History of the PC

1
History of the PC
Information thanks to Technology in Action, the
Digital Domain, and several online locations.
2
Intel 8080 and the Altair 8800

• The first microcomputer
• Sold as a kit
• Switches for input
• Lights for output
• Gates and Allen create a compiler for Basic
• MITS receives 4,000 orders

3
Apple I and Apple II

• Apple I built by Steve Wozniak in 1976
• Apple II developed by Steve Jobs in 1977
• Uses Motorola processor
• First fully contained microcomputer
• Highly successful

4
Early Competitors

• Commodore
• TRS-80
• Osborne

5
IBM PC

• IBM enters small computer market 1981
• Uses open architecture
• Purchases operating system from Microsoft

6
Beginners All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code
(BASIC)

• Revolutionized the software industry
• Programming language that beginners could easily
  learn
• Key language of the PC
• Bill Gates and Paul Allen used BASIC to write the
  program for the Altair
• Led to the creation of Microsoft

7
Advent of Operating Systems

• Steve Wozniak invents floppy drive
• Disk Operating System (DOS) Operating system
  that controlled the first Apples
• Control Program for Microcomputers (CP/M) First
  operating system for Intel-based PCs
• MS-DOS
• Operating system for IBM PCs
• Based on an operating system called Quick and
  Dirty Operating System (QDOS)
• Created by Bill Gates and Paul Allen
• All PCs using the Intel chip used MS-DOS

8
Software Application Explosion

• Electronic Spreadsheets
• VisiCalc
• Lotus 1-2-3 and Microsoft Excel
• Word Processing
• WordStar
• Word for MS-DOS
• Word Perfect

Bricklin and Frankston
VisiCalc screenshot
9
Graphical User Interface

• Xerox
• Palo Alto Research Center
• Alto 1972
• Apple
• Lisa 1983
• Macintosh 1984
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vOYecfV3ubP8

Xerox Alto
10
The Internet Boom

• Mosaic
• Netscape
• Internet Explorer
• Windows 95

11
Early Computer History

• Pascalene 1624
• The first accurate mechanical calculator
• Created by Blaise Pascal
• Used to add, subtract, multiply, and divide

• Jacquard Loom 1820
• Created by Joseph Jacquard
• A machine that automated the weaving of complex
  patterns
• Used holes punched in cards to automate the
  process

12
Early Computer History

• Analytical Engine 1834
• Created by Charles Babbage
• The father of computing
• The first automatic calculator
• Includes components similar to those found in
  today's computers

• Hollerith Tabulating Machine 1890
• Created by Herman Hollerith
• Used punch cards to tabulate census data
• Hollerith started the Tabulating Machine Company,
  which later became IBM

13
Early Computer History

• Z1 1936
• Created by Konrad Zuse
• The Z1 is a mechanical calculator
• It included a control unit and memory functions
• Atanasoff-Berry Computer 1939
• Created by John Atanasoff and Clifford Berry
• The first electrically powered digital computer
• Used vacuum tubes to store data
• The first computer to use the binary system

Atansoff-Berry Computer
14
Early Computer History

• Harvard Mark I 1944
• Created by Howard Aiken and Grace Hopper
• A computer used by the US Navy for ballistics
  calculations
• Hoppers contribution to computing was
• Invention of the compiler
• Coined the term computer bug
• Turing Machine 1939
• Created by Alan Turing
• A hypothetical model that defined a mechanical
  procedure or algorithm
• Concept of an infinite tape that could read,
  write, and erase was precursor to todays RAM

1st use of computer bug
15
Early Computer History

• ENIAC 1944
• Created by John W. Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert
• The first successful high-speed electronic
  digital computer
• UNIVAC 1951
• The first commercially successful electronic
  digital computer
• Used magnetic tape

ENIAC
UNIVAC
16
Early Computer History

• Transistors 1945
• Invented at Bell Laboratories
• Replaces vacuum tubes
• Integrated circuits 1958
• Invented by Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments
• A small chip containing thousands of transistors
• Enabled computers to become smaller and lighter

17
Early Computer History

• Microprocessor chip 1971
• Created by Intel Corporation
• A small chip containing millions of transistors
• It functions as the central processing unit (CPU)

18
Computer Generations

• First-generation computers (19461958)
• UNIVAC
• Use vacuum tubes
• Second-generation computers (19591964)
• Use transistors
• Third-generation computers (19651970)
• Use integrated circuits
• Fourth-generation computers (1971Today)
• Use a microprocessor chip

19
Fun Facts

• Pascal invented the Pascaline to help his father
  calculate taxes (his father was a tax
  commissioner.
• In 1679, Gottfried Leibniz introduced binary
  arithmetic an essential part of our computer
  today.

20
Fun Facts

• Jacquards loom was an automated device that the
  public felt threatened their way of life.
  Traditional weavers rose in protest and a group,
  calling themselves Luddites rioted and
  destroyed many of the looms and cards. The term
  Luddite is still used today to refer to someone
  who is skeptical of technology or opposes
  technological advances due to the cultural
  changes associated with it.

21
Fun Facts

• Charles Babbage (the father of computing) did
  create a working Difference Engine in 1822 a
  large mechanical calculator capable of addition
  and subtraction. It automated the computation of
  tables and their printing and would calculate
  polynomials. He conceived of the Analytical
  Engine, but died before being able to complete
  it. It used the punched cards like Jacquards
  loom.

22
Fun Facts

• The first computer programmer is considered to be
  Ada, Countess of Lovelace (daughter of the poet
  Lord Byron) because she wrote programs for
  Babbages Analytical Engine even though
  Babbages machine was never built. She
  visualized that one day, machines would be able
  to do almost anything display text, graphics,
  and even play music. She died at age 36 from
  cervical cancer.

23
Fun Facts

• Alan Turing helped build Colossus a machine
  used to break German codes in WWII. He also
  devised the Turing Test for artificial
  intelligence

24
Fun Facts

• Grace Hopper led the effort to create COBOL one
  of the first three high-level programming
  languages. This language is still used in
  business applications today. She also debugged
  the first program by removing a moth from a relay
  of the machine she was working with.

25
Fun Facts

• In 1943, Thomas Watson, chair of IBM predicted a
  world market for maybe five computers.
• In 1949, Popular Mechanics predicted that
  computers in the future would weigh no more than
  1.5 tons.
• (Arent we glad they were right!)

26
Fun Facts

• FORTRAN, LISP, and COBOL were the first 3
  high-level programming languages (introduced
  during the 1950s).
• The first commercially accepted minicomputer sold
  for 18,000 in 1965.
• In 1976, Queen Elizabeth II sent her first email
  message

27
Fun Facts

• Edward Roberts, the inventor of the MITS Altair
  8800 (see second slide) first coined the term
  personal computer. It had an 8-bit Intel 8080
  chip, 256 bytes of memory, no keyboard, no
  display, no external storage, and sold for
  between 300 and 400.

28
Fun Facts

• The Homebrew computing club (where Wozniak and
  Jobs introduced the Apple I and Apple II) later
  became known as Silicon Valley. (They recently
  had a reunion see the website below.)
• http//news.com.com/CrowdgathersforHomebrewCom
  puterClubs30th/2100-1042_3-5935261.html

29
Fun Facts

• While in office, President Bill Clinton sent only
  two emails one of which was a test to see if he
  knew how to send emails the second to John Glenn
  on board the space shuttle

30
Fun Facts

• Former Ohio Sen. John Glenn has the distinction
  of being the first American to orbit the Earth
  and the only person to receive an e-mail written
  by President Clinton when he was in office.

31
Fun Facts

• Because of his extensive use of the Internet in
  his campaign, Barak Obama is being called the
  first Internet president.

32
Fun Facts

• The Computer History Museum, in Mountain View,
  CA, is home to one of the largest
  computer-artifact collections in the world.
  According to their home page, they have "a
  collection comprising over 4,000 artifacts,
  10,000 images, 4,000 linear feet of catalogued
  documentation and gigabytes of software." Check
  them out on the web at www.computerhistory.org.