1. Mindanao Polytechnic College
General Santos City
Narene M. Nagares, MIT
Department of Information Technology
Computer History
Introduction to Computing
2. The Earliest Computing Devices:
1. ABACUS – the first manual
data processing device which
was developed in China in the
twelfth century A.D..
- arithmetic
calculations are performed by
manipulating the beads.
2. NAPIER’S BONES – was
invented by John Napier, a
Scottish mathematician who
became famous for his
invention of logarithms.
3. The Earliest Computing Devices:
3. OUGHTRED’S SLIDE RULE –
developed by an English
mathematician, William Oughtred,
during the seventeenth century.
Basically, a slide rule consists of
two movable rulers placed side by
side.
4. PASCAL’S CALCULATOR –
Blaise Pascal was a French
mathematician and experimental
physicist who was one of the first
modern scientists to develop and
build a calculator.
4. The Earliest Computing Devices:
5. LEIBNIZ’S CALCULATOR – was
invented by Gottfried Leibniz in 1694.
His calculator can perform addition,
subtraction, multiplication, division, as
well as extract square roots.
6. BABBAGE’S ANALYTICAL ENGINE –
was designed by Charles Babbage, to
automate a standard procedure for
calculating the roots of polynomials.
7. HOLLERITH’S PUNCHED-CARD
MACHINE – In the 1880s, Herman
Hollerith, a statistician with the US
Bureau of the Census, constructed an
electromagnetic counting machine,
which uses 3 by 5 inch punch cards, to
record and sort the data manually and
tabulate the data.
6. Early Developments in Electronic
Data Processing:
1. MARK 1 (Automatic Sequence Controlled
Calculator)- invented by Howard Aiken, which was
completed in 1944. It could perform the four basic
arithmetic operations and could locate information stored
in tabular form. It processed numbers up to 23 digits long,
and could multipy three eight-digit numbers in a second.
- the first automatic general-purpose digital
computer.
8. Early Developments in Electronic
Data Processing:
2. THE ENIAC – developed during the period 1943-1946,
under the direction of Presper Eckert Jr., and John
Mauchly.
Electornic Numerical Integrator And Calculator.
- It could perform 300 multiplications per second.
Each of its 20 accumulators could perform 5,000 additions
of ten-digit numbers in 1 second. But could only store 20
ten-digit numbers in its memory at a time.
10. Early Developments in Electronic
Data Processing:
3. THE EDVAC – proposed by Hungarian-born
mathematician John van Neumann. EDVAC stands for
Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer.
Differs from ENIAC in 2 important respects:
1. EDVAC would employ binary arithmetic.
2. EDVAC would have stored-program capability.
He also proposed wiring a permanent set of instructions
within the computer and placing these operations under a
central control.
12. Computer Generations:
1. First Generation Computers (1951-1959)
The beginning of commercial computer age is
from UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer). It was developed by
two scientists Mauchly and Echert at the Census Department of
United States in 1947. The first generation computers were used
during 1942-1955. They were based on vacuum tubes. Examples of
first generation computers are ENIAC and UNIVAC-1.
Innovations:
a. The use of vaccum tubes in place of relays as means
of storing data in memory.
b. The use of the stored-program concept.
c. New breed of workers were needed, such as
programmers, the computer operators, and the system
analyst.
16. Computer Generations:
2. Second Generation Computers (1959-1964)
The second generation computers used transistors.
The scientists at Bell laboratories developed transistor in 1947.
These scientists include John Barden, William Brattain and William
Shockley. The size of the computers was decreased by replacing
vacuum tubes with transistors. The examples of second generation
computers are IBM 7094 series, IBM 1400 series and CDC 164
etc.
Innovations:
a. Use of solid-state components (transistors&diodes) and
magnetic core storage.
b. Computers became smaller, faster, more reliable, and
much greater in processing capacity.
c. Built-in error detecting devices were installed.
d. Microsecond was becoming the standard unit for
measuring computer’s access to data and instructions.
19. Computer Generations:
3. Third Generation Computers (1965-1970)
The Third generation computers used the integrated circuits (IC).
Jack Kilby developed the concept of integrated circuit in 1958. It
was an important invention in the computer field. The first IC was invented
and used in 1961..
A single IC chip may contain thousands of transistors. The
computer became smaller in size, faster, more reliable and less
expensive. The examples of third generation computers are IBM 370, IBM
System/360, UNIVAC 1108 and UNIVAC AC 9000 etc.
Innovations:
a. Integrated solid-state circuitry
b. Improved secondary storage devices
c. New input/output devices
d. Arithmetic & logical operations were now being performed
in microseconds or even nanoseconds.
e. More than one program could be run through the
computer at the same time.
f. Remote terminal to permit geographically dispersed users
to communicate with a central computer.
21. Computer Generations:
4. Fourth Generation Computers (1970-present)
Innovations:
a. The development of microelectronics and the
development of different areas in computer technology
such as: multiprocessing, multiprogramming,
miniaturization, time-sharing, operating speed, and
virtual storage.
b. The large computers are much faster, much less
expensive, and of much greater data processing capacity
than equivalent-sized third generation computers.
c. Optical readers, audio response terminals, and graphic
display terminals are the advancements in input/output
devices.
23. Mindanao Polytechnic College GSC
Assignment
• Research and briefly discuss the fifth
generation of computers. Cite some examples.
You may also include images of such
examples.
• Upload the file in Google classroom.
CC100 – Introduction to Computing 23
