TS+History+of+Computer+Hardware

=History of Computers=

What is a computer?

 * A computer is a machine for manipulating data according to a list of instructions
 * Can be electronic, mechanical, or a combination of both

17th Century
Napier’s Bones
 * John Napier developed a set of calculating sticks called Napier's Bones.
 * Strong influence on the development of the slide rule
 * Napier's Bones reduced multiplication to a sequence of simple additions

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Slide Rule
 * William Oughtred and others developed the slide rule in the 1600s based on the emerging work on logarithms by John Napier.
 * A mechanical analog computer.
 * The slide rule is used primarily for multiplication and division, and also for "scientific" functions such as roots, logarithms and trigonometry, but does not generally perform addition or subtraction.
 * Slide rules come in a diverse range of styles and generally appear in a linear or circular form with a standardized set of markings (scales) essential to performing mathematical computations.
 * Before the advent of the pocket calculator, it was the most commonly used calculation tool in science and engineering.
 * The use of slide rules continued to grow through the 1950s and 1960s even as digital computing devices were being gradually introduced; but around 1974 the electronic scientific calculator made it largely obsolete and most suppliers exited the business.
 * [[image:mrsturgeon/sliderule.jpg caption="Slide rule"]] ||
 * Slide rule ||

@http://www.taswegian.com/TwoHeaded/UniVirtual/UniVirtual.html

Calculating Clock
 * The first mechanical calculator was designed by Wilhelm Schickard in Germany
 * Napier's logarithms were utilized by rotating cylinders into a large machine housing
 * The prototype was lost in a fire
 * Letters were recovered describing the device and engineers were able to reproduce the device according to the info found in the letters.
 * A mechanism based on a revolving set of Napier Bones
 * Used for multiplication.
 * Addition was performed by turning the dials on the lower part of the machine.
 * These dials were connected with internal wheels, with teeth on their circumference, causing a carry as the wheel passed from 9 to 0.
 * Subtraction was performed by reversing the wheel.

Pascaline
 * first **automatic** mechanical calculator (second mechanical calc. overall) was invented by the French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal
 * Called the Pascaline
 * He bgan work on the Pascaline at the age of 19
 * He had been assisting his father, who worked as a tax commissioner, and sought to produce a device which could reduce some of his father's workload.
 * Pascalines came in both decimal and non-decimal varieties, both of which exist in museums today.
 * The initial prototype of the Pascaline had only a few dials, whilst later production variants had eight dials, the latter being able to deal with numbers up to 9,999,999.

19th Century
The Difference Engine media type="youtube" key="0anIyVGeWOI" height="350" width="575" The Analytical Engine media type="youtube" key="GJiyGvoYd5E" height="349" width="425"
 * In 1822, Charles Babbage completed his Difference Engine, a machine that could be used to perform calculations of simple tables.
 * The Difference Engine was a complex assembly of wheels, gears and ratchets engineered to exacting specifications.
 * It laid the foundation for Babbage to design his Analytical Engine
 * A general-purpose device that was to be capable of performing any type of mathematical calculation.
 * The plans of the analytical engine were the first clear conceptualization of a machine that could perform the type of computations, which are now considered at the heart of computing.
 * Babbage never built his analytical engine, but its design influenced all modern digital computers that were to follow.
 * The analytical engine was finally built by a team of engineers in 1989, over a hundred years after Babbage's death in 1871.
 * For his insight, Babbage today is known as the "**father of modern computers**."

**20th Century **

The Eniac media type="youtube" key="3jV3JdtaOGc?version=3" height="273" width="448"
 * The US-built ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was the first **electronic** general-purpose computer.
 * It was 1,000 times faster than its contemporaries.
 * ENIAC's development and construction lasted from 1943 to full operation at the end of 1945.
 * When its design was proposed, many researchers believed that the thousands of delicate valves (i.e. vacuum tubes) would burn out often enough that the ENIAC would be so frequently down for repairs as to be useless.
 * It was, however, capable of up to thousands of operations per second for hours at a time between valve failures.
 * It publicly validated the use of electronics for large-scale computing. This was crucial for the development of modern computing.
 * A "program" on the ENIAC, however, was defined by the states of its patch cables and switches, a far cry from the stored program electronic machines that evolved from it.
 * To program it meant to rewire it. (Improvements completed in 1948 made it possible to execute stored programs set in function table memory, which made programming less a "one-off" effort, and more systematic.)

media type="youtube" key="OSYpYFEwr4o" height="349" width="425" <span class="wiki_link">Personal Computer
 * In 1972, the personal computer (PC) started making its way into homes,
 * Market competition between manufacturers, such as IBM and Apple, led to rapid advances in the field.
 * For the first time, high-level computing ability was in the households of hundreds of thousands of people, rather than a privileged few.
 * Computers had finally become tools of the common people.

media type="youtube" key="vD4xHCW9YCQ" height="349" width="425" <span class="wiki_link">The Altair
 * The MITS Altair 8800 was a microcomputer design from 1975, based on the Intel 8080 CPU and sold as a mail-order kit through advertisements in Popular Electronics, Radio-Electronics and other hobbyist magazines.
 * The designers intended to sell only a few hundred to hobbyists, and were surprised when they sold thousands in the first month.
 * The first programming language for the machine was Microsoft's founding product, Altair BASIC.

<span class="wiki_link">IBM
 * IBM – International Business Machines (sold calculating machines)
 * In 1981, the personal computer revolution gained momentum when IBM introduced its first personal computer.
 * The strength of IBM's reputation was a key factor in legitimizing PCs for general use.
 * The first IBM PC was a floppy-based system, which used Intel's 8088 microprocessor.
 * It had no harddrive!
 * The original units had text only displays; true graphics were an option that came later.
 * Memory was also limited, typically only 128K or 256K of RAM.
 * The machine used an operating system known as DOS; a command line system similar to the earlier CP/M system.
 * IBM later released the IBM PC/XT. This was an expanded machine that added a hard drive and CGA graphics.
 * As the machine became popular, several other companies began to release imitations of the IBM PC. These early "clones" were marked by incompatibilities owing to their inability to properly reproduce IBM's BIOS.
 * These were commonly marketed as "90% compatible." This problem would soon be overcome, and the resulting competition would serve to push technology and drive prices down.
 * HP, Compaq, Dell, etc. are all IBM “Clones”

<span class="wiki_link">MS-DOS


 * 1981 also saw the emergence of MS-DOS (developed by Microsoft), a text-based OS
 * Stands for “MicroSoft Disc Operating System”
 * Was the dominant operating system for the PC compatible platform during the 1980s.
 * It has gradually been replaced on consumer desktop computers by various generations of the Windows operating system
 * DOS filenames follow what is called the **//8.3 convention//**.
 * This means that all DOS filenames have two parts, with up to 8 and 3 characters respectively.
 * The first part is also often referred to as the filename.
 * This part can have anywhere from 1 to 8 characters in it.
 * The second part is referred to as a file extension (this tells the computer what type of file it is, such as .doc for a MS Word file)
 * It can have from 0 to 3 characters.
 * Separating these two parts is a period
 * [[image:mrsturgeon/dosfilenames.jpg caption="DOS filenames"]] ||
 * DOS filenames ||

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<span class="wiki_link" style="font-size: 10pt;">Lisa (Apple)

media type="youtube" key="3R8fArhOWso" height="349" width="425" <span class="wiki_link" style="font-size: 10pt;">Macintosh
 * Appeared in 1983 and was named after Steve Jobbs’ daughter
 * It was the first personal computer with a GUI (graphical user interface) which utilized a mouse.
 * Aimed at the business world


 * More affordable, home-based computer as opposed to the Lisa that was aimed at business
 * First commercially successful home computer
 * Production of the Mac is based on a vertical integration model in that Apple facilitates all aspects of its hardware and creates its own operating system that is pre-installed on all Macs.
 * This is in contrast to most IBM PC compatibles, where multiple vendors create hardware intended to run another company's software. Apple exclusively produces Mac hardware, choosing internal systems, designs, and prices.
 * 1984

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<span class="wiki_link" style="font-size: 10pt;">Windows


 * 1985, Windows served as an ad-on to MS-DOS
 * It was an actual program that ran within DOS in order to provide a gui
 * [[image:mrsturgeon/windows311.png caption="Win 3.11"]] ||
 * Win 3.11 ||

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 * It was not a stand-alone OS (operating system)

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 * Windows 95 appeared integrated instead of relying on MS-DOS
 * It was the first to support long file names
 * Win 98 followed but was extremely prone to freezing or "crashes"
 * Windows ME was the next generation of Win 98


 * ext came XP which was based on Windows NT (another OS) technology instead of DOS technology
 * It came with a much-improved gui system but, also came with security issues. These security issues were addressed through "service paks" or free updates but, eventually lead to the development of Windows Vista.
 * Windows Vista came with a new gui called AERO that was memory intensive and very similar to the MAC OS interface.


 * Eventhough Vista addressed the security problems, their intervention continued to frustrate users with its constant security alerts.
 * Windows 8 put our hands on the screen rather than a mouse.

And then the tablets: media type="youtube" key="ix9pRRcpSTc" height="312" width="503"