A Brief History of
Computing
1930 1950 1970
Part I:
ancient history: up to 1930
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origins of digital computers
• earliest computing device
designed to aid numeric
computation
• abacus: first developed in
Babylonia, over 5000 years
ago and still used today in
some parts of the world
• a “finger-powered pocket
calculator”
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origins of computational methods
• algorithm: a finite set of unambiguous
instructions to solve a problem
• the term is raised from the name of the 9th century
mathematician Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī
• Latinized algorithmi
• early examples:
• (300 BC) the Euclidean algorithm for finding the
greatest common divisor of two numbers
• (AD 60–120) the sieve of Eratosthenes for finding
prime numbers,
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early calculating machines
• they were manual or mechanical
• examples:
• slide rule used in science and engineering in 1600s
until it was replaced in 1900s by pocket calculators
• mechanical calculators (since 1600s)
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacquard_machine
Jacquard loom (1804)
• used punch cards to define complex patterns woven into
textiles
• punch cards were later used to code computer programs
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Punch cards
A punched card or punch card is a piece of stiff paper with
holes, where presence or absence of holes in pre-defined
positions to dictate the design of cloth.
(Later) Digital data to be entered in computer was represented
by the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions
(before the wide use of keyboard)
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George Boole (1815–1864)
• Boolean algebra
• laid logical foundations of
digital computing circuitry
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Part II:
birth of the electronic computer
1930 to 1951
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Claude Shannon (1916 – 2001)
• 1937: introduced the application of
Boolean Logic in creating digital
computing machines
• 1948: published “A mathematical
theory of communication” which
establishes the principles for
encoding information so it might be
reliably transmitted electronically
• Many consider him the father of the
modern information age
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Von Neumann Architecture
• “stored program”
• binary internal coding
• CPU-Memory-I/O
organization
• “fetch-decode-execute”
cycle
More details later
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Von Neumann Architecture
• “Stored program”
• Central processing unit, a
memory, mass storage, IO
• Earlier computers (e.g.,
ENIAC) hard-wired to do one
task, re-wired for different
• Stored program computer can
run different programs
• Basis for modern computers
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Alan Turing (1912 – 1954)
• led the World War II research
group that broke the (encrypted)
code for the German Enigma
machine
• proposed a simple abstract
universal machine model for
defining computability – The
Turing Machine
• devised the “Turing Test” for
EECS1520: History Artificial Intelligence 13
Enigma machine (Germany)
• invented in 1918, it was
the most sophisticated
code system of its day,
and a priority for the Allies
to break it as the Germans
believed it was
unbreakable
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• Contributed to the electronic computing
machines in 1940s that helped decrypt
German coded messages
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the 1st electronic general-purpose
computer
• ENIAC: Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer
is the first general-purpose electronic digital computer
• commissioned by the United States Army for computing
ballistic firing tables
• See YouTube video on the last slide page
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ENIAC
• noted for massive scale
and redundant design
• used vacuum tubes
to control the flow of
electrical signals
• decimal internal coding
• operational in 1946
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ENIAC
• manual programming of boards, switches and
“function table”
• Not “von Neumann Architecture”
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vacuum tubes are large, generate a lot of heat and are prone to failures
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early computer programming was slow,
tedious and repetitious
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Part III:
age of the mainframes
1951 to 1970
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1950s: computers get smaller
• four generations
of vacuum tube
computer circuits,
showing the
reduction in size
during the 1950s
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Grace Hopper (1906–1992)
• created first compiler because she was tired of writing
machine code by hand. Greatly improved programming
speed and efficiency.
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the transistor
“the most important invention of the 20th century…”
• Transistor replaced vacuum • Integrated Circuit
tubes, which were bulky allowed placement of many
transistors onto a small surface
• lowered cost and decreased
space compared to using
individual transistors
• this enabled computers and other
electronic devices to become
smaller and cheaper to build and
maintain
• today exceeding 10 billion
transistors in a single package of
approximately 25 square
centimetres
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a hearing aid
• the first device built with
transistors, in 1953
• Zenith Royal-T “tubeless”
hearing aid
• a prehistoric iPod ☺
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followed by the “transistor radio”
Vacuum tube radio
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1960s: IBM System/360
• introduced in 1964
• family of computers,
with compatible
architecture, covering
a wide price range
• established the
standard for
mainframes for a
decade and beyond
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punch cards
• student programmers
using the IBM 026
keypuncher
• punched card from a
Fortran program
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Going to the Moon
• Apollo space program depended on computers to calculate
trajectories and control guidance
• trajectories calculated using IBM mainframes
• onboard guidance computer had less processing power than
modern appliances, but had auto-pilot capabilities
• Margaret Hamilton
• led the team who coded
programming for the guidance
computer
• considered a pioneer in software
engineering
wired.com
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Gordon Bell: the “minicomputer”
Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC)
• developed first “mini”
computers, 1960–83
• brought computing to small
business
• created major competition
for IBM, Univac, who only
built mainframes
• made Boston area first
“silicon valley”
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DEC PDP series
• offered mainframe
performance at a
fraction of the cost
• PDP-8 introduced at
$20,000 vs. $1M for
a mainframe
(early 1960s dollars)
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specialized supercomputers
• first developed in the
late 1970s
• high-performance
systems used for
scientific applications
(weather forecasting,
code breaking)
• advanced special
purpose designs
• IBM, NRCPC, NUDT
Dell EMC, Cray,
NEC, and others
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supercomputers today:
IBM Summit supercomputer
used for hydrodynamics, quantum chemistry, molecular
dynamics, climate modeling and financial modeling
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Part IV
age of the personal computers
after 1970
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Intel 4004 microprocessor - 1972
• first commercially
available microprocessor
– first used in a
programmable calculator
• made the personal
computer possible
• contained 2300
transistors and ran at
100 kHz
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desktop and portable computers
1975 and later
• use microprocessors
• all-in-one designs,
performance/price
tradeoffs
• aimed at mass
audience
• personal computers
• workstations
cassette tapes for storage
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Altair 8800
first kit micro computer (1975) by MITS
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the beginning of Microsoft
in 1975 Bill Gates and
Paul Allen approached
Ed Roberts of MITS, the
company that developed
the Altair, and promised to
deliver a compiler for
BASIC language. They did
so, and from that sale,
Microsoft was born.
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Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs with
the 1st Apple computer (1976)
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Radio Shack TRS-80 (1978)
• first plug and play
personal computer
available at retail
• programmed in BASIC
• very affordable
• limited commercial
software
• created a “cottage
industry”
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Osborne I (1981)
• first “portable” personal
computer
• came with lots of bundled
software
• only weighed around 20
kilos and sold for $1795
• 5 inch (13 cm) screen!
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IBM PC (1982)
• IBM’s first personal
computer
• significant shift for IBM
• open architecture
• established a new
standard – legitimized
the personal computer
• Operating System
supplied by Microsoft
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Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC)
• contributions to computing include:
• ethernet networking technology
• laser printers/copiers
• Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) programing paradigm
• workstations Alto and Star were the first to use a window-based
Graphical User Interface (GUI)
wikipedia.org
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Xerox Star (1981)
EECS1520: History the first to use a window-based Graphical User Interface (GUI) 47
Apple MacIntosh (1984)
• second Personal computer
with GUI interface
• adapted from the work
done at Xerox
• designed to be a computer
appliance for “Real People”
• introduced at the 1984
Superbowl
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the GUI has arrived!
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Advanced Research Projects Agency Network
(ARPANET)
• large-area computer network, established in 1969
• allowed universities to share data
• University of California, Los Angeles
• University of California, Santa Barbara
• Stanford Research
• University of Utah, CS Dept.
• communication protocols developed for ARPANET in early
1980s served as the basis for the Internet
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Moore’s Law in action
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Today’s price/performance
• over 3 billion operations per second costs less
than $300
• memory is measured in gigabytes… not
megabytes or kilobytes
• secondary storage is terabytes, soon to be
petabytes
• communication speeds measured in megabits or
gigabits per second, not Kilobits
and so it continues
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further resources & readings
• YouTube: The Machine That Changed the World
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GropWVbj9wA
• www.computerhistory.org
• Google any name or term and see what comes up, such as
Wikipedia entries
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