Introduction To Computing
Introduction To Computing
A. Pre-Mechanical Age
3000 B.C.-1450 A.D.
Writing and Alphabets -Communications First Humans communicated only through speaking and simple
drawings known as Petroglyphs.
Example of Petroglyph
- Cave painting from Lascaux, France,
c.15,000-10,000 B.C
- Prehistoric Petroglyph imagery from Western U.S.
Many of these are pictographs -pictures or sketchers that visually resemble that which is depicted.
Ideographs or Geometric Signs (dots, squares ,etc.)with no apparent depicted object (Symbols to
represent ideas or concepts).
First development of signs corresponding to spoken sounds, instead of pictures ,to express words.
Starting in c. 3100 B.C; the Sumerians in Mesopotamia (Southern Iraq) devised cuneiform -the first true
written, language and the first real information system Pronounced “coo-nay -eh form”
Example of 2000 B.C; Phoenicians created symbols that expressed single syllables and consonants (the
first true alphabet ). The Greek later adopted the Phoenician alphabet and added vowels ; the Romans
gave the letters Laten names to create the alphabet we use today.
The First Numbering System Egyptian System, The number 1- 9 as vertical lines ,the number 10 as a U or
circle ,the number 1,000 as lotus blossom, The first numbering systems similar to those in use today
were invented between 100 and A.D by Hindus in India who created a nine -digit numbering system.
Paper and Pens- Input Technologies, Sumerian’s input technology was a stylus that could scratch marks
in wet clay , About 600 B.C. the Egyptians wrote on the papyrus plant. Around 100 A. D. the Chinese
made paper from rags on w/c modern -day papermaking is based .
Books and LIBRARIES -Output technologies ,religious leaders in Mesopotamia kept the earliest books ,
Around 600 B C the Greeks began to fold sheets of papyrus vertically into leaves and bind them together
.The Egyptians kept scrolls.
1614; john Napier introduces logarithms :allow multiplication and division to be reduced to addition and
subtraction.
1617: John Napier employing an ancient numerical scheme known as the Arabian Lattice lays out a
special version of the multiplication tables on a set of four sided wooded rods. Allowing users to multiply
and divide large numbers and find square and cube roots
1623 : Wilhelm Shickard , a professor at the University of Tubingen, .Germany, invents at the first
mechanical calculator, it can work with six digits, and carries digits across columns .it works but never
makes it beyond the prototype stage.
SLIDE RULE
The slide Rule is used primarily for multiplication and division .and also for scientific “ functions such as
roots ,logarithms and trigonometry but does not generally perform addition or subtraction.
1642: Blaise Pascal,a mathematician, invented the mechanical calculation machine, Pascaline .
1671:Gottfried Leibniz, German mathematician, invented the machine called the stepped reckoner that
could multiply 5 digit and 12 digit numbers yielding up to 16 digit numbers .
1801: Joseph Marie Jacquard, develop an automatic loom that was controlled by punched card.
1820; Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar (1785- 1870) France developed an arithmometer,
a device that performed the same type of computations as Leibniz’s Stepped reckoner, but was more
reliable.
PUNCH CARD -is a piece of stiff paper that contains digital information represented by the presence or
absence of holes in predefined positions.
1821 – Charles Babbage, invented the first modern computer design: a stream powdered adding
machine called THE Difference Engine.
Babbage also invented the ‘’ Analytical engine a mechanical adding machine that took information from
punched cards to solve and print complex mathematical operations.
Babbage difference engine and analytical engine are regarded as the first thinking machines’’
They were easy to operate and produced solutions at the turn of a hand crank Babbage’s.inventions
‘’earned him the title Father of Computer.’’
Ada Augusta Lovelace(1815- 52 ) -wrote the first program for Babbage’s Analytical Engine, credited her
with being the First Computer Programmer. The programming language ADA is named in her honor.
1894: Gugliemo Marconi discovered that electrical waves travel through space and can produce an
effect far from the point at which they originated .
1852 :George Boole develops binary algebra . became bboolen algebra and became important in the
20th century when binary computers were developed.
ELECTROMECHANICAL COMPUTING
1853: Pehr and Edvard Scheutz, complete their Tabulating Machine, capable of processing fifteen-digit
numbers ,printing out results, and rounding off to eight digits.
1855 : Dorr Felt devises the comptometer, a key driven adding and subtracting calculator .
1899:felt’s Comptograph, containing a built in printer, is introduced.
1890: Herman Hollerith, the first person to successfully use punched cards -specifically for census taking
. punched card , adapted for use in early computer programmers with a new way to put information into
their machines .
Hollerith’s Successful use of punched cards in gathering and storing ,information made him the father of
information processing .
HE founded the tabulating Machine company , which later became the computer Tabulating recording
Company in 1921 his company went on to become the International Business Machines Corporation,
known today as IBM.
In 1893 :Millionaire, the first four function calculator, is invented by Otto Schweiger, a Swiss engineer.
1906 : The vacuum tube was developed by Lee De Forest . Vacuum Tubes : look similar to light bulbs
first major electrical part of a computer, replacing manual switches.