What is a Computer?

Computer: A collection of electronic switches that can perform mathematical and logical calculations. It can be programmed to solve problems by loading instructions which the computer can execute. Computer components circuits, chasses, peripherals are called hardware. Computer programming instructions are called software. Most computers have common hardware components:
CPU (central processor) performs calculations Data and instruction memory (called RAM or DRAM) Permanent storage memory (hard drive or CD-ROM) Input/control devices (keyboard, mouse, CD/DVD) Information output devices (LCD display, printer, CD/DVD)

History of the Computer

Although mathematical computation devices go back into the middle ages (e.g., the abacus), modern electronic computers have a relatively short history. This history is one of the most remarkable stories of technological innovation in the history of mankind, made possible by the invention of the transistor in the 1940s. What follows is a brief history of the electronic computer since its invention only a few decades ago (although we start with a few antecedents of the electronic digital computer).
11 Lecture #1: Introduction, History of Computing, Binary Numbers
N. B. Dodge 09/09

History of the Electronic Computer

In the beginning, there were only a very few computers, and they were VERY, VERY LARGE.
First mechanical (cams and levers), early 1900s-1940s. Then large, HOT vacuum tubes (a picture later), 1940s-1950s. Computers in the future may have only 1,000 vacuum tubes and perhaps only weigh 1 tons.Popular Mechanics (1949).

In the intervening years, things have changed

the cost of computing has fallen 10 million-fold since the microprocessor was invented in 1971. Thats the equivalent of getting a Boeing 747 for the price of a pizza. If this innovation had been applied to automotive technology, a new car would cost about $2; it would travel at the speed of sound; and it would go 600 miles on a thimble of gas.Bob Herbold, COO of Microsoft, in letter to Ralph Nader (11/13/97)

The Need for Computers Drove Development

Scientific Needs:
Accurate math tables, complex scientific calculations

Business automation:
Payroll, accounting

Artillery Calculator

Government needs:
Census tabulation, employee records, tax files (!)

Military requirements:
Artillery tables, decryption, nuclear weapon design
Eniwetok Atoll, 1952

The First Computers

Scientists begin to design calculating machines in the 1800s. Charles Babbage (1791-1871) designed the first complex mechanical computer in 1834. He and colleagues attempted to build a steam-powered model with 20,000 funding from the British government. The machine was never finished (due to limitations of mid-19th century technology), but a copy built in the 1990s actually worked! It was the work of mathematician George Boole, later in the 19th century, that would lead the way for modern computing.

Reproduction of the Babbage Difference Engine built in the early 1990s.

Two Other Early Mechanical Computers

Just prior to and during WW II, Germany invented Enigma, a mechanical cryptographic device that enabled supposedly undecipherable messages during wartime. Also prior to WW II, the mechanical punched-card sorter was invented, enabling the automatic sorting of large amounts of data.
Enigma Cipher Machine

Hollerith Card Sorter

The First Electrical Computers

Computer Relay

One of the first computers powered by electricity was the Harvard Mark II, which used direct-current electrical relays to do all its calculations. Such a relay is shown above.

The First Computer Bug

The term computer bug was born when a small moth flew into one of the Mark II cabinets and stuck a relay open. Grace Hopper and the First Computer Bug Searching for why the computer had ceased operation, a young female computer scientist, Grace Hopper, discovered the Bug. The page shown is reputed to be in the Smithsonian Museum. Grace Hopper was a career Naval Officer and retired as an Admiral (she also invented COBOL).

The First Electronic Computers

After the advent of electrical computers using relay switches, designers began to incorporate vacuum tubes, which were becoming readily available due to their use in radios. An early computer was ENIAC, a monster that weighed 30 tons and was designed to calculate artillery ballistics tables. John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert, who designed it (with help from many others) are generally accorded the title of designers of the first computer. History has pretty well ignored womens contribution to the development of this first computer (and computing in general). In fact, a group of women were the first programmers on the ENIAC. In those days (circa 1943-44), programming was a really hard task, since there was NO software (and no manuals!). These talented young women take their place beside Grace Hopper as some of our most important computer pioneers.

The First Programmers

Programming the ENIAC meant physically configuring the computer processing elements to do the calculating task. This involved not software, but switches, plug panels, and a thorough knowledge of the hardware. Shown at right is one of these first programmers. Women were major players in computing technology from the start.

Courtesy IEEE Spectrum

Vacuum Tube Computer Elements

To the right is a typical vacuum tube computer circuit. This circuit (about as big and complicated as the entire electronic assembly of a modern PC) was only one tiny part of a vacuum tube computer. As noted earlier, vacuum tube computers typically weighed many tons.

Courtesy University of Virginia Computer Department

Second-Generation Electronic Computers

The second generation of digital computers were developed in the early 1960s using transistors, invented in the late 1940s and now beginning to be available commercially. One such computer was the Burroughs B5000 series, developed about 40 years ago. An early transistor circuit is shown as well.

Both figures courtesy of University of Virginia Computer Department

Early Integrated Circuit Computers

The third generation of electronic computers were the first built with integrated circuits, solid-state circuits with multiple transistors (and other circuit elements) on the same chip of silicon. The computer shown above is the Control Data Corporation Model 7600, one of the first computers built with integrated circuits and also one of the first scientific super computers (cost: > $5 million!).

Fourth-Generation Electronic Computers

The next generation of electronic computers featured VLSI integrated circuits (circuits with many transistors per chip). Computer processors still consisted of many custom VLSI modules on multiple printed circuit boards. Computers of this era included:
General-purpose computers such as the IBM 3xxx, 43xx series. The first minicomputers, such as the Digital Equipment VAX 8400, PDP 11, the Data General Nova, and the Honeywell 516. Supercomputers such as the Cray-2, Cray X-MP.
The Cray X-MP. Cray computers were the premier supercomputers in the 1980s. Cray Computer was founded by Seymour Cray, a former Control Data employee, who quit CDC and started his own company because he thought that CDC was moving too slowly in bringing out new models.

Computer Memory
Early memories were exotic: Magnetic drums, columns of liquid mercury (!). In the 1950s, magnetic core memory became the standard for working data memory. Data was stored by magnetizing tiny donuts of magnetic material. Electronic memory (or DRAM) brought about the era of cheap computer memory in the 1970s. Magnetic disks remain a primary method of bulk data storage due to their very low (and constantly decreasing) cost.

Computer Core Memory.

Intel 1K DRAM

Computers on a Chip Generation 5

Starting in the mid-late 1970s, computer processors on a chip and large electronic memories became available. This led to the first affordable personal computers (Altair, Apple I, Osborne I, and the IBM PC). Single-chip processors included the Intel 4004, 8008, 8086, 80286 and 80386 and the Motorola 6800 and 68000. Later single-chip computers included the Sun SPARC (made by TI), the Digital Equipment Alpha, the Motorola PowerPC and 88000 (as well as the 68010-68040) and the Intel Pentium, Pentium II, III, and IV.

One of the Chips That Started It All

Intel 4004 (introduced November 1971). Clock speed: 108 KHz (yes, thats right, 108,000 Hz). ~2300 transistors (!). 10 feature size (1 = 106 m). Used initially in some of the first small, portable calculators that were produced. Also used to provide imbedded intelligence in some early computer-controlled devices. Notice 16 output wires/pads.

State of the Art

Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 Quad-Core Processor (4 processors on one chip), 95 Watt power rating. Features: 3 GHz clock, 12M L2 Cache, 1333MHz FSB.* Currently built with the 45 nanometer process (45 nanometers = 0.045 microns, less than 0.5% of the minimum feature size of the Intel 4004!). Intel has announced move to 32 nanometer process in 2010.
* As of June, 2009

Generation 6 Embedded Processors

Today, computers are not only an invaluable tool for almost everyone (e.g., the personal computer), they are also embedded in just about any device and appliance that one can imagine:
Every mobile telephone has a computer in it. Many appliances have embedded computers (washers, dryers, televisions, cable boxes, computer printers, DVD players/ recorders, microwave [and regular] ovens, etc). We are even beginning to see smart clothing apparel that has embedded computing as a part of the material.

Smart Clothing
An example of embedded processing is the Adidas 1. The shoe, introduced in 2005, features active cushioning in which a processor in each shoe constantly measures sole compression as the user runs. Between steps, the computer drives a motor, which shortens or lengthens a cable attached to a cushioning element. The cushion is compressed or relaxed by the cable, making it softer or firmer depending on the need of the runner. Cost: $250 (June, 2009).

Binary Numbers The Computer Number System

Number systems are simply ways to count things. Ours is the base-10 or radix-10 system. Note that there is no symbol for 10 or for the base of any system. We People use the base-10 system count 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9, and then put a 0 in the first column and add a new because we have 10 fingers! left column, starting at 1 again. Then we count 1-9 in the first column again. 1 3 5 7 8 9 6 Each column in our system stands for 106 105 104 103 102 101 100 0. a power of 10 starting at 10 1,357,896 = 1 x one million + 3 x one hundred thousand + Example:
5 x ten thousand + 7 x one thousand + 8 x one hundred + 9 x ten + 6 x one.

Positional Notation A History

Heritage of western culture: The (difficult) Roman representation of numbers: MCMXCVI = 1996, but MM = 2000! (M = 1000, C = 100, X = 10, V = 5, I = 1) VII = 7 (5+1+1), but XC = 90 (100 10), and (worst yet!) XLVII = 47 (50 10+5+1+1). Want more? X C = M, L/V=X. Ouch! A better idea -- positional notation: Each digit in a column represents a multiplier of the power of the base (10) represented by that column. The first column on the right is the zeroth power of 10. Succeeding columns to the left represent higher powers of 10.

M?

I?
Examples of positional notation: 199610 = 1 x 103 + 9 x 102 + 9 x 101 + 6 x 100 2000 = 2x103

The Computer Number System

All computers use the binary system : Binary number system: Base = 2. Thus there are 2 numbers: 0 and 1. A single binary number is called a Binary digIT, or bit. Computers perform operations on binary number groups called words. Computer numbers are 1 and 0! Today, most computers use 32-, 64-, or 128-bit words: A simple electronic switch can represent Words are subdivided into 8-bit both computer numbers groups called bytes. One-half a byte is sometimes =0 =1 referred to as a nibble (a term not often used anymore).

Binary Numeric Representation

A 32-bit binary number: 1101 0010 0101 0011 0101 1111 0001 1001
We will see ways to make this number more comprehensible below.

We mentioned that in decimal notation:

199610 = 1 x 103 + 9 x 102 + 9 x 101 + 6 x 100, and 2002 = 2 x 103 + 0 x 102 + 0 x 101 + 2 x 100.

Consider the binary number 25510 = 111111112:

25510 = 1 x 27 + 1 x 26 + 1 x 25 + 1 x 24 + 1 x 23 + 1 x 22 + 1 x 21 + 1 x 20 = 28 1.

In the decimal system, each position from the right represents a larger power of ten, starting with 100. Likewise, in the binary number system, which is also positional, each position represents a larger power of two, starting with 20.

Reading Binary Numbers

In general, we read binary numbers like we read decimal numbers; that is, we note the position of each bit, and if it is a 1, we assign that number the value of the power of 2 represented by that column (0s clearly add no value). This is true whether the binary number is on either side of the binary point. That is:
22 21 20 21 2
1 22

212 20 2

23

24 21 23 22 20 2 3 2 42 1 2 2

111.1

101.011

11101.1011

Binary Number Examples

11 = 1 x 20 + 1 x 21 = 310 101 = 1 x 22 + 0 x 21 + 1 x 20 = 4 + 1 = 510. 1001 = 1 x 23 + 1 x 20 = 8 + 1 = 910. 1100 = 1 x 23 + 1 x 22 = 8 + 4 = 1210. 11101 = 1 x 24 + 1 x 23 + 1 x 22 + 1 x 20 = 16 + 8 + 4 + 1 = 2910. 0.1 = 1 X 21 = = 0.510 0.111 = 1 X 21 + 1 X 22 + 1 X 23 = 0.5 + 0.25 + 0.125 = 0.87510 0.10001 = 1 X 21 + 1 X 25 = 0.5 + 0.03125 = 0.5312510 1101.01 = 1 x 23 + 1 x 22 + 1 x 20 + 1 x 22 = 8 + 4 + 1 + 0.25 = 13.2510 11.001 = 1 x 21 + 1 x 20 + 1 X 23 = 2 + 1 + 0.125 = 3.125 1 X 210 10.0011 = 1 x 21 + 1 X 23 + 1 X 24 = 2 + 0.125 + 0.0625 = 2.187510

Exercise #1
Convert the binary numbers to decimal:
1001001 0.011 10111.101 1111.11 -----

Homework
Write down the two or three most important things you learned today. Put this in a list format that you can add to as the semester continues. Write down two or three things you did not clearly understand. After finishing the assigned reading, if you still have questions, see me during office hours. Patterson and Hennessy, 1. Read Pervin, chapter 0. Read Tokheim, chapters 1-2. Start work on homework #1.