DAVID UMAHI FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF HEALTH SCIENCES

[DUFUHS], UBURU
COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF NATURAL SCIENCES
LECTURE NOTE ON COS 101 (INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER
SCIENCE)
PRPARED BY: NWALI STEPHEN CHIBUIKE [email protected]
08039533551
TOPICS: History of Computers and Computing
INTRODUCTION
The history of computers began with primitive designs in the early 19th century
and went on to change the world during the 20th century.

The history of computers is dated back to over 200 years ago. At first theorized by
mathematicians and entrepreneurs, during the 19th century mechanical calculating
machines were designed and built to solve the increasingly complex number-
crunching challenges. The advancement of technology enabled ever more-complex
computers by the early 20th century, and computers became larger and more
powerful.

Today, computers are almost unrecognizable from designs of the 19th century,
such as Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine — or even from the huge computers
of the 20th century that occupied whole rooms, such as the Electronic Numerical
Integrator and Calculator.

Here's a brief history of computers, from their primitive number-crunching origins

to the powerful modern-day machines that surf the Internet, run games and stream
multimedia.

HISTORY OF COMPUTERS

The primitive Era

The first counting device was used by the primitive people. The primitive people
used sticks, fingers, stones, sea shells and twigs and bones as counting tools.

Mechanical Era

As human mind and technology improved with time, some computing devices
were developed. Some of the popular mechanical computing devices starting with
the first to recent ones are described below;

Abacus
 Napier’s Bone
Pascaline Machine
Leibnitz Wheel or Stepped Reckoner
Difference Engine
Analytic Engine
Hermon Hollerith Tabulating Machine

ABACUS: The Chinese invented Abacus around 4,000 years ago. It was a wooden
rack which has metal rods with beads mounted on them. The beads were moved by
the abacus operator according to some rules to perform arithmetic calculations.
Abacus is still used in some countries like China, Russia and Japan.

Before the Hindu-Arabic number system was invented in India in the 6th or 7th
century and introduced to Europe in the 12th century, people counted with their
fingers, and even their toes in tropical cultures. Then, as even larger quantities
(greater than ten fingers and toes could represent) were counted, people picked up
small, easy-to-carry items such as pebbles, sea shells and twigs to add up sums.

However, merchants who traded goods needed a more comprehensive way to keep
count of the many goods they bought and sold. The abacus is one of many
counting devices invented in ancient times to help count large numbers, but it is
believed that the abacus was first used by the Babylonians as early as 2,400 B.C.

The standard abacus can be used to perform addition, subtraction, division and
multiplication; the abacus can also be used to extract square-roots and cubic roots.
The beads are manipulated with either the index finger or the thumb of one hand.

The abacus is typically constructed of various types of hardwoods and comes in

varying sizes. The frame of the abacus has a series of vertical rods on which a
number of wooden beads are allowed to slide freely. A horizontal beam separates
the frame into two sections, known as the upper deck and the lower deck.
ABACUS PARTS: The various parts of the abacus are identified here: the frame,
the beam, the beads and rods and the upper and lower decks.

Preparation & Bead Values

The abacus is prepared for use ("zeroed") by placing it flat on a table and pushing
all the beads on both the upper and lower decks away from the beam by sliding the
thumb along the beam.

BEAD VALUES: Each bead in the upper deck has a value of 5; each bead in the
lower deck has a value of 1. Beads are considered counted, when moved towards
the Beam— the piece of the abacus frame that separates the two decks.

Counting

After 5 beads are counted in the lower deck, the result is "carried" to the upper
deck; after both beads in the upper deck are counted, the result (10) is then carried
to the left-most adjacent column.
Referring to the Figure/Applet above, the third column (from the left), representing
the number 8, is counted with 1 bead from the top-deck (value 5) and 3 beads from
the bottom-deck (each with a value of 1, totaling 3); the sum of the column (5+3)
is 8.

Similarly, the fourth column representing the number 7, is counted with 1 bead
from the top-deck (value 5) and 2 beads from the bottom-deck (each with a value
of 1, totaling 2); the sum of the column (5+2) is 7.

Uses

The Abacus is used to perform mainly arithmetic operations of addition and

subtraction

NAPIER’S BONE: It was invented by John Napier (1550-1617) of Merchiston. In

this calculating tool, he used 9 different ivory strips or bones marked with numbers
to multiply and divide. So, the tool became known as "Napier's Bones. It was also
the first machine to use the decimal point. The 'bones' consist of a set of
rectangular rods, each marked with a counting number at the top, and the multiples
of that number down their lengths. When aligned against the row of multiples, any
multiple of the top number can be read off from right to left by adding the digits in
each parallelogram in the appropriate row. Multiplication is thus reduced to
addition and the bones can also be used for division and to calculate square roots.

Multiply numbers
To perform simple multiplication, you will place the number to be multiplied along
the first column. To perform complex multiplication, you place the numbers to be
multiplied along the first column and then add the results.

For example, let us multiply the following numbers:

a. 258 x 5
b. 455 x 36

To perform the first multiplication, students should line up columns 2, 5, and 8

along the first column. Then add the values along the 5th row as shown below.

Do the following:

a. The first entry in column 2 is 1, record 1.

b. The second entry in column 2 is 0. Add the second entry to the first entry in
column 5. You have [0 + 2 = 2]. Write down 2. Now you have 12.
c. The second entry in column 5 is 5. Add 5 to the first entry in column 8. You
have [5 + 4 = 9]. You now have 129.
d. The second entry in column 8 is 0. Include 0 in your numbers to have: 1290.
Therefore, 258 x 5 = 1290.

Uses
The Napier’s bone is used to carry out multiplication and division operations

PASCALINE MACHINE: Pascaline is also known as Arithmetic Machine or

Adding Machine. It was invented between 1642 and 1644 by a French philosopher
and mathematician Blaise Pascal. It is believed that it was the first mechanical and
automatic calculator.

Pascal invented this machine to help his father, a tax accountant. It could only
perform addition and subtraction. It was a wooden box with a series of gears and
wheels. When a wheel is rotated one revolution, it rotates the neighboring wheel. A
series of windows is given on the top of the wheels to read the totals.

LEIBNITZ WHEEL OR STEPPED RECKONER: It was developed by a

German mathematician-philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz in 1673. He
improved Pascal's invention to develop this machine. It was a digital mechanical
calculator which was called the stepped reckoner as instead of gears it was made of
fluted drums.

DIFFERENCE ENGINE: This was designed by Charles Babbage who is known

as "Father of Modern Computer" during 1820s. It was a mechanical computer
which could perform simple calculations. It was a steam driven calculating
machine designed to solve tables of numbers like logarithm tables. The Difference
Engine is a calculator. It prepares numerical tables using a mathematical technique
known as the method of difference.

The Difference Engine was more than a simple calculator, however. It mechanized
not just a single calculation but a whole series of calculations on a number of
variables to solve a complex problem. It went far beyond calculators in other ways
as well. Like modern computers, the Difference Engine had storage—that is, a
place where data could be held temporarily for later processing—and it was
designed to stamp its output into soft metal, which could later be used to produce a
printing plate.

ANALYTICAL ENGINE: This calculating machine was also developed by

Charles Babbage in 1830. It was a mechanical computer that used punch-cards as
input. It was capable of solving any mathematical problem and storing information
as a permanent memory.

How it worked

The mill, the reader, the store, and the printer were all meant to be part of the
machine. These are the most critical components of today’s computers. The mill
was the calculating unit, similar to a current computer’s central processing unit
(CPU); the store is used to store data before processing, parallel to memory and
storage in modern computers; and the printer and reader were the input and output
devices.

The analytic engine has the following advantages;

 Flexibility: Unlike the Difference Engine, the Analytical Engine was

designed to be programmable, which gave it a much wider range of
functionality and made it adaptable to a variety of tasks.
 Storage: The machine had a “memory” in the form of punched cards, which
allowed it to store and recall data for future use.
 Potential for automation: The Analytical Engine had the potential to be fully
automatic, which would have made it even more efficient and accurate than
the Difference Engine.

HERMAN HOLLERINTH TABULATING MACHINE: It was invented in

1890, by Herman Hollerith, an American statistician. It was a mechanical tabulator
based on punch cards. It could tabulate statistics and record or sort data or
information. This machine was used in the 1890 U.S. Census. Hollerith also started
the Hollerinth’s Tabulating Machine Company which later became International
Business Machine (IBM) in 1924.

Electronic Era

The electronic era witnessed devices with more computing powers such as the
ENIAC, EDVAC and UNIVAC.
ENIAC: ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) is widely
considered the first general purpose computer. It was created by Physics Professor
John William Mauchly and his graduate student John Presper Eckert Jr. The
construction of the ENIAC lasted three years (from 1943 to 1946) and took place
at the Moore School of Electronics Technology, part of the University of
Pennsylvania.

The ENIAC computer was huge. It was nearly 10 feet high (3 meters), occupied
over 300 square feet (93 square meters) and weighted about 30 tons, which means
it had almost the same weight as a tank. For its construction, 18,000 vacuum tubes
were used along with 10,000 capacitors, 70,000 resistors and 6,000 switches. The
power consumption of this beast was 150 kW!

Key features of ENIAC

 1. Vacuum Tubes: ENIAC used around 17,468 vacuum tubes to perform
calculations. Vacuum tubes acted as processors, allowing the computer to
process and manipulate data.
2. Programmability: ENIAC was not a stored-program computer like modern
computers. Instead, it was programmed using a combination of patch cables
and switches. This made programming and reprogramming a time-
consuming and labor-intensive task.
3. Speed: ENIAC was significantly faster than previous mechanical computing
devices. It could perform calculations at a speed of about 5,000 additions per
second and was particularly useful for calculations required for scientific
research, cryptography, and engineering.
4. Versatility: While its initial purpose was to perform calculations for
artillery trajectory calculations during wartime, ENIAC's versatility allowed
it to be used for various applications, including weather prediction, nuclear
research, and simulations.
5. Size and Power Consumption: ENIAC was immense, taking up a
substantial amount of space and consuming a significant amount of power.
Its operation required regular maintenance and troubleshooting due to the
delicate nature of vacuum tubes.

Components of ENIAC
ENIAC had around;
18,000 vacuum tubes,
70,000 resistors,
10,000 capacitors,
6000 switches
Hundreds of thousands of soldered joints.
Punched card readers for input and output.

Uses of ENIAC

ENIAC was primarily used for scientific and military calculations, such as
performing calculations for the development of hydrogen bombs and artillery
trajectory calculations, weather prediction/forecasting, nuclear research and
simulations

Major Drawbacks of ENIAC

1. ENIAC's biggest flaw was on reliability, because the tubes that it used broke
down often, taking down the whole system, and as you can imagine, it was
pretty hard to find the defective tube(s) among the 18,000 that the ENIAC
used.
 2. Besides its reliability issues, ENIAC had another major problem: it was very
difficult to program. Contrary to today's computers, programming the
ENIAC or modifying an existing program required making hundreds of wire
changes. The programming procedure could last for several days, while
ENIAC usually needed just a few minutes to solve the assigned problem.

EDVAC

EDVAC, which stands for "Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer,"

was another significant milestone in the development of early computers. It was
designed as an improvement over ENIAC's limitations, particularly its lack of
stored-program capability.

The makers of ENIAC were aware of its significant drawbacks, so during its
manufacturing process they had already begun to design a new and improved
computer that would be named EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic
Computer). The major upgrade in EDVAC was the fact that it had memory that
allowed the storage of the execution code (program). EDVAC's memory was
provided through the use of mercury delay lines, and the binary system was used
instead of the decimal system, which simplified its construction.

EDVAC design was made possible through the article proposed by John von
Neumann in his colleagues at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New
Jersey in the mid-1940s. This proposal laid the foundation for modern
computer architecture and was designed to address some limitations of
ENIAC.
Key Features

The EDVAC was a binary serial computer with automatic addition, subtraction,
multiplication, programmed division and automatic checking with an
ultrasonic serial memory capacity of 1,024 44-bit words, thus giving a memory,
in modern terms, of 5.6 kilobytes.

Components of EDVAC
EDVAC was an arithmetic-only computer working with binary numbers rather
than the decimal operations of ENIAC. It had 1K 44-bit words of delay line
memory.

Components

EDVAC utilized a stored-program concept, where both data and instructions were
stored in the same memory. This concept is fundamental to modern computers.

Uses

EDVAC was used for scientific and research calculations, serving as a precursor to
more versatile and programmable computers.

UNIVAC 1 (Universal Automatic Computer 1)

UNIVAC 1 was one of the first commercially produced computers and was
introduced in the early 1950s. It marked the transition from experimental
computers to practical business applications.

The UNIVAC 1 (Universal Automatic Computer 1) was one of the earliest

commercially produced computers and is often recognized as the first computer
designed for general-purpose data processing and business applications. It was
developed by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, the same individuals who
were involved in the creation of ENIAC, and it marked a significant advancement
in the field of computing.
Key features

1. Commercial Use: Unlike its predecessors like ENIAC and EDVAC, which
were primarily developed for scientific and military purposes, UNIVAC 1
was designed with business applications in mind. It was intended to handle
tasks such as data processing, calculations, and generating reports for
businesses and government agencies.
2. Stored-Program Architecture: Similar to EDVAC, the UNIVAC 1
employed a stored-program architecture. This allowed users to store both
program instructions and data in the computer's memory, enabling greater
flexibility and ease of programming.
3. Magnetic Tape Storage: The UNIVAC 1 featured a magnetic tape storage
system, which was used for storing and retrieving data. This was a
significant improvement over earlier computers that relied on punch cards or
manual input for data storage.
4. High-Speed Processing: The UNIVAC 1 was faster and more reliable than
its predecessors. It could perform around 1,000 operations per second,
making it well-suited for various data processing tasks.
5. Commercial Success: The UNIVAC 1 was the first computer to be
produced and sold commercially. It gained attention for its potential to
automate business operations, and several units were sold to government
agencies and corporations.
 6. Census Application: One of the notable early applications of the UNIVAC
1 was its use in the 1950 United States Census. It played a significant role in
tabulating and analyzing census data, demonstrating its capabilities for
large-scale data processing.

Components

UNIVAC 1 employed the following components;

Vacuum tubes
Magnetic tape storage. It had a
Central processing unit (CPU),
Memory,
Input/output devices,
Separate console for operators.

Uses

UNIVAC 1 was used for a range of applications, including scientific calculations,

business data processing, and military simulations. It gained recognition for
accurately predicting the outcome of the 1952 U.S. presidential election.

These computing devices played crucial roles in shaping the evolution of computer
technology. They laid the groundwork for subsequent generations of computers by
introducing concepts like stored-program architecture and expanding the practical
applications of computing beyond scientific research into business and industry.