0% found this document useful (0 votes)
101 views50 pages351
evolution and history of computer
Uploaded by
Trisha AnCopyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF or read online on Scribd
0% found this document useful (0 votes)
101 views50 pages351
evolution and history of computer
Uploaded by
Trisha AnCopyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF or read online on Scribd
/ 50
Unit Objectives
* To trace the origin and explain evolution of
computers:
* Origin of Computing
= Mechanical era
" Electro-mechanical era
= Electronic era (including Computer Generations)
* To identify and compare the different developments
in the evolution computers Unit Introduction
The word Evolution comes from the Latin word, ‘évolv6’
which literally means; to ‘unroll’, or to ‘unfold’.
Evolution of computers refers to the historical developments
through which computers and technology have passed, from
the time they started to exist in ancient forms to their current
state.
Knowledge about the history/evolution of computers gives us
a deeper understanding of the origin and the gradual
Mechanical to Electro-mechanical to Electronic technological
changes, that have brought about the kind of computers we
see today, and helps us to predict how they will be in future. a) Origin of Computing (Counting
and Calculating using devices)
= The origin of computing started with the early man who
used fingers, stones, sticks, marks on walls, sand, e.t.c.
= The word ‘compute’ was derived from two Latin words;
‘com’, which means ‘together’ and ‘putare’, which may
means ‘add, calculate, count, or estimate’.
= Over the centuries, people have developed an amazing
variety of data processing tools and techniques.
Examples of Ancient counting and calculating devices
include The abacus, Napier’s bones, the Slide rule. i). The Abacus (3000 BC)
The beginning or foundation of computing devices is the
abacus, which was developed in 3000 BC by Chinese (about
5000 years ago).
It was built out of wood and beads.
The abacus helps people keep track of numbers as they do
the computing. It is quick but has limited storage capabilities
The figure here
represents the
number
1,352,964,708. today by schools and
shopkeepers in Asia. Blind
children are taught to use
the abacus to perform
calculations.
The abacus is an excellent
substitute for memorization |
teaching other base
numbering systems, since it
easily adapts itself to any
base. ii). Napier’s bones (1617)
= John Napier was a Scottish
mathematician and inventor.
Napier is famous for creating the
decimal point. In 1617, the last
year of his life, Napier invented a
tool called “Napier's Bones”.
= Napier's bones were
multiplication tables written on
strips of bones, ivory, silver, or
wood. The invention was used
for simplifying multiplication,
division, and taking square roots
and cube roots. Napier’s bones (cont)
It had a set of rods,
allowing computations up
to 100,000,000.
The left (or “index”)rod is
fixed to the case. It is
numbered from 1 to 9.
The movable rods are
numbered at the top.
The numbers down them
rods show the product of
the number at the top times
the corresponding numbers
on the index rod. iii). William Oughtred’s Slide
rule
= In 1622, William Oughtred created the slide rule (originally
circular) based on logarithms. It was the primary calculator of
engineers through the 19th and early 20th centuries.
= With a common accuracy of only three digits, the slide rule,
an analog device, provided sufficient accuracy, but was not
suited to situations where accuracy was needed such as in
accounting. b) The Mechanical Computers
era (1642 - 1890)
= Before 1642, all computation was done by
humans.
= Manual devices used then could just aid the
users to keep track of numbers as they did the
computing.
= In the Mechanical Era (Period) however,
machines and gears did the computations. b) The Mechanical Computers :
era (1642 - 1890)
= The popular mechanical developments of
computers in this period include:
Blaise Pascal's Calculator (1642),
Leibniz’s Stepped Reckoner (1694),
Jacquard’s Loom (1801), and
Charles Babbage’s Analytical & Difference
Engine (1834).
= This era also saw the development of the world's
first computer programmer Ada Byron Lovelace
(1815-1852) i) Blaise Pascal's Calculator
(1642)
Pascal, Blaise (1623-62),
was a French philosopher,
mathematician and
physicist. zi
In 1642, at the age of 18, he *
invented the first ‘
mechanical calculator to
speed arithmetic
calculations for his father,
a tax official. i) Blaise Pascal's Calculator
(1642)
= Numbers are dialed in on the metal wheels on the
front of the calculator.
= The solutions appear in the little windows along the
top. (ii) Leibniz’s Stepped Reckoner
(1694)
= The Stepped Reckoner was a
digital mechanical calculator
invented by German
mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm
Leibniz around 1672 and
completed in 1694.
= It was the first calculator that
could perform all four arithmetic
operations: add (ii) Leibniz’s Stepped Reckoner
(1694)
= Its complex gear work, however, was a bit beyond the
manufacturing technology of the time;
= Mechanical problems, in addition to design defects in the
carry mechanism, prevented the machines from working
reliably. (iii) Jacquard’s Loom (1801) i
= In 1801, Joseph Marie
Jacquard (1752-1834) of
France made the first
successful automatic draw
loom by means of a series of
instructions given to the
threads by a punched card
system.
= The loom could produce
complex patterns and pictures
in silk and other materials. (iii) Jacquard’s Loom (1801)
By 1812, the punched card
device was attached to
18,000 looms in Lyons.
The Jacquard loom was a
technological break-
through.
J. M. Jacquard even
received a pension from
Napoléon for his invention. = The concept of today's computers
(Input - Process - Output) was first
visualized by Charles Babbage in
1834 in England.
= He is therefore regarded as the
(iv) Charles Babbage’s Analytical & EC
Difference Engine (1834) ae
= His idea for the Analytical Engine
consisted of 4 parts: an input
device, a mill (processing unit), a _,
storage device, and an output
device. = Itused punched-card
system derived from the
jacquard loom for input,
processing and output
Variable cards transported
numbers back and forth
from the mill.
It decided what operation
to use, addition,
subtraction, multiplication,
or division. The First Computer
Programmer
= Ada Byron Lovelace (1815-1852) was the
world's first computer programmer.
= In 1842, Ada was asked to write a
scientific interpretation of the Analytical
Engine and its operations.
= These extensive writings on the
Analytical Engine later became known as
the first explanation of computer
programming.
= Acomputer language, Ada, was later
named after her by the Ada Joint
Program Office in 1964 (c)The Electro-mechanical
Computers Era (1890 - 1946)
= Before 1890, Electricity was not used by computers.
= As Electricity availability was becoming widespread,
it was involved in the use of computational devices.
= The popular developments of computers in the
Electro- mechanical era include:
iv.Hollerith's tabulating machine (1890)
v. Howard Aiken’s Harvard Mark | (1944)
vi.Program “debugging” (i) Hollerith's tabulating
machine (1890)
= Herman Hollerith (1860 -1929) was
an American statistician who
developed a mechanical tabulator — =
based on punched cards to rapidly ee all
tabulate statistics from millions of »
pieces of data. So
= He decided to use punched cards
to represent the data gathered for
the USA population census of 1890,
and to read and collate this data
using an automatic machine. (i) Hollerith's tabulating
machine (1890)
Hollerith’s machine used a set of
spring loaded wires suspended
over the punched card reader.
When the wires were pressed onto
the card, punched holes allowed
wires to complete electric circuits.
The cards were coded for age, state
of residence, gender, and other
information
The census results were "...
finished months ahead of schedule
and far under budget". S While a professor of Physics
at Harvard University, Howard
Aiken, was supported by IBM
to build an electro-
mechanical computer which
began computations for the
U.S. Navy Bureau of Ships.
The computer was called the
Automatic Sequence
Controlled Calculator -
(ASCC) by IBM but Harvard
renamed it the Mark | = Dr. Grace Murray Hopper was a
lady in the U.S. Navy Bureau of
Ships, who worked with
Howard Aiken from 1944 and
used his machine for gunnery
and ballistics calculation
= One day, the program she was
running gave incorrect results
and, upon examination, a moth
was found blocking one of the
relays. The First Computer Bug i
ele >to Pane E
(motth)in Celay
First actyal case © bug bein found
rAEie Qe dand
