Chapter 5 History

Chapter 1.5

• History

• of

• Computing Devices

Summary

• Early history of computing devices

• Commercial developments

• First generation systems
• Second generation systems
• Third generation hardware
• Third generation software
• Fourth generation systems

Summary

• Early history of computing devices

• Commercial developments

• First generation systems
• Second generation systems
• Third generation hardware
• Third generation software
• Fourth generation systems

Chinese Abacus

Blaise Pascal

Charles Babbage (1840)

1890 Census & Herman Hollerith

1890 Census & Herman Hollerith

Punched Cards Data Processing 1890 - 1960

• Herman Hollerith founder of

• Computing, Tabulating and Recording Company
• International Business Machines (1924)
• Industry leader in electromechanical data handling

• Competition:

• Sperry Rand Corporation
• Bull

Early Electronic Data Processing 1935-1950

• In Europe :

• Alan TURING : COLLOSSUS

• In the USA :

• John V. Atanasoff & Clifford Berry
• J.Presper Eckert & John W.Mauchly : ENIAC
• John Von Neumann : EDVAC

Alan TURING

The Enigma

Alan Turing @ Bletchley Park

John Atanasoff & Clifford Berry

The Atanasoff-Berry Computer

Eckert & Mauchly : ENIAC

• Moore School of Electrical Engineering

• First large scale electronic calculator

• Build between 1943 and 1946

• Complexity : 18 000 radio valves

• Electrical power : 65 000 Watt

• Mean time between failure : 6.5 Hours

• Capabilities : those of a pocket calculator...

J.Presper ECKERT

John W. MAUCHLEY

Eckert, Mauchly & Von Neumann

Eckert, Mauchly & Von Neumann

• John Von Neumann

• signs the EDVAC project
• publishes paper setting the foundations of modern computers

• Eckert & Mauchly

• get patents on ENIAC design
• found a company to build commercial computers : UNIVAC

The Honeywell vs. Sperry-Univac Lawsuit 1968-1973

John Vincent Atanasoff

Summary

• Early history of computing devices

• Commercial developments

• First generation systems
• Second generation systems
• Third generation hardware
• Third generation software
• Fourth generation systems

First Generation Systems 1948-1958

• Control Unit & ALU : Vacuum tubes

• Central memory : inadequate technologies

• Mercury delay lines : slow and error prone
• Manchester storage tubes : low capacity
• Capacity : a few kilobytes
• Access time : tens of microseconds

• Software : mainly scientific calculations

• Cost of hardware >> cost of programmers
• Programs written in machine language by scientists.
• Main concern : efficient use of small memory

First generation ALU module

Summary

• Early history of computing devices

• Commercial developments

• First generation systems
• Second generation systems
• Third generation hardware
• Third generation software
• Fourth generation systems

Bardeen, Bratten & Shockley

The first Transistor

Ferrite Memory

Second Generation Systems 1955-1965

• Control Unit & ALU : Transistors

• Central memory : Ferrite cores

• Spectacular improvement of price/performance

• Much larger systems become affordable

• Software :

• Both scientific and administrative applications
• Programmer productivity becomes important.
• High level programming languages
• Scientific applications : FORTRAN
• Business oriented applications : COBOL

First Scientific Supercomputer The IBM 7030 “Stretch”

Grace Hopper (US Navy)

John Backus (IBM)

Summary

• Early history of computing devices

• Commercial developments

• First generation systems
• Second generation systems
• Third generation hardware
• Third generation software
• Fourth generation systems

The First Integrated Circuit

Integrated circuits

Third Generation Computers 1965-1973

• Control Unit & ALU : Integrated Circuits

• Central memory : Ferrite cores

• Enormous improvement of price/performance

• Very large systems become affordable

• Software :

• Multiprogramming to keep systems busy
• Second generation software technology appears inadequate for such large and complex systems.
• Operating systems and application programs hard or even impossible to debug.
• THE SOFTWARE CRISIS !!!

New powerful computers: The IBM 360 series

Summary

• Early history of computing devices

• Commercial developments

• First generation systems
• Second generation systems
• Third generation hardware
• Third generation software
• Fourth generation systems

The Cost of Software

Software Engineering

• Facts:

• Software development is usually much more expensive than the computer to run the software.
• 75% of software cost result from testing and making small changes.

• Logical conclusions:

• Except when hardware cost is dominant, Software should be designed to be easily tested and modified rather than to be small or fast.
• Software should be simple and clearly written

Third Generation Software 1970-1990

• Structured programming

• New programming languages :

• Pascal : initially for teaching structured programming
• Ada : derived from Pascal, for reliable software
• C : kind of high-level assembly language, initially intended for systems programming

• Extensions to existing languages :

• Structured FORTRAN
• Structured COBOL

• New operating system : UNIX

• Simple, well structured multiprogramming system
• written in C.

Niklaus Wirth

Ken Thomson

Summary

• Early history of computing devices

• Commercial developments

• First generation systems
• Second generation systems
• Third generation hardware
• Third generation software
• Fourth generation systems

VLSI Technology (Very Large Scale Integration)

• Progress in integrated circuits manufacturing

• Number of components doubles every 18 months
• Smaller components result in higher speed
• Price/performance doubles in less than 18 months

• Technology milestones

• 1971: the first microprocessor = an entire CPU in one VLSI circuit.
• 1970: integrated circuit memories become cheaper than ferrite memories.

The founders of INTEL

VLSI memory chips

Ted Van t’Hoff

The First Microprocessor

Fourth Generation Systems 1970-now

• Control Unit & ALU : Integrated Circuits

• Central memory : Integrated Circuits

• Diversified computers:

• Low cost Personal Workstations
• Multi-processor supercomputers
• Embedded systems

• Networking and distributed processing

• Software :

• Graphical User-interfaces
• Application oriented programming.
• Object oriented design & programming.

The IBM Personal Computer

Special Purpose Computers

Chip - Cards