A Short History of Computers

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A Short History of Computers

• Geoffrey M. Rockwell
• x 24072
• Togo Salmon 309A
• grockwel_at_mcmaster.ca
• URL http//www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/hccrs/ihch
  ome.htm

McMaster University
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Administration

• Homework 3 is up. Complete by next Wednesday.

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Review - Types of Storage
Storage
Permanent
Temporary
RAM
Removable
Fixed
ROM
Hard Drive
Magneto-Optical
Floppy
Storage typically measured in K (Kilobytes), MB
(Megabytes) or GB (Gigabytes)
CD-ROM
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Storage (bits and bytes)
Kbps Kilobits per second

• Computer is digital.
• Information has to be digitized. (binary digits)
• Bits and Bytes
• Bit - 0 or 1/On or Off/
• Byte - Eight Bits 00110011
• K (Kilobyte) 1024 bytes
• MB (Megabyte) about 1000 K
• GB (Gigabyte) about 1000 MB

Number Binary 0 0 1 1 2
10 3 11 4 100 5
101
Letter ASCII A 01000001 B 01000010
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Review - From letters to bytes
(8 Bits)
1 Byte 01000001
A
Laser
Floppy Disk
CD-ROM
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Brief History of Computing

• Prehistory - Babbage and Lovelace
• The first computer? - ENIAC
• The first home computer? - Altair
• Accessible computing - Apple
• Micros go business - IBM PC

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Babbage and Lovelace

• Charles Babbage (1791-1871)
• Difference Engine 1833
• 1835 Analytical Engine
• Programmable (Cards)
• Mechanical
• Ada Lovelace

It weaves algebraic patterns just as the
Jacquard loom weaves flowers and leaves (Ada
Lovelace)
Gibson - The Difference Engine
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ENIAC

• Mauchly and Eckert - 1943 proposal to Army
• ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and
  Computer) working in 1945 (after the war)
• von Neumann - EDVAC
• Transistor invented in 1947
• ICs - Integrated Circuits
• Microprocessor (Intel 4004) 1971

Printer
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ENIAC Pictures
Programming with switches
Engineers
The initiating and cycling units of ENIAC
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Altair - the Microcomputer

• MITS - Altair
• Uses the Intel 8080
• Cover of Popular Electronics
• Jan. 1975
• MITS hires Allen (and Gates)

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Apple

• Steve Wozniak (the Woz)
• Steven Jobs
• Homebrew Computer Club
• Apple I - MOS 6502 chip
• 1976 Mike Markkula bought in
• Apple Founded
• 1977 the Apple II
• 1984 the Macintosh

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IBM PC

• Built on the Intel 8088
• Operating System from Microsoft (and others)
• Put together with existing components
• Open to cards and software
• Released in 1981

An IBM Clone
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Key Innovations

• Calculating device
• General Purpose Device - Programmability
• Digital Device
• Electrical Device
• Integrated Circuits - Transistors
• Interface from Commands to GUI
• Multiuser/Shared Computer to Personal Computer

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History of the Net

• Sputnik and The Space Race
• ARPA and the ARPANET
• E-Mail and the subversion of the Net
• Who has access, really?

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Birth of the Internet

• Sputnik - 1957
• Advanced Research Project Agency - 1958
• RFP for Interface Message Processors (IMPs) -
  1968
• UCLA and SRI connected in 1969

IMP
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Evolution of the Internet

• Ethernet - Bob Metcalfe - 1973
• ARPANET splits off MILNET - 1983
• 113 nodes, 45 go to ARPANET
• TCP/IP - 1978, ARPANET switches in 1983
• ARPANET replaced by NSF backbone - 1985

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History of E-mail and Web

• MAILBOX on MIT time-sharing system, early 1960s
• Ray Tomlinson - MAIL - _at_ symbol - 1972
• 3/4 of ARPANET traffic is e-mail in 1973
• 1990 - World Wide Web
• Tim Berners-Lee, CERN
• 1995 - Netscape. Netscape Corp is traded on the
  stock market.

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Internet Census
1997
1991
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Current State of the Net
Who has access? Who doesnt?
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End