history of computer science
DESCRIPTION
History of Computer Science. A lesson by Matt Smith. Before 1900 – The Abacus. Computational devices have been in use for a very long time It is predicted that the Abacus has been in use since year 3000 B.C . - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
HISTO
RY OF
COMPUTE
R
SCIENCE
A L
ES
SO
N B
Y M
AT T
SM
I TH
BEFORE 1900 – THE ABACUS
• Computational devices have been in use for a very long time
• It is predicted that the Abacus has been in use since year 3000 B.C.
• An abacus is a device with beads on it that can be moved up or down on sticks to aid with counting and calculating.
BEFORE 1900 – JOHN NAPIER
• Another computing device that has been used for a very long time is Napier’s Bones
• Napier’s bones were invented circa year 1610 by John Napier
• John Napier was a Scottish man who developed the use of logarithms
IMAGES OF NAPIER'S BONES AND AN ABACUS
Napier’s Bones Ancient Chinese Abacus
BEFORE 1900 – JOSEPH-MARIE JACQUARD• Joseph-Marie Jacquard developed a system in the
early 1800’s from a loom that could weave complicated patterns
• This loom created patterns depending on the number and arrangement of holes in punched cards that were fed into the machine
• This punched card method became significant and was the first of many computers to use this
JOSEPH-MARIE JACQUARD'S LOOM
1900-1939
• Developments on devices used for calculations kept
improving
• Calculation devices for specific purposes, such as
factoring integers began to also develop
• Electrically operated devices started to exist around
this time
• Big names in Computer Science history like Alan
Turing and Kurt Gödel became prominent in this field
ALAN TURING
• In 1936, Alan Turing and Alonzo Church introduced the more mainstream use of an algorithm
• Alan Turing contributed a significant amount to computer sciences, such as a thesis and a description of the well-known “Turing machine”
• The Turing machine, in theory, can simulate the completion of any algorithm which can be performed on a modern computer if given enough resources to do so.
• The Turing machine works by printing, erasing, and rewriting data on an infinitely long piece of paper
• Alan Turing was arrested for “gross indecency” for being a homosexual many years later
• He committed suicide by eating an apple that he had poisoned
TURING MACHINE
1940’S
• The times of war sparked even more development in the field of computing due to the usefulness for warfare
• The first electronic digital computer was created
• Computers were used to calculate targets for ballistic weapons, and as a result the weapons were more accurate and took less time to use
• Computers were also used for decrypting and code-breaking in the war times
• An electronic computer that was able to store programs was designed called the EDVAC
• One of the people who worked on the EDVAC is named John Von Neumann, a notable mathematician
JOHN VON NEUMANN
• Von Neumann was an extremely talented mathematician
• He developed many theories and published a lot of work in mathematics and programming which accelerated the growth of computing
• Von Neumann also helped in the creation of “The Atomic Bomb,” which was later dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the second World War.
1940’S
• In Germany, a man named Konrad Zuse built the first operating program controlled calculator for general purpose in 1941
• This calculator was called the “Z3”
• The invention of the transistor in 1947 made way for the creation of the microprocessor and the microprocessor revolution in computer sciences
• The transistor earned the inventors of it a Nobel Prize in physics.
• The inventors of the transistor are named John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley
COMPUTER TRANSISTORS
1950’S
• The first computer “bug” was discovered
• The bug was a moth that had gotten into a computer at Harvard and caused issues with the computer
• The term was later coined and is used today as a word to describe an issue in a computer, usually in code or programming
• A significant compiler called LISP was invented for artificial intelligence programming by John McCarthy in 1958
1960’S
• ARPAnet had started to be created, which was a precursor to todays Internet
• There were many advances in the use and design of Operating Systems.
• The first real microprocessor chip was invented near the end of the decade
• Many new programming languages were developed, such as BASIC
A MODERN MICROPROCESSOR
1970’S
• The Unix operating system was developed at Bell Laboratories
• A notable programming language called C was also created in the 70’s, as well as Pascal and Ada
• The first supercomputer was created in this time. One of the first was titled CRAY-1
• The CRAY-1 could perform 160 million operations per second
• There were further advances in the use of algorithms
• Computers grew more and more complicated throughout the years
1980’S
• This decade is the time when the first Personal Computers started to become popular
• Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, founders of Apple, helped significantly with this
• The first computer viruses were developed in 1981
• The first successful Portable Computer was marketed called the Osborne I
• The US National Science Foundation started NSFnet, which was also a precursor to todays Internet
1990’S AND ON
• Interest in Quantum Computing started to grow
• Computers are constantly growing smaller and smaller in size with the further advancements in technology
• Parallel Computing, in which multiple programs can be ran at once of a computer, continues to grow and become stronger
BIBLIOGRAPHY
• https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/~shallit/Courses/134/history.html
• http://www.computerhistory.org/
• http://www.eingang.org/Lecture/
• http://www.mrtc.mdh.se/publications/0337.pdf
• http://www.cs.brown.edu/~jes/papers/09_ch5.pdf
• http://www.firstpost.com/topic/person/john-von-neumann-history-of-computer-video-anLX3hir0cg-14840-17.html
• http://systemcomputing.org/turing%20award/Maurice_1967/TheFirstDraft.pdf
• http://mathworld.wolfram.com/TuringMachine.html