Computer History

Computer

Computer History

Computer History

History

Inventors/Inventions Description of Event

Year/Enter 1936

Konrad Zuse - Z1 Computer First freely programmable

1942

John Atanasoff & Clifford

computer. Who was first in the computing

Berry

biz is not always as easy as ABC.

ABC Computer Howard Aiken & Grace

The Harvard Mark 1 computer.

1944

Hopper 1946

Harvard Mark I Computer John Presper Eckert & John W.20,000 vacuum tubes later... Mauchly

1948

ENIAC 1 Computer Frederic Williams & Tom

Baby and the Williams Tube turn

Kilburn

on the memories.

Manchester Baby Computer & The Williams 1947/48

1951

1953

1954

Tube John Bardeen, Walter

No, a transistor is not a

Brattain & Wiliam Shockley

computer, but this invention

The Transistor

greatly affected the history of

computers. John Presper Eckert & John W.First commercial computer & Mauchly

able to pick presidential winners.

UNIVAC Computer International Business

IBM enters into 'The History of

Machines

Computers'.

IBM 701 EDPM Computer John Backus & IBM The first successful high level FORTRAN Computer

1955 (In Use 1959)

1958

programming language.

Programming Language Stanford Research Institute, The first bank industry computer Bank of America, and

- also MICR (magnetic ink

General Electric

character recognition) for

ERMA and MICR Jack Kilby & Robert Noyce

reading checks. Otherwise known as 'The Chip'

The Integrated Circuit

1962

Steve Russell & MIT

The first computer game

Spacewar Computer

invented.

Game Douglas Engelbart

Nicknamed the mouse because

Computer Mouse &

the tail came out the end.

1969 1970

Windows ARPAnet Intel 1103 Computer

The original Internet. The world's first available

1971

Memory Faggin, Hoff & Mazor

dynamic RAM chip. The first microprocessor.

1964

Intel 4004 Computer 1971

Microprocessor Alan Shugart &IBM

Nicknamed the "Floppy" for its

1973

The "Floppy" Disk Robert Metcalfe & Xerox

flexibility. Networking.

The Ethernet Computer 1974/75

Networking Scelbi & Mark-8 Altair &

The first consumer computers.

1976/77

IBM 5100 Computers Apple I, II & TRS-80 &

More first consumer computers.

Commodore Pet 1978

1979

Computers Dan Bricklin & Bob Frankston Any product that pays for itself VisiCalc Spreadsheet

in two weeks is a surefire winner.

Software Seymour Rubenstein & Rob

Word Processors.

Barnaby WordStar Software IBM

From an "Acorn" grows a

The IBM PC - Home

personal computer revolution

Computer Microsoft

From "Quick And Dirty" comes

MS-DOS Computer

the operating system of the

1983

Operating System Apple Lisa Computer

century. The first home computer with a

1984

Apple Macintosh

GUI, graphical user interface. The more affordable home

1985

Computer Microsoft Windows

computer with a GUI. Microsoft begins the friendly war

1981

1981

with Apple.

A Brief History of the Computer Computers and computer applications are on almost every aspect of our daily lives. As like many ordinary objects around us, we may need clearer understanding of what they are. You may ask "What is a computer?" or "What is a software", or "What is a programming language?" First, let's examine the history. 1. The history of computers starts out about 2000 years ago in Babylonia (Mesopotamia), at the birth of the abacus, a wooden rack holding two horizontal wires with beads strung on them.

2. Blaise Pascal is usually credited for building the first digital computer in 1642. It added numbers entered with dials and was made

to

help

his

father,

a

tax

collector.

The basic principle of his calculator is still used today

in

water

meters

and

modern-day

odometers. Instead of having a carriage wheel turn the gear, he made each ten-teeth wheel accessible to be turned directly by a person's hand (later inventors added keys and a crank), with the result that when the wheels were turned in the proper

sequences, a series of numbers was entered and a cumulative sum was obtained. The gear train supplied a mechanical answer equal to the answer that is obtained by using arithmetic.

This first mechanical calculator, called the Pascaline, had several disadvantages. Although it did offer a substantial improvement over manual calculations, only Pascal himself could repair the device and it cost more than the people it replaced! In addition, the first signs of technophobia emerged with mathematicians fearing the loss of their jobs due to progress. 3. A step towards automated computing was the development of punched cards, which were first successfully used with computers in 1890 by Herman Hollerithand James Powers, who worked for the US. Census Bureau. They developed devices that could read the information that had been punched into the cards automatically, without human help. Because of this, reading errors were reduced dramatically, work flow increased, and, most importantly, stacks of punched cards could be used as easily accessible memory of almost unlimited size. Furthermore, different problems could be stored on different stacks of cards and accessed when needed.

4. These advantages were seen by commercial companies and soon led to the development of improved punch-card using computers created by International Business Machines (IBM), Remington (yes, the same people that make shavers), Burroughs, and other corporations. These computers used electromechanical devices in which electrical power provided mechanical motion -- like turning the wheels of an adding machine. Such systems included features to: o

feed in a specified number of cards automatically

o

add, multiply, and sort

o

feed out cards with punched results

5. The start of World War II produced a large need for computer capacity, especially for the military. New weapons were made for which trajectory tables and other essential data were needed. In

1942, John P. Eckert, John W. Mauchly, and their associates at the Moore

school

of

Electrical

Engineering

of

University

of

Pennsylvania decided to build a high - speed electronic computer to do the job. This machine became known as ENIAC (Electrical Numerical Integrator And Calculator) 6. The size of ENIAC’s numerical "word" was 10 decimal digits, and it could multiply two of these numbers at a rate of 300 per second,

by

finding

the

value

of

each

product

from

a

multiplication table stored in its memory. ENIAC was therefore about 1,000 times faster then the previous generation of relay computers. ENIAC used 18,000 vacuum tubes, about 1,800 square feet of floor space, and consumed about 180,000 watts of electrical power. It had punched card I/O, 1 multiplier, 1 divider/square rooter, and 20 adders using decimal ring counters, which served as adders and also as quick-access (.0002 seconds) read-write register storage. The executable instructions making up a program were embodied in the separate "units" of ENIAC, which were plugged together to form a "route" for the flow of information. 7. Early in the 50’s two important engineering discoveries changed the image of the electronic - computer field, from one of fast but unreliable hardware to an image of relatively high reliability and even more capability. These discoveries were the magnetic core memory and

the Transistor

-

Circuit

Element.

These technical discoveries quickly found their way into new models of digital computers. RAM capacities increased from 8,000 to 64,000 words in commercially available machines by the 1960’s, with access times of 2 to 3 MS (Milliseconds). These machines were very expensive to purchase or even to rent and were particularly expensive to operate because of the cost of expanding programming. Such computers were mostly found in

large computer centers operated by industry, government, and private laboratories - staffed with many programmers and support personnel. This situation led to modes of operation enabling the sharing of the high potential available. 8. Many companies, such as Apple Computer and Radio Shack, introduced very successful PC’s in the 1970's, encouraged in part by a fad in computer (video) games. In the 1980's some friction occurred in the crowded PC field, with Apple and IBM keeping strong. In the manufacturing of semiconductor chips, the Intel and Motorola Corporations were very competitive into the 1980s, although Japanese firms were making strong economic advances, especially in the area of memory chips. By the late 1980s, some personal computers were run by microprocessors that, handling 32 bits of data at a time, could process about 4,000,000 instructions per second.

Mainframes, minicomputers, and microcomputers

A microcomputer is

a computer with

a microprocessor as

its central

processing unit. Another general characteristic of these computers is that they occupy physically small amounts of space when compared to mainframe and minicomputers.

Many

microcomputers

(when

equipped with a keyboard and screen for input and output) are also personal computers (in the generic sense).[2][3] The

abbreviation

"micro"

was

common

during the

1970s

and

1980s,[4] but has now fallen out of common usage. Microcomputers, or PC's as they are often called, are abundant on our desks,

tables,

offices,

suitcases,

everywhere.

This is the most visible form of computers in the present world and comes

in

all

forms

and

breeds.

There are many generations of particular design and technical specifications from the start of this particular design.

Historically, a micro is associated with stand alone computing. Meaning most computing takes (physically) place on the micro itself. In the 1980's when networking started to integrate into the offices PC'S became

connected

with

network

servers,

and

also mainframes and supers. We all know a PC, probably heard of supercomputers. And like mainframes mini computers are not so known to the general public. Historically, a mini is associated with de-centralized computing. Meaning most computing takes (physically) place on the mini itself. Minicomputers are introduced in the early 1960s and announced a new era in computing. They are relatively low cost and small. This setup allowed more people to have access to computers and as a result a splurt of new applications in universities, industry, and commerce are created.

Digital

Equipment

Corporation

developed

the

PDP-1

minicomputer in 1960, and the PDP-8 virtualy conquered the market is a sweep and sold over 40,000 units. In time some 200 companies produced this type of minicomputers. DEC got at the top of the market with the PDP-11, and with the VAX 11/780 system. The latter will become a landmark system in the history of computing. We all know a PC, probably heard of supercomputers. But mainframes are not so known. When you watch television and see a movie with a big machine, or hear people talking to each other (at college) about a mainframe do you sometimes wonder what that is? What they are talking about? Then this page is intended for you. A mainframe is simply a very large computer. And totally different from what you have on your desk. Don't say: what seems to be a mainframe today is on your desktop tomorrow. Apart from the CPU's (processors) that is far from true.

Mainframe is an industry term for a large computer. The name comes from the way the machine is build up: all units (processing, communication

etc.)

were

hung

into

a

frame.

Thus

the

maincomputer is build into a frame, therefore: Mainframe And because of the sheer development costs, mainframes are typically manufactured by large companies such as IBM, Amdahl, Hitachi. Their main purpose is to run commercial applications of Fortune 1000

businesses

and

other

large-scale

computing

purposes.

Think here of banking and insurance businesses where enormous amounts of data are processed, typically (at least) millions of records, each day.

Kinds of Networking Local Area Network (LAN) A local area network (LAN) is a computer network covering a small physical area, like a home, office, or small group of buildings, such as a school, or an airport. The defining characteristics of LANs, in contrast to wide-area networks (WANs), include their usually higher datatransfer rates, smaller geographic place, and lack of a need for leased telecommunication lines. A local area network (LAN) supplies networking capability to a group of computers in close proximity to each other such as in an office building, a school, or a home. A LAN is useful for sharing resources like files, printers, games or other applications. A LAN in turn often connects to other LANs, and to the Internet or other WAN. Most local area networks are built with relatively inexpensive hardware such as Ethernetcables, network adapters, and hubs. Wireless LAN and other more advanced LAN hardware options also exist. Specialized operating system software may be used to configure a local area network. For example, most flavors of Microsoft Windows provide a software package called Internet The local area network (LAN) is home to sheer bandwidth and countless client server applications. Different companies have radically different networks; some have a single PC and others have hundreds of locations and thousands of computers. This page is intended to explain the basic principles and components frequently found on the LAN. The internal network is usually built with the highest bandwidth available. It is then connected to a tiny internet connection which is almost always a bottle neck for internet traffic. Most businesses of any size have at

least one server to provide extra computing features to the business. The internet is explicitly distrusted and generally the network has protection from the internet built in. The LAN is something that businesses have complete control over. Network devices are much simpler than servers and PCs. It is common (and best practice) to duplicate significant portions of the Network to allow for failure without having a noticeable impact on the network.

Metropolitan Area Network A MAN is optimized for a larger geographical area than a LAN, ranging from several blocks of buildings to entire cities. MANs can also depend on communications channels of moderate-to-high data rates. A MAN might be owned and operated by a single organization, but it usually will be used by many individuals and organizations. MANs might also be owned and operated as public utilities. They will often provide means

for

internetworking

of local

networks.

Metropolitan

area

networks can span up to 50km, devices used are modem and wire/cable A Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) is a large computer network that spans a metropolitan area or campus. Its geographic scope falls between a WAN and LAN. MANs provide Internet connectivity for LANs in a metropolitan region, and connect them to wider area networks like the Internet. A Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) is one of a number of types of networks (see also LAN and WAN). A MAN is a relatively new class of network, it serves a role similar to an ISP, but for corporate users with

large LANs. There are three important features which discriminate MANs from LANs or WANs: 1. The network size falls intermediate between LANs and WANs. A MAN typically covers an area of between 5 and 50 km diameter. Many MANs cover an area the size of a city, although in some cases MANs may be as small as a group of buildings or as large as the North of Scotland. 2. A MAN (like a WAN) is not generally owned by a single organisation. The MAN, its communications links and equipment are generally owned by either a consortium of users or by a single network provider who sells the service to the users. This level of service provided to each user must therefore be negotiated with the MAN operator, and some performance guarantees are normally specified. 3. A MAN often acts as a high speed network to allow sharing of regional resources (similar to a large LAN). It is also frequently used to provide a shared connection to other networks using a link to a WAN.

Wide Area Network Wide Area Network (WAN) is a computer network that covers a broad area (i.e., any network whose communications links cross metropolitan, regional, or national boundaries area

networks (PANs), local

). This is in contrast with personal

[1]

area

networks (LANs), campus

area

networks (CANs), or metropolitan area networks (MANs) which are usually limited to a room, building, campus or specific metropolitan area (e.g., a city) respectively. The largest and most well-known example of a WAN is the Internet. WANs are used to connect LANs and other types of networks together, so that users and computers in one location can communicate with

users and computers in other locations. Many WANs are built for one particular organization and are private. Others, built by Internet service providers, provide connections from an organization's LAN to the Internet. WANs are often built using leased lines. At each end of the leased line, a router connects to the LAN on one side and a hub within the WAN on the other. Leased lines can be very expensive. Instead of using leased lines, WANs can also be built using less costly circuit switching or packet

switching methods.

Network protocols including TCP/IPdeliver functions.

Protocols

transport

and

including Packet

addressing over

SONET/SDH, MPLS, ATM and Frame relay are often used by service providers to deliver the links that are used in WANs. X.25 was an important early WAN protocol, and is often considered to be the "grandfather" of Frame Relay as many of the underlying protocols and functions of X.25 are still in use today (with upgrades) by Frame Relay. Academic research into wide area networks can be broken down into three

areas: Mathematical

simulation.

models, network

emulation and network