Computer
History
Virtual Field Trip
The history of computers can be studied over several generations, where each generation helped to further advance computer technology. As a result of the miniaturization, speed, power, and memory of computers, their popularity has proportionally increased. We will begin our field trip way back in time.
A long, long time ago….
The first computing machine is called the abacus, which came out around 5,000 years ago and is still in use today. This device allows users to make computations using a system of sliding beads arranged on a rack.
In the 1600’s…
The next major advancement came around the mid-1600's. Blaise Pascal, a tax officer working on taxes for the French government, decided in 1642 to build an adding and subtraction machine to help him figure taxes. The machine was called the Pascaline and consisted of eight gears that worked to calculate numbers. The machine encountered many problems, and was always breaking down.
In the 1800’s…
The real beginnings of computers as we know them today, came in the early 1800’s, with an English mathematics professor, Charles Babbage. He worked on two machines: the Analytical Engine and the Difference Engine. These machines were amazingly like the computers we know today. The machines were meant to read a program from punched cards, figure and store the answers to different problems, and print the answer on paper. Babbage died before he could complete either machine. However because of his remarkable ideas and work, Babbage is know as the Father of Computers.
The next huge step for computers came when Herman Hollerith entered a contest given by the U.S. Census Bureau. The contest was to see who could build a machine that would count and record information faster, so he built a machine called the Tabulating Machine that read and sorted data from punched cards. Thanks to this machine, instead of taking seven and a half years to count the census information it only took three years.
The first generation computers were huge, slow, expensive, and often undependable. They were characterized by having vacuum tubes that were often very big and gave off much heat. The vacuum tube was an extremely important step in the advancement of computers. Vacuum tubes were very similar to light bulbs. It’s purpose was to act like an amplifier and a switch, and could also stop and start the flow of electricity instantly.
In 1946, J. Presper Eckert, and John Mauchly built the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer). This was an electronic computer that used thousands of vacuum tubes, which took up a lot of space and gave off a great deal of heat. The ENIAC led to other vacuum tube type computers like the EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer) and the UNIVAC I (UNIVersal Automatic Computer).
In the mid-1900’s, three scientists, John Bardeen, William Shockley, and Walter Brattain were the inventors of the transistor. The transistor was much faster, reliable, smaller, and cheaper to build than the previous vacuum tubes. Transistors were also found to conduct electricity faster and better than vacuum tubes. They were also much smaller and gave off virtually no heat compared to those big vacuum tubes. Transistors were a tremendous breakthrough in advancing the computer.
The integrated circuit, also called the semiconductor chip, is a single silicon chip packed with hundreds of transistors. Robert Noyce and Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments independently discovered the amazing attributes of integrated circuits. The idea of placing such large numbers of transistors on a single chip, increased the power of a single computer and lowered its cost considerably. Ever since this invention, the number of transistors that can be placed on a single chip has doubled every two years and the size and cost of computers have decreased even further.
Ted Hoff, employed by Intel invented a chip the size of a pencil eraser that could do all the computing and logic work of a computer. This was called the microprocessor and was made to be used in calculators, not computers. It led, however, to the invention of personal computers, or microcomputers. In 1977, the Apple II was sold to the public and in 1981 IBM entered the PC (personal computer) market. Now we know how the Intel Pentium Processors got started.
The Fifth Generation - Today and beyond…
The computers of the next generation will have millions upon millions of transistors on one chip and will perform over a billion calculations in a single second. The next generation of computers is also exploring artificial intelligence like in the recent movie "Bicentennial Man." Obviously, there is much more to come in the future of computers and one can only guess what will be next. Until then, I hope you enjoyed our Virtual Field Trip through the history of computers!
Questions:
Please use your own paper to answer the following questions:
1. What invention led to the development of the EDVAC and the
UNIVAC?
2. Who built a simple adding and subtracting machine to help calculate taxes?
3. Who is known as the Father of Computers?
4. What are John Bardeen, William Shockley, and
Walter Brattain famous for creating?
5. What made the transistor BETTER than vacuum tubes?
6. What was known as the first computing machine?
7. Which scientists developed the semiconductor chip?
8. Herman Hollerith developed a machine for what purpose?
9. In your own words, explain exactly what the microprocessor is?
10. What do you feel will be the Fifth Generation of Computers?