<BASIC COMPUTING

PERIODS - AGES>
<DOMINIQUE AZARRAGA>
<COURSE INSTRUCTOR>
BASIC COMPUTING PERIODS - AGES
Premechanical
The premechanical age is the earliest age of
information technology. It can be defined as the time
between 3000B.C. and 1450A.D. We are talking
about a long time ago. When humans first started
communicating they would try to use language or
simple picture drawings known as petroglyths which
were usually carved in rock. Early alphabets were
developed such as the Phoenician alphabet.
BASIC COMPUTING PERIODS - AGES
As alphabets became more popular and more people were writing
information down, pens and paper began to be developed. It
started off as just marks in wet clay, but later paper was created
out of papyrus plant. The most popular kind of paper made was
probably by the Chinese who made paper from rags
BASIC COMPUTING PERIODS - AGES
Now that people were writing a lot of information down, they
needed ways to keep it all in permanent storage. This is where the
first books and libraries are developed. You’ve probably heard of
Egyptian scrolls which were popular ways of writing down
information to save. Some groups of people were actually binding
paper together into a book-like form.
BASIC COMPUTING PERIODS - AGES
Mechanical
The mechanical age is when we first start to see connections between our current technology
and its ancestors. The mechanical age can be defined as the time between 1450 and 1840.
A lot of new technologies are developed in this era as there is a large explosion in interest
with this area. Technologies like the slide rule (an analog computer used for multiplying and
dividing) were invented. Blaise Pascal invented the Pascaline which was a very popular
mechanical computer. Charles Babbage developed the difference engine which tabulated
polynomial equations using the method of finite differences.
BASIC COMPUTING PERIODS - AGES
There were lots of different machines created during
this era and while we have not yet gotten to a
machine that can do more than one type of
calculation in one, like our modern-day calculators, we
are still learning about how all of our all-in-one
machines started. Also, if you look at the size of the
machines invented in this time compared to the power
behind them it seems (to us) absolutely ridiculous to
understand why anybody would want to use them,
but to the people living in that time ALL of these
inventions were HUGE.
BASIC COMPUTING PERIODS - AGES
Electromechanical
Now we are finally getting close to some technologies that resemble our modern-day
technology. The electromechanical age can be defined as the time between 1840 and
1940.
These are the beginnings of telecommunication. The telegraph was created in the early
1800s. Morse code was created by Samuel Morse in 1835. The telephone (one of the most
popular forms of communication ever) was created by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876. The
first radio developed by Guglielmo Marconi in 1894. All of these were extremely crucial
emerging technologies that led to big advances in the information technology field.
BASIC COMPUTING PERIODS - AGES
The first large-scale automatic digital computer
in the United States was the Mark 1 created by
Harvard University around 1940. This computer
was 8ft high, 50ft long, 2ft wide, and weighed 5
tons - HUGE. It was programmed using punch
cards. How does your PC match up to this hunk
of metal? It was from huge machines like this
that people began to look at downsizing all the
parts to first make them usable by businesses
and eventually in your own home.
BASIC COMPUTING PERIODS - AGES
Electronic
The electronic age is what we currently live in. It can
be defined as the time between 1940 and right now.
The ENIAC was the first high-speed, digital computer
capable of being reprogrammed to solve a full range
of computing problems. This computer was designed
to be used by the U.S. Army for artillery firing tables.
This machine was even bigger than the Mark 1 taking
up 680 square feet and weighing 30 tons - HUGE. It
mainly used vacuum tubes to do its calculations.
BASIC COMPUTING PERIODS - AGES
There are 4 main sections of digital computing. The first was the era of vacuum tubes and
punch cards like the ENIAC and Mark 1. Rotating magnetic drums were used for internal
storage. The second generation replaced vacuum tubes with transistors, punch cards were
replaced with magnetic tape, and rotating magnetic drums were replaced by magnetic cores
for internal storage. Also during this time high-level programming languages were created
such as FORTRAN and COBOL. The third generation replaced transistors with integrated
circuits, magnetic tape was used throughout all computers, and magnetic core turned into
metal oxide semiconductors. An actual operating system showed up around this time along
BASIC COMPUTING PERIODS - AGES
with the advanced programming language BASIC. The fourth and
latest generation brought in CPUs (central processing units) which
contained memory, logic, and control circuits all on a single chip.
The personal computer was developed (Apple II). The graphical user
interface (GUI) was developed.
HISTORY OF COMPUTER:
GENERATIONS OF COMPUTER
There are five generations of computer:
• First generation – 1946 to 1958
• Second generation – 1959 to 1964
• Third generation – 1965 to 1970
• Fourth generation – 1971 to Today
• Fifth generation – Today to future
HISTORY OF COMPUTER:
GENERATIONS OF COMPUTER
The First Generation
The first computers used vacuum tubes for circuitry and magnetic drums for memory, and
were often enormous, taking up entire rooms. They were very expensive to operate and in
addition to using a great deal of electricity, generated a lot of heat, which was often the
cause of malfunctions. First generation computers relied on machine language, the lowest-
level programming language understood by computers, to perform operations, and they
could only solve one problem at a time. Input was based on punched cards and paper tape,
and output was displayed on printouts.
Examples: – ENIAC – EDSAC – UNIVAC I, UNIVAC II, UNIVAC 1101
HISTORY OF COMPUTER:
GENERATIONS OF COMPUTER
The Second Generation
Transistors replaced vacuum tubes and ushered in the second
generation of computers. One transistor replaced the equivalent of
40 vacuum tubes. Allowing computers to become smaller, faster,
cheaper, more energy-efficient and more reliable. Still generated a
great deal of heat that can damage the computer
HISTORY OF COMPUTER:
GENERATIONS OF COMPUTER
Second-generation computers moved from cryptic binary machine
language to symbolic, or assembly, languages, which allowed
programmers to specify instructions in words. Second generation
computers still relied on punched cards for input and printouts for output.
These were also the first computers that stored their instructions in their
memory, which moved from a magnetic drum to magnetic core technology.
Examples: UNIVAC III, RCA 501, Philco Transact S-2000, NCR 300 series,
IBM 7030 Stretch, IBM 7070, 7080, 7090 series
HISTORY OF COMPUTER:
GENERATIONS OF COMPUTER
The Third Generation
The development of the integrated circuit was the hallmark of the
third generation of computers. Transistors were miniaturized and
placed on silicon chips, called semiconductors, which drastically
increased the speed and efficiency of computers. It could carry out
instructions in billionths of a second. Much smaller and cheaper
compare to the second-generation computers.
HISTORY OF COMPUTER:
GENERATIONS OF COMPUTER
The Fourth Generation
The microprocessor brought the fourth generation of computers,
as thousands of integrated circuits were built onto a single silicon
chip. As these small computers became more powerful, they could
be linked together to form networks, which eventually led to the
development of the Internet. Fourth generation computers also saw
the development of GUIs, the mouse and handheld devices
HISTORY OF COMPUTER:
GENERATIONS OF COMPUTER
The Fifth Generation
Based on Artificial Intelligence (AI). Still in development. The use of
parallel processing and superconductors is helping to make artificial
intelligence a reality. The goal is to develop devices that respond to
natural language input and are capable of learning and self-
organization. There are some applications, such as voice recognition,
that are being used today.