Chapter 2: Development of Computers

2.1 History of Computers

We have all heard stories of primitive peoples counting their sheep by moving sticks or stones.
Our base-ten number system undoubtedly grew from the use of 10 fingers as counting objects.
Together with the development of people, the need to calculate and keep track of information
had become popular issue. So they soon develop a simple computing device and had a power of
storing small information. However, many thousands of years elapsed before developing
mechanical calculator.
Some of the calculating devises are mentioned below:
a) The Abacus: - It is one of the earliest mechanical computational devices. It was in use in the
Middle East as early as 2500 BC. The familiar Chinese abacus (dating approximately 1200
AD ) is composed of a frame and a number of wires. The wires correspond to position of
digits in decimal number units: tens, hundreds, and so on-and the beads represent digits.
Beads above the cross bar represent 5 and that bellow represent 1.
The abacus shows zero, if all the bead bellow the cross bar are at the lower frame and above
are at the upper frame.
Addition of two numbers on the abacus can be performed by representing the first number
and the second number without resetting the first. On any wire showing 10 or more, the two
beads above the cross bar are moved back, and an extra 1 (the Cary) is added to the wire on
the left.
This process can be easily generalized to addition and subtraction of more than two numbers.
b) Pascal’s Calculator: - It is the first true mechanical calculator. In 1642, at the age of 19, the
French philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal developed a rotating wheel calculator,
the predecessor of the latter popular desktop calculator. He built largely to assist his father,
who was a tax collector in the town of Rouen, Pascal’s calculator has one wheel
corresponding to each power of 10; each wheel has 10 position, one for each of the digits
(0,..9). Although, Pascal’s calculator could only add and subtract, it could be used indirectly
for multiplication (by successive addition) and division (by successive subtraction) as well.
c) The Difference Engine: - It is the forerunner of the modern computer. Charles Babbage
(1792-1871), a British mathematician and engineer, is considered by many to be the real
father of today’s computer was the developer of the difference engine and designer of the
analytical engine. The difference engine also based on the rotating wheels principle and it

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 was operated by means of a single crank. This devise has a power of calculation and print the
output without human intervention. He finally designed significantly improved version of the
difference engine (but not built) called Analytic engine. It has different key components
- The store: A memory wheel consisting of set of counter wheels
- The mill: An arithmetic unit capable of performing the four basic arithmetic operations.
It operated on pairs of mechanical registers and produced a result stored in another
register, all of which were located in the store.
- Operation cards: These cards selected one of the four arithmetic operations by
activating the mill to perform the selected function.
- Variable cards: These cards selected the memory locations to be used by the mill for a
particular operation (a source of operand and the destination of the result).
- Output: was to print or a card punch device.
But finally the design halt largely due to the technology of the day is not far enough too
supply the required raw materials.
d) Herman Hollerith’s Tabulating Machine: - Herman Hollerith was a statistician that in
1880 and develop his machine commissioned by the U.S. Census Bureau to develop a
technique for speeding up the processing of census data that took at least 8 years before. He
develops his machine that uses the punched card to punch the census data and tabulated by
using his machine. This machine processes the 1890 American census data with in 3 years. It
was really a great development. He finally began the tabulating Machine Company, which
later becomes the International Business Machine Corporation (IBM).
e) Mark I: - Developed by Howard Aiken at Harvard University (1944) which was the first
electromechanical computer. Instruction was provided by means of punched paper tape,
which combined the functions of Babbage’s operation cards and variable cards. Each
instruction had the format A1 A2 OP where A1 and A2 are registers storing the operand, OP
is the operation to be performed (e.g. +, -, x, ÷). Mark I could do a single addition in 6
seconds and division in 12 seconds.
f) ENIAC(Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer): -Developed by Eckert and
Mauchly at the university of Pennsylvania. This was the first electronic calculator and first
general purpose digital computer. This machine was enormous, weighing 30 tones.
Occupying 15,000 square feet of floor space and containing over 18,000 vacuum tubes.
When operating, it consumed over 140 KWPH of power. It had a capability of performing

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 5,000 additions per second. Its memory consisted of 20 “accumulators” each capable of
holding a 10 digit decimal number. Each digit was represented by a ring of 10 vacuum tubes.
At any time, only one of the 10 tubes was in ON state, representing one of the 10 digits.
 ENIAC did not use internally stored programs. Programs were wired on boards similar to
a telephone switch board.
 One of the major drawbacks of ENIAC was that it had to be programmed manually by
setting switches and plugging and unplugging cables.
g) The Von Neumann Machine: - The task of entering and altering programs for the ENIAC
was extremely tedious. Von Neumann was the consultant on the ENIAC project and forward
the stored program concept, i.e. designing the computer to get its instruction by reading them
from memory alongside the data and a program could be set or altered by setting the values
of a portion of a memory. Based on this concept, the first true electronic computers were
developed by the name EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer) and
EDSAC( Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Computer).
h) Commercial Computers: - The 1950s saw the birth of computers industry with two
companies, Spery and IBM, dominating the market place. In 1947, Eckert and Mauchly
develop their successful commercial computer called UNIVAC I (Universal Automatic
Computer). UNIVAC was division of Remington Rand (later Sperry Rand Corporation).
IBM also the major manufacturer of punched card processing equipment, delivered its first
electronic stored program computer, the IBM 701, in 1953.
2.2 Generation of Computers
Although computer professionals do not agree on exact dates or specifics, computer
developments are often categorized by generations. Actually there are four generations and
major characteristics that distinguish these generations are the following:
 Dominant type of electronic circuit elements used.
 Major secondary storage media used.
 Computer language used.
 Types or characteristic of operating system used.
 Memory access time (time to store or retrieve a word or data from memory).
Computer generations are usually categorized by dramatic improvement in the hardware,
typically refold or better increases in speed and reliability.

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First generation (1950s)
 Used vacuum tubes as components for the electronic circuit.
 Punched cards were the main source of inputs, and magnetic grams were used for internal
storage.
 Operate in a speed of milliseconds (thousands of a second) and could handle more than
10,000 additions each second.
 Most applications were scientific calculations.
Second generations (early 1960s)
 Transistors were the main circuit components. (Transistors are a solid state device made
from silicon which is smaller, cheaper, faster, dissipate less energy and more reliable than
vacuum tube but work in the same way with the vacuum tube.)
 Invented by Bell Labs.
 Magnetic tapes (similar with home tape caste), used for main storage,
 Operate in microseconds (millionths of a second) with more than 200,000 additions
possible each second.
 Business applications become more commonplace, with large data files stored on
magnetic tape and disk. (Magnetic disk: is a circular platter constructed of metal or
plastic materials coated with magnetizable substance.)
 High-level languages COBOL and FORTRAN were introduced during this period. Batch
operating systems are used that permitted rapid processing of magnetic tape files.
Third generation (late 1960s, early 1970s)
 Characterized by solid-state logic and integrated circuit (IC). (A single, self-contained
transistor is called discrete component. In early 1960 electronic equipment composed of
discrete components transistors, capacitors, resistors, They are:
 manufactured separately
 Packed in their own containers and soldered (wired together) on a circuit board.
So the entire manufacturing process was cumbersome and expensive. Do to these
and other problems in 1958 the achievement that revolutionized electronics
started the era of microelectronics: the invention of integrated circuit.
 Computer storage switched from magnetic cores to integrated circuit boards that provide
modularity (expandable storage) and compatibility (interchangeable equipment
 New input/output methods such as optical scanning and plotters.

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  Software become more important with sophisticated operating systems, improved
programming languages,
Fourth generation (late 1970s until now)
 Greatly expanded storage capabilities and improved circuitry.
 Has a large-scale integrated circuits (LSI) which has several hundred thousands
transistors placed on one tiny silicon chip.
 Computer memory operates at speeds of nano seconds (billionths of a second) with large
computers capable of adding 15 million numbers per second.
The fifth generation computeris in progress. An architecture, which makes use of the
changes in technology and allows a simple and natural methodology for solving problems, is
being sought. These computers will have intelligent processors i.e., processors which can draw
inferences. Users will also be able to interact with them in natural languages such as English,
German etc. Japans are working intensively on the project for developing the 5th generation.
Summary of generation of computers
Generation 1st 2nd 3rd 4th
Circuit element Vacuum tube Transistor IC LSI and VLSI
SSD Punched card Magnetic Tape Magnetic disk Mass storage
device
Language Machine & Fortran, Structured Application
assembly COBOL etc language oriented
Operating Operator control Batch system Application Time sharing
system oriented
Memory 1ms 10μs 10ns 1ns
Access time
Approx. date 1946-57 1958-64 1965-71 From 1971 above
examples ENIAC, UNIVAC, IBM7090, 7094 IBM system Late IBM product
UDVAC

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