Cocu Iulia Veronica Unit 1 – A Brief History of Computers

Unit 1
A Brief History of Computers

The development of the modern day computer was the result of advances in
technologies and man’s need to quantify. Papyrus helped early man record language and
numbers. The abacus, a wooden rack holding two horizontal wires with beads strung on
them, was one of the first counting machines.
5 Webster’s Dictionary defines “computer” as any programmable electronic device
that can store, retrieve and process data. The basic idea of computing develops in the
1200 when a Muslim priest proposes solving problems with a series of written
procedures. As early as 1640, mechanical calculators are manufactured for sale. Records
exist of earlier machines but Blaise Pascal invents the first commercial calculator, a hand-
10 powered adding machine. It added numbers entered with dials and was made to help his
father, a tax collector.
In 1801 a Frenchman, Joseph–Marie Jacquard, builds a loom that weaves by
reading punched holes stored on small sheets of hardwood. These plates are then inserted
into the loom which reads the pattern and creates the weave. Powered by water, this
15 machine came 140 years before the development of the modern computer.
Shortly after the first mass-produced calculator (1820), Charles Babbage begins
his lifelong quest for a programmable machine based on the principles of punched cards,
storing data in a memory and a sequence of instructions clearly set out in a programme.
This machine will be released in 1830. By 1842, Ada Lovelace, his assistant, uses
20 Babbage’s analytical engine to mechanically translate a short written work. She is
generally regarded as the first programmer.
In 1925, unaware of the work of Charles Babbage, Vannevar Bush of MIT builds
a machine he calls the differential analyzer, which is in fact the first analogue computer.
Using a set of gears and shafts, much like Babbage, the machine can handle simple
25 calculations but accuracy is a problem.
In 1945, Von Neumann performed an abstract study of computation that showed
that a computer should have a very simple, fixed physical structure, and yet be able to
execute any kind of computation by means of a proper programmed control without the
need for any change in the unit itself.
30 J. Eckert and J. Mauchly heralded the computer era in 1946 by building the first
digital computer using parts called vacuum tubes. They named their invention ENIAC but
these types of machines were too bulky and unreliable to be used in any but largest firms.
In 1947 and 1956 two further technological breakthroughs materialized the
tendency towards miniaturization: the transistor, invented in Bell laboratories, and the
35 integrated circuit, invented by Jack Kilby. The secret of the new technology was to etch
transistors and other components onto a thin silicon wafer, called a chip, in order to create
an integrated circuit.
In 1956 FORTRAN is introduced. Two additional languages, LISP and COBOL
are added in 1957 and 1958. Other early languages include ALGOL and BASIC.
40 Although never widely used, ALGOL is the basis for many of today’s languages.
Over the last decades computers have undergone more transformations: MOS
technology has been supplanted by C-MOS and RISC and laptops and powerful

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 Cocu Iulia Veronica Unit 1 – A Brief History of Computers

computers no larger or thicker than an A4 notepad have become commonplace. Despite

these transformations, however, the same basic pattern emerges: data is inputted using an
45 input device, usually a keyboard, a mouse, a pen or a scanner. This information is then
stored in the computer’s memory until the user needs to retrieve it. Once the retrieval of
data is complete, the relevant information is either displayed on a screen (soft copy) or
can be printed out by a printer (hard copy).
Progress in the area of software has not matched the great advances in hardware.
50 Software has become the major cost of many systems because programming productivity
has not increased very quickly. New programming techniques, such as object-oriented
programming, have been developed to help relieve this problem. Despite difficulties with
software, however, the cost per calculation of computers is rapidly lessening, and their
convenience and efficiency are expected to increase in the early future. The computer
55 field continues to experience huge growth. Computer networking, computer mail, and
electronic publishing are just a few of the applications that have grown in recent years.
Advances in technologies continue to produce cheaper and more powerful computers
offering the promise that in the near future, computers or terminals will reside in most, if
not all homes, offices, and schools.

INFO
➢ FORTRAN – one of the first high-level programming languages, initially
invented to allow a concise wording of numerical problems; other high-level
programming languages: BASIC, COBOL, PASCAL, C, C++, JAVA; low-level
programming languages: the assembly language (the assembler) and machine
language (machine code)
➢ LISP – programming language invented by John McCarthy in 1960 in order to
process character rows and lists
➢ COBOL – programming language created in 1958 for financial administration
program writing; it allowed large file processing, alphanumeric information
handling, report editing
➢ ALGOL – scientific programming language created in 1958 that obeyed three
exigencies: to be as close as possible to regular mathematical notations; to be
legible enough to become an algorithm communication language; to be
compilable
➢ BASIC - programming language whose purpose was to provide scientific learning
programming tools by means of an interactive environment
➢ MOS, C-MOS – technology commonly used to manufacture integrated circuits
➢ RISC – elementary processor architecture whose purpose was to obtain
performances by using a regular set of instructions which allowed instruction
pipeline processing.

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Cocu Iulia Veronica Unit 1 – A Brief History of Computers

I.
a) Give synonyms for the following words from the text:

Brief; machine (l. 4); dial (l.10); quest (l. 17); to handle (l. 24); computation (l. 28); to
herald (l. 30); bulky (l. 32); to undergo (l. 42); however (l. 45); to relieve (l. 53); growth
(l. 57)

b) What do the following abbreviations stand for?

MIT; ENIAC; FORTRAN; LISP; COBOL; ALGOL; BASIC; MOS; C-MOS; RISC

II. Match the following words (1 – 10) with their appropriate definitions
(A – J):

1. Bulky A. a computer that can be carried easily

2. Silicon chip B. an essential component of a microprocessor
3. Transistor C. to recover or regain lost information or data
4. Reliable D. condition or quality of being true, correct or exact
5. Scanner E. taking up a lot of space
6. Laptop F. a thin, small disk
7. To etch G. you can count on it
8. To retrieve H. the type of technology that made miniaturisation possible
9. Wafer I. an automatic electronic means of inputting data
10. Accuracy J. to engrave as to form a design

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Cocu Iulia Veronica Unit 1 – A Brief History of Computers

III. The following names are related to the history of computers. Read the
above text once again and decide who’s who using the list below. Two
names are not in the text:

1. Charles Babbage; 2. Blaise Pascal; 3. Bill Gates; 4. Vannevar Bush; 5. Grace

Hopper; 6. Ada Lovelace; 7. Von Neumann; 8. J. Eckert and J. Mauchly

A. The inventor of the first analog computer

B. Allegedly the first programmer
C. The inventor of the analytical engine and alleged father of computers
D. The one who developed the idea of keeping instructions for the computer inside the
computer’s memory
E. Mathematician, inventor of a hand powered adding machine
F. Creator of the first spreadsheet program and former Microsoft CEO
G. Inventors of the ENIAC, the first digital mainframe
H. The US army colonel who helped develop COBOL

IV.
a) Fill in the table with the appropriate dates and inventions:

DATE PERSON AND/OR INVENTION

……………….. Babbage’s calculating machine
1946 ………………..
1947 The invention of the ……………….. in
……………….. Laboratories
……………….. J. Kilby invented the ……………….
………………..
1956 ………………..

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Cocu Iulia Veronica Unit 1 – A Brief History of Computers

b) Answer the following questions:

1. What three modern principles were fundamental to Babbage’s theoretical machine?

2. Who wrote the first ever “programme”?
3. What was the general tendency after ENIAC?

V. Fill in the blanks with the words in the list:

binary, built, calculation, can, could, development, first, mechanically, most, moving, on,
other, perforated, punched, world’s.

Automatic (1) ……… has a long history. The (2) ……… calculators were (3)
……… in the early 17th century. The German mathematician Gottfried Leibnitz
speculated (4) ……… the possibility of building a calculator using (5) ……… balls to
represent numbers in (6) ……… code. Self-playing musical instruments and (7) ………
automata incorporated the notion of storing a sequence of instructions (8) ……… .In
1725 Basile Bouchon invented a method of producing woven patterns on a draw loom
from instructions on a (9) ……… paper tape. Jacquard later refined this method into a
highly successful automatic loom controlled by (10) ……… cards. (11) ……… of the
elements of a truly general-purpose computer (12) ……… be found in the analytical
engine conceived by Babbage in 1835. In 1941 Konrad Zuse in Germany built the (13)
……… first working stored-program computer. In the USA, the mathematician Howard
Aiken, in association with IBM (International Business Machines), worked independently
on a large electromechanical calculator that (14) ……… be programmed using paper
tape. Computers later based on the electronic thermionic valve were a major (15) ……….

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Cocu Iulia Veronica Unit 1 – A Brief History of Computers

VI. Fill in the gaps:

In the early fifties, computers were so 1) ………… and 2) ………… that only very few
big companies could 3) ………… them. They used 4) ………… ………… and were the
first generation of computers. In 1947, the use of 5) ………… instead of 6) …………
………… gave birth to the second generation of computers which were able to 7)
………… calculations ten times 8) ………… than their 9) …………. Second – 10)
………… computers were less 11) …………, 12) ………… and more 13) …………
than first – generation computers. With the 14) ………… of 15) ………… circuits in the
mid-sixties computers became even 16) ………… and even more 17) …………. Yet
they could not sit on a desk and were still expensive. In the seventies, 18) …………
………… microminiaturization, thousands of integrated 19) ………… could be 20)
………… on a chip, a tiny piece of silicon a few millimetres in 21) ………….

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Cocu Iulia Veronica Unit 1 – A Brief History of Computers

GRAMMAR SPOTLIGHT
The Articles in English

THE DEFINITE ARTICLE

Uses:
• Before the representative of a class
e.g.: The PC was a milestone in the development of computers.
• When it has already been mentioned or it is known
e.g.: Yesterday I saw a film on my DVD player. The film was very interesting.
Shut down the computer if you don’t need it anymore.
• Before nouns that are considered to be unique
e.g.: the Earth, the sun, the Web, the Internet
• Before nouns that are used in their most general sense
e.g.: The computer is a machine.
• Before names of countries that contain smaller entities or are plural in form
e.g.: the U.K., the U.S., the Netherlands
• Before names of rivers, oceans, seas, mountains or islands
e.g.: the Thames, the Pacific, the Black Sea, the Isle of Man
• Before names of nationalities: the English, the French
• Before names of publications: the Guardian, the Times
• Before names of points of the compass: the North
• Before nouns preceded by prepositions: in the file, by the way, in the end

THE INDEFINITE ARTICLE

Uses:
• Before a countable noun
e.g.: A computer is a machine that manipulates data according to a set of
instructions.

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Cocu Iulia Veronica Unit 1 – A Brief History of Computers

• Before nouns used as the representative of a class

e.g.: Michael is a computer programmer.
• Before names of origin
e.g.: Bill Gates, the creator of the first spreadsheet program, former Microsoft
CEO and currently the richest man on the planet, is an American.
• Religion
e.g.: He is a Catholic.
• Politics
e.g.: He is a Republican.

THE ZERO ARTICLE

Uses:
• Before abstract nouns: death, life, love, freedom, hate etc.
e.g.: Most people fear death.
• Before names with a general meaning
e.g.: Computers are widely used nowadays.
The GPS system my father bought me for my birthday is cutting-edge
technology.
• before names of languages
e.g.: Mike speaks English very well.
• Before names of days, months, seasons, holidays
e.g.: On Monday, George starts work as a computer programmer for a famous
computer firm.
• Before names of subjects (in school)
e.g.: Computer science is a set of very efficient tools with which the common user
can organize, process, present and transmit all kind of information.
• Before names of means of transport: by air, by boat, by bus, by car, by plane, by
sea, by ship

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Cocu Iulia Veronica Unit 1 – A Brief History of Computers

EXERCISES

I. Translate into English:

Magistrala; placa audio; unitatea centrală de procesare; cartuşul; cifra; o eroare; o grilă;
jetonul; majuscula; mufa; un nucleu; panglica (de imprimantă); versiunea; un portal; un
releu; stiva; stratul; o sucursală; un şir; telecomanda.

II. Fill in the blanks with a/an/the/zero article and motivate your choice:
1. Where are you going ………… next week?
We are staying at ………… home, because we have to study hard to pass …………
exams.
2. ………… computer shop is closed today. It is ………… Sunday.
3. ………… sound card you bought is less reliable than ………… one I have at
………… home.
4. She is ………… teacher and works in one of those schools near ………… your house.
5. Numerical methods is one of ………… hardest subjects in computer science faculty.
6. She’s visiting ………… United States next month.
7. I can’t remember where, but my best friend is studying in ………… university in
France.
8. They have got two children: ………… boy and ………… girl. ………… girl’s seven
and ………… boy’s nine.
9. How often does he go to London?
He goes to London once ………… year.
10. How much time do you work ………… day?
I work 7 hours and ………… half every day.
11. I’ve decided to go freelance and hire myself out as ………… computer programmer.
12. Because of ………… crisis, ………… company Microsoft has been forced to lay off
several thousand employees.
13. ………… good manager is not so easy to find.
14. ………… distributors will probably boost the price of ……….. software when
……….. next version is released.