingers could represent) were counted, things such as pebbles were used to help count. Until numbers were invented, counting devices such as the abacus were invented to help everyday mathematical problems. The Timeline of the Abacus Leonardo da Vinci's Calculator da Vinci (1500 AD) was a genius: painter, musician, sculptor, architect, and engineer. Notebooks discovered in 1967 First mechanical calculator Events in History 1642: Pascaline Adder Blaise Pascal (French) 16xx: John Napier Napier s Bones 1671: Multiplication/division Leibniz 1801: Jacquard Loom Joseph-Marie Jacquard punched card controlled weaving machine 1822: Difference Engine Babbage http://www.let.leidenuniv.nl/history/ivh/ch ap1.htm Difference Engine (1822) Charles Babbage (1791-1871) Polynomial evaluation by finite differences automatic tables engrave plates powered by a steam engine 15 digit numbers 25,000 parts a demonstration piece consisting of about 2,000 parts assembled in 1832 But, he never completed it!
What is the function? x=0, y=5 x=1, y=0 x=2, y=1 x=3, y=20 x=4, y=69 x=5, y=160 x=6, y=305 Finite Difference x y diff1 diff2 diff3 diff4 0 5 1 0 2 1 3 20 4 69 5 160 6 305 Polynomials The Analytical Engine (1834) It can be shown that for an n-degree polynomial, the nth difference is constant (and the (n+1)th difference is 0). So our function is probably a 3rd degree polynomial. The equation is y=2x^3-3x^2-4x+5. a general-purpose programmable computing engine The Engine had a 'Store' where numbers and intermediate results could be held, and a separate 'Mill' where the arithmetic processing was performed. programmable using punched cards
Difference Engine No.2 (1949) Calculator Babbage's Difference Engine No. 2 has 'registers' to hold one number from each of the columns in the table (for example 20, 7, 2). It would add the second difference to the first, then add that result to the function value to compute the next entry in the table. There were enough 'registers' for seven differences, allowing it to compute 31-digit values for polynomials with terms up to x^7. Subject: numbers Manipulation: arithmetic, functions Special purpose computing device Modern Computer Subject: data number, text, audio/visual Manipulation: programmable storing, retrieving, all sorts of processing General purpose computing device Who invented the modern computer? Not a question with a simple answer!
1844 Telegraph by Samuel Morse DC -> Baltimore The Foundation 1900 John A. Fleming invented the vacuum tube 1926 Dr. Lilienfield filed a patent for semiconductor transistor 1937 Alan Turing invented the Turing Machine 1945 Point- contact germanium transistor (Shockley et al.) 1950 Bipolar junction (silicon) transistors (Shockley) 1959 Integrated circuits (Hoerni and Noyce) 1971 First microprocessor (Intel 4004) Electronic Devices The Early Computers 1939 John V. Atanasoff & Clifford Berry special-purpose electronic digital computer 1941 Konrad Zuse Z1, Z3, and Z4 general purpose computation used the binary system 1943 Alan Turing COLOSSUS Rest of the Story 1943-46 The first general-purpose electronic computer -- ENIAC 1945 The "first" computer bug 1960 The first mini-computer 1969 The first computer on the ARPANET (later grew into the Internet) 1971 The first microprocessor: the 4004 1975 The first PC, MITS Altair 8800 1984 The first Macintosh (Apple) More at http://inventors.about.com/library/blcoindex.h tm
von Neumann Architecture A model for a computing machine that uses a single storage structure to hold both the set of instructions on how to perform the computation and the data required or generated by the computation. Such machines are also known as storedprogram computers. The separation of storage from the processing unit is implicit in this model. Collaborators: John von Neumann, John William Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert ENIAC Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer The first all-electronic computer designed to be Turing-complete Conceived/designed by J. Presper Eckert and John William Mauchly of the University of Pennsylvania. Built by the U.S. Army Unveiled on February 14, 1946 1889 Herman Hollerith designed punch cards to store and Personal Computers (PCs) IBM sort data. In 1960 Digital Equipment introduced the first minicomputer, the PDP-1, for $120,000. It was the first commercial computer equipped with a keyboard and monitor. PDP stands for Program, Data, Processor. Later, in 1984, Apple Computers introduced the first Macintosh Computer, with 128k in speed. Introduced in April, 1981, The Osborne 1 was the first portable computer. It was priced at $1795, had 4MHz and weighed 24.5 pounds. Macintosh 128k Census data processing takes 2.5 years instead of 7.5 years 1896 Tabulating Machine Company was founded 02/04/1924 TMC was renamed IBM!International Business Machines Corporation" 1964 IBM System/360 mainframe computer 1975 IBM 5100 Portable Computer (50lb,64K,>$8975) 1981 IBM PC (Man of the year, Time Magazine) 2004 The PC division was sold to Lenovo (China)
1938~9 Founded by William Hewlett & David Packard From a Palo Alto garage 1999 Spin off Agilent 2002 Controversial merger with Compaq HP Apple Mac Mini Introduced in January 2005 No monitor, mouse or keyboard 6.5 inch square box Intel Core Duo Server: Mac Pro Introduced in September 2006 Two 2.66GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon Desktop: imac Intel Core 2 Duo Laptops: MacBook and MacBook Pro Portable: ipod, iphone Software OS X 10.4 Tiger ilife, iweb etc. Founded in 1982. 1982 First workstation w/ TCP/IP 1984 NFS technology introduced 1987 Unix System V Release 4 1989 SPARCstation -- the first pizza box 1995 Java technology Sun Looking Glass (LG3D) The network is the computer. Intel 1957 Mass production of transistors (Fairchild) 1968 Founded by Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore 1971 Intel 4004 (2,300 transistors) 1975 Intel 8080 utilized in Altair 8800 ($439) 1981 Intel 8088 (29,000 transistors) $3,000 IBM PC for word processing and spreadsheet 1985 Intel 386 1989 Intel 486 (1.18M transistors) 1993 Intel Pentium (3.1M transistors) 1997 Intel Pentium II (7.5M transistors) 1999 Intel Pentium III (24M transistors) 2000 Intel Pentium IV (42M transistors) 2003 Intel Centrino 2006 Intel Core (Solo, Duo) 2007 Intel Core 2 Duo
Moore s Law Transistor Density The complexity for minimum component costs has increased at a rate of roughly a factor of two per year... Certainly over the short term this rate can be expected to continue, if not to increase. Over the longer term, the rate of increase is a bit more uncertain, although there is no reason to believe it will not remain nearly constant for at least 10 years. That means by 1975, the number of components per integrated circuit for minimum cost will be 65,000. I believe that such a large circuit can be built on a single wafer. Microelectronic silicon computer chips have grown in capability from a single transistor in the 1950s to hundreds of millions of transistors per chip on today s microprocessor and memory devices. From the first documented semiconductor effect in 1833 to the transition from transistors to integrated circuits in the 1960s and 70s, this website explores key milestones in the development of these extraordinary engines that power the computing and communications revolution of the information age. *Source: Moore s Law: Raising the Bar (Intel Corporation 2005) Photo credits: Fairchild Camera and Instrument Corporation, Intel Corporation (Note that images are not to scale) Reference Computer history http://www.scsite.com/dc2005/ch1/timeline http://www.maxmon.com/history.htm http://www.dei.isep.ipp.pt/docs/arpa.html http://inventors.about.com/library/blcoinde x.htm Alan Turing, Enigma http://www.turing.org.uk/turing/ http://www.alanturing.net/turing_archive/ Questions?