ssion 9b5: Topics In Computer Science And Engineering I1

Chair: Gerald L. Engel, University of Connecticut-Stamford

Evolution of Computer Systems

Matthew N. 0. S a m Clarence N. Obiozor

Department of Electrical Engineering Department of Electrical Engineering
Temple University University of North Florida
Philadelphia, PA 19122 Jacksonville, FL 32224

Abstract While Thomas of Colmar was working on the

mechanical calculator, Charles Babbage (1792-1871) at
Although bits and pieces of the historical Cambridge, England, was developing the first digital
background on computer systems are found in computer. By 1822, he built an automatic mechanical
monographs and encyclopedia, a brief account that a calculator called the “difference engine.” In 1833 he
beginner can quickly digest is hard to come by. This began to work on a general-purpose, programmable,
article presents such a short account. From ABACUS to automatic mechanical digital computer called the
ENIAC and from ENIAC to BISDN the paper covers the “analytic machine”. Unfortunately, Babbage’s analytical
signifcant advances associated with computers. It is engine was never completed because its design required
hoped that the paper is useful to a beginner in the field fabrication precision beyond what was feasible at that
or an interested non-expert. time.

A major step forward in the evolution of computer

Early Devel~pments systems is the invention of punch cards which was first
used during the U.S. census of 1890 by Herman Hollerith
The need for counting, computing or processing
and James Powers while working for the U.S. Census
data has been with man from the beginning. The most
Bureau. With the punch cards, the calculating machines
significant early computing tool is the ABACUS, a
became fully automatic. In 1896 Hollerith formed the
wooden rack holding parallel rods on which beads are
Tabulating Machine Company which manufactured
strung. This simple device was used for addition and
punch card machines. After his retirement in 1913,
subtraction. A Scottish scholar, John Napier (1550-1617)
Thomas J. Watson, Sr. became president of the company,
invented the logarithm and in 1661, William Oughtred
which became International Business Machines
invented both the rectilinear and circular slide rules.
Corporation in 1924. This company was later to play a
These are analog computers which have been replaced in
signifcant role in the evolution of computer systems.
modem times by pocket calculators.

A significant advance in the evolution of computing Modern Digital Systems

systems was the invention of a mechanical adding
machine in 1642 by the French scientist Blaise Pascal Although the punched machine was well estab-
(1623-1662). Having observed Pascal’s machine in Paris, lished and reliable by the late 1930’s, several research
the German mathematician Gotthied Wilhelm von groups worked hard to build automatic digital computer.
Leibniz (1646-1716) designed a better one in 1671[1]. A group of IBM team of four workers led by Howard
While Pascal’s machine could only count, Leibniz device Hathaway Aiken, a physicist and mathematician at
could also multiply, divide, and find square root. In 1820, Harvard University, began work on a fully automatic
Thomas of Colmar (Charles Xavier Thomas) produced calculator in 1939. The calculator, commonly called the
the first commercially available mechanical calculator. International Business Machines Automatic Sequence
This desktop calculator could add, subtract, multiply, and Controlled Calculator or Harvard Mark I, was completed
divide. This was followed by a succession of advanced in August 1944. This was the first informa-
and improved versions of mechanical calculators [2]. tion-processing machine. As an electromechanical
computer, it has 760,000 wheels, 500 miles of wire, and

0-7803-3348-9 0IEEE 1472 FIE ‘96 Proceedings

a panel 51 ft long and 8ft high. Input data was entered scientific computer market during the period of
through the punched cards, and the output was by 1960-1964. Some of the popular second-generation
punched card or electric typewriter. Aiken’s machine computers were IBM 7000, 1400 series, UNIVAC 111,
was similar in principle to Babbage’s analytical machine RCA 301 and 501, Honeywell 400 and 800, and NCR
although Aiken did not know about Babbage’s work 315.
when he started his research.
The second-generation computers (1959-1969)
The first all-digital electronic computer made its were succeeded by the third computer generation
appearance during the World War II. In the United (1969-1977), which used integrated circuits. The era of
States, there was the desperate need for computers that microelectronics started with the invention of the
would quickly compute firing tables for the variety of integrated circuit(1C) in 1958. With the introduction of
new weapons used by the U.S. army. In 1942, electrical integrated circuits , it was possible to have hundreds of
engineer J. Presper Eckert and physicist John W. circuit elements on a tiny silicon chip. Important
Mauchly, at the Moore School of Engineering, University members of the third generation include the IBM 360
of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, met the need and and 370, UNIVAC 1108, RCA 3301, GE 645, Honeywell
developed ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and 200 series, and the DEC PDP-8.
Calculator). ENIAC went into operation in 1946. It was
the first all-purpose, digital electronic computer. It used The fourth-generation computers became available
vacuum tubes instead of relays as the logic elements. in the 1980s when very large-scale integration (VLSI), in
Because of this, it was more than 1,000 faster than its which thousands of transistors and other circuit elements
electromechanical predecessors. However, ENIAC was are placed on a single chip, became increasingly
of an unprecedented size and complexity. common. The VLSI technology greatly increased the
circuit density.
In 1950, ENIAC was succeeded by EDVAC
(Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer), a While the first-, second-, third-generation
stored-program computer. In 1947, Eckert and Mauchly computers used ferrite core as memory units, the
established their own company, Eckert-Mauchly fourth-generation computers used semiconductor devices
Computer Corporation, to manufacture computers fabricated by VLSI technology as ultrahigh-access
commercially. In 1951, the company produced the memory units. The drop in cost associated with the
UNIVAC I (Universal Automatic Computer) for the U.S. size-reduction trend led to the introduction of personal
Census Bureau. Although this first commercial computers for use in office, schools, and homes. Several
computer was produced for the Census Bureau, it was companies such as IBM, Apple Computer, and Radio
used extensively by the scientific community. UNIVAC I Shack, began to produce and market personal computers
achieved the greatest fame among the early digital with enormous success.
computers because it was used to predict correctly the
presidential election in 1952. The results projected The race is now on building the next or “fifth”
Dwight Eisenhower’s election over Adlai Stevenson 45 generation of computers, machines that exhibit artificial
minutes after the polls closed. intelligence. Thus new generations of computers will
involve robotics and computer networks.
Generations Of Computers
Computer Networks
The first generation of computers (1950-1959) used
vacuum tubes as their logic elements and ring-shaped Originally networks were used to connect only
ferrite cores as memories. During this period computers mainframe computers. But with the proliferation of
were bulky, unreliable, and expensive. These computers inexpensive computer systems and advances in software,
include ENIAC, EDVAC, UNIVAC I, UNIVAC 11, IBM the need to network personal computers and other
702 and 650. The introduction of semiconductor digital computer peripherals became apparent. Computer
elements marked the beginning of the second computer networking has been developed at three levels: local area
generation in 1959. The second generation was marked network (LAN) that interconnect computers located
by reduced size and cost with increased speed and within a relative small area such as a college campus;
reliability. Magnetic tape became the principal external metropolitan area network (MAN) representing LAN
storage medium. IBM produced the 709TX system in technologies optimized for a metropolitan area such as a
1959 and later produced 7094 which dominated the city; wide area network (WAN) providing

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communication services over several kilometers, across the first manipulator with a playback memory. By the
the nation, or around the globe [3]. mid-l960s, the race to create intelligent robots with the
most accuracy and speed led to the formation of research
The idea of computer networking started in the centers and laboratories in the new field of robotics and
1960s when time-sharing services were first available to its allied field of artificial intelligence. Researchers' aims
the public [4]. Early pioneers were General Electric were to integrate perceptual and problem-solving
(GE), XEROX, AT &T, IBM government agencies, capabilities into one system, using computers for
research laboratories, and universities. ARPANET was controllers or brains, TV cameras for vision, and touch
built in 1969 by the Advanced Research Projects sensors for robot grippers. In 1967, General Electric
(ARPA), an arm of the U S . Department of Defense. It produced a four-legged vehicle. In 1969 and 1970,
was a public network connecting several major researchers at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) produced
universities and research institutions. The ARPANET a mobile robot, known as Shakey, which had some vision
eventually grew into a U.S. backbone network leading to capability. In 1974, Vicarm Inc. marketed a robot that
the current Internet. The success of the ARPANET led used a minicomputer for a controller. By the year 1978,
its primary contractors (Bolt, Beranek, and Newman) to there were about 2,500 industrial robots in the United
form a commercial network company, TEENET in States. 1980 witnessed the establishment of the largest
1972. university laboratory on robotics at Carnegie Mellon
University. In the same year, University of Rhode Island
The metropolitan area networks (MANS) are an demonstrateda prototype robotics vision system.
outgrowth of LANs. The MAN effort started in 1982.
The objectives were to provide for interconnection of Conclusion
LANs, bulk data transfer, digitized voice, and video. The
fiber distributed data interface (FDDI) proposed by the Early computers were electromechanical at best;
American National Standard Institute (ANSI) is the most they were limited in speed, reliability, and flexibility.
popular MAN. It is a token ring network with fiber optic Modem digital computers are fast and reliable. Computer
as its transmission medium. systems will continue to find increasing application in
every aspect of human activity. As we approach the next
In the late 1970s, the concept of ISDN was born. century, the most important areas related to computers
The ISDN is regarded as an all-purpose digital network will be networking and artificial intelligence.
in that it will provide an integrated access that will
support a wide variety of applications in a flexible and
cost-effective manner. The implementation of ISDN has
References
been slow in actual practice. The ISDN concept has been
1. M. R. Williams, A History of Computing
tried in many nations. The real excitement of ISDN
Technology. Englewood Cliffs, N J F'rentice Hall,
comes about when one considers the capabilities of
1985, p. 139.
broadband ISDN (BISDN).
2. A. Ralston (ed.), Encyclopedia of Computer Science
and Engineering. New York: Nostrand Reinhold
obotics And Artificial Intelligence Co., 1982,2nd ed., 1982, pp. 532-554.
3. M. N. 0. Sadiku and M. Ilyas, Simulation of Local
A robot is a reprogrammable, multifunctional Area Networks. Boca Raton, FL:CRC Press, 1995,
manipulator designed to perform functions ordinarily pp. 1-2.
ascribed to human beings [5]. The key word is 4. J. S. Quarterman, The Matrix. Bedford, M A
reprogrammable because it refers to a built-in computer Digital Press, 1990, pp.137-174.
control system. This distinguishes robots from 5. R. D. Klafter et al., Robotic Engineering: An
numerically controlled systems that can adapt to new Integrated Approach. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
tasks. The "robot age" began in 1954 when George C . Prentice Hall, 1989, p. 10.
Devol, who is regarded as the "father of robot," patented

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