Introduction to Information and

Communication Technology (ITC)(CS-301)

Instructor : Dr. Abdul Razzaq

Email: [email protected]
ICT(CS-301)
 Lecture 02
Evolution of Computing

Please be on time
(better: before time)
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 During the Last Lecture …
• We learnt about the Analytical Engine - the first general-
purpose, digital computer – and its inventor Charles
Babbage
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• We had a discussion about the key strengths (speed, do not
get bored) and weaknesses (pattern recognition, innovative
ideas) of the modern computer

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 What Is a Computer?

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 Today’s Goal
1st Part

To learn about the evolution of computing

To recount the important milestones and the key events
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To learn about the steps that took us from Babbage’s idea of the
Analytical Engine to today’s ultra-smart hand held computers.

2nd Part

To learn to classify computers according to their capability and targeted

applications

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 But first, why should we spend time on
recounting the events of the past

Why?
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• If you do not learn from the history, your condemned to

repeat it

• Recounting the events of the past provides an excellent

opportunity to:
– learn lessons
– discover patterns of evolution
– use them in the future

• If we learn from history well, we will:

– neither repeat the mistakes of the past
– nor would we waste time re-inventing what already has been
invented

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 Babbage’s Analytical Engine - 1833

• Mechanical, digital, general-purpose

• Was crank-driven

• Could store instructions

• Could perform mathematical calculations

• Could store information permanently in punched cards

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 Babbage’s second computer
• Analytical engine
– general-purpose
– used binary system
– punched cards as input
– branch on result of previous
instruction
– Ada Lovelace (first
programmer)
– machined parts not accurate
enough
– never quite completed

analytical engine, 1834

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 Punched Cards - 1801

• Initially had no relationship with computers

• Invented by a Frenchman named Joseph-

Marie Jacquard for storing weaving
patterns for automated textile looms.
(“khuddian”)
• Their value for storing computer-related
information was later realized by the early
computer builders
• Punched cards were replaced my magnetic
storage only in the early 1950s

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 Vacuum Tube - 1904
• John Fleming, an English Physicist, developed the very first one

• These electronic devices consist of 2 or more electrodes encased in a

glass or metal tube
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• They along with electric relays were used in the construction of earlier
computers

• These tubes have now been almost completely replaced by more

reliable and less costly transistors

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 ABC - 1939
• Attanasoff-Berry Computer

• John Attanasoff & Clifford Berry at

Iowa State College

• World’s first electronic computer

• The first computer that used binary

numbers instead of decimal

• Helped grad students in solving

simultaneous linear equations

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 Harvard Mark 1 - 1943
• Howard Aiken of Harvard University

• The first program controlled machine

• Included all the ideas proposed by

Babbage for the Analytical Engine
• The last famous electromechanical
computer

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 ENIAC – 1946
• Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer
• World’s first large-scale, general-purpose electronic
computer
• Built by John Mauchly & John Echert at the University of
Pennsylvania
• Developed for military applications
• 5,000 operations/sec, 19000 tubes,
• 150 kilowatts: Used to dim the lights in the City of
Philadelphia down when it ran

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 ENIAC

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 Transistor - 1947
• Invented by Shockly, Bardeen, and Brattain at the Bell Labs in the
US

• Compared to vacuum tubes, it offered:

– much smaller size
– better reliability
– much lower power consumption
– much lower cost

• All modern computers are made of miniaturized transistors

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 EDVAC – 1948
• Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer

• Built by Echert & Mauchly and included many design ideas

proposed by Von Neumann

• The first electronic computer design to incorporate a

program stored entirely within its memory

• First computer to use Magnetic Tape for storing programs.

Before this, computers needed to be re-wired each time a
new program was to be run
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 • Tubes replaced mechanicals

• Transistors replaced tubes

• What is going to replace the transistors?

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 UNIVAC 1 - 1951
• UNIVersal Automatic Computer
• Echert & Mauchly Computer Company
• First computer designed for commercial apps
• First computer that could not only manipulate numbers but
text data as well
• Max speed: 1905 operations/sec
• Cost: US$1,000,000
• 5000 tubes. 943 cu ft. 8 tons. 100 kilowatts
• Between 1951-57, 48 were sold

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 Compiler - 1952
• Grace Hopper of US Navy develops the very first high-level
language compiler

• Before the invention of this compiler, developing a

computer program was tedious and prone to errors

• A compiler translates a high-level language (that is easy to

understand for humans) into a language that the computer
can understand

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 BASIC - 1965
• Beginner All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code

• Developed by Thomas Kurtz & John Kemeny at Dartmouth

College

• The first programming language designed for the non-

techies

• The grand-mother of the most popular programming

language in the world today – Visual BASIC
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 IBM PC & MS DOS - 1981
• IBM PC: The tremendously popular PC; the
grand-daddy of 95% of the PC’s in use today

• MS DOS: The tremendously popular operating

system that came bundled with the IBM PC

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 Apple Macintosh - 1984
• The first popular, user-friendly, WIMP-based PC

• Based on the WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus,

Pointing Device) ideas first developed for the Star
computer at Xerox PARC (1981)

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 Mobile Phone-Computer
• A small computer, no bigger than the hand set of desktop phone

• Can do whatever an Internet-capable computer can plus can function

as a regular phone

• First consumer device formed by the fusion of computing and wireless

telecommunication

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 Electronic Devices Used in Computers of Different
Generations

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 What is the next major Milestone?
1. Mechanical computing

2. Electro-mechanical computing

3. Vacuum tube computing

4. Transistor computing

(the current state-of the-art)

5. Quantum computing

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 What is the next major Milestone?
• Quantum computers may one day be millions of times more efficient
than the current state-of-the-art computers.
• They take advantage of the laws that govern the behavior of subatomic
particles.
• These laws allow quantum computers to examine all possible answers
to a question simultaneously
• For example, if you want to find the largest from a list of four
numbers:
– The current computers require on average 2 to 3 steps to get to the answer

– Whereas, the quantum computer may be able to do that in a single step

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 Classification of
computer

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 Computer Types According to Capability
• Supercomputers

• Mainframes

• Servers/Minicomputers
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• Desktops

• Portables

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 Supercomputers (1)
• State-of-the-art machines designed to perform
calculations as fast as the current technology allows

• Used to solve extremely complex and large-scale

problems: weather prediction, simulation of atomic
explosions; aircraft design; movie animation

• Cost tens of millions of dollars

• Unique in that unlike mainframes & personal

computers, designed to focus all their resources
and capabilities on a single task at a time
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 Supercomputers (2)
• Early supercomputers used a single or a few processors
working in parallel

• Those processors were custom-built for the

supercomputers, and were, therefore, very expensive
• Modern supercomputers use the same processors that are
used in desktop PCs. They, however, are designed to use
1000’s of them working together in parallel

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 Why use many not-so-
powerful processors
working in parallel ?
Why not just design a
single, really powerful

processor
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 Mainframe Computers (1)
• Also called “Enterprise Servers”

• Designed for performing multiple, intensive

tasks for multiple users simultaneously

• Used by large businesses (e.g. banks, e-

commerce sites), military, and industrial
organizations

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 Mainframe Computers (2)

• Designed for very-high reliability

• Can be serviced/upgraded while in operation

• Generally consist of multiple processors, GB’s of

memory, and TB’s of storage

• Cost in millions of dollars

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 Servers/Minicomputers (1)
• The name minicomputers used to define the
class of computers that lies between
personal computers and mainframes

• Then very high-end desktop computers –

called low-end or mid-range servers – took
over the role that was previously played by
minicomputers

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 Servers/Minicomputers (2)
• Low-end and mid-range servers are used by small
businesses and organizations as file-stores, to run
e-mail systems and Web sites

• Generally are more reliable than desktops, but not

as solid as the mainframes

• Generally consist of 2 or more processors, GB’s of

memory, and TB’s of storage

• Costs in hundreds of thousands of dollars

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 Desktop Computers (1)
• Also called microcomputers

• Low-end desktops are called PC’s and high-end ones

“Workstations”

• Generally consist of a single processor only, some

times 2, along with MB’s of memory, and GB’s of
storage

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 Desktop Computers (2)
• PC’s are used for running productivity applications,
Web surfing, messaging

• Workstations for more demanding tasks like low-end

3-D simulations and other engineering & scientific
apps

• Are not as reliable and fault-tolerant as servers

• Workstations cost a few thousand dollars; PC around

a $1000
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 Mobile Computers (1)
• Laptops, palmtops, and wearable computers are very
capable computers but are light-weight and consume very
little power

• Laptops (also called notebook computers) generally weigh

around 2kg, use special low-power processors, typically
have 256MB memory, 40GB of storage, can work for
more than 2 hours on battery

• Their usage is similar to that of PCs

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 Mobile Computers (2)
• Palmtops, also known as PDA’s - Personal Digital Assistants

• Weigh less than a pound, have very low-power processors,

KB’s of memory, MB’s of storage capacity

• Can run for many hours on AA batteries

• Used as an electronic version of a pocket diary. Also for

Web surfing and e-mail or even as mobile phones

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 Mobile Computers (3)
• Wearables are small in size, carried in a pocket, worn on the
arm, waist, or head or elsewhere on the body

• Capability similar to PDA’s, but more expensive

• They are always ON, and always accessible. That is, the
user can always enter and execute commands, even while
walking around or doing other activities

• Each soldier of the future will be fitted with one

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 Computer Generations
• Generation in computer terminology is a change in
technology a computer is/was being used.
• Initially, the generation term was used to distinguish between
varying hardware technologies.
• Nowadays, generation includes both hardware and software, which
together make up an entire computer system.

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 Computer Generations
• There are totally five computer generations known till
date
• We are discussing the generations of the computer in
terms of—
• Technology used by them (hardware and softwares)
• Computing characteristics( speed .. etc)
• Physical appearance
• Their applications
• Examples
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 Computer Generations

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 Computer Generations

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 Computer Generations

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 Computer Generations

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 At the highest level, two things are
required for computing
Hardware: The physical equipment in a computing
environment such as the computer and its
peripheral devices (printers, speakers, etc.)

Software: The set of instructions that operates

various parts of the hardware. Also termed as
“computer program”

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 Let’s summarize the things that we have
covered today?

Now that we have learnt..

Evolution of the computer

Generations of the computer
Various types of computers and about their typical applications.

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 Homework

What are Applications of Computer/ Usages of

Computer
?

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Today Message:

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