What you learn about computing from the movies
All monitors display letters that are 5cm high.
Error messages make sense.
Computer programmers can infect any computer with a destructive virus, simply by
entering the "UPLOAD VIRUS" command. The virus can be sent over any computer
interface, even if the interface is from another planet. (God bless open standards!)
All computers are connected. You can access information on any desktop computer,
even if it's turned off. You can also access the cash register at Wal-Mart.
Computers slow down screen output, so it doesn't go faster than can be read.
Really advanced computers produce the sound of a dot-matrix printer as characters
scroll horizontally across the display.
Computers sent into an endless loop, or otherwise confused by an operator, will
eventually explode.
If you display a file on the screen, and someone deletes the file, it also disappears from
the screen.
Computers can zoom in or out of a graphic image with no loss or change of resolution
and detail.
Whenever someone looks at a computer monitor, the image is so bright that it projects
itself onto the person's face.
Nets2008: Historical-1
“Like silicon through the hour
glass…”
A quick (and slightly biased) romp
through the short history of computing
Nets2008: Historical-2
1
Postconditions
• Able to provide a reasonable definition of “computer”
• An awareness of the rapid growth of computing
– not always easy to appreciate
• there are museums of computing, and people talk of antiques
that are only a few years old
• An appreciation of computing history
– there is no attempt to be exhaustive in this account
• An understanding of Moore’s “law”
Nets2008: Historical-3
History - a record of unpredictable
futures
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unication.
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ed.
ent
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n
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has
“Everything that can be invented
U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.
er,
ion
Charles Duell, Commiss
“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers. .”
Thomas J Watson, President, IBM, 1943
“There is no reason for an
y individual to have a
computer in his home.”
.”
nybody
a
r
Ken Olson, President, DE
o
f
h
C, 1977
enoug
t to be
h
g
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o
“640K ates, 1981
Bill G
Nets2008: Historical-4
2
James Burke’s Connections
Innovation
• Traditional treatment:
“Fred Smith invented the wumpumdoodle in 1923”
• Connections treatment:
An exploration of linkages between historical events.
“Inventions” are products of timeliness, opportunism, luck...
Nets2008: Historical-5
The computer’s debt to... underwear
• Complex economic conditions created a
clothing boom...
• …putting pressure on traditional looms...
• … so Jacquard automated weaving with a
punched card system…
• … by borrowing from existing ideas...
• Later, Babbage incorporated Jacquard’s
idea in his mechanical designs...
• Later still, the needs of the US Census led
to Hollerith’s adoption of a punched card
system…
• Hollerith’s company becomes Nets2008:
IBM...Historical-6
3
Mechanical Devices
Nets2008: Historical-7
80 BC
Antikythera mechanism
Found on a shipwreck off the Greek island
of Andikithira - built in around 80 BC.
X-rays reveal a highly
complex device.
Involved at least 20
connected gears.
The device is unique; its exact use uncertain. A
replica demonstrates its complexity.
Nets2008: Historical-8
4
da Vinci’s ratio machine
In 1967, some “misplaced” designs by Leonardo
da Vinci were found. They included this design.
The concept is something like an odometer. It is
a counter, rather than a calculator.
Nets2008: Historical-9
In 1968 a replica of the da Vinci design was built. It
was included in an IBM exhibit until its authenticity
was seriously questioned.
It was then removed from the exhibit.
The location of the replica is unknown.
Nets2008: Historical-10
5
Pascal’s calculator
The Pascalene
1642
• Blaise Pascal’s calculator (1642) could
add and subtract 8-digit numbers
• It was modified in 1673 by Gottfried
Leibniz to include multiplication, division,
and square roots.
• Neither machine was widely used...
Nets2008: Historical-11
Jacquard’s loom
1801
A punched card system was developed in 1801 to
automate the weaving process.
The digital nature of this approach is of special
interest.
Jacquard adapted the punched-card concept
from ideas found in the Paris patent
office.
Nets2008: Historical-12
6
Babbage’s Difference Engine
1822-1842
Prototype built in 1822.
The British government
dropped the project
in 1842.
Nets2008: Historical-13
Babbage’s Analytic Engine
Ada Lovelace (daughter of Lord Byron) was
supposed to have written a program for the
Analytic Engine. This would make her the
world’s first programmer.
1833-1871
Babbage was unable to implement
the design (for financial
reasons). This working model is
in London’s Science Museum.
Input-output was performed with
punched cards.
It had a number of elements
common to modern computers:
• arithmetic unit
• sequential control
• memory for numbers
Nets2008: Historical-14
7
Calculators versus Computers
• Calculators perform computation (addition,
subtraction, division , etc.)
• Computers additionally execute algorithms
– this requires decision-making based on prior results
• i.e., “programmability”
• On this basis, many describe Babbage’s Analytic
Engine as the first computer
– and those that preceded it as mechanical calculators
Nets2008: Historical-15
Boolean algebra
• George Boole developed an algebra using the AND, OR, and
NOT operators (mid-1800s)
• Around the same time Augustus deMorgan developed what are
now referred to as deMorgan’s Laws.
• This foundation was crucial to the development of digital
computers
– Note that Babbage’s Analytic Engine was based on decimal, not binary
Nets2008: Historical-16
8
Human computers
In WWII, “human computers” were people who
used calculators to solve ballistics problems
One story tells of how a shortage of scientific “computers” resulted
in accountants being sent to do a ballistics job…
However, they only calculated to 2 decimal places
(thinking only in dollars and cents!)
Nets2008: Historical-17
Electromechanical computers
Nets2008: Historical-18
9
The Hollerith machine
• The Hollerith machine was developed for
the US Census
Used punched cards but with electro-mechanical readers. The machine
sort cards.
Image from IBM pictured here was used in the 1890 US Census and was able to
Nets2008:
Historical-19
Electro-mechanical switches relays
• Conrad Zuse used relays to build a number of calculators in
the 1930s and 1940s
• They had a maximum speed of around 10 operations per
second due to the moving parts
• Compare this to vacuum tubes (“valves”):
– able to switch at a rate of up to 1 million times per second (1MHz).
Nets2008: Historical-20
10
First computer “bug”
In 1945, Grace Murray Hopper documented the
first computer “bug”
...a moth caught in a relay...
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1943-1958
First Generation Computers:
Vacuum tube technology
Nets2008: Historical-22
11
ENIAC
Project: 1943-1946
Used: 1946-1955
Electronic Numerical Integrator Analyzer and Computer
U.S. Army photo
ENIAC
Nets2008: Historical-23
Quote from Popular Mechanics, March 1949.
What the people“Where
ofa calculator
Philadelphia
saw
That’s
ENIAC…
on the ENIAC is equipped
with
19,000
vacuum
tubes
and
weighs
30
tons,
computers
in
It uses a whopping
70,000 resistors,
when the power-hungry
ENIAC
the future may have only
1,000 vacuumfired
tubes and
180,000 watts!
10,000 capacitors,
perhaps only weigh 1.5 tons.”
up...
1,500 relays,
17,468 vacuum tubes,
and 6,000 manual switches.
Those eggheads at
Electronic Numerical Integrator Analyzer
and Computer
the university
and
But 1,000+ times faster than
Who
was
Electronic Numerical Integrator Analyzer
andelectronic
Computer
that @#$!
electro-mechanical computers.
Isthat?
that you,
brain
again…
What
Martha?
Hello?
Oh...
happened?
Nets2008: Historical-24
12
The Importance of Flashing lights
When ENIAC was to be filmed for a news reel it was
felt that the little teletype was not impressive enough
for public
consumption.
“Panel
of red, green
and/or yellow lightbulbs that seems to be present in
Computers in movies must have a ...
all "big, complex computer rooms", like nuclear reactor control rooms,
space ship controls, etc. All those bulbs are always arranged in a
Ping pong
balls
totoconstruct
some
rectangular
pattern,
andwere
there'sused
nothing
distinguish one
bulbflashing
from the
other.
Their only function seems to be displaying some simple animated
lights.
pattern, maybe even several animations in succession, or just random
blinking (adjusting to the intensity of the action, of course.)”
Computers in movies have reflected the initial
concern ever since!
From Jim Leonard’s Computer Movies Suck website
(http://www.oldskool.org/personal/computer_movies_suck.shtml)
Nets2008: Historical-25
John von Neumann
Prior to Neumann
computers did not
store programs.
Stored-program
computers appeared
around 1948 in
prototype form.
CSIRAC was an
Australian example.
Neumann’s main
contributions:
The concept of storing
programs (not just
data) in memory.
The ability to execute
algorithms (loops,
conditionals)
• But we have seen this in
the Analytic Engine
Nets2008: Historical-26
13
1947
Bardeen, Brattain & Shockley develop the transistor at Bell Labs.
A small current at the base enables a much larger current to pass
through (enabling switching at around 10MHz with no moving parts).
It takes some 12 years before this becomes fundamental to computing.
In 1956 they receive a Nobel Prize for the invention.
Nets2008: Historical-27
ca. 1948
The digital approach
“The simplest mechanical devices will make
decisions between two alternatives, such as the
closing or opening of a switch. In the nervous
system, the individual nerve fiber also decides
between carrying an impulse and or not.”
(Norbert Wiener 1894-1964)
“The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society”
Nets2008: Historical-28
14
CSIRAC
“The world’s 5th computer”
(and Australia’s 1st)
The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
(CSIR, now CSIRO) Automatic Computer.
Originally named CSIR MkI.
Era: Designed in 1948; Mk1 implemented 1951. Lived in
the Madsen Building, University of Sydney. Moved to
Melbourne University in 1955.
Physical characteristics: 40 m2, weighing 7 tonnes. Used
2,000 vacuum tubes
RAM: 1KB
Speed: 1,000 calculations per second (compared to
human calculators’ 1 operation per second on mechanical
machines).
Nets2008: Historical-29
CSIRAC hi-fi
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15
CSIRAC console
Nets2008: Historical-31
CSIRAC disc drive
Magnetic disc drum (circa 1956)
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16
CSIRAC portability!
CSIRAC moved to Melbourne
University in 1955
Nets2008: Historical-33
Many years later, this exciting new
concept of portability would be
extended...
Nets2008: Historical-34
17
SILLIAC
Built in the mid-1950s.
Modelled on the ILLIAC (University
of Illinois Automatic Computer).
SILLIAC contained 2800 valves and
20km of wire with 54000
connections.
“Did 3 months work in 10 minutes”.
Decommissioned in 1968...
Nets2008: Historical-35
The Melbourne Cup influence
Adolph Basser donated 50,000
pounds to the cost of the SILLIAC
when his horse won the Melbourne
Cup!
A year later Basser won on the Cup
again…
… and SILLIAC funding received
another 50,000 pounds!
Nets2008: Historical-36
18
The problem with valves
Unreliability
A 30,000 valve system could have 100 valve failures a day!
(Filaments would burn out)
Size
Computers were sizes of small houses
Heat
A 30,000-valve system could generate 300,000 watts of heat
Electricity
Used huge amounts of electricity
Nets2008: Historical-37
1959-1966
Second Generation Computers:
Transistor technology
Nets2008: Historical-38
19
SNOCOM
Designed in 1958 (CSIRO & The University
of Sydney’s Dept. Electrical Engineering)
for engineering calculations in the Snowy
Mountains Scheme.
This was Australia’s first transistor-based
computer.
Used from 1960-1967. In 1967 it returned
to University of Sydney. It now lives in the
Powerhouse Museum.
Wired-up Nets2008:
backplane
Historical-39
Bryant 512A
drum
• Drum memory
– storage
– registers
• 64 tracks
– each with a read-write
head
• 32 words per track
– 31b words with 1b
spacing
Nets2008: Historical-40
20
SNOCOM I/O
• Ferranti tape reader
– 300 cps
• Tape punch
– 50 cps
• IBM electric typewriter
– 10 cps
– 2 second carriage
return!
Nets2008: Historical-41
IBM System/360
•
•
•
•
1964
(photo from 1968)
General-purpose registers
32-bit words
Memory-to-memory instructions
A foundation for many modern mainframes that followed
Nets2008: Historical-42
21
1964
Moore’s “Law”
• Dr Gordon Moore
• The density of transistors in ICs approximately doubles
every 18 months
– alternatively, the “half-life” of a microprocessor is 18 months!
– exponential growth!!!
– It was also stated that this situation was not likely to apply for
long…
– we return to discuss this later
• In four year’s time Moore co-founds Intel...
Nets2008: Historical-43
1966
DEC PDP-8
First commercially successful minicomputer,
selling 100,000+ by 1980!
Highly affordable at $US18,000
(around one-fifth the cost of a small System/360)
Nets2008: Historical-44
22
• 1967 - IBM builds the first floppy disk
• 1968 - IBM S/360 model 85: first commercial computer with
cache memory
• 1968 - IBM S/360 model 91: High performance (but overpriced) model that “flopped”, selling only 20!
• 1968 - Dr Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce found Intel -- they
are a memory chip producer, but soon end up in the
microprocessor market
• 1968 - International Research Corporation develop a design for
a “computer on a chip” based on the PDP-8 design…
– whereas previously CPUs were circuit boards with multiple
components, this was a single chip.
Nets2008: Historical-45
1969-1979
Third Generation Computers:
Integrated Circuits (IC) technology
"But what ... is it good for?"
IBM Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems commenting on the microchipNets2008:
(1968) Historical-46
23
Intel C4004
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
1971 - first single-chip microprocessor
4-bit architecture
740KHz
46 instructions
2,300 transistors
60,000 operations per second
equivalent performance to ENIAC
clock speed of 1MHz
Nets2008: Historical-47
Intel 8080
•
•
•
•
1974
6,000 transistors
2 MHz clock
16-bit architecture (16 bit address bus, 8b data
bus)
• used in the Altair 8800
Nets2008: Historical-48
24
Altair 8800
• 1975
• Widely regarded as the first
PC, although others make
cases for much earlier
contenders. First “popular” PC.
• Bill Gates and Paul Allen
licensed BASIC as the
programming language for the
Altair
Nets2008: Historical-49
1975
Zilog Z80
• Designed by ex-Intel engineers as an “improved” Intel
8080 (designed by ex-Intel engineers)
– executed all 8080 opcodes (i.e., it was backwardly
compatible which gave it market leverage) plus 80 additional
opcodes
• Clock Speeds: 3.5 MHz - Introduced: 1981
• 8,500 transistors
• 2.5 MHz
Nets2008: Historical-50
25
1976
MOS 6502
• Principal rival to the Z-80 and the 8080
• Used in the Apple II, Commodore64, Atari and (the first)
Nintendo system
• Steve Wozniak described it as the first chip under $100
• 8-bit microprocessor
• 9,000 transistors
• Only around 60 instructions
• Included undocumented instructions
• RAM was faster than microprocessors in this era, so the chip
used few registers and “optimised for RAM access” instead
Nets2008: Historical-51
1976
Cray-1
•
•
•
•
•
128 instructions
C-shaped
83 MHz clock
166 MFLOPS
64b words
Nets2008: Historical-52
26
1978 +
Fourth Generation Computers:
Microprocessor technology (VLSI)
Nets2008: Historical-53
1978
Intel 8086
• Clock Speeds of 5, 8 and 10 MHz
• 29,000 transistor
• 16-bit architecture
• 1 MB address space
• Used by IBM in their first PCs and rocketed
MS-DOS to the world’s most popular OS
Nets2008: Historical-54
27
1979
Motorola 68000
• 68,000 transistors
• 32-bit internal architecture
– but used a 16-bit data bus
– the 68020 was fully 32-bit.
• 8 x 16-bit data registers and 8 x 16-bit address
registers
Nets2008: Historical-55
• 1980 - David Patterson (UC, Berkeley) coins the term RISC
and designs the RISC I.
• 1981 - James Clark founds Silicon Graphics, Inc.
• 1982 - SUN founded
– originally Stanford University Network
Nets2008: Historical-56
28
1982
Intel 80286
•
•
•
•
•
•
Used in IBM PC-ATs
general protection
virtual memory
134,000 transistors
8-12 MHz
16 MB address space
Nets2008: Historical-57
• 1983 - Apple releases the Lisa
– the first PC with a GUI.
– MC68000 processor, 1MB RAM, 12” B/W monitor, 5MB HD,
2 x 5 1/4 floppies. It was very slow, and cost $US10,000
• strangely, it was not a commercial success!
• 1984 - Apple releases the MacIntosh.
– The first successful WIMP computer, also based on
MC68000.
• WIMP environment n. [acronym: `Window, Icon, Menu, Pointing
device (or Pull-down menu)']
– Only cost $US2,500.
• 1984 - MIPS Technologies is founded and develops its
first RISC chip
– MIPS = Microprocessor without Interlocked Pipeline Stages
• 1986 - Silicon Graphics switches from use of 68000 to
MIPS RISC architectures
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29
1985
Intel 80386
•
•
•
•
Backward compatibility with 8086 and 80286
32-bit microprocessor
275,000 transistors
4GB address space
– had a 32-bit address bus
Nets2008: Historical-59
1986
MIPS R2000
• the first commercial RISC processor
• RISC started on the concept that 20% of instructions
did 80% of the work.
• RISC – heavy use of registers (they are quicker) and simplifed
memory access (load-and-store architecture)
– pipelining of instructions
– use of cache
Nets2008: Historical-60
30
The Connection Machine
1986
The Connection Machine used16,000 processors
in parallel, enabling several billion operations per
second.
© Thinking Machines Corporation, 1987. Photo: Steve Grohe.
Nets2008: Historical-61
1989
486
•
•
•
•
1,200,000 transistors
8KB RAM cache
Could access a FP unit
66 MHz
Nets2008: Historical-62
31
1993+
Intel Pentium
• Pentium: 3.1 million transistors
• 1995 Pentium Pro:
– 5.5 million Transistors
– a 2nd chip for L2 cache
Nets2008: Historical-63
• 1991 - MIPS R4000 released
• 1992 - MIPS 100MHz R4000 released
• 1992 - MIPS Technologies becomes a division of Silicon
Graphics
• 1993 - 64-bit MIPS 4400 released
– 150MHz external clock
• 1991 - Silicon Graphics, Inc., changes its name to SGI
• 1996 - 200 MHz MIPS R5000 and 200MHz R10000
released
• 1996 - SGI buys Cray Research
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32
1997
Pentium I…
The Pentium II ...
• 1997 Pentium II
– 7.5 million Transistors
• 1999 Pentium III
– 9.5 million Transistors
• 2000 Pentium 4
– 42 Million Transistors
• 2004 Pentium 4 “E”
– 125 Million Transistors
Moore predicts that in 2012 Intel will be able to integrate
1 billion transistors with a clock speed of 10 GHz! Nets2008: Historical-65
Shrinking Technology
Shrinking Technology
Technological full circle?
The atomic abacus
Shrinking Technology
Shrinking Technology
Shrinking Technology
Shrinking Technology
Nets2008: Historical-66
33
The future is small
The Matchbox Webserver
has a 66MHz 486 CPU,
16 MB RAM and
16 MB ROM. This is
enough to hold enough
of the Linux OS (with
the HTTP daemon) to run
the web server.
It also has 2 serial ports,
a printer port, and a floppy
connection.
It weighs in at 20 grams!
Nets2008: Historical-67
The future is very small...
The Matchbox PC is only marginally wider than
the Matchbox webserver, but is a fully functional
PC… including 340 MB hard drive and 10 Mbps
Ethernet card!
It can be configured with a full installation of
Windows98 or Linux, with room for third-party
software.
It weighs in at 90 grams!
Nets2008: Historical-68
34
Ubiquitous
computing…
Sufficiently small
computers may lead to a
change of consciousness...
The Java Ring is an example
of wearable computing…
It is a prototype, and has only
6KB RAM - but a sign of
“things to come”
It still performs useful
tasks, such as opening
doors for authorised personnel.
Nets2008: Historical-69
The “ENIAC on a chip” project
http://www.ee.upenn.edu/~jan/eniacproj.html
The whole of the ENIAC has been been
reproduced on a chip 7.44mm by 5.29mm
(contains about 174,569 transistors)
Nets2008: Historical-70
35
Moore’s “Law”
Moore’s “Law” articulates this dizzying rate of
technological reduction...
Nets2008: Historical-71
Moore’s “law”
Initial statement:
The amount of information density that is storable
on silicon approximately doubles every year.
Adjusted statement:
In the late 1970’s the doubling period was
reassessed as 18 months due to an observed
slowing of the exponential growth.
Nets2008: Historical-72
36
Moore’s “law”
Initially, Moore gave this observation a very limited
lifetime…
The revised lifetime of Moore’s law:
Moore now maintains that physical limits of
wafer technology won’t be reached until 2017...
...and that Moore’s “Law” applies until then
Nets2008: Historical-73
Example: Moore’s “Law” & Intel chips
Note: Strictly, Moore’s Law concerns
density of transistors on silicon…
Observing the number of transistors on
actual chips is a window on Moore’s
Law.
One expects chip manufacturers to
push the limits of information density...
Nets2008: Historical-74
37
Sources
•
Apple computer museum
•
SNOCOM
•
– http://www.terrigal.net.au/~acms/Newsletter/Issue
%2026a/26b.htm
Atomic abacus photo
•
Photo of cogs
•
Photos at start of each “generation” from
– http://apple2history.org/museum/computers
•
CSIRAC
–
– http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/csirac/
•
Java ring
– http://www.useit.com/papers/javaring.html
•
Matchbox web server and PC
http://www.zurich.ibm.com/pub/hug/PR/Abacus/
– http://www.tssphoto.com/ops_html/E1231B.html
– http://technology.niagarac.on.ca/courses/tech238g/
Chapter2.html
– http://wearables.stanford.edu/hardware.html
•
Silicon photomicrographs
•
da Vinci ratio machine
•
– http://www.webcom.com/calc/leonardo/leonardo.html – http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/
• Melbourne Cup photos (actually Ethereal winning in
IBM photo archives
2001)
– BBC Sport,
– www.ibm.com/news/ls/1999/07/photoarchive/index/.phtml
•
Others (Mechanical computers, Cray)
– http://www.columbia.edu/acis/
– http://www.cbi.umn.edu/tc.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport/hi/english/photo_galleries/new
sid_1640000/1640337.stm
•
Moore’s law graph,
http://www.intel.com/research/silicon/mooreslaw.htm
(Highly recommended site for historical computing)
Nets2008: Historical-75
38