Slides adapted from Prof. Helene
Kerschner.



You won't be asked to identify
pictures of technology!
 Test coverage of this material will
be general
Some of this is review from the first
day of class.
In lab, we will continue working with
Karel the Robot
Computer? What’s a computer?
Until the 1930s a “computer” was a
person who did mathematical
calculations.
This changed at least in part due to
World War II -The US, Great Britain and Germany
all had active research into computer technology.
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner
Computer? What’s a computer?
Man vs. Machine
Albert Einstein said:
Computers are incredibly fast, accurate,
and stupid:
Humans are incredibly slow, inaccurate
and brilliant;
Together they are powerful beyond
imagination.1 -- Albert Einstein
(Remember this quote?)
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner
www.quotiki.com
Computer? What’s a computer?
We have desktop
computers.
Like this system at
www.dell.com
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner
Computer? What’s a computer?
We have laptop computers
Apple
Dell
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner
Computer? What’s a computer?
There are full
computers that
weigh little.


Sony Vaio
Today we might
mention
smartphones
Others are built to be
essentially
indestructible.

Panasonic
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner
Computer? What’s a computer?

And there are supercomputers.
.
Cray Inc
www.cray.com
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner
Computer? What’s a computer?
The one laptop per child non-profit initiative!
“The mission of One Laptop per Child (OLPC) is to empower
the children of developing countries to learn by providing
one connected laptop to every school-age child.”
http://www.laptopgiving.org
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner
Computer? What’s a computer?


Much of what we own, use and do contains
computers.
A computer on the “inside” of a device designed to
do something else is an embedded computer.

Cars




–
Antilock break systems
All wheel drive system
GPS systems
Satellite radio
Garmin 750
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner
Computer? What’s a computer?

There are digital calculators
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner
Computer? What’s a computer

PDA – Personal Digital Assistant
Palm TX Handheld
HP iPAQ Moble
Messenger
Blackberry 8703e
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner
Computer? What’s a computer?

Music Machines
Centon MP3 Player
PowerUp MP3 Player
Alexa MP3/MP4
Player
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner
Computer? What’s a computer?

Music Machines -- iPods
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner
Computer? What’s a computer?
Then there are embedded computers in







Deep Fryers
Microwave Ovens
Alarm Clocks
Cameras
Augmentative Communication Devices (Talkers)
Cash registers
Gasoline pumps
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner
Computer? What’s a computer?
And then there are cell phones? Or are these
PDAs, cameras, alarm clocks, time pieces and…
computers
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner
Computers, Where did they come from?
Computer = Person

Devices to assist people with their calculations
Mechanical Age
5000 BC
Still in use in Asia

1621
Slide rule – William Oughtred

Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner
Computers, Where did they come from?
Mechanical Devices

1642 -- Blaise Pascal invented the first machine like
adding machine (added and subtracted)



Used gears or wheels that were moved with a pointed object
Legend – he built if for his father who was a tax collector and
spent lots of time and effort adding and subtracting
1673 -- Baron Gottried Wilhelm von Leibnitz
redesigned Pascal’s device so it could multiply and
divide.
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner
Computers, Where did they come from?
Mechanical Devices
1833 – Charles Babbage an eccentric British
mathematician and inventor created a mechanical
machine that would perform many of the functions of
modern computers

It was never built. The precision required for the
gear systems was beyond the capabilities of the day.

Using more modern Engineering
techniques his son was able to
create a model an prove that it

would work.
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner
Computers, Where did they come from?
The Industrial Age – mid 1800s through early 1900s






Herman Hollerith’s Tabulating machine



Agrarian world  Industrialization
Farms  factories
Cloth made by hand  textile industries (mechanical loom)
Animal power  steam  internal combustion engine
Gas lights  electric lights
Contest to calculate the 1900 census
“Grandparent” company of IBM
1888 – William Burroughs’ created & patented a paper
tape adding machine

Burroughs Corp. moved from adding machines to computers
in 1961.
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner
Burroughs Adding Machines
Early Burroughs
adding machine
1925 advertisement
1950 era Burroughs
adding machine
Photos found on eBay
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner
Computers, Where did they come from?
Next major step: late 1930
What was happening in the world in the late 1930s?

Great Britian


COLOSSUS -- 1943
Single Purpose Computer – code breaker
www.codesandciphers.org.uk/lorenz/colossus.htm
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner
Computers, Great Ideas





In 1944, scientist John Von Neumann added
his talents to the ENIAC team.
Great Idea -- Developed the concept of
storing a program in the computer’s memory,
rather part of it’s circuitry.
This is called the stored program concept.
Each program was a numeric code using binary
digits (0 or 1) (off or on).
Both the program and the data could now be
stored in memory.
Kershner, Computer Literacy 3rd Ed.
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner
Computers, Where did they come from?
Next major step: late 1930
What was happening in the world in the late 1930s?
Telephone switches vs Vacuum Tubes
Harvard/IBM – Howard Aikens
1943
Univ. of Pennsylvania- John Mauchly &
Presper Eckert
1946
www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/markI/markI_intro.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ENIAC
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner
History
Computer Generations
Each Generation notes a major change in
technology.

First Generation (1951 – 1958)





Vacuum tube technology
Punched card or magnetic tape
Machine language
Magnetic core
Second Generation (1959 – 1964)





Great Idea -- Transistor
Solid-state technology – no moving parts
Punched card or magnetic tape
Assembly language or higher level language
Magnetic core
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner
Computers, Where did they come from?
Vacuum Tubes
Transistors

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_tubes
Schindler, Kris
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner
History
Computer Generations

Third Generation (1965 – early 1970s)






Great Idea -- Integrated circuits (IC) – multiple
transistors on a chip
Silicon chips
Large-scale integration
Punched cards, magnetic tape, magnetic disks
Magnetic core, some semiconductor memory
Fourth Generation Computers (early 1970s – present?)

Very large-scale integration (VLSI)




Great Idea– Computer on a chip - Microprocessor chip
Magnetic disks, floppy disks, flash/memory sticks
Great Idea – High level programming language“ --user
friendly” software
Semiconductor memory
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner
Computers, Where did they come
from?
Integrated Circuits (IC)
Very large-scale integrated
circuits (VLSI)

Schindler, Kris
Copyright © 2008 by Helene G. Kershner