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201 2

Chapter 2 outlines the history of computers, starting from early devices like the abacus and Pascal's calculator to significant developments such as the Difference Engine, ENIAC, and the Von Neumann architecture. It categorizes computer evolution into five generations, highlighting advancements in technology, processing speed, and applications. The chapter concludes with a discussion on the ongoing development of fifth-generation computers featuring intelligent processors and advanced capabilities.

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35 views14 pages

201 2

Chapter 2 outlines the history of computers, starting from early devices like the abacus and Pascal's calculator to significant developments such as the Difference Engine, ENIAC, and the Von Neumann architecture. It categorizes computer evolution into five generations, highlighting advancements in technology, processing speed, and applications. The chapter concludes with a discussion on the ongoing development of fifth-generation computers featuring intelligent processors and advanced capabilities.

Uploaded by

fikadus794
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Chapter 2

History of Computers
• Computers were preceded by many devices
which mankind developed for their computing
requirements
• The Abacus
– one of the earliest mechanical computational devices
• Pascal’s Calculator
– In 1642, at the age of 19, the French philosopher and
mathematician Blaise Pascal developed a rotating
wheel calculator
– could only add and subtract
• The Difference Engine
– the forerunner of the modern computer
– Developed by Charles Babbage – the father of
modern computers
– has a power of calculation and print the output without
human intervention
• Analytic Engine
– Deigned , but not built, by the same person
– significantly improved version of the difference engine
– It has different key components
• The store: A memory wheel
• The mill: An arithmetic unit capable of performing the four
basic arithmetic operations
• Operation cards: This card selected one of the four
arithmetic operations
• Variable cards: These cards selected the memory locations
to be used by the mill for a particular operation
• Out put: was to print or a card punch device
• Herman Hollerith’s Tabulating Machine
– was a statistician in 1880
– developed machine commissioned by the
U.S. Census Bureau to speeding up the
processing of census data
– He developed his machine that uses the
punched card to punch the census data and
tabulated by using his machine
– He finally began the tabulating Machine
Company, which later becomes the IBM
corporation
• Mark I
– Developed by Howard Aiken at Harvard University
(1944 )
– the first electromechanical computer
– Instruction was provided by means of punched paper
tape
– Each instruction had the format
A1 A2 OP
– could do a single addition in 6 seconds and division in
12 seconds
• ENIAC
– Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer
– Developed at the university of Pennsylvania
– the first electronic calculator and first general
purpose digital computer
– This machine was enormous
• weighing 30 tones,
• occupying 15,000 square feet of floor space, and
containing over 18,000 vacuum tubes
• consumed over 140 kWh of power
– had a capability of performing 5,000 additions
per second
– ENIAC did not use internally stored programs.
Programs were wired on boards similar to a
telephone switch board – which was its
drawback.
• ENIAC could do nuclear physics calculations
(in two hours) which it would have taken 100
engineers a year to do by hand
• The Von Neumann Machine
– The task of entering and altering programs for the ENIAC was
extremely tedious
– Von Neumann forward the stored program concept
– designing the computer to get its instruction by reading them
from memory alongside the data
– a program could be set or altered by setting the values of a
portion of a memory
– Based on this concept, the first true electronic computers
• EDVAC ( electronic Discrete Variable Computer)
• EDSAC( Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Computer).
• Commercial Computers
– In 1947, Eckert and Mauchly develop their
successful commercial computer called
UNIVAC I (Universal Automatic Computer).
• Generation of Computers
– computer developments are often categorized
by generations
– major characteristics that distinguish these
generations are the following
• Dominant type of electronic circuit elements used.
• Major secondary storage media used.
• Computer language used.
• Types or characteristic of operating system used.
• Memory access time (time to store or retrieve a
word or data from memory)
• First generation (1950s)
– Used vacuum tubes as components for the
electronic circuit.
– Punched cards were the main source of
inputs
– magnetic drams were used for internal
storage.
– Operate in a speed of milliseconds
(thousands of a second) and could handle
more than 10,000 additions each second.
– Most applications were scientific calculations.
• Second generations (early 1960s)
– Transistors were the main circuit components
• are a solid state device made from silicon

• They are smaller, cheaper, faster, dissipate less energy and more reliable
than vacuum tube but work in the same way with the vacuum tube

– Magnetic tapes used for main storage

– Operate in microseconds (millionths of a second) with more than


200,000 additions possible each second.

– Business applications become more commonplace, with large data files


stored on magnetic tape and disk. High-level languages COBOL and
FORTRAN were introduced during this period. Batch operating systems
are used that permitted rapid processing of magnetic tape files

– Minicomputers were developed at this time.


• Third generation (late 1960s, early 1970s)
• Used integrated circuit
– A single, self-contained transistor is called discrete
component
– composed of discrete components transistors,
capacitors, resistors
– Packed in their own containers and soldered (wired
together) on a circuit board
– Computer storage switched from magnetic cores to
integrated circuit boards
– New input/output methods such as optical scanning
and plotters
– Software become more important with sophisticated
operating systems, improved programming languages
• Fourth generation (late 1970s,early 1989s)
 a large-scale integrated circuits (LSI) which
has several hundred thousands transistors
placed on one tiny silicon chip.
– Greatly expanded storage capabilities and
improved circuitry
– Computer memory operates at speeds of
nano seconds (billionths of a second) with
large computers capable of adding 15 million
numbers per second
– Personal computers were developed
• The Fifth generation computer
– in progress
– These computers will have intelligent processors
– processors which can draw inferences
– Users will also be able to interact with them in natural languages
such as English, German
– Some of the characteristics of this generation of computers
• extremely large scale integration
• parallel processing
• high speed logic and memory chips
• high performance, micro-miniaturization
• voice/data integration; knowledge-based platforms
• artificial intelligence, expert systems
• virtual reality generation
• satellite links

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