Computing in the Modern World Ms. Stewart

 The evolution of modern computers is divided into a few "distinct" generations.

 Each generation is characterized by extreme improvements over the prior era in the technology used in the:  manufacturing process,  the internal layout of computer systems, and  programming languages.

  Computers were mainly used by the government for use in war and designing strategies.  Konrad Zuse (1941) used computers to design airplanes and missiles.  The British designed a computer to decode secret messages (1943).

  Aiken created an electronic calculator (1944) to create charts for the Navy. It was half as long as a football field.  ENIAC computer (1945) was a general purpose computer used to design the hydrogen bomb.

  Neumann designed the EDVAC computer (1945), which was able to store a program as well as data. The computer could also be stopped and re-started – a first for this time period.  Key development was the Central Processing Unit (CPU).

  Eckert and Mauchly developed the UNIVAC I (1951). It was the first commercially successful computer.

 1956 – 1963  The invention of the transistor greatly changed the computer's development. The transistor replaced the large, cumbersome vacuum tube in televisions, radios and computers.  As a result, the size of electronic machinery has been shrinking ever since.

 1956 – 1963  Transistors led to second generation computers that were smaller, faster, more reliable and more energy-efficient than their ancestors.

 1956 – 1963  The Stretch by IBM and LARC by Sperry-Rand were supercomputers developed for atomic energy laboratories and could handle an enormous amount of data.  The machines were costly, however, and tended to be too powerful for the business sector's computing needs, thereby limiting their attractiveness.

 1956 – 1963  Throughout the early 1960's, there were a number of commercially successful second generation computers used in businesses, universities, and government.

 1956 – 1963  They contained all the components we associate with the modern day computer: printers, tape storage, disk storage, memory, and stored programs.  An example was the IBM

 1956 – 1963  It was the stored program and programming language that gave computers the flexibility to finally be cost effective and productive for business use.

 1956 – 1963  The stored program concept meant that instructions to run a computer for a specific function (known as a program) were held inside the computer's memory, and could quickly be replaced by a different set of instructions for a different function.  For example, print one minute, then design documents the next.

 1956 – 1963  More sophisticated high-level languages such as COBOL (Common Business-Oriented Language) and FORTRAN (Formula Translator) came into common use during this time, and have expanded to the current day.  These languages replaced cryptic binary machine code with words, sentences, and mathematical formulas, making it much easier to program a computer.

 1956 – 1963  New types of careers (programmer, analyst, and computer systems expert) and the entire software industry began with second generation computers.

 1964 – 1971  Transistors, when first created, generated massive amounts of heat.  Kilby (1958) developed an integrated circuit to use in the place of transistors.

 1964 – 1971  The IC combined three electronic components onto a small silicon disc, which was made from quartz.  Scientists later managed to fit even more components on a single chip, called a semiconductor.  As a result, computers became ever smaller as more components were squeezed onto the chip.

 1964 – 1971  Another development was 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.  Operating Systems (examples)  Windows  Vista  MAC  Programs (examples)  Word  Excel  Access  PowerPoint  Windows Media Player  Skype

 Thompson and Ritchie (1969) developed the UNIX operating system. UNIX was the first modern operating system that provided a sound intermediary between software and hardware.

 1971 – present  The next step in the computer design process was to reduce the overall size.  Hundreds of thousands of components were squeezed onto a chip.