BEFORE 1900 – THE ABACUS
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Computational devices have been in use for a very long time
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It is predicted that the Abacus has been in use since year 3000 B.C.
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An abacus is a device with beads on it that can be moved up or down on
sticks to aid with counting and calculating.
BEFORE 1900 – JOHN NAPIER
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Another computing device that has been used for a very long time is
Napier’s Bones
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Napier’s bones were invented circa year 1610 by John Napier
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John Napier was a Scottish man who developed the use of logarithms
IMAGES OF NAPIER'S BONES AND AN ABACUS
Napier’s Bones
Ancient Chinese Abacus
BEFORE 1900 – JOSEPH-MARIE JACQUARD
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Joseph-Marie Jacquard developed a system in the early 1800’s from a
loom that could weave complicated patterns
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This loom created patterns depending on the number and arrangement
of holes in punched cards that were fed into the machine
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This punched card method became significant and was the first of many
computers to use this
JOSEPH-MARIE JACQUARD'S LOOM
1900-1939
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Developments on devices used for calculations kept improving
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Calculation devices for specific purposes, such as factoring integers
began to also develop
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Electrically operated devices started to exist around this time
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Big names in Computer Science history like Alan Turing and Kurt Gödel
became prominent in this field
ALAN TURING
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In 1936, Alan Turing and Alonzo Church introduced the more
mainstream use of an algorithm
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Alan Turing contributed a significant amount to computer sciences, such
as a thesis and a description of the well-known “Turing machine”
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The Turing machine, in theory, can simulate the completion of any
algorithm which can be performed on a modern computer if given
enough resources to do so.
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The Turing machine works by printing, erasing, and rewriting data on an
infinitely long piece of paper
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Alan Turing was arrested for “gross indecency” for being a homosexual
many years later
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He committed suicide by eating an apple that he had poisoned
TURING MACHINE
1940’S
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The times of war sparked even more development in the field of
computing due to the usefulness for warfare
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The first electronic digital computer was created
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Computers were used to calculate targets for ballistic weapons, and as a
result the weapons were more accurate and took less time to use
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Computers were also used for decrypting and code-breaking in the war
times
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An electronic computer that was able to store programs was designed
called the EDVAC
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One of the people who worked on the EDVAC is named John Von
Neumann, a notable mathematician
JOHN VON NEUMANN
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Von Neumann was an extremely talented mathematician
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He developed many theories and published a lot of work in mathematics
and programming which accelerated the growth of computing
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Von Neumann also helped in the creation of “The Atomic Bomb,” which
was later dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the second World War.
1940’S
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In Germany, a man named Konrad Zuse built the first operating program
controlled calculator for general purpose in 1941
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This calculator was called the “Z3”
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The invention of the transistor in 1947 made way for the creation of the
microprocessor and the microprocessor revolution in computer sciences
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The transistor earned the inventors of it a Nobel Prize in physics.
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The inventors of the transistor are named John Bardeen, Walter Brattain,
and William Shockley
COMPUTER TRANSISTORS
1950’S
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The first computer “bug” was discovered
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The bug was a moth that had gotten into a computer at Harvard and
caused issues with the computer
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The term was later coined and is used today as a word to describe an
issue in a computer, usually in code or programming
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A significant compiler called LISP was invented for artificial intelligence
programming by John McCarthy in 1958
1960’S
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ARPAnet had started to be created, which was a precursor to todays
Internet
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There were many advances in the use and design of Operating Systems.
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The first real microprocessor chip was invented near the end of the
decade
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Many new programming languages were developed, such as BASIC
A MODERN MICROPROCESSOR
1970’S
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The Unix operating system was developed at Bell Laboratories
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A notable programming language called C was also created in the 70’s,
as well as Pascal and Ada
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The first supercomputer was created in this time. One of the first was
titled CRAY-1
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The CRAY-1 could perform 160 million operations per second
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There were further advances in the use of algorithms
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Computers grew more and more complicated throughout the years
1980’S
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This decade is the time when the first Personal Computers started to
become popular
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Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, founders of Apple, helped significantly
with this
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The first computer viruses were developed in 1981
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The first successful Portable Computer was marketed called the
Osborne I
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The US National Science Foundation started NSFnet, which was also a
precursor to todays Internet
1990’S AND ON
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Interest in Quantum Computing started to grow
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Computers are constantly growing smaller and smaller in size with the
further advancements in technology
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Parallel Computing, in which multiple programs can be ran at once of a
computer, continues to grow and become stronger
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/~shallit/Courses/134/history.html
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http://www.computerhistory.org/
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http://www.eingang.org/Lecture/
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http://www.mrtc.mdh.se/publications/0337.pdf
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http://www.cs.brown.edu/~jes/papers/09_ch5.pdf
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http://www.firstpost.com/topic/person/john-von-neumann-history-of-computervideo-anLX3hir0cg-14840-17.html
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http://systemcomputing.org/turing%20award/Maurice_1967/TheFirstDraft.pdf
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http://mathworld.wolfram.com/TuringMachine.html