A Brief History of Computers

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A Brief History of Computers

• By
• Bernard John Poole, MSIS
• Associate Professor of Education and
  Instructional Technology
• University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown
• Johnstown, PA 15904

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Pre-Mechanical ComputingFrom Counting on
fingersto pebblesto hash marks on wallsto hash
marks on boneto hash marks in sand
Interesting thought Do any species, other than
homo sapiens, count?
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Mechanical computers
From The Abacus c. 4000 BCE to Charles
Babbage and his Difference Engine (1812)
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Mechanical computersThe Abacus (c. 3000 BCE)
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Napiers Bones andLogarithms (1617)
Picture courtesy IBM
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Oughtreds (1621) and Schickards (1623slide
rule
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Blaise PascalsPascaline (1645)
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Gottfried Wilhelm von LeibnitzsStepped Reckoner
(1674)
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Joseph-Marie Jacquard and his punched card
controlled looms (1804)
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Preparing the cards with the pattern for the
cloth to be woven
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Charles Babbage (1791-1871)The Father of
Computers
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Charles Babbages Difference Engine 1822-1842
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The latest working model of Babbages Difference
Engine 1989-1991
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Charles Babbages Analytical Engine
1837-1871never completed
Babbage was never able to complete construction
of any of his machines due to conflicts with his
chief engineer and inadequate funding.
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Lady Augusta AdaCountess of Lovelace (1815-1852
Read Lady Augusta Adas translation of
Menabreas Sketch of the Analytical Engine
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Electro-mechanical computers
From Herman Holleriths 1890 Census Counting
Machine to Howard Aiken and the Harvard Mark I
(1944)
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Herman Hollerith and hisCensus Tabulating
Machine (1884)
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A closer look at the Census Tabulating Machine
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The Harvard Mark I (1944)aka IBMs Automatic
Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC)
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The first computer bug
Rear Admiral Dr. Grace Murray Hopper
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Electronic digital computers
From John Vincent Atanasoffs 1939 Atanasoff-Berry
Computer (ABC) to the present day
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Alan Turing1912-1954
The Turing Machine Aka The Universal Machine 1936
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John Vincent Atanasoff (1903-1995)
Physics Prof At Iowa State University, Ames, IA
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Clifford Berry (1918-1963)
PhD student of Dr. Atanasoffs
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1939The Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC)
The ABC was the first electronic digital
computer, invented by John Vincent Atanasoff
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1943 Bletchley Parks Colossus
The Enigma Machine
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1946The ENIAC
John Presper Eckert (1919-1995) and John
Mauchly (1907-1980) of the University of
Pennsylvania Moore School of Engineering
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The ENIACElectronic Numerical Integrator and
Computer
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Programming the ENIAC
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ENIACs Wiring!
John Von Neumann
John Von Neumann came up with the bright idea of
using part of the computers internal memory
(called Primary Memory) to store the program
inside the computer and have the computer go get
the instructions from its own memory, just as we
do with our human brain.
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1951Univac
Typical 1968 pricesEX-cluding maintenance
support!
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What hath God wrought!First telegraph message
sent by Samuel Morse, 1844Electronic and
computing technology quickly progressedat an
ever-accelerating pacefrom vacuum tubes (Lee
de Forrest, the audion, 1907)to transistors
(William Shockley et al. 1947)to semiconductors
(Jack Kilby Robert Noyce, 1958)to
microprocessors (M.E. Ted Hoff, 1971)to
personal computers Atari, Apple, IBM, et al.,
1975- to networking and the Internet (Vinton
Cerf Robert Kahn, 1982to the World Wide Web
(Tim Berners-Lee, 1991)to mobile/cell phones,
tablet PCsand beyondToday, youll find
computers everywhere you care to look and they
are controlling an increasingly broad spectrum of
the devices we use as we go about our daily
lives. The phone is now (2014) a full-blown
computing, communication, and entertainment
device. Whatever next?
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Acknowledgements (continued on next slide)
For one of the best written books on the history
of computers, check out Engines of the Mind The
Evolution of the Computer from Mainframes to
Microprocessors -- by Joel N. Shurkin
(Paperback) A movingly beautiful book on Alan
Turing is Alan Turing the Enigma, by Andrew
Hodges An excellent, readable book on
Cryptography is Simon Singhs THE CODE BOOK. The
Secret History of Codes and Code-Breaking Tutoria
ls on the encryption software PGP (Pretty Good
Privacy) can be found at http//www.pitt.edu/poo
le/PGPintro.htm All pictures and some of the
information were obtained from various sites on
the World Wide Web. Complete list
follows Abacus http//qi-journal.com/action.las
so?-Token.SearchIDAbacus-Responseculture.asp Na
pier http//www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/hist
ory/Mathematicians/Napier.html http//www.maxmon.
com/1600ad.htm Slide Rules http//www.hpmuseum.or
g/sliderul.htm Pascals Pascaline
http//www.thocp.net/hardware/pascaline.htm Leibni
tz Stepped Reckoner http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Stepped_Reckoner Jacquard looms
http//history.acusd.edu/gen/recording/jacquard1.h
tml http//www.deutsches-museum.de/ausstell/meist
er/e_web.htm
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Acknowledgements (continued)
Charles Babbage http//ei.cs.vt.edu/history/Babb
age.html http//www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/on-line/
babbage/index.asp Lady Augusta Ada, Countess of
Lovelace http//www.well.com/user/adatoole/bio.ht
m http//www.fourmilab.ch/babbage/sketch.html Ele
ctricity http//www.mediaeng.com/historyelect.htm
l (beautifully written pocket history
of electricity magnetism) Herman Hollerith
http//www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/Ma
thematicians/Hollerith.html Howard Aiken The
Harvard Mark I http//www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.a
c.uk/history/Mathematicians/Aiken.html Alan
Turing http//www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/hi
story/Mathematicians/Turing.html John Vincent
Atanasoff http//www.cs.iastate.edu/jva/books/mol
lenhoff/overview.shtml Biographies of Atanasoff
and Clifford Berry http//www.scl.ameslab.gov/ABC
/Biographies.html J. Presper Eckert
http//www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/Ma
thematicians/Eckert_John.html John Mauchly
http//www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/Ma
thematicians/Mauchly.html The patent controversy
http//www.library.upenn.edu/special/gallery/mauch
ly/jwm7.html ARPANet http//www.dei.isep.ipp.pt/d
ocs/arpa.html Thanks to the following EDTECH
listserv colleagues and friends who have reviewed
the presentation and provided amendments and
additional material for inclusion on the slides
and in the notes. Nancy Head, online instructor,
Michigan Virtual High School (MVHS), U.S.A., on
the web at www.mivhs.org Mandi Axmann,
Instructional Designer, Open Universities
Australia