learnings of the week

Third Generation Computers (1964-1971)
Although transistors were great deal of improvement over the vacuum tubes, they generated heat and damaged the sensitive areas of the computer. The Intergreated Circuit(IC) was invented in 1958 by Jack Kilby. It combined electronic components onto a small silicon disc, made from quartz. More advancement made possible the fitings of even more components on a small chip or a semi conductor. Also in third generation computers, the operating systems allowed the machines to run many different applications. These applications were monitored and coordinated by the computer's memory

Fourth Generation (1971-Present)
Fourth Generation computers are the modern day computers. The Size started to go down with the improvement in the integerated circuits. Very Large Scale(VLSI) and Ultra Large scale(ULSI) ensured that millions of components could be fit into a small chip. It reduced the size and price of the computers at the same time increasing power, efficiency and reliability. "The Intel 4004 chip, developed in 1971, took the integrated circuit one step further by locating all the components of a computer (central processing unit, memory, and input and output controls) on a minuscule chip."
Due to the reduction of cost and the availability of the computers power at a small place allowed everyday user to benefit. First came the minicomputers, which offered users different applications, most famous of these the word processors and spreadsheets, which could be used by non-technical users. Video game systems like Atari 2600 generated the interest of general populace in the computers.
In 1981, IBM introduced personal computers for home and office use. "The number of personal computers in use more than doubled from 2 million in 1981 to 5.5 million in 1982. Ten years later, 65 million PCs were being used." Computer size kept getting reduced during the years. It went down from Desktop to laptops to Palmtops. Machintosh introduecd Graphic User Interface in which the users didnt' have to type instructions but could use Mouse for the purpose.
The continued improvement allowed the networking of computers for the sharing of data. Local Area Networks(LAN) and Wide Area Network(WAN), were potential benefits, in that they could be implemented in corporations and everybody could share data over it. Soon the internet aand World Wide Web appeared on the computer scene and formented the Hi-Tech revolution of 90's.

by: Hanna Deborrah T. Ongking

1v-RIZAL

Electronic Age (1941- present)

First programmable computer

The Z1 originally created by Germany's Konrad Zuse in his parents

living room in 1936 to 1938 is considered to be the first electrical binary programmable computer.

The first digital computer

Atanasoff-Berry Computer, the ABC started being developed by Professor John Vincent Atanasoff and graduate student Cliff Berry in 1937 and continued to be developed until 1942 at the Iowa State College (now Iowa State University). On October 19, 1973, US Federal Judge Earl R. Larson signed his decision that the ENIAC patent by Eckert and Mauchly was invalid and named Atanasoff the inventor of the electronic digital computer.

The ENIAC was invented by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly at the University of Pennsylvania and began construction in 1943 and was not complet

ed until 1946. It occupied about 1,800 square feet and used about 18,000 vacuum tubes, weighing almost 50 tons. Although the Judge ruled that the ABC computer was the first digital computer many still consider the ENIAC to be the first digital computer.

Because of the Judge ruling and because the case was never appealed like most we consider the ABC to be the first digital computer. However, because the ABC was never fully functional we consider the first functional digital computer to be the ENIAC.

The first stored program computer

The early British computer known as the EDSAC is considered to be the first stored program electronic computer. The computer performed its first cal culation on May 6, 1949 and was the computer that ran the first graphical computer game.

The first personal computer

In 1975 Ed Roberts coined the term personal computer when he introduced the Altair 8800. Although the first personal computer is considered to be the Kenback-1, which was first introduced for $750 in 1971. The computer relied on a series of switches for inputting data and output data by turning on and off a series of lights.

The Micral is considered the be the first commercial non-assembly computer. The computer used the Intel 8008 processor and sold for $1,750 in 1973.

The first workstation

Although never sold the first workstation is considered to be the Xerox Alto, introduced in 1974. The computer was revolutionary for its time and included a fully functional computer, display, and mouse. The computer operated like many computers today utilizing windows, menus and icons as an interface to its operating system.

The first laptop or portable computer

The first portable computer or laptop is considered to be the O

sborne I, a portable computer developed by Adam Osborne that weighed 24 pounds, a 5-inch display, 64 KB of memory, two 5 1/4" floppy drives, and a modem.

The first PC (IBM compatible) computer

In 1953 IBM shipped its first electric computer, the 701. Later IBM i

ntroduced its first personal computer called the "IBM PC" in 1981. The computer was code named and still sometimes referred to as the "Acorn" and had a 8088 processor, 16 KB of memory, which was expandable to 256 and utilizing MS-DOS.

The first PC clone

The first PC clone was developed by Compaq, the "Compaq Portable" was release in March 1983 and was 100% compatible with IBM computers and software that ran on IBM computers.

The first Apple computer

Steve Wozniak designed the first Apple known as the Apple I computer in 1976.

The first computer company

The first computer company was the Electronic Controls Company and was founded in 1949 by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, the same individuals who helped create the ENIAC computer. The company was later renamed to EMCC or Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation and released a series of mainframe computers under the UNIVAC name.

The first multimedia computer

In 1992 Tandy Radio Shack becomes one of the first companies to release a computer based on the MPC standard with its introduction of the M2500 XL/2 and M4020 SX computers.

Other major computer company firsts

Below is a listing of some of the major computers companies first computers.

Compaq - March 1983 Compaq released its first computer and the first 100% IBM compatible computer the "Compaq Portable".

Digital - In 1960 Digital Equipment Corporation released its first of many PDP computers the "PDP-1".

Dell - In 1985 Dell introduced its first computer, the "Turbo PC".

Hewlett Packard - In 1966 Hewlett Packard released its first general computer, the "HP-2115".

NEC - In 1958 NEC builds its first computer the "NEAC 1101".

Toshiba - In 1954 Toshiba introduces its first computer, the "TAC" digital computer.

Learnings of the Week

Joyce Niko D. Perez IV- RIZAL

Electromechanical Age (1840-1940)

The discovery of ways to harness electricity was the key advance made during this period. Knowledge and information could now be converted into electrical impulses. The beginnings of telecommunication

• Voltaic Battery
• Telegraph
• Telephone and Radio

Voltaic Battery

Alessandro Volta invented the voltaic pile which is considered to be the first source of stored electricity in the 8th Century.

The battery made by Volta is credited as the first electrochemical cell. It consists of two electrodes: one made of zinc, the other of copper. The electrolyte is sulfuric acid or a brine mixture of salt and water. The electrolyte exists in the form 2H⁺ and SO₄ ^2-. The zinc, which is higher than both copper and hydrogen in the electrochemical series, reacts with the negatively charged sulphate. ( SO₄ ) The positively charged hydrogen bubbles start depositing around the copper and take away some of its electrons. This makes the zinc rod the negative electrode and the copper rod the positive electrode.


Telegraph


Samuel F.J. Morse invented the first magnetic telegraph in the year 1832 and made an experiment version in 1815.



Telephone and Radio


The first successful bi-directional transmission of clear speech by Bell and Watson was made on 10 March 1876 when Bell spoke into his device, “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.” and Watson answered. Bell used Gray's liquid transmitter design^[9] in his famous 10 March 1876 experiment, but avoided describing the liquid transmitter in his public demonstrations. The liquid transmitter had the problem that waves formed on the surface of the liquid, resulting in interference.


Marchese Guglielmo Marconi [guʎe:lmo mar'ko:ni] (25 April 1874 - 20 July 1937) was an Italian inventor, best known for his development of a radiotelegraph system, which served as the foundation for the establishment of numerous affiliated companies worldwide. He shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Ferdinand Braun, "in recognition of their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy".^[1] Later in life, Marconi was an active Italian Fascist^[2] and an apologist for their ideology (such as the attack by Italian forces in Ethiopia).

During his early years, Marconi had an interest in science and electricity. One of the scientific developments during this era came from Heinrich Hertz, who, beginning in 1888, demonstrated that one could produce and detect electromagnetic radiation—now generally known as "radio waves", at the time more commonly called "Hertzian waves" or "aetheric waves". Hertz's death in 1894 brought published reviews of his earlier discoveries, and a renewed interest on the part of Marconi. He was permitted to briefly study the subject under Augusto Righi, a University of Bologna physicist who had done research on Hertz's work.


Electromechanical Computing

• Tabulating machine
• Comptometer
• Comptograph
• Punch Cards

1853

Pehr and Advard Scheutz complete their tabulating Machine, capable of processing fifteen-digit numbers, printing out results and rounding off to eight digits.

1885

A Comptometer is a type of mechanical (or electro-mechanical) adding machine. The comptometer was the first adding device to be driven solely by the action of pressing keys, which are arranged in an array of vertical and horizontal columns.

"Comptometer" is a trade name of the Felt and Tarrant Manufacturing Company of Chicago (later the Comptometer Corporation, and then Victor Comptometer Corporation), and after 1961 was licensed to Sumlock-Comptometer of Great Britain. It is widely used as a generic name for the class of device. The original design was patented in 1887 by Dorr Felt, a U.S. citizen.

1889

Felt’s Comptograph, containing built-in printer, is intoduced


Punched Cards

A punch card or punched card (or punchcard or Hollerith card or IBM card), is a piece of stiff paper that contains digital information represented by the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions. Now almost an obsolete recording medium, punched cards were widely used throughout the 19th century for controlling textile looms and in the late 19th and early 20th century for operating fairground organs and related instruments. It was used through the 20th century in unit record machines for input, processing, and data storage. Early digital computers used punched cards as the primary medium for input of both computer programs and data, with offline data entrykey punch machines. Some voting machines use punched cards.

The company which became IBM was founded in 1896 as the Tabulating Machine Company^[6] by Herman Hollerith, in Broome County, New York (Endicott, New York, Where it still maintains very limited operations). It was incorporated as Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation (CTR) on June 16, 1911, and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1916. IBM adopted its current name in 1924, when it became a Fortune 500 company.


1893

The Millionaire, the first efficeint four-function calculator invented by Otto shweiger, a Swiss Engineer.

1906

Vacuum tube was developed by Lee De Forest which provide electricity controlled switch. In electronics, a vacuum tube, electron tube (in North America), thermionic valve, or just valve (elsewhere, especially in Britain) is a device used to amplify, switch, otherwise modify, or create an electrical signal by controlling the movement of electrons in a low-pressure space. Some special function vacuum tubes are filled with low-pressure gas: these are so-called soft valves (or tubes), as distinct from the hard vacuum type which have the internal gas pressure reduced as far as possible. Almost all depend on the thermal emission of electrons, hence thermionic.

Learnings of the Week

Joyce Niko D. Perez IV- RIZAL

The Mechanical Age (1450-1840)

The First Information Explosion

Johann Gutenberg (Mainz, Germany) invented the movable metal-type printing press in 1450. The development of book indexes and the widespread use of page numbers.

• Johann Gutenberg invented the printing press in the 1450's, and the first book to ever be printed was a Latin language Bible, printed in Mainz, Germany. Gutenberg’s Bibles were surprisingly beautiful, as each leaf Gutenberg printed was later colorfully hand-illuminated.

• Born as “Johann Gensfleisch” (John Gooseflesh), he preferred to be known as “Johann Gutenberg” (John Beautiful Mountain).

• Ironically, though he had created what many believe to be the most important invention in history, Gutenberg was a victim of unscrupulous business associates who took control of his business and left him in poverty.


•Nevertheless, the invention of the movable-type printing press meant that Bibles and books could finally be effectively produced in large quantities in a short period of time. This was essential to the success of the Reformation.


The First General Purpose "Computers"

oActually people who held the job title "computer: one who works with numbers."
o

John Napier (1614)

ooo
oLogs allow multiplication and division to be reduced to addition and subtraction. In 1617, he employ an ancient numerical scheme as the Arabian lattice, lays out a special version of the multiplication tables on a set of four-sided wooded rods, allowing users to multiply and divide numbers and perform square roots and cube roots.

•Napier was so intelligent, many of the locals believed him to be in league with the Devil. Napier himself, and ardent protestant, accused the Pope of being the Anti-Christ, and in a document he considered to be his finest achievement, went as far as predicting the end of the world.


•Napier was also a nobleman, a baron, the 7th Laird of Merchiston, and owner of a considerable estate. Napier was loved by all, and he was respected by many illustrious scientists and mathematicians of the age, to the point of being considered some sort of scientific superstar, with "fans" awaiting his next publication the way we await the release of a movie or pop album. Napier's "greatest hits" include such groundbreaking texts as A Description of the Admirable Table of Logarithms, and his invention of divining rods used as multiplication tables.

Wilhelm Shickard (1623)

o

Wilhelm Shickard, a professor at the University of Tubingen, Germany, invents the first mechanical calculator. It can work with six digits and carries digits across columns. It works, but never makes it beyond the prototype stage.




William Oughtred (1625)

oEarly 1600s, William Oughtred, an English clergyman, invented the slide rule. It is an early example of an analog computer.

Blaise Pascal (1642)

o

A French mathematician named Blaise Pascal invented the a mechanical calculation machine. He called it the Pascaline. The Pascaline was made out of clock gears and levers and could solve basic mathematical problems like addition and subtraction.




Gottfried Von Leibniz (1671)




Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (1646-1716), German mathematician and philosopher invented a machine called the stepped reckoner that could multiply 5 digit and 12 digit numbers yielding up to 16 digit number.

Joseph Marie Jacquard (1801)



Joseph Marie Jacquard invented the automatic loom during the 1830s. The "store", the "mill" and the punch cards are the parts that are remarkably similar to "modern-day" computers. It introduced binary logic and a fixed program that would operate in real time.


Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar (1820)

oCharles Xavier Thomas de Colmar (1785-1870) developed the Arithmometer and became the first mass-produced calculator n France. This device performed the same type of computations as Leibniz’s Stepped Reckoner, but was more reliable. These pinwheel-type mechanical adding machines were fixtures in banks accounting offices and stores.


Charles Babbage (1821)

o

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Charles Babbage (1792-1871), eccentric English mathematician, invented the first modern computer design: a steam powered adding machine called “the difference engine”. He understood that long math problems were just repetitive operations. Therefore, the machine can automatically solve math problems.

o
In 1832, Babbage also invented the “analytical engine”. This engine was a mechanical adding machine that took information from punched cards to solve and print complex mathematical operations. Babage’s difference engine and the analytical engine are regarded as the first “thinking machines”. These engines were easy to operate and produced solutions at the turn of a hand crank. Babage’s inventions earned the title “father of computers”.



Ada Augusta Lovelace (1842)

o

The first program was written by Ada Augusta Lovelace (1815-1852) or Lady Byron. She is credited as being the first computer programmer. The programming language Ada is named in her honor.


Learnings of the Week

Joyce Niko D. Perez IV-RIZAL

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The Five Generations of Computers

The history of computer development is often referred to in reference to the different generations of computing devices. Each generation of computer is characterized by a major technological development that fundamentally changed the way computers operate, resulting in increasingly smaller, cheaper, more powerful and more efficient and reliable devices. Read about each generation and the developments that led to the current devices that we use today.

• First Generation- 1940-1956: Vacuum Tubes
• Second Generation-1956-1963: Transistors
• Third Generation - 1964-1971: Integrated Circuits
• Fourth Generation - 1971- present: Microprocessors
• Fifth Generation - 1982-1993: Massively Parallel Computers
  

First Generation - 1940-1956: Vacuum Tubes

The first computers used vacuum tubes for circuitry and magnetic drums for memory, and were often enormous, taking up entire rooms. They were very expensive to operate and in addition to using a great deal of electricity, generated a lot of heat, which was often the cause of malfunctions. First generation computers relied on machine language to perform operations, and they could only solve one problem at a time. Input was based on punched cards and paper tape, and output was displayed on printouts.

The UNIVAC and ENIAC computers are examples of first-generation computing devices. The UNIVAC was the first commercial computer delivered to a business client, the U.S. Census Bureau in 1951.

Second Generation - 1956-1963: Transistors

Transistors replaced vacuum tubes and ushered

in the second generation of computers. The transistor was invented in 1947 but did not see widespread use in computers until the late 50s. The transistor was far superior to the vacuum tube, allowing computers to become smaller, faster, cheaper, more energy-efficient and more reliable than their first-generation predecessors. Though the transistor still generated a great deal of heat that subjected the computer to damage, it was a vast improvement over the vacuum tube. Second-generation computers still relied on punched cards for input and printouts for output.

Second-generation computers moved from cryptic binary machine language to symbolic, or assembly, languages, which allowed programmers to specify instructions in words. High-level programming languages were also being developed at this time, such as early versions of COBOL and FORTRAN. These were also the first computers that stored their instructions in their memory, which moved from a magnetic drum to magnetic core technology.

The first computers of this generation were developed for the atomic energy industry.

Third Generation - 1964-1971: Integrated Circuits

The development of the integrated circuit was the hallmark of the third generation of computers. Transistors were miniaturized and placed on silicon chips, called semiconductors, which drastically increased the speed and efficiency of computers.

Instead of punched cards and printouts, users interacted with third generation computers through keyboards and monitors and interfaced with an operating system, which allowed the device to run many different applications at one time with a central program that monitored the memory. Computers for the first time became accessible to a mass audience because they were smaller and cheaper than their predecessors.

Fourth Generation - 1971-Present: Microprocessors

The microprocessor brought the fourth generation of computers, as thousands of integrated circuits were built onto a single silicon chip. What in the first generation filled an entire room could now fit in the palm of the hand. The Intel 4004 chip, developed in 1971, located all the components of the computer - from the central processing unit and memory to input/output controls - on a single chip.

In 1981 IBM introduced its first computer for the home user, and in 1984 Apple introduced the Macintosh. Microprocessors also moved out of the realm of desktop computers and into many areas of life as more and more everyday products began to use microprocessors.

As these small computers became more powerful, they could be linked together to form networks, which eventually led to the development of the Internet. Fourth generation computers also saw the development of GUIs, the mouse and handheld devices.

Proposed and Failed "Fifth Generation" - 1982-1993 Massively Parallel Computers

From Wikipedia, "The Fifth Generation Computer Systems project (FGCS) was an initiative by Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry, begun in 1982, to create a "fifth generation computer" (see history of computing hardware) which was supposed to perform much calculation utilizing massive parallelism. It was to be the end result of a massive government/industry research project in Japan during the 1980s. It aimed to create an "epoch-making computer" with supercomputer-like performance and usable artificial intelligence capabilities."

Fifth generation computing devices, based on artificial intelligence, are still in development, though there are some applications, such as voice recognition, that are being used today. The use of parallel processing and superconductors is helping to make artificial intelligence a reality. Quantum computation and molecular and nanotechnology will radically change the face of computers in years to come. The goal of fifth-generation computing is to develop devices that respond to natural language input and are capable of learning and self-organization.

Learnings of the Week

Joyce Niko D. Perez IV- RIZAL