History of Computing The abacus is a calculating machine used for centuries Pascal invented an adding machine in 1673 (for taxes!)

Algorithm In the 12 th century, a Tashkent cleric named Muhammad ibn Musa Al'Khowarizmi, wrote about the concept of a written process to be followed in order to achieve a goal.

Jacquard’s Loom In 1801 Joseph-Marie Jacquard invented an automatic loom using punched cards for the control of the patterns in the fabrics Riots ensued!

Babbage and Byron In 1822, Charles Babbage designed the “Difference Engine,” powered by steam and using gears. A decade later, Babbage and Augusta Ada Byron worked on the “Analytical Engine.” A Difference Engine was finally built in 1991:

Herman Hollerith The 1880 census took 7 years to tabulate In 1890, the census was tabulated in 2 years due to Hollerith’s invention of a machine with –Punched cards encoding census data –A card puncher, reader,and sorter Hollerith founded the predecessor company to IBM

Vannevar Bush Vannevar Bush at MIT built a large-scale differential analyzer in the 1920s The machine had the capabilities of integration and differentiation.

The First Computer? In the 1930s, John Vincent Atanasoff developed a machine for the solution of sets of linear equations in Physics. It had an electronic arithmetic unit and a regenerative, cyclic memory. The Patent Office eventually awarded the patent for the first computer to Atanasoff, although most had never heard of him.

Atanasoff’s “Computer”

Alan Turing In the 1930’s, Alan Turing developed the idea of a "Universal Machine" capable of executing any describable algorithm. Turing introduced the concept of "symbol processing,” moving beyond arithmetic problems.

ENIAC 1946 Developed to calculate trajectories in WWII (too late) Built across the street at Penn. First machine using the Stored Program Concept Programmed by rewiring

UNIVAC 1951 The developers of ENIAC left Penn. (in a patent dispute) to build a computer for the U.S. Census Bureau In 1951, after a financial buyout, the computer was delivered In 1952, UNIVAC predicted the winner of the U.S. presidential election, but the television network was afraid to broadcast it

Admiral Grace Hopper Worked on UNIVAC Invented the “compiler” Developed the idea of “reusable software” Led development of the first high-level programming language: COBOL Named computer problems “bugs” and called fixing them “debugging” The first “bug”. Really!

First Generation Computers 1940’s-1950’s Based on vacuum tubes Used only machine language Required experts to program

The Transistor

High Level Languages and Ideas In 1954, John Backus developed FORTRAN, a high-level language for expressing formulas (in 1957, IBM packaged it for sale) In 1957, John McCarthy and Marvin Minsky convened the first conference on the concept of “Artificial Intelligence” (AI) In 1958, John McCarthy developed LISP, a language for AI

Second Generation Computers 1960’s From vacuum tubes to transistors High-level languages More widespread business computing

Time Sharing Fernando Corbató, MIT, produced CTSS (Compatible Time Sharing System) for IBM in 1961 Batch processing versus time sharing

Integrated Circuits Invented in 1958 by Jack St. Clair Kirby and Robert Noyce. The 1960’s and 1970’s saw increasing numbers of transistors placed on ICs and used to make computers

Third Generation Computers 1960’s-1970’s Integrated circuits Timesharing

Networks In the early 1970’s, Robert Metcalfe worked on –Wide area networks (WANS) –ARPAnet –Internet –Internet protocols (TCP/IP) –Local area networks (LANS)

Personal Computers In 1976, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak produced the Apple II –Assembled and ready to go – Complete with keyboard and monitor In 1981, the IBM PC is introduced

Douglas Engelbart In 1959 Douglas Engelbart launched the SRI Augmentation Research Center –hypertext system –outline processor –video conferencing –mouse –two-dimensional editing – concept of windows –uniform command syntax –mixed text-graphic files –structured document files –idea processing

Computers for Real People 1978 – BASIC 1979 – VisiCalc 1981 – Alto –Xerox PARC project –Graphical user interface –Mouse Macintosh

Fourth Generation Computers 1970’s-1990’s? VLSI and microprocessors Networks Personal computing GUIs Internet

Fifth Generation AI? Distributed and ubiquitous computing? Wearable computing?

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