DOCSLIB.ORG

Evolution of Computer Systems

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Evolution of Computer Systems Evolution of Computer Systems Matthew N. O. Sadiku Clarence N. Obiozor Department of Electrical Engineering Department of Electrical Engineering Temple University University of North Florida Philadelphia, PA 19122 Jacksonville, FL 32224 Abstract began to work on a general-purpose, programmable, automatic mechanical digital computer called the Although bits and pieces of the historical “analytic machine”. Unfortunately, Babbage's analytical background on computer systems are found in engine was never completed because its design required monographs and encyclopedia, a brief account that a fabrication precision beyond what was feasible at that beginner can quickly digest is hard to come by. This time. article presents such a short account. From ABACUS to ENIAC and from ENIAC to BISDN the paper covers the A major step forward in the evolution of computer significant advances associated with computers. It is systems is the invention of punch cards which was first hoped that the paper is useful to a beginner in the field used during the U.S. census of 1890 by Herman Hollerith or an interested non-expert. and James Powers while working for the U.S. Census Bureau. With the punch cards, the calculating machines Early Developments became fully automatic. In 1896 Hollerith formed the Tabulating Machine Company which manufactured punch card machines. After his retirement in 1913, The need for counting, computing or processing Thomas J. Watson, Sr. became president of the company, data has been with man from the beginning. The most which became International Business Machines significant early computing tool is the ABACUS, a Corporation in 1924. This company was later to play a wooden rack holding parallel rods on which beads are significant role in the evolution of computer systems. strung. This simple device was used for addition and subtraction. A Scottish scholar, John Napier (1550-1617) invented the logarithm and in 1661, William Oughtred Modern Digital Systems invented both the rectilinear and circular slide rules. These are analog computers which have been replaced in Although the punched machine was well estab- modern times by pocket calculators. lished and reliable by the late 1930’s, several research groups worked hard to build automatic digital computer. A significant advance in the evolution of computing A group of IBM team of four workers led by Howard systems was the invention of a mechanical adding Hathaway Aiken, a physicist and mathematician at machine in 1642 by the French scientist Blaise Pascal Harvard University, began work on a fully automatic (1623-1662). Having observed Pascal's machine in Paris, calculator in 1939. The calculator, commonly called the the German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm von International Business Machines Automatic Sequence Leibniz (1646-1716) designed a better one in 1671[1]. Controlled Calculator or Harvard Mark I, was completed While Pascal's machine could only count, Leibniz device in August 1944. This was the first informa- could also multiply, divide, and find square root. In 1820, tion-processing machine. As an electromechanical Thomas of Colmar (Charles Xavier Thomas) produced computer, it has 760,000 wheels, 500 miles of wire, and the first commercially available mechanical calculator. a panel 51 ft long and 8ft high. Input data was entered This desktop calculator could add, subtract, multiply, and through the punched cards, and the output was by divide. This was followed by a succession of advanced punched card or electric typewriter. Aiken's machine and improved versions of mechanical calculators [2]. was similar in principle to Babbage's analytical machine although Aiken did not know about Babbage's work While Thomas of Colmar was working on the when he started his research. mechanical calculator, Charles Babbage (1792-1871) at Cambridge, England, was developing the first digital The first all-digital electronic computer made its computer. By 1822, he built an automatic mechanical appearance during the World War II. In the United calculator called the "difference engine." In 1833 he States, there was the desperate need for computers that would quickly compute firing tables for the variety of integrated circuit(IC) in 1958. With the introduction of new weapons used by the U.S. army. In 1942, electrical integrated circuits , it was possible to have hundreds of engineer J. Presper Eckert and physicist John W. circuit elements on a tiny silicon chip. Important Mauchly, at the Moore School of Engineering, University members of the third generation include the IBM 360 of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, met the need and and 370, UNIVAC 1108, RCA 3301, GE 645, Honeywell developed ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and 200 series, and the DEC PDP-8. Calculator). ENIAC went into operation in 1946. It was the first all-purpose, digital electronic computer. It used The fourth-generation computers became available vacuum tubes instead of relays as the logic elements. in the 1980s when very large-scale integration (VLSI), in Because of this, it was more than 1,000 faster than its which thousands of transistors and other circuit elements electromechanical predecessors. However, ENIAC was are placed on a single chip, became increasingly of an unprecedented size and complexity. common. The VLSI technology greatly increased the circuit density. In 1950, ENIAC was succeeded by EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer), a While the first-, second-, third-generation stored-program computer. In 1947, Eckert and Mauchly computers used ferrite core as memory units, the established their own company, Eckert-Mauchly fourth-generation computers used semiconductor devices Computer Corporation, to manufacture computers fabricated by VLSI technology as ultrahigh-access commercially. In 1951, the company produced the memory units. The drop in cost associated with the UNIVAC I (Universal Automatic Computer) for the U.S. size-reduction trend led to the introduction of personal Census Bureau. Although this first commercial computers for use in office, schools, and homes. Several computer was produced for the Census Bureau, it was companies such as IBM, Apple Computer, and Radio used extensively by the scientific community. UNIVAC I Shack, began to produce and market personal computers achieved the greatest fame among the early digital with enormous success. computers because it was used to predict correctly the presidential election in 1952. The results projected The race is now on building the next or "fifth" Dwight Eisenhower's election over Adlai Stevenson 45 generation of computers, machines that exhibit artificial minutes after the polls closed. intelligence. Thus new generations of computers will involve robotics and computer networks. Generations Of Computers Computer Networks The first generation of computers (1950-1959) used vacuum tubes as their logic elements and ring-shaped Originally networks were used to connect only ferrite cores as memories. During this period computers mainframe computers. But with the proliferation of were bulky, unreliable, and expensive. These computers inexpensive computer systems and advances in software, include ENIAC, EDVAC, UNIVAC I, UNIVAC II, IBM the need to network personal computers and other 702 and 650. The introduction of semiconductor digital computer peripherals became apparent. Computer elements marked the beginning of the second computer networking has been developed at three levels: local area generation in 1959. The second generation was marked network (LAN) that interconnect computers located by reduced size and cost with increased speed and within a relative small area such as a college campus; reliability. Magnetic tape became the principal external metropolitan area network (MAN) representing LAN storage medium. IBM produced the 709TX system in technologies optimized for a metropolitan area such as a 1959 and later produced 7094 which dominated the city; wide area network (WAN) providing scientific computer market during the period of communication services over several kilometers, across 1960-1964. Some of the popular second-generation the nation, or around the globe [3]. computers were IBM 7000, 1400 series, UNIVAC III, RCA 301 and 501, Honeywell 400 and 800, and NCR The idea of computer networking started in the 315. 1960s when time-sharing services were first available to the public [4]. Early pioneers were General Electric The second-generation computers (1959-1969) (GE), XEROX, AT &T, IBM government agencies, were succeeded by the third computer generation research laboratories, and universities. ARPANET was (1969-1977), which used integrated circuits. The era of built in 1969 by the Advanced Research Projects microelectronics started with the invention of the (ARPA), an arm of the U.S. Department of Defense. It was a public network connecting several major university laboratory on robotics at Carnegie Mellon universities and research institutions. The ARPANET University. In the same year, University of Rhode Island eventually grew into a U.S. backbone network leading to demonstrated a prototype robotics vision system. the current Internet. The success of the ARPANET led its primary contractors (Bolt, Beranek, and Newman) to Conclusion form a commercial network company, TELENET in 1972. Early computers were electromechanical at best; they were limited in speed, reliability, and flexibility. The metropolitan area networks (MANs) are an Modern digital computers are fast and reliable. Computer outgrowth of LANs. The MAN effort started
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Intel Technology Journal
    Intel® Technology Journal | Volume 14, Issue 1, 2010 Intel Technology Journal Publisher Managing Editor Content Architect Richard Bowles Andrew Binstock Herman D’Hooge Esther Baldwin Program Manager Technical Editor Technical Illustrators Stuart Douglas Marian Lacey InfoPros Technical and Strategic Reviewers Maria Bezaitis Ashley McCorkle Xing Su John Gustafson Milan Milenkovic Rahul Sukthankar Horst Haussecker David O‘Hallaron Allison Woodruff Badarinah Kommandur Trevor Pering Jianping Zhou Anthony LaMarca Matthai Philipose Scott Mainwaring Uttam Sengupta Intel® Technology Journal | 1 Intel® Technology Journal | Volume 14, Issue 1, 2010 Intel Technology Journal Copyright © 2010 Intel Corporation. All rights reserved. ISBN 978-1-934053-28-7, ISSN 1535-864X Intel Technology Journal Volume 14, Issue 1 No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 750-4744. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Publisher, Intel Press, Intel Corporation, 2111 NE 25th Avenue, JF3-330, Hillsboro, OR 97124-5961. E mail: [email protected]. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.
    [Show full text]
  • "Computers" Abacus—The First Calculator
    Component 4: Introduction to Information and Computer Science Unit 1: Basic Computing Concepts, Including History Lecture 4 BMI540/640 Week 1 This material was developed by Oregon Health & Science University, funded by the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology under Award Number IU24OC000015. The First "Computers" • The word "computer" was first recorded in 1613 • Referred to a person who performed calculations • Evidence of counting is traced to at least 35,000 BC Ishango Bone Tally Stick: Science Museum of Brussels Component 4/Unit 1-4 Health IT Workforce Curriculum 2 Version 2.0/Spring 2011 Abacus—The First Calculator • Invented by Babylonians in 2400 BC — many subsequent versions • Used for counting before there were written numbers • Still used today The Chinese Lee Abacus http://www.ee.ryerson.ca/~elf/abacus/ Component 4/Unit 1-4 Health IT Workforce Curriculum 3 Version 2.0/Spring 2011 1 Slide Rules John Napier William Oughtred • By the Middle Ages, number systems were developed • John Napier discovered/developed logarithms at the turn of the 17 th century • William Oughtred used logarithms to invent the slide rude in 1621 in England • Used for multiplication, division, logarithms, roots, trigonometric functions • Used until early 70s when electronic calculators became available Component 4/Unit 1-4 Health IT Workforce Curriculum 4 Version 2.0/Spring 2011 Mechanical Computers • Use mechanical parts to automate calculations • Limited operations • First one was the ancient Antikythera computer from 150 BC Used gears to calculate position of sun and moon Fragment of Antikythera mechanism Component 4/Unit 1-4 Health IT Workforce Curriculum 5 Version 2.0/Spring 2011 Leonardo da Vinci 1452-1519, Italy Leonardo da Vinci • Two notebooks discovered in 1967 showed drawings for a mechanical calculator • A replica was built soon after Leonardo da Vinci's notes and the replica The Controversial Replica of Leonardo da Vinci's Adding Machine .
    [Show full text]
  • Data Processing with Unit Record Equipment in Iceland
    Data Processing with Unit Record Equipment in Iceland Óttar Kjartansson (Retired) Manager of Data Processing Department at Skýrr, Iceland [email protected] Abstract. This paper presents an overview of the usage of unit record equipment and punched cards in Iceland and introduces some of the pioneers. The usage of punched cards as a media in file processing started 1949 and became the dominant machine readable media in Iceland until 1968. After that punched cards were still used as data entry media for a while but went completely out of use in 1982. Keywords: Data processing, unit record, punched card, Iceland. 1 Hagstofa Íslands Hagstofa Íslands (Statistical Bureau of Iceland) initiated the use of 80 column punched cards and unit record equipment in Iceland in the year 1949. The first ma- chinery consisted of tabulating machine of the type IBM 285 (handled numbers only), the associated key punch machines, verifiers, and a card sorter. See Figures 1 and 2. This equipment was primarily used to account for the import and export for Iceland. Skýrr (Skýrsluvélar ríkisins og Reykjavíkurborgar - The Icelandic State and Munici- pal Data Center) was established three years later by an initiative from Hagstofa Íslands, Rafmagnsveita Reykjavíkur (Reykjavík Electric Power Utility), and the Medical Director of Health of Iceland as was described in an earlier article [3]. Fig. 1. IBM 285 Electric Accounting Machine at Hagstofa Íslands year 1949 J. Impagliazzo, T. Järvi, and P. Paju (Eds.): HiNC 2, IFIP AICT 303, pp. 225–229, 2009. © IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 2009 226 Ó. Kjartansson Fig. 2. Early form of the data registration using a punched card.
    [Show full text]
  • UNIVAC I Computer System
    Saved from the Internet on 3/9/2010 Created by Allan Reiter UNIVAC I Computer System After you look at this yellow page go to the blue page to find out how UNIVAC I really worked. My name is Allan Reiter and in 1954 began my career with a company in St Paul, Minnesota called Engineering Research Associates (ERA) that was part of the Remington Rand Corporation. I was hired with 3 friends, Paul S. Lawson, Vernon Sandoz, and Robert Kress. We were buddies who met in the USAF where we were trained and worked on airborne radar on B-50 airplanes. In a way this was the start of our computer career because the radar was controlled by an analog computer known as the Q- 24. After discharge from the USAF Paul from Indiana and Vernon from Texas drove up to Minnesota to visit me. They said they were looking for jobs. We picked up a newspaper and noticed an ad that sounded interesting and decided to check it out. The ad said they wanted people with military experience in electronics. All three of us were hired at 1902 West Minnehaha in St. Paul. We then looked up Robert Kress (from Iowa) and he was hired a few days later. The four of us then left for Philadelphia with three cars and one wife. Robert took his wife Brenda along. This was where the UNIVAC I was being built. Parts of the production facilities were on an upper floor of a Pep Boys building. Another building on Allegheny Avenue had a hydraulic elevator operated with water pressure.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction to Database Systems
    CO-560-A Databases and Web Services Instructors: Peter Baumann email: [email protected] office: room 88, Research 1 Databases & Web Services (P. Baumann) 1 Where It All Started Source: Wikipedia . 1890 census on 62,947,714 US population “Big Data” • was announced after only six weeks of processing . Hollerith „tabulating machine and sorter“ . Tabulating Machine Company International Business Machines Corporation Herman Hollerith in 1888 Hollerith card puncher, used by the United States Census Bureau Hollerith punched card Databases & Web Services (P. Baumann) 2 Databases & Web Services (P. Baumann) [image: Intel] 3 What Is „Big Data“? . Internet: the unprecedented . Typical Big Data: information collector • Business Intelligence • 2012: 200m Web servers [Yahoo] • Social networks - Facebook, • estd 50+b static pages [Yahoo] Twitter, GPS, ... • 40 b photos [Facebook] • Life Science: patient data, imagery • 2012: 31b searches/m [Google] • Geo: Satellite imagery, weather . 2025: 463 Exabytes / day data, crowdsourcing, ... Data = the „new gold“, „new oil“ Petrol industry: „more bytes than barrels“ Databases & Web Services (P. Baumann) 4 Today: „Data Deluge“ . „It is estimated that a week„s work at the New York Times contains more information than a person in the 18th Century would encounter in their entire lifetime and the thought is that within 10 years the rate of information doubling will occur every 72 hours.“ -- P. „Bud“ Peterson, U Colorado . “global mobile data traffic 597 petabytes per month in 2011 (8x the size of the entire global Internet in 2000) estimated to grow to 6,254 petabytes per month by 2015” -- Forbes, June 2012 . a typical new car has about 100 million lines of code • -- http://www.wired.com/autopia/2012/12/automotive-os-war/ Databases & Web Services (P.
    [Show full text]
  • Trends in Electrical Efficiency in Computer Performance
    ASSESSING TRENDS IN THE ELECTRICAL EFFICIENCY OF COMPUTATION OVER TIME Jonathan G. Koomey*, Stephen Berard†, Marla Sanchez††, Henry Wong** * Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Stanford University †Microsoft Corporation ††Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory **Intel Corporation Contact: [email protected], http://www.koomey.com Final report to Microsoft Corporation and Intel Corporation Submitted to IEEE Annals of the History of Computing: August 5, 2009 Released on the web: August 17, 2009 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Information technology (IT) has captured the popular imagination, in part because of the tangible benefits IT brings, but also because the underlying technological trends proceed at easily measurable, remarkably predictable, and unusually rapid rates. The number of transistors on a chip has doubled more or less every two years for decades, a trend that is popularly (but often imprecisely) encapsulated as “Moore’s law”. This article explores the relationship between the performance of computers and the electricity needed to deliver that performance. As shown in Figure ES-1, computations per kWh grew about as fast as performance for desktop computers starting in 1981, doubling every 1.5 years, a pace of change in computational efficiency comparable to that from 1946 to the present. Computations per kWh grew even more rapidly during the vacuum tube computing era and during the transition from tubes to transistors but more slowly during the era of discrete transistors. As expected, the transition from tubes to transistors shows a large jump in computations per kWh. In 1985, the physicist Richard Feynman identified a factor of one hundred billion (1011) possible theoretical improvement in the electricity used per computation.
    [Show full text]
  • CHAP Videos' Summary W/Links (Vipclubmn.Org)
    An IT Legacy Paper September 2019 Revised December 2020 Computer History Archives Projects Mark Greenia, Researcher and Producer former University of San Francisco Adjunct Professor Introduction Mark posted the ERA video {#1 below} on September 26th, 2019 – over 1,000 views during the first weekend. Mr. Greenia noted that as of Sept. 27th CHAP videos had had over 775,000 views. This paper1 lists the ERA/…/UNISYS associated videos produced by CHAP, the Computer History Museum, and the Hagley Museum plus two bonus clips. Replaced item 12 with a new video in December 2020. Table of Contents2 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 1 1. Computer History "Engineering Research Associates" - Atlas, ERA 1101, Univac Sperry Rand Minnesota ......................................................................................................................................... 2 2. 1977 Sperry UNIVAC Drive Exerciser Diagnostic Unit: .................................................................. 3 3. 1961 Remington Rand UNIVAC "What Do You Want?" Sperry UNISYS LARC Athena Solid-State Computers ........................................................................................................................................ 3 4. 1949 BINAC: Binary Automatic Computer, History Mauchly Eckert EMCC UNIVAC First Stored Program, U.S ....................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Herman Hollerith and Early Mechanical/Electrical Tabulator/Sorters
    Herman Hollerith and early mechanical/electrical tabulator/sorters The US Constitution requires that the people of the U.S. be counted every ten years and that the members of the House of Representatives “be apportioned among the States according to their respective numbers”1. (The other house of Congress, the Senate, has two members from each state.) Accordingly, every ten years, a census is taken. By 1880, the census was becoming harder and harder to accomplish. Everything was done on paper. Marks were placed in squares on paper, the marked squares were counted, and of course people made many mistakes. Further, the census was used more and more not just to count people but to get useful data on age, gender, marital status, working status, and so on. There were more and more marks to make and count! Herman Hollerith: the inventor of mechanical/electrical data processing systems Herman Hollerith graduated from the Columbia University School of Mines (in New York City) in 1879 at the age of 19. He knew about the problems with the census and be- gan research into mechanizing part of the counting of the census. In 1882, he taught me- chanical engineering at MIT and conducted his first experiments with punched cards. He was extremely successful, and he soon moved to Washington D.C. and set up a company, The Hollerith Electric Tabulating System. By the middle of the 1880’s, his first punched-card system was working. His company provided the Census Office with the equipment used in processing the 1890 census —62 million punched cards were processed by his machines, cutting two years off the time to complete the census.
    [Show full text]
  • Punched Card - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia Page 1 of 11
    .... _ ALL COMMUNICATIONS IN REFERENCE TO FORESTRY TO BE ADDRESSED TO THE CHIEF FORESTER VICTORIA. B.C. TIlE GO'IEIltDIEIIT Of THE P/IOVJII!;E DfBRItISH CIIJIIIIA DEPARTMENT OF LANDS FOREST BRANCH Yay 16th, 1928. H. J. Coles, Esq., Port Alberni, B.C. Please refer to File No. Management 081406 Dear Sirl- This is to advise that you passed the Licensed Scaler's Examina- tion held by Mr. A. L. Bryant a.t Vancouver, B.C., on May 2nd and 3rd, 1928. Your ~cence No. 811 is enclosed herewith. Xours truly, JM/pb • 1 Enc.l• N° 811 lHE 60VERNMIJIT OF '(f£ PROVINCe OF BRlnsH CIl.UIBIA FOREST ACT AND AMENDMENTS. ~raliug mirturt. FOREST BRANCH, LANDS DEPARTtvt~_NT. r)//) -4 ««e/<i;««<<<</tJ<<<<< < «««<<<<<<<<<<<<<<.<<. 192.K. .. W41n 1n tn (!1rrtify thatC~. /~~J.(~ff/~ -z::.~l::k~ -r1J->·r /7' £I P' . ;j residing at./!&~ L.1~~~-t.- Yi...-£" ~ ~ . ", in the Province of British Columbia, ;;.«~ ~ d-1~ ed ;22 2. / q "'r 8::. b has been examin /07 .••• =Zf'7;m .m.' mm.. .... ... m.................... /~ ..... .... ......... y •••• ««««<<<<<... - «««««< <(.,"F«<· < «. «<.««< of the Board of Examiners for Licensing alers, as provided in the "Forest Act" and amendments, and having creditably passed the said examination is hereby appointed a Licensed Scaler, and ·is duly authorized to perform the duties of a Licensed Scaler, as specified under Part VIII. of the "Forest <~:<~,.(_2.,_,;,::c,.(. «c.,"G~~< .. .. < ••• «« ••• «<•• CHAIRMAN OF BOARD OF EXAMINERS. Punched card - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Page 1 of 11 Punched card From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia A punched card (or punch card or Hollerith card or IBM card) is a piece of stiff paper that contains digital information represented by the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions.
    [Show full text]
  • Sperry Rand's Third-Generation Computers 1964–1980
    Sperry Rand’s Third-Generation Computers 1964–1980 George T. Gray and Ronald Q. Smith The change from transistors to integrated circuits in the mid-1960s marked the beginning of third-generation computers. A late entrant (1962) in the general-purpose, transistor computer market, Sperry Rand Corporation moved quickly to produce computers using ICs. The Univac 1108’s success (1965) reversed the company’s declining fortunes in the large-scale arena, while the 9000 series upheld its market share in smaller computers. Sperry Rand failed to develop a successful minicomputer and, faced with IBM’s dominant market position by the end of the 1970s, struggled to maintain its position in the computer industry. A latecomer to the general-purpose, transistor would be suitable for all types of processing. computer market, Sperry Rand first shipped its With its top management having accepted the large-scale Univac 1107 and Univac III comput- recommendation, IBM began work on the ers to customers in the second half of 1962, System/360, so named because of the intention more than two years later than such key com- to cover the full range of computing tasks. petitors as IBM and Control Data. While this The IBM 360 did not rely exclusively on lateness enabled Sperry Rand to produce rela- integrated circuitry but instead employed a tively sophisticated products in the 1107 and combination of separate transistors and chips, III, it also meant that they did not attain signif- called Solid Logic Technology (SLT). IBM made icant market shares. Fortunately, Sperry’s mili- a big event of the System/360 announcement tary computers and the smaller Univac 1004, on 7 April 1964, holding press conferences in 1005, and 1050 computers developed early in 62 US cities and 14 foreign countries.
    [Show full text]
  • Sperry Corporation, UNIVAC Division Photographs and Audiovisual Materials 1985.261
    Sperry Corporation, UNIVAC Division photographs and audiovisual materials 1985.261 This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on September 14, 2021. Description is written in: English. Describing Archives: A Content Standard Audiovisual Collections PO Box 3630 Wilmington, Delaware 19807 [email protected] URL: http://www.hagley.org/library Sperry Corporation, UNIVAC Division photographs and audiovisual materials 1985.261 Table of Contents Summary Information .................................................................................................................................... 3 Historical Note ............................................................................................................................................... 4 Scope and Content ......................................................................................................................................... 5 Arrangement ................................................................................................................................................... 6 Administrative Information ............................................................................................................................ 6 Related Materials ........................................................................................................................................... 7 Controlled Access Headings .......................................................................................................................... 8 Bibliography
    [Show full text]
  • P the Pioneers and Their Computers
    The Videotape Sources: The Pioneers and their Computers • Lectures at The Compp,uter Museum, Marlboro, MA, September 1979-1983 • Goal: Capture data at the source • The first 4: Atanasoff (ABC), Zuse, Hopper (IBM/Harvard), Grosch (IBM), Stibitz (BTL) • Flowers (Colossus) • ENIAC: Eckert, Mauchley, Burks • Wilkes (EDSAC … LEO), Edwards (Manchester), Wilkinson (NPL ACE), Huskey (SWAC), Rajchman (IAS), Forrester (MIT) What did it feel like then? • What were th e comput ers? • Why did their inventors build them? • What materials (technology) did they build from? • What were their speed and memory size specs? • How did they work? • How were they used or programmed? • What were they used for? • What did each contribute to future computing? • What were the by-products? and alumni/ae? The “classic” five boxes of a stored ppgrogram dig ital comp uter Memory M Central Input Output Control I O CC Central Arithmetic CA How was programming done before programming languages and O/Ss? • ENIAC was programmed by routing control pulse cables f ormi ng th e “ program count er” • Clippinger and von Neumann made “function codes” for the tables of ENIAC • Kilburn at Manchester ran the first 17 word program • Wilkes, Wheeler, and Gill wrote the first book on programmiidbBbbIiSiing, reprinted by Babbage Institute Series • Parallel versus Serial • Pre-programming languages and operating systems • Big idea: compatibility for program investment – EDSAC was transferred to Leo – The IAS Computers built at Universities Time Line of First Computers Year 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 ••••• BTL ---------o o o o Zuse ----------------o Atanasoff ------------------o IBM ASCC,SSEC ------------o-----------o >CPC ENIAC ?--------------o EDVAC s------------------o UNIVAC I IAS --?s------------o Colossus -------?---?----o Manchester ?--------o ?>Ferranti EDSAC ?-----------o ?>Leo ACE ?--------------o ?>DEUCE Whirl wi nd SEAC & SWAC ENIAC Project Time Line & Descendants IBM 701, Philco S2000, ERA..
    [Show full text]