INTRODUCTION TO INFORMATION AND

COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY
(History of Computers)

Lecture # 02

1
EARLY HISTORY OF COMPUTING
Abacus
An early device to record numeric
values

Blaise Pascal
Mechanical device to add, subtract,
divide & multiply

Joseph Jacquard
Jacquard’s Loom, the punched card

Charles Babbage
Analytical Engine

2
 EARLY HISTORY OF COMPUTING
Abacus
An early device to record numeric values
We normally do not call it a computer, but a
computing device.
It is still used in parts of the world today.
This distinction between a computer
and a computing device will become
clearer as we look at other aspects of
the history of computing.

source: http://www.ee.ryerson.ca:8080/~elf/abacus/intro.html
NAPIER’S BONES (OR RODS)
 Rods were marked with multiplication table
results.
 These were used to provide fairly simple
means of multiplying large numbers.
 The honor for constructing the first
calculating machine belongs to a German
called Wilhelm Schickard .
 In 1623 he completed a mechanical
calculating machine based on Napier's
work.

4
USING THE BONES TO
COMPUTE 46732 X 5
Add:
10
150
3500
30000
200000
233660

5
 BLAISE PASCAL
 In 1642 Blaise Pascal, a Frenchman invented a
new kind of computing device.
 It used wheels instead of beads. Each wheel

had ten notches, numbered '0' to '9'. When a

wheel was turned seven notches, it added 7 to
the total on the machine.
 Pascal's machine, known as the Pascaline,

could add up to 999999.99.

 It could also subtract.

6
GOTTFRIED LEIBNITZ
 Leibnitz improved on Pascal's adding
machine so that it could also perform
multiplication, division and calculate square
roots.

7
JOSEPH JACQUARD
 In the late 1700s in France, Joseph
Jacquard invented a way to control the
pattern on a weaving loom used to make
fabric.
 Jacquard punched pattern holes into paper
cards.
 The cards told the loom what to do.
 Instead of a person making every change
in a pattern, the machine made the
changes all by itself.
 Jacquard's machine didn't count anything.
So it wasn't a computer or even a
computing device. His ideas, however, led
to many other computing inventions later.
8
JACQUARD LOOM - A MECHANICAL
DEVICE THAT INFLUENCED EARLY
COMPUTER DESIGN

Intricate textile
patterns were prized
in France in early
1800s.
Jacquard’s loom
(1805-6) used
punched cards to
allow only some rods
to bring the thread
into the loom on each
shuttle pass.
9
LUDDITES
 During the 1700's and early 1800's, part of the world
saw the development of industrialization.
 Before the Industrial Revolution, manufacturing was
done by hand or simple machines.
 The Industrial Revolution caused many people to lose
their jobs.
 Groups of people known as Luddites attacked factories
and wrecked machinery in Britain between 1811 and
1816.
 The Luddites received their name from their mythical
leader Ned Ludd.
 They believed that the introduction of new textile
machines in the early 1800's had caused
unemployment and lowered the textile workers'
standard of living.
 Note this is similar to the way some people see that
computers today are taking the jobs of workers. 10
CHARLES BABBAGE
 Babbage is known as the
father of modern computing
because he was the first
person to design a general
purpose computing device.
 In 1822, Babbage began to
design and build a small
working model of an
automatic mechanical
calculating machine, which he
called a "difference engine".
 Example: It could find the first
30 prime numbers in two and
a half minutes. In the Science
Museum, London
11
A CLOSER LOOK AT DIFFERENCE
ENGINE

12
 Babbage continued work to produce a full scale
working Difference Engine for 10 years, but in 1833
he lost interest because he had a "better idea"--the
construction of what today would be described as a
general-purpose, fully program-controlled, automatic
mechanical digital computer.
 Babbage called his machine an "analytical engine".
 He designed, but was unable to build, this Analytical
Engine (1856) which had many of the characteristics
of today’s computers:
an input device – punched card reader
an output device – a typewriter
memory – rods which when rotated into position
“stored” a number
control unit – punched cards with instructions 13
encoded as with the Jacquard loom
SOME CALL BABBAGE’S ANALYTIC ENGINE THE
FIRST COMPUTER, BUT, AS IT WAS NOT BUILT BY
HIM, MOST PEOPLE PLACE THAT HONOR
ELSEWHERE.

 Babbage's analytical engine contained all the

basic elements of an automatic computer--
storage, working memory, a system for moving
between the two, an input device and an output
device.
 But Babbage lacked funding to build the
machine so Babbage's computer was never
completed.

14
 BABBAGE DESIGNED A PRINTER, ALSO, THAT HAS
JUST BEEN BUILT AT THE SCIENCE MUSEUM IN
LONDON- 4,000 WORKING PARTS!

source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/710950.stm15
ADA LOVELACE
 Ada Byron Lovelace was a
close friend of Babbage.
 Ada thought so much of
Babbage's analytical engine
that she translated a previous
work about the engine.
 Because of the detailed Today, on
explanations she added to the behalf of her
work, she has been called the work in
inventor of computer computing, a
programming. programming
language, Ada,
is named after16
her.
 GENERATIONS OF ELECTRONIC
COMPUTERS
 First Generation Computers (1940-1956)
 Second Generation Computers (1956-1963)

 Third Generation Computers (1964-1971)

 Fourth Generation Computers (1971-Present)

 Fifth Generation Computers (Present and

Beyond)

17
FIRST GENERATION COMPUTERS
(1940-1956)
 The first computers used vacuum tubes for circuitry and
magnetic drums for memory, and were often enormous,
taking up entire rooms. They were very expensive to operate
and in addition to using a great deal of electricity, generated
a lot of heat, which was often the cause of malfunctions.
 First generation computers relied on machine language, the
lowest-level programming language understood by
computers, to perform operations, and they could only solve
one problem at a time. Input was based on punched cards
and paper tape, and output was displayed on printouts.
 The UNIVAC and ENIAC computers are examples of first-
generation computing devices. The UNIVAC was the first
commercial computer delivered to a business client, the U.S.
Census Bureau in 1951.
18
FIRST GENERATION HARDWARE
(1940-1956)
VACUUM TUBES
 First Generation Electronic
Computers used Vacuum
Tubes
 Vacuum tubes are glass tubes
with circuits inside.
 Vacuum tubes have no air
inside of them, which protects
the circuitry.

19
 FIRST GENERATION
HARDWARE
(1940-1956)

Vacuum Tubes
Large, not very reliable, generate a lot of heat.

Magnetic Drum
Memory device that rotated under a read/write head

Card Readers  Magnetic Tape Drives

Sequential auxiliary storage devices

20
 SECOND GENERATION
COMPUTERS (1956-1963)
 Transistors replaced vacuum tubes in the second
generation of computers. The transistor was
invented in 1948 but did not see widespread use in
computers until the late 1950s.
 The transistor was far superior to the vacuum tube,

allowing computers to become smaller, faster,

cheaper, more energy-efficient and more reliable
than their first-generation predecessors.
 Though the transistor still generated a great deal

of heat that subjected the computer to damage, it

was a vast improvement over the vacuum tube.
Second-generation computers still relied on
punched cards for input and printouts for output. 21
 SECOND GENERATION
COMPUTERS (1956-1963)
 Second-generation computers moved from cryptic
binary machine language to symbolic, or assembly,
languages, which allowed programmers to specify
instructions in words.
 High-level programming languages were also being

developed at this time, such as early versions of

COBOL and FORTRAN.
 These were also the first computers that stored

their instructions in their memory, which moved

from a magnetic drum to magnetic core
technology.
 The first computers of this generation were
22
developed for the atomic energy industry.
SECOND GENERATION HARDWARE

(1956-1963)

Transistor
Replaced vacuum tube, fast, small, durable, cheap

Magnetic Cores
Replaced magnetic drums, information available
instantly

Magnetic Disks
Replaced magnetic tape, data can be accessed directly
23
FIRST TRANSISTOR
 Uses Silicon
 developed in

1948
 won a Nobel

prize
 on-off switch

 Second

Generation
Computers used
Transistors,
starting in 1956 24
 THIRD GENERATION
COMPUTERS (1964-1971)
 The development of the integrated circuit was the
hallmark of the third generation of computers.
Transistors were miniaturized and placed on silicon
chips, called semiconductors, which drastically
increased the speed and efficiency of computers.
 Instead of punched cards and printouts, users
interacted with third generation computers
through keyboards and monitors and interfaced with
an operating system, which allowed the device to run
many different applications at one time with a central
program that monitored the memory.
 Computers for the first time became accessible to a
mass audience because they were smaller and25
cheaper than their predecessors.
THIRD GENERATION
HARDWARE
(1964-1971)

Integrated Circuits
Replaced circuit boards, smaller, cheaper, faster, more
reliable

Transistors
Now used for memory construction

Terminal
An input/output device with a keyboard and screen
26
 (THIRD GENERATION
HARDWARE )
INTEGRATED CIRCUITS
 Third Generation Computers used Integrated
Circuits (chips).
 Integrated Circuits are transistors, resistors, and

capacitors integrated together into a single “chip”

27
 FOURTH GENERATION
COMPUTERS (1971-PRESENT)
 The microprocessor brought the fourth generation
of computers, as thousands of integrated circuits
were built onto a single silicon chip.
 What in the first generation filled an entire room

could now fit in the palm of the hand.

 The Intel 4004 chip, developed in 1971, located

all the components of the computer—from

the central processing unit and memory to
input/output controls—on a single chip.
 In 1981 IBM introduced its first computer for the

home user, and in 1984 Apple introduced the

Macintosh. 28
 FOURTH GENERATION
COMPUTERS (1971-PRESENT)
 Microprocessors also moved out of the realm of
desktop computers and into many areas of life
as more and more everyday products began to
use microprocessors.
 As these small computers became more
powerful, they could be linked together to form
networks, which eventually led to the
development of the Internet.
 Fourth generation computers also saw the

development of GUIs,
the mouse and handheld devices.
29
FOURTH GENERATION HARDWARE
(1971-?)

Large-scale Integration
Great advances in chip technology

PCs, the Commercial Market, Workstations

Personal Computers and Workstations emerge
New companies emerge: Apple, Sun, Dell …

Laptops
Everyone has his/her own portable computer
30
 (4TH GENERATION – 1971-
PRESENT)
WHAT IS A MICROCHIP?

 Very Large Scale Integrated Circuit (VLSIC)

 Transistors, resistors, and capacitors
 Intel 4004 had 2,250 transistors
 Pentium IV has 42 MILLION transistors

 Getting smaller and smaller, but we are

still using microchip technology

31
EVOLUTION OF ELECTRONICS

Microchip
(VLSIC)
Integrated
Circuit

Transistor

Vacuum
Tube

32
PARALLEL COMPUTING AND
NETWORKING

Parallel Computing
Computers rely on interconnected central processing
and/or memory units that increase processing speed

Networking
Ethernet connects small computers to share resources
File servers connect PCs in the late 1980s

ARPANET and LANs  Internet

33
 FIFTH GENERATION
COMPUTERS (PRESENT AND
BEYOND)
 Fifth generation computing devices, based
on artificial intelligence, are still in development,
though there are some applications, such as voice
recognition, that are being used today.
 The use of parallel processing and superconductors

is helping to make artificial intelligence a reality.

 Quantum computation and molecular and
nanotechnology will radically change the face of
computers in years to come.
 The goal of fifth-generation computing is to develop

devices that respond to natural language input and

are capable of learning and self-organization. 34
SUMMARY - GENERATIONS OF
ELECTRONIC COMPUTERS
First Second Third Fourth Gen.
Generation Gen. Gen.
Technology Vacuum Transistors Integrated Microchips
Tubes Circuits (millions of
(multiple transistors)
transistors)
Size Filled Whole Filled half a Smaller Tiny - Palm
Buildings room Pilot is as
powerful as
old building
sized
computer

35
 FIRST GENERATION SOFTWARE
(1941-1956)

Machine Language
Computer programs written in binary (1s and 0s)

Assembly Languages and Translators

Programs written using mnemonics(designed to add
memory), which were translated into machine language

Programmer Changes
Programmers divide into two groups: application
programmers and systems programmers
36
FIRST GENERATION
SOFTWARE
(1941-1956)
ASSEMBLY/MACHINE

Systems programmers Applications programmers

write the assembler use assembly language to
(translator) solve problems
37
SECOND GENERATION
SOFTWARE (1956-63)
High-level Languages
English-like statements made programming easier:
Fortran, COBOL, Lisp
Systems
programmers
write translators for
high-level languages

Application
programmers
use high-level
languages to
solve problems
38
THIRD GENERATION
SOFTWARE (1964-71)
Systems Software
Utility programs
Language translators
Operating system, which decides which
programs to run and when

Separation between Users and

Hardware
Computer programmers write programs to
be used by general public (i.e., 39
nonprogrammers)
THIRD GENERATION SOFTWARE
(1964-1971)

40
FOURTH GENERATION
SOFTWARE
(1971-1989)

Structured Programming
Pascal
C
C++

New Application Software for Users

Spreadsheets
Word processors
Database management systems

41
FIFTH GENERATION SOFTWARE
(1990- PRESENT)
Microsoft
Windows operating system and other Microsoft application
programs dominate the market

Object-Oriented Design
Based on a hierarchy of data objects (i.e. Java)

World Wide Web

Allows easy global communication through the Internet

New Users
Today’s user needs no computer knowledge 42
JAZAK ALLAH!
Any Question?