CSE 301 History of Computing

1. CSE 301History of Computing The Origins of Computing

2. Can your remember? • Your first use of a personal computer? • What type of computer was it? • What operating system did it use? • What programs did you use? • What games did you play? • Did you find it user-friendly? • Did you find it maddening? • How do you feel about computers now?

3. Computers are Everywhere • Computers and technology: • are a part of everything we do • will continue to play an even greater role in the future • help make many work tasks easier • The more you know about computers the more valuable you are to an employer

4. Questions to consider? • How many computers do you have in your home? • How long could you survive without a computer? • How long could you survive without an Internet connection? • How long could you survive without a high-speed Internet connection? • When was the last time you wrote a letter? • How many computers do you come into contact with on an average day?

5. Looking back a few years

6. Today • Over half the work force produces information. • Every 10 hours, more computers are sold than existed in the entire world 30 years ago.

7. A Comparison Computers 35 years ago • Controlled by computer specialists. • Users related information needs to specialists. • Slow to respond to a problem. Computers today • Information is more timely. • Systems are interactive. • Systems are user-friendly

8. The Technology Revolution: Today • At Work • The mobile worker (airplane, beach, etc…) • Improved Productivity • Instant Communication • Paperless Environment? • At Home • Telecommuting • Personal correspondence • Homework • “Google it” • At Play • Visiting pointless sites (Does anyone really need an Orc screensaver?) • Gaming • Speak with strangers on the other side of the globe • View strangers doing strange things on the other side of the globe

9. The Technology Revolution: Tomorrow • In the years to come, technology will become more important, more pervasive, and more complex. • What technology do you expect to see in your lifetime? • Will virtual reality become commonplace? • Are supermarket cashiers, gas station attendants, & bank tellers endangered species? • What other jobs may soon disappear? • Stock Broker? (www.etrade.com) • Newscaster? (www.youtube.com/watch?v=ek-g5A0YTkw) • Real estate agent? (www.mlslirealtor.com/search.cfm) • Car salesman? (www.carsdirect.com) • University Professor? (www.university-of-phoenix.org)

10. Cyberphobia anyone? • In today’s workplace, IT competency is required • Make intelligent, informed decisions • Learn how to learn to use new software • Keep up with the lingo (buzzwords) • Real or fake IT buzzwords? • Robust? Describes software that anticipates and prevents bugs. • Lasagna Syndrome? Software has too many over-lapping dialog boxes. • Data Hygiene? “Cleaning up" the data for marketing purposes. • Co-Opetition? Competitors working together. • Bloatware? Software that uses too much disk space and RAM • Helm’s Deep? Location in Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” • Courrier électronique Legal French word for “email”. • English Technobabble is the real Esperanto

11. Is it your obligation to society to be IT proficient? • Do techno-dummies hold up lines at the supermarket? • What’s outsourcing? • Information Awareness Office • Internet sales tax • Plan on having kids? • What’s going on at your local library?

12. Time-traveling Aliens have landed! • Technologically advanced aliens read A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (audio version) and feel inspired, so just for fun they abduct you and transport you back to England in the year 528 A.D. • Their challenge to you: • make a digital, electronic, stored-program computer before you die • if you fail, humanity will be eaten

13. Alien’s Requirements • Your computer must be able to: • perform arithmetic operations • make logical decisions (if X is true, do Y) • be programmed • process data into information • display results • store results/data • store programs for reuse • We are describing a stored-program computer • a.k.a. Von Neumann machine

14. What is a Computer? • A person? • “a programmable machine that can execute a list of instructions in a well-defined manner” • Webopedia

15. Modern Computers are assemblies of components • Keyboard • Monitor • Central Processing Unit (CPU) • Random Access Memory (RAM) • Hard Drive • Motherboard

16. Inside the Chip CPU • Central Processing Unit • The Brain • What do brains do? • performs calculations • gives orders to other parts • Made of Integrated Circuits (ICs) • have millions of tiny transistors and other components

17. What’s a Giga Hertz (GHz) ? • Unit of CPU speed (clock speed) • G (giga) means 1 billion • Hz is for frequency per second • GHz means 1 billion clock cycles per second • What’s a 2.8 GHz CPU? • 2,800,000,000 clock cycles per second • executes at least 2,800,000,000 operations/second

18. Main Memory (RAM) • Stores data for programs currently running • Temporary • empty when power is turned off • Fast access for CPU

19. What’s a Giga Byte (GB)? • Unit of Memory quantity • G (giga) for 1 billion • M (mega) for 1 million • Data quantities are measured in bytes • 1 Bit = stores a single on/off piece of information • 1 Byte = 8 bits • 1 Kilobyte = 210 (~1,000 bytes) • 1 Megabyte = 220 (~1,000,000 bytes) • 1 Gigabyte = 230 (~1,000,000,000 bytes)

20. Bytes? • Use the following to approximate: • 1 bit ≈ 1 transistor • 1 Byte = 8 bits • 1 character ≈ 2 Bytes • 1 number ≈ 4 or 8 Bytes

21. Hard Drive • Stores data and programs • Permanent storage (theoretically) • Magnetic Disk vs. Solid State

22. Motherboard • Connects all the components together

23. Our aliens are still waiting

24. What if you could take some help with you? Bill Gates Microsoft, 1978 Steve Jobs Steve Wozniak Herman Munster Alan Turing Al & Tipper Gore

25. My Guess? • Even with help, humanity would be doomed • Why would I guess that? • lack of pre-computing technologies • lack of resource gathering technologies • lack of precise manufacturing technologies • NOTE: timing is everything

26. In studying the history of computers, where do we start? • We could go back thousands of years • Mathematical developments • Manufacturing developments • Resource-gathering developments • Engineering innovations • The wheel? • The basis of all modern computers is the binary number system

27. What number system do you use? • Decimal (base-10) • Has been in use for thousands of years • Guesses: • first China • then India • then Middle East • then Europe (introduced as late as 1200) • Not particularly efficient • Not a good system for computers • Why use decimal?

28. Greek Number System

29. Hardware likes binary • What’s binary? • a base-2 number system • What do humans use? • base-10 • Why? • Why do computers like binary? • don’t be silly, computers don’t have feelings http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/09/DataTNG.jpg

30. Computer Designers Like Binary • Why? • it’s easier to make hardware that stores and processes binary numbers than decimal numbers • results are more efficient • space & cost http://msp222.photobucket.com/albums/dd297/ponceje81/nerds.jpg

31. Count to 8 in binary • 0001 • 0010 • 0011 • 0100 • 0101 • 0110 • 0111 • 1000

32. So what data does the hardware store? • Everything! • Text: 0101010101010101010101000100011111 • Numbers: 010000100010111110101101010110 • Programs: 111010001011101001101010101001 • Images: 00100010101110100100101010100010 • Etc. • Programs? • we use stored program computers

33. Humans hate binary • The Matrix is entertaining nonsense

34. By the way, how do we store text? • Numerically • Huh? • Each character is stored in memory as a number • When it’s time to display: • draw the appropriate character based on its value • NOTE: the OS or program needs to know how to draw each type of character

35. ASCII & Unicode • Standard character sets • ASCII uses 1 byte per character • How many different ASCII characters are there? • Unicode uses 2 bytes per character • How many are there? • Ex, in both, ‘A’ is 65

36. ASCII Tablehttp://enteos2.area.trieste.it/russo/IntroInfo2001-2002/CorsoRetiGomezel/ASCII-EBIC_files/ascii_table.jpg

37. How about a Unicode Table? • Won’t fit on a single slide of course • Try http://www.tamasoft.co.jp/en/general-info/unicode.html

38. Oooo! octal! Some factoids • 4th Century AD • Mayan astronomer-priests begin using a positional number system based on base 20 • 1708 • Swedenborg proposes decimal notation should be replaced for general use by octal. • 1732 • Leonhard Euler, Swiss mathematician • used binary notation in correspondence • 1887 • Alfred B. Taylor publishes “Which base is best?” and concludes it is base 8.

39. Early Computational Devices • (Chinese) Abacus • Used for performing arithmetic operations

40. Early Computational Devices • Napier’s Bones, 1617 • For performing multiplication & division John Napier 1550-1617

41. Early Computational Devices • Schickard’s Calculating Clock • first mechanical calculator, 1623 Wilhelm Schickard 1592-1635

42. Early Computational Devices • Pascaline mechanical calculator Blaise Pascal 1623-1662

43. Early Computational Devices • Leibniz’s calculating machine, 1674 Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz 1646-1716

44. Early Computational Devices • Thomas Arithmometer, 1820

45. Early Computational Devices • Arithmaurel, 1849

46. Early Computational Devices • Comptometer Dorr Eugene Felt 1862-1930

47. Early Computational Devices • Bollée’s Machine Léon Bollée 1870-1933

48. Early Computational Devices • Madas and Curta

49. Early Computational Devices • Slide Calculators William Oughtred 1574-1660

50. Early Computational Devices • Atari 2600 (1977)