The History of Computers

By Karen Edoff

WHO INVENTED THE COMPUTER?

Many inventors contributed

to the history of computers

A computer is a complex

piece of machinery

made up of many parts Each of which can be considered a separate invention.

Lets explore those inventions

PREHISTORIC

The Abacus

Simple counting aid

Invented in the 4th century B.C.

The Modern Abacus

multiplicationdivision addition subtraction square rootand cube root

Still used in Asia and Africa

Used for :

MECHANICAL

Pascal’s Calculator

The first calculator

Added up to 6 digitsInvented in 1694Very simple gears

Problem..

not accurate

couldn’t subtract or divide

Arithmometer -1820 Finally a machine that could Add Subtract Multiply and Divide

RELIABLY

Still Problems… All mechanical

calculators had moving parts that were slow and could break down.

ELECTRONICAL

First Programmable ComputerBy:KONRAD ZUSE The

Z3

In 1941 Fully functional

Uses binary mathAnd Boolean logic

operated at 5 instructions/second

was 1/2 the length of a football field

contained 500 miles of wiring

The Harvard Mark 1

ENIACElectronic Numerical Integrator Analyzer and Computer

operated at 5000 instructions per secondRequired enough energy to dim the lights of Philadelphia when it was run. weighed 30 tons

Created in 1945

I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.   -- Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.   -- Popular Mechanics, 1949

Vacuum TubesEarly computers used vacuum tubes.

Replacing a bad tube meant checking ENIAC’s 19,000 possibilities

In 1945

Or electronic switches

Developed by:Bell Telephone Laboratories

The First Transistors

They replaced a computer’s vacuum tube in1956.

The IBM Stretch -1956transistors replaced vacuum tubes

operated at 50,000 instructions per second

cost: $3.5 million

The IBM StretchThe first to:Provide multiprogramming –

do more than one task at a time.

line up instructions in a queue, so that the computer doesn’t have to wait between operationsProvide security which

prevents unauthorized memory access

Memory interleaving, breaking up memory into chunks for much higher bandwidth.

Establish the eight-bit byte

Programming Language-1957COBOL, FORTRAN

Computers operating at 100,000 instructions /second

Used to create programs that control the behavior of a machine

The First Integrated Circuits - 1958

Allows a computer to get smaller, faster, cheaper

Modern Integrated circuits

RAM -1970

The first memory chip

contained more than 1,000 bits of information

Floppy Disks - 1971The first 8" floppy diskette

Held 79.7 kb of memory

Commercially Available

Minicomputers –

1970’s & 1980’s

Apple I - 1976First single circuit board computer

8k of RAMOnly 200 Apple I ‘s were built and sold

Apple II - 1977First built in Operating System

Process 1 millionInstructions/ second (1 MHz)Could store 4,000 characters (4 KB of RAM)

Video Games -1970Video games drove the demand for better and more affordable computers.

IMB - 1981First computer to come with a keyboard, monitor & printer.

Commodore 64 -198264 kilobytes of memory (64,000 characters)

Directly plugged into a television

16 colors

two bitmap graphics modes

Apple - 1984Could store 128,000 characters (128kb of RAM)

Process 16 million instructions/second (16.67 MHz)

There is no reason anyone would

want a computer in their home.

   --Ken Olson, CEO, Digital Equipment Corp., 1977

1990’s

That’s 1 billion to 2 billion instructions /second.

RAM was anywhere from 64 to 128 MB Memory for 128 million characters.

Personal computers are operating at 1-2 GHz

If automobiles improved with the same rate as computers then our car would…cost: $4,000

top speed: 60,000 mph

seating: 10,000 people

fuel efficiency: 20,000 mpg

reliability: break every 70 years

Moore's LawComputer speed roughly

doubles every 18 months

Moore’s Law

Time (yr)

Cloc

k Fr

eque

ncy

(MHz

)

2000’sMore computers are sold than televisions

Early 2000’sUSB 2.0

IpodsDot com craze

X-boxAOL has over 28 million members

Windows XPApproximately 1 billion computers have been sold since 1970

Store information On CD’s and DVD’s

Early 2000’s

Operating at 2-4 GHzWhich is 2 billion to 4 billion instructions/second

Most computers now have Duo or quad processors

Average RAM is 350 Gb

Or 350 billion characters

Late 2000’s

HDI-phoneYou Tube GoogleI- Mac

Windows Vista

My Space has 106 million accounts

Blue Ray Facebook has over 300 million accounts

Skype

Flash Drives

Late 2000’s

WirelessWebcamBluetoothDVD±RW/CD-RW

Quad processors with 8 Mb of RAM

750 Gb -1 Tb hard drive

3D graphicsLCD monitors

That’s not

all

Late 2000’sAll in one TOUCH SCREEN computer by HP

Mac touch netbook

Media Tablets –Archos 7

320 GB Only 7 in

128 MB RAM

Touch screen

Weight:23oz 

WiFi

16 million colors  

Battery life: 39 hours (music)

I-phone

Netbooks

Mac Air

MP3 Players

Late 2000’s

The Future?

Imagine the possibilitie

s…

BIBLIOGRAPHYhttp://www97.intel.com/en/TheJourneyInside/E

xploreTheCurriculum/EC_IntroductionToComputers/ICLesson1/

http://inventors.about.com/library/blcoindex.htm

http://www.pbs.org/nerds/timeline/elec.htmlhttp://www.xnumber.com/xnumber/mechlist.ht

mhttp://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/farid/teaching/cs

4/summer.08/notes/historyofcomputing/http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrele

ase/25079.wsshttp://www.computerhope.com/history/19608

0.htmhttp://www.computerhope.com/history/2000.h

tm