Rouda's Very Short History of Computing

CSCI 101

In the beginning…

Pascal created a calculator in 1652 able to add and subtract

photos from en.wikipedia.org

Charles Babbage (1791-1871)

Math Tables Problem Difference Engine and Analytical Engines

Abilities add subtract loop (repeat instructions over and over) compare two numbers etc…

instructions and data wereon punched cards

Harvard Mark 1 Mechanical, not electrical completed in 1943 used to compute artillery tables instructions on paper tape storage = 72 numbers

Digital Electronics 101

Transistors can perform AND, OR, NOT, etc Example - Half Adder:

AND

XOR

Pentium 4 contains 42 million transistors

First Generation

based on vacuum tubes

ENIAC 1946 - Univ of Pennsylvania programmed via wires

EDVAC based on ENIAC program stored

in memory

UNIVAC 1951 first commercial machine

Second Generation

1955-1964

based on transistors

Third Generation

based on Integrated Circuits mainframes and minicomputers

IBM 360 First offered in 1964 equally suited for business or science from 8K to 8M of memory

Fourth Generation

based on VLSI VLSI = Very Large Scale Integration thousands of transistors per chip

microcomputers IBM PC released in 1981

photo from www.cs.indiana.edu

Fifth Generation

Based on ??? technology

Computer Devices Sold Annually

graph from http://www.publishing.umich.edu

Software Development

697,000 software engineers and 585,000 computer programmers in US

In 2008 the software industry in the US is valued at $457 Billion

Top Software companies include: Oracle, IBM, Microsoft, Google, Accenture, SAP.

source: www.nist.gov/ and www.wikipedia.com

Software Development

What’s happening right now? IT jobs (software/hardware/network, etc.) are

growing much faster than other industries. Financial companies are in-sourcing. Typical starting point – Contract to hire.

source: www.nist.gov/ and www.wikipedia.com

Next Class…

Computer Hardware Components of a modern computer What to look for when buying a computer

Operating Systems Differences in Windows, Mac, and Linux