INTRODUCTION TO

COMPUTING CONCEPTS AND

HISTORY OF COMPUTERS
LESSON 1

NOEMI D. DIONEDA
FACULTY-IN-CHARGE
Computer Science
• The discipline that seeks to build a scientific
foundation for such topics as computer design,
computer programming, information processing,
algorithmic solutions of problems, and the
algorithmic process itself.
• It provides the underpinnings for today’s computer
applications as well as the foundations for
tomorrow’s computing infrastructure.
The Role of Algorithms
• Informally, an algorithm is a set of steps that defines how
a task is performed.
• For example, there are algorithms for cooking (called
recipes)
• For finding your way through a strange city (more
commonly called directions)
• For operating washing machines (usually displayed on the
inside of the washer’s lid or perhaps on the wall of a
Laundromat)
• For playing music (expressed in the form of sheet music),
and
• For performing magic tricks
An Algorithm
for a Magic Trick
Algorithms
• Before a machine such as a computer can perform
a task, an algorithm for performing that task must be
discovered and represented in a form that is
compatible with the machine.
• A representation of an algorithm is called a program.
• The process of developing a program, encoding it in
machine-compatible form, and inserting it into a
machine is called programming.
• Programs, and the algorithms they represent, are
collectively referred to as software, in contrast to the
machinery itself, which is known as hardware.
Algorithms
• The study of algorithms began as a subject in
mathematics.
• The goal was to find a single set of directions that
described how all problems of a particular type
could be solved.
• An example is the Euclidean algorithm, discovered
by the ancient Greek mathematician Euclid, for
finding the greatest common divisor of two positive
integers
The Euclidean algorithm for finding the greatest
common divisor of two positive integers
The History of Computing
• One of the earlier computing devices was the
abacus.
• History tells us that it probably had its roots in ancient
China and was used in the early Greek and Roman
civilizations.
• The machine is quite simple, consisting of beads
strung on rods that are in turn mounted in a
rectangular frame
Chinese Wooden Abacus
The History of Computing
• A few inventors began to experiment with the
technology of gears.
• Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) of France
• Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) of Germany and
• Charles Babbage (1792–1871) of England.
• These machines represented data through gear
positioning, with data being entered mechanically
by establishing initial gear positions.
The History of Computing
• Output from Pascal’s and Leibniz’s machines was
achieved by observing the final gear positions.
• Babbage, on the other hand, envisioned machines
that would print results of computations on paper so
that the possibility of transcription errors would be
eliminated.
The History of Computing
• Pascal’s machine was built to perform only addition.
• Consequently, the appropriate sequence of steps was
embedded into the structure of the machine itself.
• In a similar manner, Leibniz’s machine had its algorithms
firmly embedded in its architecture, although the
operator could select from a variety of arithmetic
operations it offered.
• Babbage’s Difference Engine could be modified to
perform a variety of calculations, but his Analytical Engine
was designed to read instructions in the form of holes in
paper cards.
• Thus Babbage’s Analytical Engine was programmable.
The History of Computing
• The idea of communicating an algorithm via holes in paper was
not originated by Babbage.
• He got the idea from Joseph Jacquard (1752–1834), who, in 1801,
had developed a weaving loom in which the steps to be
performed during the weaving process were determined by
patterns of holes in large thick cards made of wood.
• In this manner, the algorithm followed by the loom could be
changed easily to produce different woven designs.
• Another beneficiary of Jacquard’s idea was Herman Hollerith
(1860–1929), who applied the concept of representing information
as holes in paper cards to speed up the tabulation process in the
1890 U.S. census. (It was this work by Hollerith that led to the
creation of IBM.)
• Such cards ultimately came to be known as punched cards and
survived as a popular means of communicating with computers
well into the 1970s.
The History of Computing
• Nineteenth-century technology was unable to produce
the complex gear driven machines of Pascal, Leibniz, and
Babbage cost-effectively.
• But with the advances in electronics in the early 1900s, this
barrier was overcome.
• Examples of this progress include the electromechanical
machine of George Stibitz, completed in 1940 at Bell
Laboratories, and the Mark I, completed in 1944 at
Harvard University by Howard Aiken and a group of IBM
engineers.
• These machines made heavy use of electronically
controlled mechanical relays.
The History of Computing
• In this sense they were obsolete almost as soon as they were
built, because other researchers were applying the technology
of vacuum tubes to construct totally electronic computers.
• The first of these vacuum tube machines was apparently the
Atanasoff-Berry machine, constructed during the period from
1937 to 1941 at Iowa State College by John Atanasoff and his
assistant, Clifford Berry.
• Another was a machine called Colossus, built under
the direction of Tommy Flowers in England to decode German
messages during the latter part of World War II.
• Other, more flexible machines, such as the ENIAC (electronic
numerical integrator and calculator) developed by John
Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert at the Moore School of Electrical
Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, soon followed.
Three women
operating the ENIAC’s
main control panel
while the machine
was at the Moore
School. The machine
was later moved to
the U.S. Army’s
Ballistics Research
Laboratory.
The History of Computing
• From that point on, the history of computing machines has been
closely linked to advancing technology, including the invention of
transistors (for which physicists William Shockley, John Bardeen, and
Walter Brattain were awarded a Nobel Prize) and the subsequent
development of complete circuits constructed as single units,
called integrated circuits (for which Jack Kilby also won a Nobel
Prize in physics).
• With these developments, the room-sized machines of the 1940s
were reduced over the decades to the size of single cabinets.
• At the same time, the processing power of computing machines
began to double every two years (a trend that has continued to
this day).
• As work on integrated circuitry progressed, many of the
components within a computer became readily available on the
open market as integrated circuits encased in toy-sized blocks of
plastic called chips.
The History of Computing
• A major step toward popularizing computing was the
development of desktop computers.
• The origins of these machines can be traced to the computer
hobbyists who built homemade computers from combinations of
chips.
• It was within this “underground” of hobby activity that Steve Jobs
and Stephen Wozniak built a commercially viable home computer
and, in 1976, established Apple Computer, Inc. to manufacture
and market their products.
• Other companies that marketed similar products were
Commodore, Heathkit, and Radio Shack.
• Although these products were popular among computer
hobbyists, they were not widely accepted by the business
community, which continued to look to the well-established IBM
and its large mainframe computers for the majority of its
computing needs.
The History of Computing
• In 1981, IBM introduced its first desktop computer,
called the personal computer, or PC, whose
underlying software was developed by a newly
formed company known as Microsoft.
• The PC was an instant success and legitimized the
desktop computer as an established commodity in
the minds of the business community.
• Today, the term PC is widely used to refer to all those
machines whose design has evolved from IBM’s initial
desktop computer, most of which continue to be
marketed with software from Microsoft.
The History of Computing
• At the same time that desktop and laptop
computers were being accepted and used in
homes, the miniaturization of computing machines
continued.
• Today, tiny computers are embedded within a wide
variety of electronic appliances and devices.
• Automobiles may now contain dozens of small
computers running Global Positioning Systems (GPS),
monitoring the function of the engine, and providing
voice command services for controlling the car’s
audio and phone communication systems
The History of Computing
• As the 20th century drew to a close, the ability to connect
individual computers in a world-wide system called the Internet
was revolutionizing communication.
• In this context, Tim Berners-Lee (a British scientist) proposed a
system by which documents stored on computers throughout
the Internet could be linked together producing a maze of
linked information called the World Wide Web. To make the
information on the Web accessible, software systems, called
search engines, were developed to “sift through” the Web,
“categorize” their findings, and then use the results to assist
users researching particular topics.
• Major players in this field are Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft.
These companies continue to expand their Web-related
activities, often in directions that challenge our traditional way
of thinking.
The History of Computing
• Perhaps the most revolutionary application of computer
miniaturization is found in the expanding capabilities of
smartphones, hand-held general-purpose computers on
which telephony is only one of many applications.
• More powerful than the supercomputers of prior decades,
these pocket-sized devices are equipped with a rich
array of sensors and interfaces including cameras,
microphones, compasses, touch screens, accelerometers
(to detect the phone’s orientation and motion), and a
number of wireless technologies to communicate with
other smartphones and computers.
• Many argue that the smartphone is having a greater
effect on global society than the PC revolution.
An Outline of Computer Science
Networking
Data Operating
Data Storage and the
Manipulation Systems
Internet

Programming Software Data

Algorithms
Languages Engineering Abstractions

Database Computer Artificial Theory of

Systems Graphics Intelligence Computation
Abstraction
• Refers to the distinction between the external properties
of an entity and the details of the entity’s internal
composition.
• It is abstraction that allows us to ignore the internal details
of a complex device such as a computer, automobile, or
microwave oven and use it as a single, comprehensible
unit.
• Moreover, it is by means of abstraction that such complex
systems are designed and manufactured in the first place.
• Computers, automobiles, and microwave ovens are
constructed from components, each of which represents
a level of abstraction at which the use of the component
is isolated from the details of the component’s internal
composition.
Role of
Algorithms
• Which problems can be
solved by algorithmic
processes?
• How can the discovery
of algorithms be made
easier?
• How can the techniques
of representing and
communicating
algorithms be
improved?
• How can the
characteristics of
different algorithms be
analyzed and
compared?
• How can algorithms be
used to manipulate
information?
• How can algorithms be
applied to produce
intelligent behavior?
• How does the
application of
algorithms affect
society?
Abstraction
• It is by applying abstraction that we are able to construct,
analyze, and manage large, complex computer systems
that would be overwhelming if viewed in their entirety at
a detailed level.
• At each level of abstraction, we view the system in terms
of components, called abstract tools, whose internal
composition we ignore.
• This allows us to concentrate on how each component
interacts with other components at the same level and
how the collection as a whole forms a higher-level
component.
• Thus we are able to comprehend the part of the system
that is relevant to the task at hand rather than being lost
in a sea of details.
Creativity
• While computers may merely be complex machines
mechanically executing rote algorithmic instructions,
we shall see that the field of computer science is an
inherently creative one.
• Discovering and applying new algorithms is a human
activity that depends on our innate desire to apply
our tools to solve problems in the world around us.
• Computer science not only extends forms of
expression spanning the visual, language and
musical arts, but also enables new modes of digital
expression that pervade the modern world.
Creativity
• Creating large software systems is much less like
following a cookbook recipe than it is like conceiving
of a grand new sculpture.
• Envisioning its form and function requires careful
planning.
• Fabricating its components requires time, attention
to detail, and practiced skill.
• The final product embodies the design aesthetics
and sensibilities of its creators.
Data
• Computers are capable of representing any information that can
be discretized and digitized.
• Algorithms can process or transform such digitally represented
information in a dizzying variety of ways.
• The result of this is not merely the shuffling of digital data from one
part of the computer to another; computer algorithms enable us
to search for patterns, to create simulations, and to correlate
connections in ways that generate new knowledge and insight.
• Massive storage capacities, high-speed computer networks, and
powerful computational tools are driving discoveries in many other
disciplines of science, engineering and the humanities.
• Whether predicting the effects of a new drug by simulating
complex protein folding, statistically analyzing the evolution of
language across centuries of digitized books, or rendering 3D
images of internal organs from a noninvasive medical scan, data is
driving modern discovery across the breadth of human endeavors
Programming
• Translating human intentions into executable
computer algorithms is now broadly referred to as
programming, although the proliferation of
languages and tools available now bear little
resemblance to the programmable computers of
the 1950s and early 1960s.
• While computer science consists of much more than
computer programming, the ability to solve problems
by devising executable algorithms (programs)
remains a foundational skill for all computer scientists.
Internet
• The Internet connects computers and electronic devices
around the world and has had a profound impact in the
way that our technological society stores, retrieves, and
shares information.
• Commerce, news, entertainment, and communication
now depend increasingly on this interconnected web of
smaller computer networks.
• The reach of the Internet also has profound implications
for our privacy and the security of our personal
information.
• Cyberspace harbors many dangers.
• Consequently, cryptography and cybersecurity are of
growing importance in our connected world.
Impact of Computer Science
• Computer science not only has profound impacts on the technologies we
use to communicate, work, and play, it also has enormous social
repercussions.
• Progress in computer science is blurring many distinctions on which our
society has based decisions in the past and is challenging many of
society’s long-held principles.
• In law, it generates questions regarding the degree to which intellectual
property can be owned and the rights and liabilities that accompany that
ownership.
• In ethics, it generates numerous options that challenge the traditional
principles on which social behavior is based. In government, it generates
debates regarding the extent to which computer technology and its
applications should be regulated.
• In philosophy, it generates contention between the presence of intelligent
behavior and the presence of intelligence itself.
• And, throughout society, it generates disputes concerning whether new
applications represent new freedoms or new controls.
THANK
YOU!!!
Reference
• Brookshear J.G. & Brylow D. (2015). Computer
Science: An Overview 12th Edition. ISBN: 973-0-13-
376006-4