Features of computer

 High specs
A. Typical Personal (Modern) Computer
1. Measured in Mega Hertz(MHz): millions of clock cycles per second
2. Range from 300MHz to 2GHz
3. 800Mhz: 1 instruction in 0.00000000125 seconds
4. Workstations, Mainframes, Personal computers are measures by Millions of instructions per
second(MIPS)
5. Range from 20 to 1000 MIPS (100 MIPS = Hundred million instructions per second)
B. Super Computer
1. Measured in Floating point operations per seconds(FLOPS)
2. Operate from five hundred Giga flops to three Tera flops (Giga flops = one billions flops, Tera
flops = one trillion flops)
 Reliability and accuracy
1. Results of a computer are highly reliable and precise
2. Can maintain accuracy in a Milli second, Micro second, Nano second, Pico second or any level of
required position
3. Computer works on electrical pulses
4. Error checking systems are built in to reduce the chance of errors
5. Reliability is maintained especially in repetitive task
6. Organizations provide backup computers that automatically take over in case the main
computers fail
7. Recovery systems are implemented to further strengthen the reliability of data
 large memory
1. Used to store data and information temporarily or permanently
2. temporarily = Random access memory or RAM: used to temporarily store programs that are
executing on your system, contents are erased when the power is off, measured in kilo, mega
and giga bytes
3. Permanent memory is used to store large repositories of data, user programs, applications like
MS office and operating systems like MS windows and lunix. Permanent memory is available
when you switch on the computer
 logical decision making
1. Computers has the ability to take decisions
2. The computer has special circuits to perform logical operations (comparisons) depending upon
the results of logical operations a computer can take appropriate actions
3. Computers are also capable of comparing text, images and audio.
4. Decision making capabilities has led to the invention of artificial intelligent machines
 versatility
1. capable of solving a variety of problems
2. use of personal computers have grown in fields of communications, multimedia, scientific
research, designing, engineering, education, entertainment.
  Automation
1. Computer performs operations automatically
2. When switched on it automatically executes instructions to check all peripheral devices, loads
the operating system, and provides interface to the user without human interaction.
 Diligence
1. A computer never feels tiredness
2. Can complete different jobs or a single task repeatedly without losing precisions

Limitations of computers
 Lack of intelligence
- Unable to think like a human
 Need proper environment for smooth operations
- Dust free environment
- Under certain temperature
 Need of special language
- Only understand binary code

History of Computers

Abacus – Manual counting device – 5000 years ago – contain beads and rods

1642 – Blaise Pascal – French Mathematician and philosopher – invented pascaline – used revolving
wheels to make calculations

1801 – Joseph-marie Jacquard – Jacquard loom – used punched cards and moving needles threads and
fabric to make Jacquard Weave

1842 – Charles Babbage - Difference Engine – Analytical Engine – can add subtract multiply and divide in
automatic sequence – average speed is 60 additions per seconds

Ada augusta love lace – first programmer - proposed that punched cards can be used to instruct
babbage’s engine to perform repetitive task

June 1890 – Dr. Herman Hollerith - Electro-mechanical punch card tabulating machine – hand punch
was used to enter data into cards – a sorter box was used to read and sort cards – output was
summarized in tabulating dials – sold his machine to USA CANADA AUSTRIA and others – lead to modern
data processing – is also the founder of tabulating machine company later called IBM (international
business machines)

Punch Cards – 1920 – 1950

Electromechanical accounting machine family (were very large and heavy and required physical labor to
operate)

- Card punch
- Verifier
- Reproducer
- Summary punch
- Interpreter
- Sorter
- Collator
- Accounting machines

First modern digital computer

- Atanasoff berry computer

- Built in Iowa state university
- 1939-1942
- Lead by john Atanasoff – professor of physics and mathematics
- And Clifford berry – graduate student
- Included binary arithmetic
- Parallel processing
- Storage
- Computer functions
- Weighed 750 pounds
- Can store 3000 bits of data

First electro mechanical computer

- 1944
- Mark One
- Built by Howard Aiken – A Harvard university professor
- Sponsored by IBM
First large scale digital computer

- 1946
- Electronic numerical integrator and computer (ENIAC)
- John Mauchly and John presper Eckert
- Engineer
- Moore school of electrical engineering in University of Pennsylvania
- Used to prepare firing and bombing tables for the U.S army and navy
- Also use in secret research that was aimed at building powerful and destructive bombs
- Consisted of 30 different units’ power supply and air Cooling system
- Weighted 30 tons
- Used 19000 vacuum tubes, 1500 relays, and hundreds of thousands of resistors, capacitors and
inductors.
- Required large amount of electricity
- can perform 5000 additions per minute
- hundreds of multiplications per minute

Colossus one

- built in secret government research establishment in England

- under the direction of Professor Max newman
- designed to break German enigma codes during WW2
- can scan and analyze 5000 character per second
- became operational in December 1943
- became one of the most important technological aids in the victory of WW2

EDSAC

- 1949
- Capable of storing computer program

EDVAC

- 1950
- Could store instructions
- Required less physical effort

First universal automatic computer

- 1951
- Muchly and Eckert
- Used vacuum tubes

1954

- IBM
- IBM 650
- Became commercially available
Cobol Programming Language

- 1959
- Dr. Grace Hopper
- Was a general-purpose English like programming language
- Dr. Grace developed a compiler that translated programs written in cobol to run on a variety of
computers
- Was also the one to find the first real bug in a computer
- Programmers debug software’s to find out errors or bugs in their programs

Second Generation computers

- 1959
- Transistors instead of vacuum tubes
- More powerful, reliable, less expensive, and smaller than previous computers

Mainframe computers

- 1960s

PDP-8 by DEC

- 1963
- Transistor based mini computer
- Demand for small computers for business and scientific applications increased

1970

- A number of firms were manufacturing computers

Third generation computers

- 1964
- Use large scale integrated circuits
- IBM developed system 360 that allowed companies to upgrade their computer systems without
converting their data

Basic programming language

- 1964
- Dr. Thomas Kurtz and Dr. Johan Kemeny
- Became a popular programming language for business and scientific applications
- Was supported in many types of computers
Fourth generation computer

- 1971
- Introduction of integrated circuits

Early 1970s

- Bill gates and Paul Allen were developing games for personal computers and introduced a basic
programming language
- They affirmed today’s most influential software firm (Microsoft Corporation)
- Microsoft Disk Operating System

Apple II personal computer

- 1975
- Steven Jobs and Steve Wozniak

IBM PC

- 1981

Mitchell Kapor

- Lotus Development company

- Introduced electronic spreadsheet applications that boosted the sale of IBM PC and Lotus 123

The credit for today’s friendly, easy to use Graphical user interface goes to Apple computer

GUI changed to human computer-interaction from text based exchange to friendly WIMP interface
during the last 2 decades UNIX, Microsoft Windows, Sun Solaris, Apple Macintosh, and many other
graphical user interface operating system were introduced.

During the last few years there has been a tremendous advancement in microprocessor technology and
now personal computers operates up to speeds of 2 gigahertzes. there have been considerable
advancements in computer peripheral devices. Most powerful super computers, mainframe, and minis
based on RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing) and CISC ( Complex Instruction Set Computing)
technologies are available in speed beyond imaginations.