Com 111

COM 111
Introduction to Computer Science
Dr. Kondwani G. Munthali

History of Computers and Computer
Science
September 6, 2018
Objectives
 History of computers
 Tally sticks, Abacus, Napiers Bones, Slide rule, Pascaline,
Stepped Reckoner, Jacquard Loom, Arithmometer, Difference
Engine and Analytical Engine,
 Generations of computers
 Hardware, software
 History of Computer Science
3 Kondwani Godwin Munthali (PhD) 9/6/2018

Department of Computer Science
Earliest computers
 Originally calculations were computed by
humans, whose job title was computers.
 These human computers were typically
engaged in the calculation of mathematical
expressions.
 The calculations of this period were
specialized and expensive, requiring years of
training in mathematics.

History of Computers…
 Tally sticks
 A tally stick is an ancient memory aid device to
record and document numbers, quantities, or even
messages.

 Abacus
 a mechanical device used to
aid an individual in performing
mathematical calculations
 Invented in Babylonia in 2400
B.C.
 First used in China in around
500 B.C.
 in the form we are most
familiar
 It used to perform basic
arithmetic operations.
 Napier’s Bone
 Invented by John Napier in 1614.
 Allowed the operator to multiply, divide and calculate square
and cube roots by
 Slide Rule
 Invented by William Oughtred in1622.
 Based on Napier's ideas about logarithms.
 Used primarily for multiplication, division, roots, logarithms,
Trigonometry
 Not normally used for addition or subtraction.

 Pascaline
 Invented by Blaise Pascal in 1642.
 It is too expensive
 Stepped Reckoner
 Invented by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in 1672
 Can add, subtract, multiply and divide automatically.
 Jacquard Loom
 invented by Joseph-Marie Jacquard in 1881
 automatic loom controlled by punched cards.

 Arithmometer
 A mechanical calculator invented by Thomas de Colmarin 1820,
 The first reliable, useful and commercially successful calculating
machine.
 The machine could perform the four basic mathematic
functions.
 The first mass-produced calculating machine.
 Difference Engine and Analytical Engine
 It an automatic, mechanical calculator designed to tabulate
polynomial functions.
 Invented by Charles Babbage in1822 and 1834
 It is the first mechanical computer.
 First Computer Programmer
 In 1840, Augusta Ada Byron suggests to Babbage that he use
the binary system.
 She writes programs for the Analytical Engine.
 Scheutzian Calculation Engine
 Invented by Per Georg Scheutz in 1843.
 Based on Charles Babbage's difference engine.
 The first printing calculator.
 Tabulating Machine
 Invented by Herman Hollerithin 1890.
 Used in summarizing information and accounting.

 Havard Mark 1
 Also known as IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC)
 Invented by Howard H. Aikenin 1943
 The first electro-mechanical computer.
 Z1
 The first programmable computer.
 Created by Konrad Zusein Germany from 1936 to 1938.
 To program the Z1 required that the user insert punch tape into a
punch tape reader and all output was also generated through punch
tape.
 Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC)
 The first electronic digital computing device.
 Invented by Professor John Atanasoff
 and graduate student Clifford Berry at Iowa State University between 1939 and
1942.

Generations of computers
 The history of computer development is often referred to in
reference to the different generations of computing devices.
 Each generation of computer is characterized by a major
technological development (hardware and software) that
fundamentally changed the way computers operate,
 Resulting in increasingly smaller, cheaper, more powerful, more
efficient and reliable devices.
 There are five generations in the history of computers:
 First generation–1946 -1958
 Second generation–1959 -1964
 Third generation–1965 -1970
 Fourth generation–1971 –today
 Fifth generation–Today to future

Generations of computers…
 Hardware used
 Vacuum tubes for circuitry with basic arithmetic
taking a few milliseconds, and
 Magnetic tape / magnetic drum were used as
memory
 Issues
 Bulky
 Consume more power with limited performance
 High cost
 Generated a lot of heat leading to malfunctions

 Software
 Used assembly language to prepare programs - translated into
machine level language for execution.
 100 to 1000 fold increase in speed relative to the earlier mechanical
and relay based electromechanical technology
 (Z1, Havard Mark 1, Tabulating Machine, Arithomometer)
 Punched cards and paper tape were invented to feed programs and
data and to get results.

 Mainly used for scientific computations examples include:
 ENIAC - Electronic Numerical Integrator And Calculator
 The first electronic general-purpose computer
 Completed in 1946.
 Developed by John Presper Eckertand John W. Mauchl.
 EDSAC – Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator
 EDVAC – Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer
 The First Stored Program Computer
 Designed by Von Neumann in 1952.
 It has a memory to hold both a stored program as well as data.
 UNIVAC – Universal Automatic Computer IBM 701
 The first commercial computer.
 Designed by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly.

 Hardware
 Transistors replaced vacuum tubes
 Magnetic ferrite core memories were used as main memory which is a
random-access nonvolatile memory
 Magnetic tapes and magnetic disks were used as secondary memory
 Punched cards continued during this period also.
 Advantages
 Small in size
 Less heat generated
 Lesser power consumption and better performance
 Lower cost

 Software
 High level languages such as FORTRAN, COBOL etc were used
 Compilers were developed to translate the high-level program into
assembly language program and then machine language.
 Separate input-output processors were developed that could operate
in parallel with CPU.
 1000 fold increase in speed.

 First computers were developed for the atomic energy
industry.
 Increasingly used in business, industry and commercial organizations

 Integrated Circuits replaced transistors
 Miniaturized group of transistors placed on silicon
chips, called semiconductors
 Operating system software introduced
(efficient sharing of a computer system by
several user programs)
 allowed the device to run many different
applications at one time
 Introduced microprogramming, parallel
processing (pipelining, multiprocessor system
etc.), multiprogramming, multi-user system
(time shared system) etc.
 Semiconductor memories (RAM & ROM)
replaced the initial magnetic core memories
 Punched cards and printouts, were replaced
with keyboards and monitors and interfaced
with an operating system,

 Cache and virtual memories were introduced
 Cache memory makes the main memory appear faster than it really is.
Virtual memory makes it appear larger
 High level languages were standardized by ANSI eg. ANSI FORTRAN,
ANSI COBOL etc
 All this led to:
 Smaller & better performance
 Comparatively lesser cost
 Faster processors
 Computers for the first time became accessible to a mass
audience (IBM 360, PDP-8)
 Database management, multi-user application,
 online systems
 airline reservation, interactive query systems, automatic industrial control etc
emerged during this period.

 Microprocessors were introduced as CPU
 Complete processors and large section of main
memory could be implemented in a single chip
 Tens of thousands of transistors can be placed in a
single chip
 Semiconductor memory chips were used as the
main memory.
 Secondary memory was composed of hard
disks – Floppy disks & magnetic tapes were
used for backup memory

 Improved parallelism, pipelining cache memory and virtual memory
 CRT screen, laser & ink jet printers, scanners etc were developed.
 LAN and WANS were developed (where desktop work stations
interconnected)
 Introduced C language and Unix OS
 Introduced Graphical User Interface
 Examples include
 Intel’s 8088,80286,80386,80486 .., Motorola’s 68000, 68030, 68040, Apple II, CRAY
I/2/X/MP etc)

 Describe current computer system that have a dominant
organizational or application driven feature.
 Computers based on artificial intelligence are available
 Use extensive parallel processing, multiple pipelines, multiple
processors etc
 Massive parallel machines and extensively distributed system
connected by communication networks fall in this category.
 Object oriented language like JAVA suitable for internet
programming has been developed.

 Portable note book computers introduced
 Storage technology advanced – large main memory and disk storage
available
 Plethora of www services
 e-mail, e Commerce,Virtual libraries/Classrooms, multimedia applications
etc.
 New and better operating systems developed
 Quantum mechanism and nanotechnology (smaller but improved) is
radically changing the phase of computers.
 Examples include:
 IBM notebooks, Pentium PCs-Pentium 1/2/3/4/Dual core/Quad core..
SUN work stations, Origin 2000, PARAM 10000, IBM SP/2

History of Computer Science
 History of algorithms
 Algorithms are derived from algebra, which was developed in
the seventh century by an Indian mathematician.
 In today’s computers, it is algorithms in essence that runs the
system and computation.
 Computer Programs are the manifestation of algorithms in machine
language.

History of Computer Science…
 Development of binary logic
 Just as with algorithms, computers rely on something else that
originated in ancient times - binary logic.
 The binary system was invented by the Indian mathematician Pingala
in the 3rd century BCE.
 In this system any number can be represented with just zeroes and ones.
 It was not until the 1700’s however, that binary logic was formally
developed from the binary system by German mathematician
Gottfried Leibniz.
 Leibniz is also known for having invented Calculus independently of
Newton.
 In binary logic, the zeroes and ones take on the values of false and
true, respectively, or off and ons.
 More than a century later, George Boole refined the process in his
publication of Boolean Algebra.

 Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace
 Together are often thought of as the founders of modern
computing.
 Babbage invented the Difference Engine, and, more importantly,
the Analytical Engine.
 The latter is often recognized as a key step towards the formation of
the modern computer.
 Ada Lovelace, daughter of famous poet Lord Byron, is known
for describing-in algorithms- the processes the Analytical
Engine was intended for.
 In this sense she is considered a pioneer in computer programming.

 The Analytical Engine
 Described as a mechanical general purpose computer that
would run off a steam engine.
 Steam engines were huge 30 by 10 meters
 It was never built
 However, in logical design it anticipated modern general
purpose computers by about a century
 The Harvard Mark I (1st large scale digital computer in the USA) was
based on the analytical engine years later.

 Computer Science Beginnings
 While Charles Babbage laid the foundations of Computer
Science, Alan Turing is regarded as the “Father of Computer
Science”
 Alan Turing invented the Turing Machine
 A basic abstract symbol manipulating device that can be used to
simulate the logic of any computer that could possibly be constructed.
 Again it was not actually constructed, but its theory yielded many
insights
 The Turing Test is Turing’s idea of how to determine a machines
capability as far as thought is concerned

 The key features of the Turing machine model of computation
are:
 A finite amount of internal state.
 An infinite amount of external data storage.
 A program specified by a finite number of instructions in a
predefined language.
 Self-reference: the programming language is expressive enough to
write an interpreter for its own programs.
 Determining the gender of a person by interrogation
 1st with two people in separate rooms and a third (interrogator) in
another
 Replace one of the two people with a computer and ask if the
interrogator can tell the difference
 Pass if there are equal interrogator guesses when a person is used as
when a computer
The rest of Semester
 Step back: How did we get here (History of Computers)
 Computer types and uses
 Computer hardware:
 Central Processing Unit (CPU), Random Access Memory (RAM), Read
Only Memory (ROM), bus, Hard Disks (HD), floppies, Compact Disk-
Read Only Memory (CDROM), tapes, screen, keyboard, mouse, printer
 Computer concepts:
 bit, byte, word, binary and ASCII coding,
 Introduction to operating systems:
 types, basic features of common OS, management of Central Processing
Unit (CPU), Random Access Memory (RAM), Input/Output and security.
Practice: Disk Operating System (DOS), Windows XP and Linux
 Boolean Algebra
 Introduction to Network Engineering
 Software packages:


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COM 111

Introduction to Computer Science

Dr. Kondwani G. Munthali

3 Kondwani Godwin Munthali (PhD) 9/6/2018

4 Kondwani Godwin Munthali (PhD) 9/6/2018

5 Kondwani Godwin Munthali (PhD) 9/6/2018

7 Kondwani Godwin Munthali (PhD) 9/6/2018

8 Kondwani Godwin Munthali (PhD) 9/6/2018

10 Kondwani Godwin Munthali (PhD) 9/6/2018

11 Kondwani Godwin Munthali (PhD) 9/6/2018

12 Kondwani Godwin Munthali (PhD) 9/6/2018

13 Kondwani Godwin Munthali (PhD) 9/6/2018

14 Kondwani Godwin Munthali (PhD) 9/6/2018

15 Kondwani Godwin Munthali (PhD) 9/6/2018

16 Kondwani Godwin Munthali (PhD) 9/6/2018

17 Kondwani Godwin Munthali (PhD) 9/6/2018

18 Kondwani Godwin Munthali (PhD) 9/6/2018

19 Kondwani Godwin Munthali (PhD) 9/6/2018

20 Kondwani Godwin Munthali (PhD) 9/6/2018

21 Kondwani Godwin Munthali (PhD) 9/6/2018

22 Kondwani Godwin Munthali (PhD) 9/6/2018

23 Kondwani Godwin Munthali (PhD) 9/6/2018

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25 Kondwani Godwin Munthali (PhD) 9/6/2018

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