The Abacus
Bio 2900
Computer Applications in Biology
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Computer History
The abacus emerged about 5000 years
ago in Asia Minor.
It uses a series of beads to make
calculations. In some parts of the world
it is still in use today.
Presented by
Frank H. Osborne, Ph. D.
10 2005
Early Inventors
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Early workers pioneered the concepts
that made the modern day computer
possible
Blaise Pascal (1623 • 1662)
Gottfried VOn Leibnitz (1646-1716)
Joseph-Marie Jacquard (1752-1834)
Charles Babbage (1791 • 1871)
Blaise Pascal
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Pascal was a
mathematician.
He developed a
machine called the
Pascaline in 1642.
The machine was used
to make calculations.
Blaise Pascal
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Gottfried von Liebnitz
It used a series of gears
where a single gear
with 10 teeth engaged
a one-tooth gear. The
one-tooth gear would
turn 10 times to make
the 10·tooth gear
revolve once.
It did addition and
subtraction.
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The Pascaline
Liebnitz was a
German philosopher•.
He improved on
Pascal's machine by
making one that could
also multiply and
divide.
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Joseph-Marie Jacquard
• Jacquard was a silk
weaver.
• He designed a loom
that controlled the
weaving using cards
with holes punched
in them.
Joseph-Marie Jacquard
• Three Jacquard
punch cards.
Charles Babbage
• Babbage designed
a machine called
the "difference
engine."
• The idea was to
perform repeated
calculations
mechanica lIy.
Joseph-Marie Jacquard
• The punched
cards are sewn
together to make
a long strip
alongside the
loom.
Charles Babbage
• Babbage was an
inventor.
• Among his
inventions are the
speedometer and
the cow catcher.
Charles Babbage
• He later designed
an "analytical
engine" that also
ran on punched
cards like those
used on the
Jacquard loom.
Only part of it was
ever built.
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Augusta Ada King
Augusta Ada King
• She is sometimes
considered to be the
first computer
programmer.
• In the 1980s the US
Department of
Defense named the
ADA programming
language after her.
• Augusta Ada King,
Countess of Lovelace
(1815 - 1842) was the
daughter of Lord
Byron.
• She served as
Babbage's assistant
and helped secure
British Government
funding for it.
Herman Hollerith
Herman Hollerith
• Herman Hollerith
(1860 -1929) was an
engineer.
• His idea was to use
punched cards to store
data. These were used
well into the 20 th
century.
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Konrad Zuse
• Konrad Zuse (1910 ­
1995) developed the
first general purpose
program controlled
computer.
• It used telephone
relay switches to
make onloff decisions.
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• Hollerith invented
a tabulating
machine to
perform the 1890
census.
• He then formed
the Tabulating
Machine Company
which became
IBM in 1924.
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KonradZuse
• He tried to get funding from the German
government in World War II but was denied.
• His work did not become generally known
until much after the war.
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ENIAC
ENIAC
• ENIAC (Electrical Numerical Integrator
and Computer)
• Developed by John W. Mauchly (1907­
1980) and J. Presper Eckert, Jr. (1919­
1995) at the University of Pennsylvania.
It did calculations using circuits containing
vacuum tubes that were about 1000 times
faster switches than telephone relays.
• ENIAC (Electrical Numerical Integrator
and Computer)
Vacuum Tube
Microprocessor
Transistor
• The Transistor was invented in 1948. It
replaced the vacuum tubes in radios,
televisions and computers.
• Transistor computers were smaller and
faster than the earlier models.
......
• The microprocessor is a series of transistors
and electronic circuits etched onto a chip of
silicon.
• The first one was invented in 1958 by Jack
St. Clair Kilby of Texas Instruments.
The rest of the story
• This led to the
development of the
microcomputer that is so
familiar to us today.
• Apple, Radio Shack,
Commodore, IBM and
others developed
microcomputers during
the latter part of the 20th
century.
The End
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