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A Very Brief History of Information Technology and Systems
A Very Brief History of Information Technology and Systems
Four basic periods of computer development:
Four basic periods of computer development:
Characterized by a principal technology used to solve the input, processing, output and communication problems of the time:
Characterized by a principal technology used to solve the input, processing, output and communication problems of the time:
Pre-mechanical (analog)
Mechanical (analog)
Electromechanical (analog & digital)
Electronic/Digital (digital)
A. The Pre-mechanical Age: 3000 B.C. - 1450 A.D.
A. The Pre-mechanical Age: 3000 B.C. - 1450 A.D.
Writing and Alphabets--communication.
First humans communicated only through speaking and picture drawings.
3000 B.C., the Sumerians in Mesopotamia (what is today southern Iraq) devised cuneiform
Around 2000 B.C., Phoenicians created symbols
The Greeks later adopted the Phoenician alphabet and added vowels; the Romans gave the letters Latin names to create the alphabet we use today.
Paper and Pens--input technologies.
Sumerians' input technology was a stylus that could scratch marks in wet clay.
About 2600 B.C., the Egyptians write on the papyrus plant
around 100 A.D., the Chinese made paper from rags, on which modern-day paper making is based.
Books and Libraries: Permanent Storage Devices.
Religious leaders in Mesopotamia kept the earliest "books"
The Egyptians kept scrolls
Around 600 B.C., the Greeks began to fold sheets of papyrus vertically into leaves and bind them together.
The First Numbering Systems.
Egyptian system:
The numbers 1-9 as vertical lines, the number 10 as a U or circle, the number 100 as a coiled rope, and the number 1,000 as a lotus blossom.
The first numbering systems similar to those in use today were invented between 100 and 200 A.D. by Hindus in India who created a nine-digit numbering system.
Around 875 A.D., the concept of zero was developed.
The First Calculators: The Abacus.
One of the very first information processors, The Abacus
One of the very first information processors, The Abacus
B. The Mechanical Age: 1450 - 1840
B. The Mechanical Age: 1450 - 1840
The First Information Explosion.
Johann Gutenberg (Mainz, Germany)
He invented the movable metal-type printing process in 1450.
The development of book indexes and the widespread use of page numbers.
2. The first general purpose "computers"
Actually people who held the job title "computer: one who works with numbers."
People did all numeric calculations by hand with only pen, paper and the old noodle!
Slide Rules & analog computers: the Pascaline and Leibniz's Machine.
Early 1600s, William Oughtred, an English clergyman, invented the slide rule.
3. Early example of an analog computer.
The Pascaline. Invented by Blaise Pascal (1623-62). (front view)
(rear view)
Diagram of interior
One of the first mechanical computing machines around 1642
Gottfried Leibniz: Click his pic for bio
Leibniz's Machine.
Leibniz's Machine.
Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (1646-1716), German mathematician and philosopher.
Charles Babbage (1792-1871), eccentric English mathematician
Charles Babbage (1792-1871), eccentric English mathematician
Working model created in 1822. The "method of differences".
The Difference Engine and The Analytical Engine
The Difference Engine and The Analytical Engine
Click pic for bio!
Special Purpose Analog Computer
Analytical Engine -->
Difference
<--Engine
General Purpose Analog Computer
Joseph Marie Jacquard's loom.
Joseph Marie Jacquard's loom.
Designed during the 1830s
Parts remarkably similar to modern-day computers. The "store" The "mill" Punch cards. Punch card idea picked up by Babbage from Joseph Marie Jacquard's (1752-1834) loom.Introduced in 1801. Binary logicFixed program that would operate in real time. Designed during the 1830s
An associate of Babbage: Augusta Ada (Lovelace) Byron (1815-52).
The Grandmother of programming!
C. The Electromechanical Age: 1840 - 1940
C. The 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 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
Voltaic Battery
Late 18th century.
Alessandro Volta: click for bio
Samuel Morse: click for bio!
Telegraph
Early 1800s.
Morse Code
Telephone and Radio
Telephone and Radio
Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone in 1876, and Guglielmo Marconi invents the radio in 1894.
Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone in 1876, and Guglielmo Marconi invents the radio in 1894.
Followed by the discovery that electrical waves travel through space and can produce an effect far from the point at which they originated. These two events led to the invention of the radio
Bell: left & Marconi: above
Electromechanical Computing:
Electromechanical Computing:
Herman Hollerith and IBM.
Herman Hollerith (1860-1929) in 1880.
Herman Hollerith: click for bio!
Census Machine circa 1890
The International Business Machines Corporation (IBM)
The International Business Machines Corporation (IBM)
Began as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) 1911
Became IBM in 1924 -- IBM's first logo: Right --->
The Mark 1 was an electromechanical computer designed by Howard Aiken out of Harvard and designed by IBM in 1939 and completed in 1944. It was 8 feet tall, 51 feet long, 2 feet thick, weighed 5 tons, used about 750,000 parts.
D. The Electronic/Digital Age: 1940 - Present
D. The Electronic/Digital Age: 1940 - Present
First Tries.
Early 1940s: Electronic vacuum tubes.
Eckert and Mauchly.
The First High-Speed, General-Purpose Computer Using Vacuum Tubes:
Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC)
ENIAC team from Left to right: J. Presper Eckert, Jr.; John Grist Brainerd; Sam Feltman; Herman H. Goldstine; John W. Mauchly; Harold Pender; Major General G. L. Barnes; Colonel Paul N. Gillon. February 14, 1946
ENIAC: Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer circa 1946
The ENIAC used vacuum tubes (not mechanical devices) to do its calculations.
Hence, first electronic computer.
Developers John Mauchly, a physicist, and J. Prosper Eckert, an electrical engineer
The Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania
Funded by the U.S. Army.
But it could not store its programs (its set of instructions)
The First Stored-Program Computer(s)
The First Stored-Program Computer(s)
The Manchester University Mark I (prototype).
Early 1940s, Mauchly and Eckert began to design the EDVAC - the Electronic Discreet Variable Computer.
John von Neumann's influential report in June 1945:
"The Report on the EDVAC"
British scientists used this report and outpaced the Americans.
Max Newman headed up the effort at Manchester University
Where the Manchester Mark I went into operation in June 1948--becoming the first stored-program computer.
Maurice Wilkes, a British scientist at Cambridge University, completed the EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator) in 1949--two years before EDVAC was finished.
Thus, EDSAC became the first stored-program computer in general use (i.e., not a prototype).
EDVAC on the left and EDSAC on the right
The First General-Purpose Computer for Commercial Use: Universal Automatic Computer (UNIVAC)
The First General-Purpose Computer for Commercial Use: Universal Automatic Computer (UNIVAC)
But wait! A machine called LEO (Lyons Electronic Office) from England went into action a few months before UNIVAC and became the world's first commercial computer.
The Memex was conceived by Vannevar Bush circa 1945. The Memex was to be built into a desk and microfiche was to be used to store data.
The data would consist of the user's "private library", including all the user's books and communication documents. The microfiche was to store the data and after the user punched in a code, the Memex would project the information on a translucent screen on the desk. The Memex was never built.
UNIVAC
Late 1940s, Eckert and Mauchly began the development of a computer called UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer) built by Remington Rand.
Grace Hopper developed the first compiler, the A-0 System, for the UNIVAC in 1951, which was the first computer language compiler ever developed! She also co-wrote the COBOL compiled computer language.
First UNIVAC delivered to Census Bureau in 1951.
UNIVAC publicity photos
Grace Hopper: Click for bio
4 Generations of Digital Computing
4 Generations of Digital Computing
The First Generation (1951 - 1958)
The First Generation (1951 - 1958)
Magnetic Drum Memory
This magnetic drum unit was the memory in the IBM 650 computer, introduced in 1954. It held two thousand 10-digit words. That much memory today would fit on the head of a pin, and a very thin pin to be sure. (Image courtesy of the Hagley Museum and Library.) Rotating magnetic drums for internal storage of data.
Vacuum tubes were their main logic elements before transistors.
Punch cards to input and externally store data.
Magnetic Core memory: (Core memory) Developed in 1955 and used until about 1975. It stored memory magnetically and depending on the direction of magnetism: a one or a zero was represented. Memory was erased when read, but memory would remain even when the power was shut off.
Martin Woodhouse's Incredible Thinking Machine! 1956-1957
Martin Woodhouse's Incredible Thinking Machine! 1956-1957
The Logical Truth Computer (LTC) or Lettuce for short
Click for bio
The Lettuce system was the first computer smaller than a room and was one of the first computers to demonstrate Artificial Intelligence.
The Lettuce system was the first computer smaller than a room and was one of the first computers to demonstrate Artificial Intelligence.
One of its most unique features of the time; though, was that the LTC was battery powered!
One of its most unique features of the time; though, was that the LTC was battery powered!
The Second Generation (1959-1963)
The Second Generation (1959-1963)
Vacuum tubes replaced by transistors as main logic element. (AT&T's Bell Laboratories, in the 1940s) Crystalline mineral materials called semiconductors could be used in the design of a device called a transistor. Magnetic tape and disks began to replace punched cards as external storage devices. Magnetic cores (very small donut-shaped magnets that could be polarized in one of two directions to represent data) strung on wire within the computer became the primary internal storage technology.
High-level programming languages, e.g., FORTRAN and COBOL were present.
Invention of the Transistor @ Bell Labs 1948
The first light emitting diode or LED was developed in in 1961 by Gary Pittman and Bob Biard from Texas Instruments; however, it just emitted infrared light. In 1962, Nick Holonyak Jr. from General Electric developed the first red light LED in 1962.
-Constructed by Digital Equipment Corporation as their first iteration of this series in 1959. Made famous by being the first computer to run the first video game: Space War!
The Illiac & PLATO
The Illiac & PLATO
- Using the ILLIAC as a computational engine, UI faculty introduce PLATO, the nation's first computer-assisted program of instruction. PLATO, conceived by physics professor Chalmers Sherwin and developed under the direction of electrical engineering professor Don Bitzer, co-inventor of the plasma display panel, was the world's first time-shared computer-based education system as well as the home of the first on-line community. In 1961 UI faculty demonstrate advanced "virtual load" circuits with one nanosecond rise and fall times.
The Illiac computer below:
The Illiac
PLATO system
Don Bitzer (above): click for bio
PLATO terminal (left)
By 1987, the PLATO network would offer more than 12,000 instructional hours in some 100 subjects to on-campus terminals and others scattered across the globe. PLATO mobile above and left.
The Third Generation (1964-1979)
The Third Generation (1964-1979)
Individual transistors were replaced by integrated circuits. Magnetic tape and disks completely replace punch cards as external storage devices. Magnetic core internal memories began to give way to a new form, metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) memory, which, like integrated circuits, used silicon-backed chips.
Operating Systems
Operating Systems
Advanced programming languages like BASIC developed. Bill Gates starts Microsoft in 1975 using BASIC. Gates later purchases DOS from Seattle Computer Products and turns it into MS-DOS, thus transforming the computer market.
In 1968, the Dynabook was conceived by Alan Kay.
In 1968, the Dynabook was conceived by Alan Kay.
Alan Kay: click image for bio!
The Dynabook was not just an ebook reader but was the first laptop or notebook computer concept. Above is a cardboard model of Dynabook.
The first step toward the realization of the Dynabook was the Alto, "The Interim Dynabook", which was developed by Xerox PARC in 1972--later used by Apple for the Macintosh's GUI interface.
Arpanet which later morphed into the Internet (1969). Router left & Mini-computer below
Honeywell 316 computer (above)
Also in 1969, Unix was developed and initially deployed on the PDP-11 by Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie (left), which ultimately helped the Internet mature and grow.
Douglas Engelbart invented the computer mouse and received a patent for it in 1970. The Mouse and the GUI environment revolutionized computer technology.
Xerox PARC Alto computer circa 1972: debute in the early Spring of 1973
Xerox PARC Alto computer circa 1972: debute in the early Spring of 1973
Bit-mapped black and white display sized 606x808 (the same dimensions as a regular (8.5"x11") sheet of paper, aligned vertically)
5.8 MHz CPU
128KB of memory (at the cost of $4000)
2.5MB removable cartridge hard drive
Three button mouse
64-key keyboard and a 5-finger key set
In 1972, one of Holonyak's graduate students, M. George Craford, developed the first yellow LED and improved the red LED--making it brighter!
The Fourth Generation (1979- Present)
The Fourth Generation (1979- Present)
<--Click the CPU for a little treat just 4U!
Inside an IBM clone personal computer
Large-scale and very large-scale integrated circuits (LSIs and VLSICs)
Large-scale and very large-scale integrated circuits (LSIs and VLSICs)
Microprocessors that contained memory, logic, and control circuits (an entire CPU = Central Processing Unit) on a single chip. This allowed for home-use personal computers or PCs, like the Apple (II and Mac) and IBM PC.
Apple II released to public in 1977, by Stephen Wozniak and Steven Jobs. It initially sold for $1,195 (without a monitor); had 16k RAM. First Apple Mac released in 1984.
IBM PC introduced in 1981. Debuts with MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System)
Fourth generation language software products, e.g., VisiCalc, Lotus 1-2-3, dBase, Microsoft Word, Corel Wordperfect and many others.
Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) for PCs arrive in early 1980s
Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) for PCs arrive in early 1980s
The World Wide Web is developed by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989 and deployed in its first iteration in 1990.
Internet Explorer was released in 1995 to compete with Netscape.
MS Windows was announced in 1983, and version 1.0 shipped in 1985, but it was quite a clunker. Windows wouldn't really take off until version 3.0 was released in 1990.
Mosaic was the first Internet Browser developed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign beginning in late 1992.
The history of the Internet can be found here!
Netscape Navigator takes the Web by storm in 1994
Apple's GUI (on the first Mac) debuts in 1984.
The World Wide Web runs on top of the Internet. The TCP/IP Internet protocol was adopted in 1983.
Computers today:
Computers today:
The 4 most common operating systems today
Entourage Edge
Entourage Edge
The possible future in education in schools K-16 is shown above, but never came to fruition. This technology combines the best medium for video with the best medium for paper in one unit. It would've made Martin Woodhouse proud!
*The history of computers continues--->
*The history of computers continues--->
Nice short video on the history of the computer--check it out!
Nice short video on the history of the computer--check it out!
Bibliography
Kenneth C. Laudon, Carol Guercio Traver, Jane P. Laudon, Information Technology and Systems, Cambridge, MA: Course Technology, 1996. Stan Augarten, BIT By BIT: An Illustrated History of Computers (New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1984). R. Moreau, The Computer Comes of Age: The People, the Hardware, and the Software, translated by J. Howlett (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1984). Telephone History Web Site. http://www.cybercomm.net/~chuck/phones.html, accessed 1998. Microsoft Museum. http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/museum/home.asp, accessed 1998.PLATO: The Emergence of On-Line Community by David R. Woolley Computer-Mediated Communication Magazine / Volume 1, Number 3 / July 1, 1994 / Page 5.Bush, Vannevar, As We May Think, The Atlantic Monthly, July /Volume 176, Number 1/ July 1945/ Page 101-108. Henke, Harold, Electronic books and E-publishing: A Practical Guide for Authors, Springer-Verlag, London, 2001. Woodhouse, Martin , accessed July 2007.Bibliography
This site was originally developed as a lecture for MAR 203 Concepts in New Media, a course at the University of Arizona, summer 1997, by Jeremy G. Butler. Copyrights of these images are held by their original creators. Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike2.5 License.
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