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What is a computer "Computer" was originally a job title: it was used to describe those human beings (predominantly women) whose job it was to perform the repetitive calculations required to compute such things as navigational tables, tide charts, and planetary positions for astronomical almanacs.

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

The abacus

John Napier’s Bones and Logarithms (1617) Allowed for multiplication and division Were made out of ivory or bone

Slide rule (1621) Slide Rule: analog computer consisting of a handheld instrument used for rapid calculations Still in use in the 1960’s replaced by pocket calculators

BLAISE PASCAL 1642 In 1642, the French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal invented a calculating device that would come to be called the "Adding Machine“(at age 19). The calculator had spoked metal wheel dials, with the digits 0 through 9 displayed around the circumference of each wheel.

Numerical Wheel Originally called a "numerical wheel calculator" or the "Pascaline“ Pascal's mechanical Adding Machine automated the process of calculation. Although slow by modern standards, this machine did provide a fair degree of accuracy and speed.

Adding Machine

Joseph Marie Jacquard (1801) Invented the power loom that could base its weave (and hence the design on the fabric) upon a pattern automatically read from punched wooden cards, held together in a long row by rope. Angry mobs smashed Jacquard looms and once attacked Jacquard himself. History is full of examples of labor unrest following technological innovation yet most studies show that, overall, technology has actually increased the number of jobs

Jacquard’s Power Loom

Charles Babbage Known as “the father of computing” By 1822 the English mathematician Charles Babbage was proposing a steam driven calculating machine the size of a room, which he called the Difference Engine Analytic Engine. This device, large as a house and powered by 6 steam engines, would be more general purpose in nature because it would be programmable, thanks to the punched card technology of Jacquard.

Charles Babbage Babbage continued to work on the design until his death in 1871 The technology was about 100 years ahead of its time

First Generation Computers ( ) Distinctive features of first generation computers were the use of vacuum tubes and magnetic drums for data storage. Produced a lot of heat

ENIAC (1946) Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer 18,00-19,000 vacuum tubes It could do nuclear physics calculations (in two hours) which it would have taken 100 engineers a year to do by hand.

2 nd Generation Computers ( ) Second generation computers are associated with the use of transistors instead of vacuum tubes Switch or amplify Second were smaller and produced much less heat than first generation computers

Third Generation Computers ( ) Jack Kilby, an engineer with Texas Instruments, developed the integrated circuit (IC) in 1958 The IC combined three electronic components onto a small silicon disc.

Third Generation Computers ( ) Computers became even 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

Fourth Generation Computers (1971-Present) Fourth generation computers are based on microprocessors The microprocessor allowed computes to become much smaller and faster than previous generations

Fifth Generation Computers Dual Processors What will be next???

Apple 1 is released July 1976 Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs release the Apple 1 It was produced in their parents garage Produced about 200 of them

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

Osborne 1 Considered the first true portable computer Released in 1981

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64 is introduced by Commodore International in January During the C64's lifetime, sales totaled 17 million units, making it the best- selling single personal computer model of all time

MACINTOSH (1984) The Apple Macintosh debuts in It features a simple, graphical interface, uses the 8-MHz, 32-bit Motorola CPU, and has a built-in 9- inch B/W screen.