History of

Computers

INTRODUCTION TO
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
 In the Beginning
Do you know?

•Computing began with things like:

Bones Finger Counting

1900 to 1800 BC

The Babylonian's sexagesimal system,

which first appeared around 1900 to 1800
BC, is credited as being the first known
place-value number system using base
sixty.
NOTE: The Sumerians uses a sexagecimal (base 60) number
system. Most clocks are based on the sexagecimal system. The
Babylonians inherited sexagecimal numbers from the Sumerians.
They divided a circle into 360 degrees since they believed the Sun
rotated around the Earth in about 360 days.
1000 BC to 500 BC
The Invention of the Abacus

❂ The first actual calculating

mechanism known to us is the
abacus, which is thought to have
been invented by the Babylonians
sometime between 1,000 BC and
500 BC, although some observers
are of the opinion that it was
actually invented by the Chinese .
1500 AD
Leonardo da Vinci's Mechanical Calculator

✎ It appears that the first mechanical

calculator may have been conceived by
Leonardo da Vinci almost one hundred
and fifty years earlier than Pascal's
machine.
Wilhelm Schickard (1592-1635)

 Wilhelm Schickard
(1592-1635), of
Tuebingen,
Germany), made a
"Calculating Clock-
1623". This
mechanical machine
was capable of
adding and
subtracting up to 6
digit numbers, and
1600 AD
John Napier and Napier's Bones

 In the early 1600s, a

Scottish mathematician
named John Napier, the
Laird of Merchiston,
invented a tool called
Napier's Bones, wherein
 Napier also multiplication tables were
invented the inscribed on strips of
logarithms, which wood or bone.
greatly assisted
in arithmetic
 Napier's Bones/rods
❂ Napier's bones, also called Napier's rods, are
numbered rods which can be used to perform
multiplication of any number by a number 2-9.
❂ By placing "bones" corresponding to the
multiplier on the left side and the bones
corresponding to the digits of the multiplicand
next to it to the right, and product can be read
off simply by adding pairs of numbers (with
appropriate carries as needed) in the row
determined by the multiplier.
1621 AD
Slide Rule

❂ In 1621, an English mathematician and

clergyman called William Oughtred
used Napier's logarithms as the basis
for the slide rule.
❂ This was first built in England in 1632 and
still in use in the 1960's by the NASA
engineers of the Mercury, Gemini, and
Apollo programs which landed men on the
moon.
 1625 AD Arithmetic Machine
❂ The German astronomer and
mathematician Wilhelm
Schickard wrote a letter to his
friend Johannes Kepler about
fifteen years before Pascal
started developing his
Arithmetic Machine.
 1625 AD Arithmetic Machine
❂ He wrote that he had built a machine
that "...immediately computes the
given numbers automatically; adds,
subtracts, multiplies, and divides".
Unfortunately, no original copies of
Schickard's machine exist, but
working models have been
constructed from his notes.
 1640 AD
Blaise Pascal's Arithmetic Machine

❂ In 1640, Pascal started developing a device

to help his father add sums of money. The
first operating model, the Arithmetic
Machine, was introduced in 1642, and
Pascal created fifty more devices over the
next ten years.
Pascal's Arithmetic Machine

❂ Blaise Pascal is being credited as

the inventor of the first
operational calculating machine -
the Arithmetic Machine
Sir Samuel Morland
(1625-1695)
❂ Sir Samuel Morland of England,
produces a non decimal adding
machine, suitable for use with
English money. Instead of a carry
mechanism
1670 AD
Gottfried von Leibniz's Step Reckoner

❂ In 1670s, a German Baron named

Gottfried von Leibniz (sometimes von
Leibnitz) took mechanical calculation a
step beyond his predecessors.
❂ He developed Pascal's ideas and
introduced the Step Reckoner, a device
which, as well as performing additions
and subtractions, could multiply, divide,
and evaluate square roots by series of
stepped additions.
 1670 AD
Gottfried von Leibniz's Step Reckoner

❂ Leibniz also strongly advocated the use of

the binary number system, which is
fundamental to the operation of modern
computers.
1786 J. H. Mueller,
❂ 1786 J. H. Mueller, of the
Hessian army, conceives the idea
of what came to be called a
"difference engine". That's a
special purpose calculator for
tabulating values of a polynomial,
given the differences between
certain values so that the
polynomial is uniquely specified;.
 J. H. Mueller
Difference Engine
❂ It's useful for any
function that can be
approximated by a
polynomial over
suitable intervals.
Mueller's attempt to
raise funds fails and
the project is forgotten
1800 AD
Jacquard's Punched Cards

❂ In the early 1800s, a

French silk weaver
named Joseph-Marie
Jacquard invented a
way of automatically
controlling the warp
and weft threads on a
silk loom by recording
patterns of holes in a
string of cards.
1820
Charles Xavier Thomas de
Colmar
❂ Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar
of France, makes his
"Arithmometer", the first mass-
produced calculator.
1822 AD
Babbage's Difference Engine

❂ Charles Babbage built a

machine called the
Difference Engine that
automatically calculate
mathematical tables,
such as logarithmic and
trigonometric functions.
Analytical Engine
❂ Babbage conceived the idea of another,
more sophisticated machine called an
Analytical Engine. It was intended to
use loops of Jacquard’s Punched Cards
to control an automatic calculator.
❂ This machine was also intended to
employ several features subsequently
used in modern computers, including
sequential control, branching, and
looping.
 Augusta Ada Lovelace
❂ Working with Babbage was
Augusta Ada Lovelace, the
daughter of the English poet
Lord Byron. Ada, who was a
splendid mathematician and
one of the few people who
fully understood Babbage's
vision, created a program for
the Analytical Engine.
• ADA is now credited as being the first
computer programmer and, in 1979, a
modern programming language was
named ADA in her honor.
 1890 AD
Hollerith's Tabulating Machines

❂ An American inventor named Herman

Hollerith, made use of the idea of
Jacquard’s Punched Card to represent
the census data, and to then read and
collate this data using an automatic
machine.
History o f Com pu ti ng-
Su mma ry
❂ 3000 B.C., abacus: addition,
subtraction, multiplication, division
❂ 1642, Pascaline; addition (invented by
Blaise Pascal at age 18)
❂ 1694, Gottfried Wilhem von Leibniz;
extended the Pascaline to include
multiplication
Summary
❂ 1820, the arithometer by Charles Xavier
Thomas de Colmar; addition, subtraction,
multiplication, division
❂ 1832, analytical engine by Charles Babbage
and Ada Lovelace; steam powered general
purpose computing machine
❂ 1889, Tabulating Machine Company (now,
IBM) by Herman Hollerith; general purpose
computing -- tallied the U.S. Census in 6
weeks (as opposed to 7-10 years).
 Evolution
❂ 1824- Interna tiona l B usin es s
Mach in es
(IBM corporation) formed after
more mergers involving the
Computing - Tabulating -
Recording Company
❂ 1906 - Electronic Tube (or
Electronic Valve) developed by
Lee De Forest in America. Before
this it would have been impossible
Evolution
❂ 1910 Charles Watson Sr.
Father of International Business
Machines
❂ 1911
Merger of companies, including Herman
Hollerith's Tabulating Machine Company, to
Computing - Tabulating - Recording
Company - which became IBM in 1924.
Co mput er H ist ory - 19 00 -
19 40
❂ For more information, pls go to this site:
• http://www.computerhope.com/history/190
040.htm
The Electronic Age:
1940 - Present
 Evolution
❂ 1935 - International
Business Machines
introduces the "IBM
601", a punch card
machine with an
arithmetic unit based
on relays and
capable of doing a
multiplication in 1
second. The machine
becomes important
both in scientific and
Evolution

❂ 1938 - Konrad Zuse (1910-1995)

of Berlin, with some assistance
from Helmut Schreyer,
completes a prototype
mechanical binary
programmable calculator, the
first binary calculator it is based
on Boolean Algebra (see 1848).
Originally called the "V1" but
retroactively renamed "Z1" after
the war. It works with floating
 Evolution
❂ 1940 - At Bell Labs, Samuel
Williams and Stibitz complete
a calculator which can
operate on complex numbers,
and give it the imaginative
name of the "Complex
Number Calculator"; it is
later known as the "Model I
Relay Calculator". It uses
telephone switching parts for
logic: 450 relays and 10
crossbar switches
Evolution
❂ 1941 - Atanasoff
and Berry
complete a
special-purpose
calculator for
solving systems
of simultaneous
linear equations,
later called the
"ABC"
("Atanasoff-Berry
 Evolution
❂ 1943- Computers
between 1943 and 1959
(or thereabouts - some
say this era did not start
until UNIVAC-1 in 1951)
usually regarded as 'first
generation' and are
based on valves and wire
circuits. The are
characterised by the use
of punched cards and
vacuum valves. All
programming was done
in machine code. A
 Evolution
❂ 1942-3- Williams
and Stibitz
complete the
"Relay
Interpolator", later
called the "Model II
Relay Calculator".
This is a
programmable
calculator; again,
the program and
data are read from
Evolution
❂ 1943- The earliest
Programmable
Electronic Computer
first ran (in Britain),
it contained 2400
Vacuum tubes for
logic, and was called
the Colossus. It was
built, by Dr Thomas
Flowers at The Post
Office Research
Laboratories in
 Evolution
❂ 1946 – Mauchly
and Eckert created
the ENIAC
computer, first
electronic
computer is
unveiled at Univ. of
Pennsylvania
Evolution
❂ 1948- SSEM, (Small Scale
Experimental Machine) or
'Baby' was built at
Manchester University (UK),
It ran it's first program on
this date. Based on ideas
from Jon von Neumann (a
Hungarian Mathematician)
about stored program
computers, it was the first
computer to store both it's
programs and data in RAM,
as modern computers so.
 Evolution
❂ By 1948 the
'Baby' had
grown, and
acquired a
magnetic drum
for more
perminant
storage, and it
became the
Manchester
Mark I. The
Ferranti Mark I
Evolution
❂ 1949- Wilkes
and a team at
Cambridge
University build
a stored
program
computer -
EDSAC. It used
paper tape I/O,
and was the
first stored-
program
 Evolution
❂ 1949- EDVAC (electronic
discrete variable computer) -
First computer to use
Magnetic Tape. This was a
breakthrough as previous
computers had to be re-
programmed by re-wiring
them whereas EDVAC could
have new programs loaded
off of the tape. Proposed by
John von Neumann, it was
completed in 1952 at the
Institute for Advance Study,
Princeton, USA
Evolution
❂ 1951- Whirlwind, the
first real-time
computer was
built for the US Air
Defence System.
 UNIVAC 1
❂ 1951 - UNIVAC-1. The first
commercially sucessful
electronic computer,
UNIVAC I, was also the first
general purpose computer -
designed to handle both
numeric and textual
information. Designed by J.
Presper Eckert and John
Mauchly, whose corporation
subsequently passed to
Remington Rand. The
implementation of this
machine marked the real
beginning of the computer
era. Remington Rand
 Evolution
❂ 1952 - EDVAC
(Electronic Discrete
Variable Computer)
completed at the
Institute for Advanced
Study, Princeton, USA
(by Von Neumann and
others).
❂ 1953- Magnetic Core
Memory developed.
❂ 1957- First Dot Matrix
printer marketed by IBM.
❂ 1958- The integrated
circuit invented by Jack
Evolution
❂ 1959- Computers built
between 1959 and 1964
are often regarded as
'Second Generation'
computers, based on
transistors and printed
circuits - resulting in
much smaller
computers.
❂ More powerful, the
second generation of
1960- Tandy computers could handle
Corporation founded interpreters such as
by Charles Tandy. FORTRAN (for science)
or COBOL (for business),
that accepting English-
Integrated Circuit
❂ 1970’s – Integrated circuits
and silicon chips lead to
smaller microprocessor
PDP 8
❂ Digital Equipment
Corporation (DEC),
series PDP 8.
PDP 8I
❂ DEC's first calculator
with integrated
circuits was not
cheap. The CPU on its
own (in the middle of
the picture) without
periphery costed
27000$ at that time.
MAINFRAME

Computer
Simulations
and Surgery:
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