Introduction and History of

Computers
What’s a Computer?
 A machine capable of executing instructions on data.
 What distinguishes a computer is its ability to store its
own instructions.

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Analog/Digital -- Who
 During the 1930’s and ‘40’s, the premier school for digital
computers was the Moore School of Engineering at the
University of Pennsylvania (where ENIAC was created).
 During this same period, the premier school for analog
computers was MIT.

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Analog/Digital -- What
 In a digital computer, data input and output and data
representation within the computer is discrete, it is
either a 0 or a 1 (which is actually a voltage level).
 In an analog computer, data input and output and
data representation within the computer is
continuous or proportional, it can have any value
within the limits of the power supplies.

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Systron-Donner Analog SD40/80

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Kelvin Feedback Technique

s  s  s 
2 b
a
1 c
a
0 R(s)
a
1/a
s^2 -s^1 s^0
R(s)

b/a
s

c/a

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History of Computers
 First digital computer might be the abacus used by
the Chinese 3000-4000 years ago.
 Slide rule was initially crude, but long-lived, and could
only multiply and divide, a characteristic of analog
computers.
 Pascal’s adding machine of 1642 was a better first
example of an analog computer, but like the abacus,
it was only a calculator.
 All of these lacked a means of storing a program.

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Pascal’s Adding Machine

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Program Storage
 Jacquard used punch cards to control a loom.
 Babbage used that in his difference engine and
analytical engine, which were only recently actually
built and operated.
 Ada Augusta (Lady Lovelace) worked with Babbage
and is considered the first programmer.
 Hollerith used cards to tabulate the 1890 census,
leading to IBM (1924).

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An IBM Punch Card

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Babbage’s Difference Engine

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Early Computers
 1942 - Atanasoff and Berry completed a prototype of
the Atanasoff Berry Computer, but it never operated
as a fully functional computer. 1938 is the date
assigned to its origin and it was legally declared first.
 1944 - IBM created the Mark I computer, an
electromechanical computer.
 1946 - Eckert & Mauchley’s ENIAC was the computer
that lost to the ABC circa 1972. It still exists and was
operated on its anniversary.

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Atanasoff-Berry Computer

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IBM Mark I

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Relays

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ENIAC

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ENIAC On-A-Chip

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Early Antiaircraft Information

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Finding Airplanes

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Aiming Corrections

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The “Real” Early Computers
 Neither ENIAC nor ABC was first.
 British COLLOSUS of 1943 was honored as the first, but
this was not known until after WWII due to classification.
 German Zuse Z3 of 1941 beat that, but was destroyed
during the war and not known about until much later.

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Colossus (Reproduction)

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The Enigma Machine

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Early US Computers
 1946 - ENIAC - Electronic Numerical Integrator and
Computer.
 1949 - EDSAC - Electronic Delay Storage Automatic
Calculator.
 1951 - EDVAC - Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic
Computer.
 All are “pre-first generation” computers.

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EDSAC

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EDVAC Design

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EDVAC

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First Generation Computers
 1951 - UNIVAC - UNIVersal Automatic Computer
(performs add in 282 microsec).
 1952 - IBM 701 Data Processing System.
 1953 - IBM 650.
 All of these used vacuum tubes.
 1955 - UNIVAC II was partially transistorized and
considered generation one and a half.

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UNIVAC

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Vacuum Tubes

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Second Generation Computers
 1954 - TRADIC - Bell Labs first all-transistor computer.
 1958 - IBM 7070 & 7090.
 1959 - IBM 1401.
 1964 - CDC 6600.
 300 nanosecond add (three orders of magnitude faster
than first generation.
 All used transistors rather than tubes.

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Tradic

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Transistors

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Third Generation
 1964 - IBM 360.
 About three orders of magnitude faster again than the
second generation.
 Not really any smaller than first generation.
 Used integrated circuits rather than discrete transistors.

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The IBM System 360

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Fourth Generation
 Personal computers, using microprocessors and other
integrated circuits.
 Not much faster than third generation, but considerably
less expensive, affordable by the public.
 There isn’t much difference between an old 1 MHz 8080
and an 2 GHz Pentium as you might think.

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The Intel 8088

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The Central Processing Unit
 It is when you look inside the CPU that you discover why I
say there is so little difference between an old 8-bit
microprocessor and the latest Pentium.
 Each has an arithmetic logic unit.
 Each has several special and general purpose registers or
accumulators.
 Each has bus interfaces for input/output.

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Language Hierarchy
 High-level language (Ada, C, C++, Java, FORTRAN, Pascal,
BASIC, COBOL, etc.)
 Assembly language (symbolic, dependent on target
processor/computer), mnemonics.
 Machine language, understood by the actual
processor/computer, opcodes and operands.

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Examples
if (iBal < 0)
{Statements
add bal,eax ; 05 bal
}
jns elseIf ; 0F 89
else if (iBal == 0)
Code
{Statements
jmp endIf ; FF
}
elseIf: jnz elsePos ; 0F 85
else
Code
{Statements
jmp endIf ; FF
}
elsePos: code
/* end if */

endIf:

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So What is C?
 C is a functional (programs consist of functions) high-level
compiled standardized language.
 We will create programs by writing source files in “English”,
actually in the C language.
 Then we will compile our source files into executable files that
will run on a specific computer.
 The computer the programming is done on is called the “host”.
 The computer the program will run on is called the “target”.
 These are generally the same, that is, we will either compile
and run on UNIX, or compile and run on DOS.

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