The father of computing history: Charles Babbage

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The father of computing historyCharles Babbage
by Anja Jentzsch jentzsch_at_inf.fu-berlin.de
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Charles Babbage (1791 - 1871)

• born 12/26/1791
• son of a London banker
• Trinity College, Cambridge
• Lucasian Professorship
• Mathematician and Scientist

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Difference Engine

• 1822 plan for calculating and printing
  mathematical tables like they were used in the
  navy
• using the method of difference, based on
  polynomial functions

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Difference Engine

• 1822 design 6 decimal places with second-order
  difference
• 1830 engine with 20 decimal places and a
  sixth-order difference
• 1830 end of work on the difference engine because
  of a dispute with his chief engineer

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Analytical Engine

• 1834 plans for an improved device, capable of
  calculating any mathematical function
• increase of calculating
• speed
• never completed

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Analytical Engine - Architecture

• separation of storage and calculation
• store
• mill
• control of operations by microprogram
• control barrels
• user program control using punched cards
• operations cards
• variable cards
• number cards

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Analytical Engine

• more than 200 columns of gear trains and number
  wheels
• 16 column register (store 2 numbers)
• 50 register columns, with 40 decimal digits of
  precision
• counting apparatus to keep track of repetitions
• cycle time 2.5 seconds to transfer a number from
  the store to a register in the mill
• addition 3 seconds
• conditional statements

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Analytical Engine
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First programmer Ada Lovelace

• Ada Lady Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron, was
  working with Babbage on the Analytical Engine
• first ideas of
• algorithm representation
• programming languages
• already realized
• program loops
• conditional statements

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Babbages meaning in history

• John von Neumann (1903 - 1957) universal
  computing machine consisting of
• memory
• input / output
• arithmetic/logic unit (ALU)
• control unit
• based on Babbages ideas
• 95 of modern computers are based on the von
  Neumann architecture

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Babbages meaning in history

• Howard Aiken (1900 1973) developed the ASCC
  computer (Automatic Sequence Controlled
  Calculator)
• could carry out five operations, addition,
  subtraction, multiplication, division and
  reference to previous results
• Aiken was much influenced by Babbage's writings
• he saw the ASCC computer as completing the task
  which Babbage had set out on but failed to
  complete