computer history - a brief overview

8/14/2019 Computer History - A brief overview

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Mohamed Hussain (3625)ADV. Cert in Information Technology Batch 2.

INFORMATION

SYSTEMS.Lecture 1.


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Information System Tutorial 1

Section-1

1. What is the difference between data and

information? Give examples.

Raw data refers to a collection of numbers, characters, images or other

outputs from devices to convert physical quantities into symbols that are

unprocessed. Such data is typically further processed by a human or input

into a computer, stored and processed there, or transmitted (output) to

another human or computer (possibly through a data cable). Raw data is a

relative term; data processing commonly occurs by stages, and the

"processed data" from one stage may be considered the "raw data" of the

next. The processed data from the first stage may be

defined as information at this stage.

Example: A census. (The information gathered at the

initial survey is called raw data)

The facts collected from the census will then be processed into a

meaningful context to gather information about the

unemployment rate in a country, or the rate of births in a country.

At the very first stage its all about numbers, figures, and

collective information about a certain family or a person. This is

processed through any medium to get the information about these

facts in a country.

2. What do you mean by data processing? And why is

it important to process data?

Data processing is the process of manipulation or processing of raw data

(figures, numbers, graphs etc) to gather useful information about a

certain fact. The importance of data processing can be explained as

gathering information from a bunch of numbers, facts and figures which

just dont give any meaning. We can see a whole lot of numbers and facts

from a survey which doesnt have any meaning when they are collected.

These data need to be processed through some form of input/output

method. When we feed raw data or a set of instructions into a computer,

these data needs to be processed using a program so that the output from

L.Cpl. Mohamed Hussain (3625)

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these data can be viewed from the screen as how we need it to be. In

other words, the raw facts or data have no meaning when they are not

processed.

3. What is a system? And describe the functions of a

system.

A system is a collection of inter-related components that works together to

achieve a certain goal set by the person or a company which is operating

the system. For example; an air-conditioner: The system is designed to

keep the room at a temperature that the user wants. To achieve this goal,

the system embedded inside the internal module, restarts the external

module consisting the fans and the cooling systems when the temperature

inside the room exceeds the limit set by the user. (the job of automatically

restarting the external module is done by a small chip programmed to do

this task inside the internal module)

Functions of a system: A basic system functions include inputs,

processing, and output. The modern systems use more contextual

method in order to enhance the system life and operability by including a

feedbackand controlmechanism.

4. Why feedback and control mechanism is important

for the system?

Feedback and control mechanism is important nowadays in a vast number

of systems. The term feedback refers to, gathering of information from

users, where control means the manufacturer or the system administrator

who can control the system depending on the feedback information. The

feedback information is useful for the future development of these

systems and its operability. For example; the computer aided design

system software called AUTOCAD is developed after each and every

version depending on the vast uses and feedback from its users. The

software users are not given proper permission to change the system

functionality where this is controlled by the developers (or so called

programmers) at the company who develop the AutoCAD system software.


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Another example is computer systems and its physical components. For

example, the systems used to play high graphic games are now developed

by the manufacturers depending on the feedback from users as well as

game developers because the need for higher specification system was

preferred by the gamers and game developers by nowadays.

5. With the help of a diagram, explain the components

of an information system.

6. Briefly explain the resources that support the

information system.

People/Human resources: includes the users, developers, operators, and

people who maintain an information system.

Hardware resources: includes all types of machines. The physical

components that comprise a system could be called as hardwarerecourses.

Software resources: The programs used to function an information system,

the user manuals, and the information about the media that these

programs are stored and run.

Communication resources: Includes the mediums used to communicate

between systems; like networks, data cables, phone lines, wireless links

etc Also the hardwares and softwares which are used to communicate

and transfer data between these systems.

Data resources. Data resources include computer databases, business

transactions (in banks and online banking) and any form of raw data which

an organization have access to.


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Raw facts, numbers,

figures, images,

System users,developers,

Networks, data cables,

phone lines, routers,

Operating systems,

application software, other

Storage media, processors,memory, input/output media


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Section-2

1. What is a computer?

A computer is basically made of three components; an input device, a

processor, and an output device. Furthermore, the input devices include

the keyboard, mouse, barcode readers, and scanners etc The processor

is however, the heart of a system which undertakes all the processing

tasks. The processor in a computer system is located in the system unit

which comprises of memory, ROMs, and storage devices. Output devices

(basically the monitor) include monitors, printers and projectors etc

2. Give a brief idea about the following. In your

answer, you should include when, and who invented

it and also how it works.

a. ABACUS:5th BC. This is the earliest device which qualifies as a digital

computer. An Abacus contains beads in two rows, where the uppermost

row contains beads that are used when a certain number of counts are

reached. Still used in the Far East and some facilities like UCMAS to

calculate mathematical calculations to aid the human brain. A skilled

abacus operator can work on addition and subtraction problems at the

speed of a person equipped with a hand calculator (multiplication and

division are slower).

b. NAPIERS BONES -LOGARITHMS.1617. Invented by a

Scotsman named John Napier. This is a manual calculating device which is

also called as cardboard multiplication calculator. The calculation iscarried by positioning the cubes (which were marked with some numbers)

into a certain order to get the results. On the top of a column is the

number which will be multiplied by the numbers in the left (Embedded

onto the board), and the result is followed by positioning the results one

after another. In the next page is a graphical example of how this board is

used to calculate multiplication.

(continued in the next page.)


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BOARD

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

0/2 0/4 0/6 0/8 1/0 1/2 1/4 1/6 1/8

0/3 0/6 0/9 1/2 1/5 1/8 2/1 2/4 2/7

0/4 0/8 1/2 1/6 2/0 2/4 2/8 3/2 3/6

0/5 1/0 1/5 2/0 2/5 3/0 3/5 4/0 4/5

0/6 1/2 1/8 2/4 3/0 3/6 4/2 4/8 5/4

0/7 1/4 2/1 2/8 3/5 4/2 4/9 5/6 6/3

0/8 1/6 2/4 3/2 4/0 4/8 5/6 6/4 7/2

0/9 1/8 2/7 3/6 4/5 5/4 6/3 7/2 8/1

c. SLIDE RULE.1621. Nappiers invention directly led to the Slide rule,

which was used by the NASA engineers of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo

programs. This is a mechanical analogue computer consisting of two finely

divided rules (rulers) with markings. It contains a pair and a movable inner

one called the cursor. The calculations are done by sliding the inner one in

a certain order to gather the desired result. Used primarily formultiplication and division. With the use of Slide Rule, the possibilities of


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carrying out scientific functions such as Trigs, Roots, and Logs was also

possible. It does not perform additional or subtraction calculations.

d. BLAISE PASCAL.1642. Invented the first mechanical adding

machine called the Pascaline as an aid for his father who was a tax

collector. This calculator uses gears to perform only addition functions.

Pascals invention was used till today until the digital speedometers in cars

to turn the wheel when after a full revolution of the prior wheel.

e. C.G LEIBNITZ.1671. Invented by German Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz.

Improved on Pascals machine to perform multiplication and division

calculations. He managed to build a four-function (addition, subtraction,

multiplication, and division) calculator that he called the stepped

reckonerbecause, instead of gears, it employed fluted drums having ten

flutes arranged around their circumference in a stair-step fashion.

Although the stepped reckoner employed the decimal number system

(each drum had 10 flutes), Leibniz was the first to advocate use of the

binary number system which is fundamental to the operation of modern

computers.

f. CHARLES BABBAGE. 1822. He was an English mathematician,

physicist, mechanical engineer, (proto) computer scientist. He is the first

person to originate the idea of programmable computers. Although, he

developed his ideas based on Jacquards Loom which uses punch cards.

His idea of developing a programmable computer was achieved after a

decade when he passed away. His invention is the root to the modern

computer designs. He was also called the father of modern digital

computers. At first he developed the Deference Engine, which was later

developed into a complete automatic Analytical Engine. The Analytical

Engine is controlled by punch cards as an input and a steam engine for

power. The punch cards in his Analytical Engine served his ideas in two

ways. He generated new punch cards as a set of instructions which could

be stored for later use of the same function. Thus both operations are also

given a name (the store and the mill; in other words, the memory unit

and the processing unit) as of it comprises the punch cards in the woven

industry. This idea is the fundamental to the any digital computing.

g. HERMAN HOLLERITH. 1899.Was an American who developed the

Hollerith Desk, consisted of a card reader which sensed the holes in the


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punch cards, a gear driven mechanism which could count (using Pascal's

mechanism which we still see in car odometers), and a large wall of dial

indicators (a car speedometer is a dial indicator) to display the results of

the count. The Hollerith method was used in USA as late as in the year

2000 ballot.

h. JACQUARD LOOM. 1801. Invented by a Frenchman called Joseph

Marie Jacquard. He invented a power loom that could base its weave (and

hence the design on the fabric) upon a pattern automatically by reading

from punched wooden cards, held together in a long row by a rope. The

operation is controlled by the punch cards used by the machine. Such an

operation includes Jacquards self portrait woven by this machine. All the

wooden punch cards (an estimate of 10000 cards) for this operation werebuilt by Jacquard himself.

i. JOHN ANATASOFF & CLIFFORD BERRY. 1939. The US

professor Anatasoff and his graduate student Clifford Berry at the Iova

State University built the first all electronic computer. This machine used

45 vaccume tubes for internal logic and capasitors for storage. The

machine was not programmable and its design was only appropriate for

one type of mathematical calculation.

j. HOWARD AIKEN. 1944. Invented the Mark 1 with the help from IBM

and Harvard University. This was the first programmable digital computer.

It was not a purely electronic computer. Instead the Mark I was

constructed out of switches, relays, rotating shafts, and clutches. The

machine weighed 5 tons, incorporated 500 miles of wire, was 8 feet tall

and 51 feet long, and had a 50 ft rotating shaft running its length, turned

by a 5 horsepower electric motor. The Mark I ran non-stop for 15 years.

k. ENIAC. 1945.This Electronic, Numerical Integrator and Calculator wasinvented by two professors named John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert at

the University of Pennsylvania USA. ENIAC was the first machine to use

electronic signals for computing data. Especially designed by the US war

department for the purpose of making aiming tables for the gunners at

World War II. One of the major achievement of ENIAC includes the testing

of the hydrogen bomb in 20 seconds, which took a mechanical calculator

40 hours of labor work. ENIAC generates lots of heat from 18000 vacuum

tubes it needed to work, making the system to incorporate its own special


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purpose air-conditioning system. It weighed 30 tons and fills in a room

with the size of 20 by 40. ENIAC can generate the results of adding two

numbers in 200 microseconds, and multiplication in 2000 microseconds.

l. EDSAC. 1949. Or Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator was

an early British computer. EDSAC used the first stored program concept in

a system. Its first program was executed in 6 May 1949, when it calculated

a table of squares and a list of prime numbers. This machine was

developed by a group of scientists at the Cambridge University under the

direct supervision of Professor Maurice Wilkes. It used mercury delay lines

for memory, and derated vacuum tubes for logic. Input was via 5-hole

punched tape and output was via a teleprinter.

m. EDVAC. 1946-1950. or Electronic Discrete Variable AutomaticComputer was an invention from the ENIACs inventors by teaming up

with mathematician John von Neumann. Like the ENIAC, the EDVAC was

built for the U.S. Army's Ballistics Research Laboratory at the Aberdeen

Proving Ground by the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School of

Electrical Engineering. The EDVAC was a binary serial computer with

automatic addition, subtraction, multiplication, programmed division and

automatic checking with an ultrasonic serial memory capacity of 1,000 44-

bit words (later set to 1,024 words, thus giving a memory, in modern

terms, of 5.5 kilobytes). The physical components of EDVAC contains, a

magnetic tape recorder-reader, a control unit with an oscilloscope, a

dispatcher unit to receive instructions from the control and memory and

direct them to other units, a computational unit to perform arithmetic

operations on a pair of numbers at a time and send the result to memory

after checking on a duplicate unit, a timer, a dual memory unit consisting

of two sets of 64 mercury acoustic delay lines of eight words capacity on

each line, and three temporary tanks each holding a single word. EDVAC

continued its works until it was replaced by a new system. And during its

life, EDVAC proves to be worthy of its cost.


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