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Computer History.md

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[[Computer Systems Architectures]]

Computer History

Pre-modern Computers

  • The term "computer" appeared in the 17th and referred to a person who computes (performs mathematical calculations.)

  • The Antikythera Device (100BC) – an ancient analogue “computer” designed to calculate astronomical positions.

    ![[Attachments/Pasted image 20231012191325.png]]

  • The Pascaline (17th century) by Blaise Pascal – a calculating machine that could add and subtract numbers, as well as multiply and divide by repetition.

    ![[Attachments/Pasted image 20231012191344.png]]

  • The Leibniz’ engine (a.k.a. Stepped Reckoner) (end of 17th century) – a multi-purpose calculating device capable of multiplication and division.

    ![[Attachments/Pasted image 20231012191403.png]]

  • De Colmar’s Arithmometer (early 19th century) – 1st commercially successful mechanical calculator.

    ![[Attachments/Pasted image 20231012191420.png]]

  • Radhanath Sikdar (19th century) – an Indian mathematician, an early "computer".

    ![[Attachments/Pasted image 20231012191301.png]]

Modern Computers

  • Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine (19th century) - first general-purpose, programmable, Turing-complete mechanical computer.

    ![[Attachments/Pasted image 20231012191223.png]]

    • Ada Lovelace is the world's first programmer (she used Babbage's enginge).

      ![[Attachments/Pasted image 20231015194010.png]]

First Generation (1940s)

  • Charactirized by the use of vacuum tubes.

  • The Colossus (1943) - world's first electronic digital computer that was programmable (but dedicated to code breaking, so not general purpose).

    ![[Attachments/Pasted image 20231015195528.png]]

  • ENIAC (1946) - first electronic digital computer that was programmable and general purpose.

  • MONIAC (1949) - an analogue computer which used fluidic logic to model the workings of an economy.

    ![[Attachments/Pasted image 20231015195212.png]]

  • However, 1st generation computers had the following issues:

    • Generated a lot of heat.
    • Unreliable.
    • Costly.
    • Only supported machine language.
    • Huge in size.
    • Consumed a lot of electricity.

Second Generation (1950s):

  • Charactirized by the invention of transistors - small devices used to transfer electronic signals across resistors.

    ![[Attachments/Pasted image 20231015201919.png]]

  • The benefits of transistors over vacuum tubes include:

    • Smaller in size.
    • Do not require warm up time.
    • Consumed less energy.
    • Generated much less heat.
    • Faster.
    • More reliable.
  • An example of a 2nd generation computer is IBM 7094.

    ![[Attachments/Pasted image 20231015201252.png]]

Third Generation (1960s)

  • Charactirized by integrated circuits (chips) - a set of electronic circuits on one small plate (chip) of semiconductor material, normally silicon.

    ![[Attachments/Pasted image 20231015201731.png]]

  • The number of transistors per chip was measured in 10s to 100s.

Fourth Generation (1970s)

  • Charactirized by Large Scale Integration (LSI) - 10,000s of transistors per chip.
  • Bill Gates founded Microsoft.
  • Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs founded Apple.

Fifth Generation (1980s)

  • Charactirized by Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) - billions of transistors per chip.

Moore's Law

  • Moore's law states that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit doubles about every two years.

    ![[Attachments/Pasted image 20231015203452.png]]

Simplified History

![[Attachments/Pasted image 20231012184957.png]]