Computer - A Miracle

When men started to count the numbers, they thought of devices

that can track of the numbers. The Abacus may be the first such
device and it took hundreds of years to develop the Abacus to
modern digital computer. The first computer originated as an
ordinary calculator in 19th century.

The calculators had only limited applications, performing

mathematical calculations like addition, subtraction, multiplication
and division. Storage of data were not possible in these devices.
Now the modern computers help men in almost all complicated
areas like flight control of aero planes and even in space shuttles.
The computers do not compete with men, but actually help him by
increasing the pace of his complicated lifestyle. It receives data,
processes data and retrieves data in a lightning speed comparing
with human brain. Thus it becomes a miracle-helper for all human
beings. Let us have a birds eye-view of the evolution of computer.
The Abacus

The abacus was the earliest calculating machine probably

originated in China about 3,000 years ago. It is still widely used in
Asia for primary education. The name abacus is derived from
abax; Greek word for slab. It may be because the counting was
once done with pebbles placed in a hollow in a slab. In China it is
also known as Swan Pan. Abacus consist of a rectangular wooden
frame with horizontal rods. Beads made of stones, pearls wood or
ivory ( having holes in it to pass through the rods). are placed in
these rods. Counting is done by shifting the beads from one place
to another. It is a hand-used device for addition and subtraction.
The abacus consist of several columns, farthest to the right
represents 'ones', the next one 'tens then the hundreds and so on.
Napier's Bones

John Napier, a Scottish mathematician, developed a device having a

set of rods made of bones. (so the device is called napiers bone) for
calculations involving multiplication. In 1614 John Napier introduced
Logarithms. The tables used in the logarithm represent the analogue
computing technique. In logarithm, multiplication and division can be
done by adding and subtracting not the numbers themselves but with
help of related numbers. Making the use of logarithms, William
Oughtred, the English mathematician developed a device called The
Slide Rule in the 1920's.
Blaise Pascal

BlaisePascalwas a French mathematician born on 19th

June 1623 at Clermont-Ferrand. Auvergue. In 1642 , when
he was only 19 years old, he invented a calculating
machine called Pascaline. It was the first mechanical digital
calculator that can perform addition and subtraction on
whole numbers. It had a system of interlocking rotating cog
wheels. Each wheel had ten segments like in a milometer.
When one wheel completes a rotation, the next wheel
moves by one segment. Numbers 0 to 9 are there on the
circumference of the wheel. Pascal patented this machine
in 1647, and produced it on a mass scale.
 Pascaline

Analog Computer
Analog computers are fundamentally different in principle from the
modern digital computers. In analog devices, different quantities are
represented in various physical ways such as by position of a
rotating wheel, the distances between points in a surface or by
different voltages. In 19th century , the early days of computing,
almost all computers used analog devices. Analog computers use
simple devices, even they are mechanically complicated. It worked
on a decimal decade system using rows of 10 position wheels. Each
wheel rotated one position for each complete revolution to the right
like in a milometer. Wheels reverse for subtraction and the
mechanical linkages allowed multiplication and division.
 Jacquard

Punched Cards
French inventor Joseph-Marie Jacquard (1752-1834) introduced a
new weaving loom in 1805. This loom used series of cards with
holes punched in different positions to produce different desired
patterns in weaving. This loom was widely
used in the whole world
 The Difference Machine
Jacquards Weaving System using punched cards attracted many
scientists. British mathematician Charles Vavvafe (1792-1871)
inspired by the punched cards to idea, developed an idea of using
punched cards to input data. He worked on the idea for more then
ten years to resolve the complicated calculation. He face many
difficulties. His chief engineer set a dispute with him. The
Government withdrew all financial assistance and at last the parts
made by him scrapped and the manufacturing of Difference Engine
could not be completed.
Babbage continued his efforts and put forward an idea of a machine
that can do 60 calculations per second. This was called Analytical
Engine which stamped the foundation for modern computing.
Therefore, Babbage is often considered as Father of modern
Computers. Babbage couldn't succeed in materializing his ideas
because of many obstacles faced in his way. But however on his
200th birth anniversary, 1st November 1991, the scientists and
engineers built the Difference Engine No.2 on his sound idea for his
memory. This mechanical works perfectly till now.
The Difference Machine
Ada Augusta King

The First Programmer

Ada Augusta King(1815-52) daughter of Lord Byron, was the personal

assistant of Charles Babbage. She suggested binary data storage and
wrote the first computer program for the Analytical Engine. The ADA
software was named after her.
George Boole

George Boole (1815-64) was a self taught English Mathematician.

Even though he had no university degree, he was appointed
Professor of Mathematics at Queens College, Cork in 1849, the
development of a system of a symbolic logic. He developed a two
value binary algebra using ones 1's and 0's where '1' represents
'true' or on' and '0' represents 'false' or 'off'. All values are reduced to
'true' or false in the binary system. This theory of Boolean logic
became fundamental to the design of computer circuitry.
Dr. Herman Hollerith

American inventor, Herman Hollerithy (1860-1929) developed punched

card system for storing and retrieving data. He was statistician in the
Census Bureau of US and the idea developed to assist the mammoth
task of census work. Hollerith developed a punch card that would
contain data coded in the form of punched holes. He also built the
tabulating machine to read the cards and processing the data. He
Started Tabulated Machines Company in 1896. Later in 1911 this
company became the Computing Tabulating Recording Company and
now the International Business machines, simply IBM.
Digital Era

American mathematician Claude Shannon(born in 1916) in his Master's

Degree thesis in 1937, suggested 1's and 0's of binary systems can be
considered 'ON' and 'OFF' position of the flow of current. Too small and
speedy electrically operated switch operated on a small current was
needed to implement this Idea. Dr. John Vincent Atanasoff, a professor of
physics and mathematics at Lowa State College with his graduate
assistant Clifford Berry, built the first electronic computer, named
Atanasoft-Berry Computer(ABC), ABC used vacuum tubes for storage and
arithmetic logic functions. It was designed specially for the purpose of
solving systems of simultaneous equations. He used Themionic Valves as
electronically operated switch.

In 1946, physicists J. Presper Eckert nad John William Mauchy developed

general purpose computer, Electronically Numerical Integrator And
Calculator(ENIAC). This computer has 18000 valves consuming 100
kilowatts of power and weighed several tons!!! Even though it performed
5000 calculations in a second, it had so many disadvantages.
The filaments of valves burn out frequently stopping the operations.
There was no programming. Wiring system and switches had to be
changed for different functions.

The Hungarian born American mathematician John Von Neuman

introduced an idea of entering the program of instructions into the
machines for its procedures as the numerical data is entered. This was
the idea that actually led to the concept of modern soft wares.

Admiral Grace Hopper developed this idea, and it was designed and
built by Mauchy and Eckert. This first commercial electronic digital
computer capable of using stored programs was called Universal
Automatic Calculator UNIVAC. They were built commercially by
Mauchy and Eckert in 1951.
The Chip
 Transistors

in 1947,computers entered a second generation by the

introduction of transistors. Transistors were tiny with lower
power requirement, as it does not require a heated element.
In transistor, a single power supply is needed where valves
needed two and is more reliable and efficient than Thermionic
Valves. It was developed by the American physicist William
Shockley.
Milestones

IBM developed Formula Translation Language(FORTRAN) in 1957.

Jack Kilby and Noyce developed and perfected the integrated circuit in
1959, used in later computers.
Hopper developed Common Business Oriented Language(COBOL),
programming language in 1959
In 1960's Gene Amdahal designed IBM system 360 series of
mainframe computers, the first general purpose digital computer using
integrated circuits.
In 1963 Olsen with Digital Equipment Corporation produced the PDP-
1(Program Data Processor), the first mini computer.

In 1965, Dr. John Kemeny, a mathematics professor at Dartmouth with

his colleagues, Dr. Thomas Kurtz developed the computer language,
Beginners All Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code simply known as
BASIC.
 In 19701, Intel created memory chip having storage capacity of 1
KB.

Ted Hoff (Intel) compressed 12 chips with different arithmetic logic

functions into four, called microprocessors. Hoff's microprocessor
was calle Intel 4004("FORTY oh FOUR).

In 1975 H.Edward Roberts, an electrical engineer designed the

first Micro Computer. Now he is known as the Father Of Micro
Computer.

In 1980's and 1990's chips and microcomputers developed rapidly

by increasing in power and dropping in Price.
 1990 present - This generation is beginning with many gains in
parallel computing, both in the hardware area and in improved
understanding of how to develop algorithms to exploit diverse,
massively parallel architectures. Parallel systems now compete with
vector processors in terms of total computing power and most expect
parallel systems to dominate the future.

Combinations of parallel/vector architectures are well established, and

one corporation (Fujitsu) has announced plans to build a system with
over 200 of its high end vector processors. Manufacturers have set
themselves the goal of achieving teraflops ( 10 arithmetic operations
per second) performance by the middle of the decade, and it is clear this
will be obtained only by a system with a thousand processors or more.
Workstation technology has continued to improve, with processor
designs now using a combination of RISC, pipelining, and parallel
processing. As a result it is now possible to purchase a desktop
workstation for about $30,000 that has the same overall computing
power (100 megaflops) as fourth generation supercomputers.
This development has sparked an interest in heterogeneous
computing: a program started on one workstation can find idle
workstations elsewhere in the local network to run parallel
subtasks.

One of the most dramatic changes in this generation will be the

explosive growth of wide area networking. Network bandwidth has
expanded tremendously in the last few years and will continue to
improve for the next several years. T1 transmission rates are now
standard for regional networks, and the national ``backbone'' that
interconnects regional networks uses T3. Networking technology is
becoming more widespread than its original strong base in
universities and government laboratories as it is rapidly finding
application in K-12 education, community networks and private
industry.
A little over a decade after the warning voiced in the Lax report, the
future of a strong computational science infrastructure is bright. The
federal commitment to high performance computing has been further
strengthened with the passage of two particularly significant pieces
of legislation: the High Performance Computing Act of 1991, which
established the High Performance Computing and Communication
Program (HPCCP) and Sen. Gore's Information Infrastructure and
Technology Act of 1992, which addresses a broad spectrum of
issues ranging from high performance computing to expanded
network access and the necessity to make leading edge
technologies available to educators from kindergarten through
graduate school.

In bringing this encapsulated survey of the development of a

computational science infrastructure up to date, we observe that the
President's FY 1993 budget contains $2.1 billion for mathematics,
science, technology and science literacy educational programs, a
43% increase over FY 90 figures.
 By:

Rezie D. Dellava
Harlene Mae Ecto

FCU

BSECE - 2