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Appendix
The Continuing Story of the
Computer Age
Early Calculating Devices


abacus - calculating
device used for
about 4000 years
throughout the
ancient world
quipa - used by
Incans to represent
data (e.g. payments,
memorable dates)
abacus
quipa
Steps Toward Modern
Computing

Jacquard’s loom patterns for the loom
could be
“programmed”
(punch cards)
Charles Babbage
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English mathematician
and scientist (17911871)
nicknamed “father of
computing”
Difference and
Analytical Engines were
direct predecessors of
modern computers
worked with Lady Ada
Lovelace (first
programmer)
Difference engine
Herman Hollerith

invented a tabulating device used for
compiling the 1890 census
– introduced the idea of automated data
processing
– continued developing business machinery
– his company was one of the companies
that joined to form IBM
The start of modern computing

ENIAC - first large-scale
electronic digital computer
(completed in 1946)
– built by John Mauchly
and J. Presper Eckert
at the University of
Pennsylvania
– 17,480 vacuum tubes,
30 tons, 10’ high, 3’
wide, 100’ long
– had to be rewired to
change program
Other Early Developments

stored program concept
– programs and data stored in the computer’s
memory
– developed by John von Neumann

Grace Murray Hopper
– developed some of the first high-level
programming languages
1st Generation Computers (1951-58)
 used vacuum tubes

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- very unreliable
machine language
programming
punched cards and
magnetic tape
UNIVAC completed
in 1951
– first computer built for
commercial use
– purchased by the U.S.
Census Bureau
2nd Generation Computers (1959-64)

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transistors replaced vacuum tubes
faster, smaller, and more reliable
than 1st generation machines
used punched cards, printers, tape
and disk storage
development of assembly languages
and first high-level languages
computers used principally by
businesses
3rd Generation Computers (1965-70)


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

integrated circuit (IC) - a complete electronic
circuit on a chip of silicon
replaced transistors in computers - faster,
smaller, less expensive than earlier machines
“computer families” introduced
unbundling of software - separate the selling
of software and hardware
standards developed for computer networks
(Internet begins)
4th Generation Computers (1971-Present)
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extension of IC technology led to VLSI
development of the microprocessor
introduction of personal computers and
supercomputers
– Apple Computers (1977)
– IBM PC (1981) - non-proprietary parts
• Microsoft provided original OS

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proliferation of application software
GUI’s become widely used
proliferation of networking (Internet, WWW)