© J Wagner March 20, 20

ABACUS
4th Century B.C.

 The abacus, a simple

counting aid, may have been
invented in Babylonia (now
Iraq) in the fourth century B.C.
This device allows users to
make computations using a
system of sliding beads
arranged on a rack.

© J Wagner March 20, 20

BLAISE PASCAL
(1623 - 1662)

 In 1642, the French

mathematician and
philosopher Blaise Pascal
invented a calculating device
that would come to be called
the "Adding Machine".

© J Wagner March 20, 20

BLAISE PASCAL
(1623 - 1662)

 Originally called a "numerical

wheel calculator" or the
"Pascaline", Pascal's invention
utilized a train of 8 moveable
dials or cogs to add sums of up to
8 figures long. As one dial turned
10 notches - or a complete
revolution - it mechanically
turned the next dial.
Pascal's mechanical Adding
© J Wagner March 20, 20
Machine automated the process
CHARLES BABBAGE
(1791 - 1871)

 Born in 1791, Charles

Babbage was an English
mathematician and professor.
 In 1822, he persuaded the
British government to finance
his design to build a machine
that would calculate tables for
logarithms.
With Charles Babbage's
creation of the "Analytical
© J Wagner March 20, 20
HOWARD AIKEN
(1900 - 1973)

 Aiken thought he could

create a modern and functioning
model of Babbage's Analytical
Engine.
He succeeded in securing a
grant of 1 million dollars for his
proposed Automatic Sequence
Calculator; the Mark I for short.
From IBM.
In 1944, the Mark I was
"switched" on. Aiken's colossal
© J Wagner March 20, 20
HOWARD AIKEN
(1900 - 1973)

 The Mark I did transform

Babbage's dream into reality and
did succeed in putting IBM's
name on the forefront of the
burgeoning computer industry.
From 1944 on, modern
computers would forever be
associated with digital
intelligence.

© J Wagner March 20, 20

ENIAC
1946

 Electronic Numerical
Integrator And Computer
Under the leadership of J.
Presper Eckert (1919 - 1995) and
John W. Mauchly (1907 - 1980)
the team produced a machine
that computed at speeds 1,000
times faster than the Mark I was
capable of only 2 years earlier.
Using 18,00-19,000 vacuum
tubes, 70,000 resistors and 5
© J Wagner March 20, 20
ENIAC
1946

 It could do nuclear physics

calculations (in two hours) which
it would have taken 100
engineers a year to do by hand.
The system's program could
be changed by rewiring a panel.

© J Wagner March 20, 20

ENIAC
1946

© J Wagner March 20, 20

TRANSISTOR
1948

 In the laboratories of Bell

Telephone, John Bardeen,
Walter Brattain and William
Shockley discovered the
"transfer resistor"; later labelled
the transistor.
Advantages:
 increased reliability
1/13 size of vacuum tubes
consumed 1/20 of the electricity
© J Wagner March 20, 20
of vacuum tubes
TRANSISTOR
1948
 This tiny device had a huge
impact on and extensive
implications for modern
computers. In 1956, the transistor
won its creators the Noble Peace
Prize for their invention.

© J Wagner March 20, 20

ALTAIR
1975
 The invention of the
transistor made computers
smaller, cheaper and more
reliable. Therefore, the stage was
set for the entrance of the
computer into the domestic
realm. In 1975, the age of
personal computers commenced.
Under the leadership of Ed
Roberts the Micro
Instrumentation and Telemetry
Company (MITS) wanted to © J Wagner March 20, 20
ALTAIR
1975
 Based on the Intel 8080
processor, capable of controlling
64 kilobyes of memory, the MITS
Altair - as the invention was later
called - was debuted on the cover
of the January edition of Popular
Electronics magazine.
Presenting the Altair as an
unassembled kit kept costs to a
minimum. Therefore, the
company was able to offer this
model for only $395. Supply© J Wagner March 20, 20
ALTAIR
1975
ALTAIR FACTS:
No Keyboard
No Video Display
No Storage Device

© J Wagner March 20, 20

IBM (PC)
1981

 On August 12, 1981 IBM

announced its own personal
computer.
Using the 16 bit Intel 8088
microprocessor, allowed for
increased speed and huge
amounts of memory.
Unlike the Altair that was sold
as unassembled computer kits,
IBM sold its "ready-made"
machine through retailers and by
qualified salespeople. © J Wagner March 20, 20
IBM (PC)
1981

 To satisfy consumer
appetites and to increase
usability, IBM gave prototype IBM
PCs to a number of major
software companies.
For the first time, small
companies and individuals who
never would have imagined
owning a "personal" computer
were now opened to the
computer world.
© J Wagner March 20, 20
MACINTOSH
(1984)

 IBM's major competitor was a

company lead by Steve Wozniak
and Steve Jobs; the Apple
Computer Inc.
The "Lisa" was the result of
their competitive thrust.
This system differed from its
predecessors in its use of a
"mouse" - then a quite foreign
computer instrument - in lieu of
manually typing commands.
However, the outrageous price
© J Wagner March 20, 20
MACINTOSH
(1984)

 Apple's brainchild was the

Macintosh. Like the Lisa, the
Macintosh too would make use of
a graphical user interface.
Introduced in January 1984 it
was an immediate success.
The GUI (Graphical User
Interface) made the system easy
to use.

© J Wagner March 20, 20

MACINTOSH
(1984)

 The Apple Macintosh debuts

in 1984. It features a simple,
graphical interface, uses the 8-
MHz, 32-bit Motorola 68000 CPU,
and has a built-in 9-inch B/W
screen.

© J Wagner March 20, 20

© J Wagner March 20, 20
FIRST GENERATION
(1945-1956)

 First generation computers

were characterized by the fact
that operating instructions were
made-to-order for the specific
task for which the computer was
to be used. Each computer had a
different binary-coded program
called a machine language that
told it how to operate. This made
the computer difficult to program
and limited its versatility and
speed. Other distinctive features
© J Wagner March 20, 20
SECOND
GENERATION
(1956-1963)
 Throughout the early 1960's,
there were a number of
commercially successful second
generation computers used in
business, universities, and
government from companies such
as Burroughs, Control Data,
Honeywell, IBM, Sperry-Rand,
and others. These second
generation computers were also
of solid state design, and
contained transistors in place of
© J Wagner March 20, 20
SECOND
GENERATION
(1956-1963)
They also contained all the
components we associate with
the modern day computer:
printers, tape storage, disk
storage, memory, operating
systems, and stored programs.
One important example was the
IBM 1401, which was universally
accepted throughout industry,
and is considered by many to be
the Model T of the computer
industry. By 1965, most large
© J Wagner March 20, 20
THIRD GENERATION
(1965-1971)

Though transistors were

clearly an improvement over the
vacuum tube, they still generated
a great deal of heat, which
damaged the computer's
sensitive internal parts. The
quartz rock eliminated this
problem. Jack Kilby, an engineer
with Texas Instruments,
developed the integrated circuit
(IC) in 1958. The IC combined
three electronic components onto
© J Wagner March 20, 20
THIRD GENERATION
(1965-1971)

As a result, computers became

ever smaller as more components
were squeezed onto the chip.
Another third-generation
development included the use of
an operating system that allowed
machines to run many different
programs at once with a central
program that monitored and
coordinated the computer's
memory.
© J Wagner March 20, 20
FOURTH
GENERATION
(1971-Present)
In 1981, IBM introduced its
personal computer (PC) for use in
the home, office and schools. The
1980's saw an expansion in
computer use in all three arenas
as clones of the IBM PC made the
personal computer even more
affordable. The number of
personal computers in use more
than doubled from 2 million in
1981 to 5.5 million in 1982.
© J Wagner March 20, 20
FOURTH
GENERATION
(1971-Present)
Ten years later, 65 million PCs
were being used. Computers
continued their trend toward a
smaller size, working their way
down from desktop to laptop
computers (which could fit inside
a briefcase) to palmtop (able to
fit inside a breast pocket). In
direct competition with IBM's PC
was Apple's Macintosh line,
introduced in 1984. Notable for
its user-friendly design, the
© J Wagner March 20, 20
FIFTH GENERATION
(Future)

Many advances in the science

of computer design and
technology are coming together
to enable the creation of fifth-
generation computers. Two such
engineering advances are
parallel processing, which
replaces von Neumann's single
central processing unit design
with a system harnessing the
power of many CPUs to work as
one. Another advance is © J Wagner March 20, 20
FIFTH GENERATION
(Future)

Computers today have some

attributes of fifth generation
computers. For example, expert
systems assist doctors in making
diagnoses by applying the
problem-solving steps a doctor
might use in assessing a
patient's needs. It will take
several more years of
development before expert
systems are in widespread use.
© J Wagner March 20, 20
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Information was gathered

from the following sites:
http://www.pbs.org/nerds/timel
(Triumph Of The Nerds)
http://www.digitalcentury.com/e
(Digital Century)
http://humlink.humanities.mcm
(History of Computers)

© J Wagner March 20, 20