Computer history.

Thing that Changed the World

 Computer history.

 Introduction
 The Eras of Computers
 First era [simple tools ]
 Second era [Mechanical
& Electro-mechanical Era (1623-1945)]
 Third era [Electronic Era (present)]
 Generations
Who invented the computer ?

• It is not a question with a simple

answer. The real answer is that many
inventors contributed to the history of
computers and that a computer is a
complex piece of machinery made up of
many parts, each of which can be
considered a separate invention. 
 Introduction
The first computers were people
• Computers were given this name because
they performed the work that had
previously been assigned to people.
"Computer" was originally a job title.

• It was used to describe those human

beings (predominantly women) whose job
it was to perform the repetitive
calculations required to compute.
 Introduction
• So imagine you had a job where hour
after hour, day after day, you were to do
nothing but compute multiplications.
Boredom would quickly set in, leading to
carelessness, leading to mistakes. And
even on your best days you wouldn't be
producing answers very fast. Therefore,
inventors have been searching for
hundreds of years for a way to
mechanize this task.
 Introduction

This picture shows what were known as "counting tables"
Introduction

• The earliest counting devices known

to man were his own hands and
fingers. If that wasn't enough ,
things in nature were used like
shells, stones.
  First era [simple tools ]
• Man's invention of the computer
resulted from man's need to
quantify ,to do mathematic
calculations ,man was inventing
easier and faster ways of
calculating.
 First era [simple tools ]
• The most important One of this earlier
invention was The abacus .
• The abacus is a simple counting aid,
may have been invented in Babylonia
(now Iraq) in the fourth century B.C.

• Its only value is that it aids the memory

of the human performing the calculation.
A very old abacus
A more modern abacus
 First era [simple tools ]
• The abacus is considered the first
personal calculator
• So we can say that Computers have
their beginnings back in pre-history,
starting with the abacus.

• A century later, the Arabs invented the

decimal numbering system — the basic
language of mathematics .
 First era [simple tools ]

• Arabic numerals are introduced to Europe

in the 8 and 9 centuries A.D. Roman
numerals remain in use in some parts of
Europe until the 17 century. The Arabic
system introduced the concepts of the 0 and
fixed places for tens, hundreds, thousand,
etc., and greatly simplified mathematical
calculations.

• The model of the abacus integrated the

knowledge of the decimal number system
and evolved into a mechanical calculator.
 First era [simple tools ]
• In the 17 century John Napier, invents
logs in 1614. Logs allow multiplication
and division to be reduced to addition
and subtraction.
• where the logarithm
values were carved on
ivory sticks which are
now called Napier's
Bones
An original set
of Napier's Bones
A more modern set of Napier's Bones 
The Mechanical Era (1623-1945)

• Wilhelm Schickard builds the first

mechanical calculator in 1623. to
actually be built was probably the
calculating clock It can work with
six digits, and carries digits across
columns.
Schickard's Calculating Clock
 The Mechanical Era (1623-1945)
• In 1642 Blaise Pascal, at age 19, invented
the Pascaline as an aid for his father who
was a tax collector It used addition to
subtract, multiple and divide .

• Blaise Pascal builds a mechanical calculator.

It has the capacity for eight digits, but has
trouble carrying and its gears tend to jam.

• Although this machine could perform addition

and subtraction on whole numbers, it was too
expensive and only Pascal himself could repair
it
Pascaline 6 digit model
A Pascaline opened up so you can observe the gears and 
cylinders which rotated to display the numerical result
The Mechanical Era (1623-1945)
• Joseph-Marie Jacquard invents
an automatic loom controlled by
punch cards.
The Mechanical Era (1623-1945)
How the automated loom machine work
• automated loom machine operated by
dropping needles through holes punched
in cards. When the needle passed
through the hole it lifted a weaving
thread, if the needle did not drop
through the hole the weaving thread
lowered. When the weaving shuttle
passed through the threads it developed
a pattern.
A close-up of a Jacquard card
Jacquard's Loom showing the threads and the punched cards
 automated loom machine
• Since the needles were up or down
like on or off switches used in
computers today the automated loom
is considered the “true digital 
computer”.

• the punched card system later

applied to the U.S. census and then
to computers...
 The Mechanical Era (1623-1945)
• By 1822 the English mathematician Charles
Babbage was proposing a steam driven
calculating machine the size of a [room], which
he called the Difference Engine
• This machine would be able to compute tables
of numbers, such as logarithm tables
• Ten years later the device was still nowhere
near complete, acrimony abounded between all
involved, and funding dried up. The device was
never finished.
A small 
section of the 
type of 
mechanism 
employed in 
Babbage's 
Difference 
Engine
 The Mechanical Era (1623-1945)
• Babbage was not deterred, and by then was
on to his next brainstorm, which he called the
Analytic Engine. This device, large as a
house and powered by 6 steam engines

• Babbage who made an important 

intellectual leap regarding the punched, 
the presence or absence of each hole in the
card physically allows a colored thread to pass
or stops that thread cards In the Jacquard
loom,
 The Mechanical Era (1623-1945)
• Babbage saw that the pattern of holes
could be used to represent an abstract
idea such as a problem statement or the
raw data required for that problem's
solution.
• The Analytic Engine also had a key
function that distinguishes computers
from calculators (conditional statement)
• Furthermore, Babbage realized that
punched paper could be employed as a
storage mechanism, holding computed
numbers for future reference
 The Mechanical Era (1623-1945)

 Ada Byron Though she was only 19, she was

fascinated by Babbage's ideas and through
letters and meetings with Babbage she learned
enough about the design of the Analytic Engine
to begin fashioning programs for the still
unbuilt machine

 Ada wrote a series of "Notes" wherein she

detailed sequences of instructions she had
prepared for the Analytic Engine
The Mechanical Era (1623-1945)

 But Ada earned her spot in history

as the first computer programmer.
Ada invented the subroutine and
was the first to recognize the
importance of looping .
 The Mechanical Era (1623-1945)

• Hollerith's invention, known as the

Hollerith desk consisted of a card
reader which sensed the holes in
the cards .
An operator working at a Hollerith Desk like the one below
A few Hollerith desks still exist today
 The Mechanical Era (1623-1945)

• The patterns on Jacquard's cards were

determined when a tapestry was designed and
then were not changed. Today, we would call
this a read-only  form of information storage.
Hollerith had the insight to convert punched
cards to what is today called a read/write 
technology.

• Hollerith's technique was successful and the

1890 census was completed in only 3 years at a
savings of 5 million dollars.
Preparation of punched cards for the U.S. census
Incidentally, the 
Hollerith census 
machine was the 
first machine to 
ever be featured 
on a magazine 
cover. 
 The Mechanical Era (1623-1945)

• Hollerith built a company, the

Tabulating Machine Company which,
after a few buyouts, eventually
became International Business
Machines, known today as IBM.

• IBM grew rapidly and punched cards

became ubiquitous .
The end of the Mechanical Era
• As physics paved the way for electrical
innovation, scientists discovered in electrical
charge a way to represent data. The beads of
the abacus were replaced by bits in the modern
computer – essentially a bit or ‘binary digit’ is a
small electrical charge that represents a 1 or 0.
The creation of the bit marked a transition from
the decimal system for humans (10 primary
numbers from zero to nine) to a binary system
for computers (only two numbers, 0 and 1).
Electro-Mechanical Era (1920 - 1945)

• For the first time electricity was used in

the operation of computers, but
computers still had many mechanical
components.
• Programming a computer did not
involve software. Rather, the
programmer actually rewired the paths
of electricity through the machine in
order to change its mode of operation
 Third era [Electronic Era (present)]

• This era development is often referred

to in reference to the different
generations of computing devices. Each
generation of computer is characterized
by a major technological development
that fundamentally changed the way
computers operate, resulting in
increasingly smaller, cheaper, more
powerful and more efficient and reliable
devices.
 Computer Generations
• (Zero Generation -1920's Electro-mechanical)
• First Generation - 1940-1956: Vacuum Tubes

• Second Generation - 1956-1963: Transistors

• Third Generation - 1964-1971: Integrated Circuits

• Fourth Generation - 1971-Present:

Microprocessors

• Fifth Generation - Present and Beyond: Artificial

Intelligence