Ada Lovelace

Early Years The Work

The Analytical Engine
Early Computer Evolution
Ada Lovelace,
born as Augusta
Ada Byron, was
the only legitimate
child of the famous
poet Lord George
Gordon Byron. Lord
Byrons marriage to Adas
mother, Lady Anne Isabella
Milbanke Byron, was not a
happy one. Lady Byron se-
parated from her husband only
weeks after their daughter was
born. A few months later, Lord
Byron left England, and Ada never
saw her father again. He died in
Greece when Ada was 8 years old.
Ada had an unusual upbringing for
an aristocratic girl in the mid-1800s. At
her mothers insistence, tutors taught her
mathematics and science. Such challenging
subjects were not standard fare for wo-
men at the time, but her mother believed that
engaging in rigorous studies would prevent
Lovelace from developing her fathers moody and
unpredictable temperament. Adas complex
inheritance became apparent as early as 1828, when
she produced the design for a flying machine.
In 1835, Ada married William King, ten years her senior,
and when King inherited a noble title in 1838, they became
the Earl and Countess of Lovelace.
Around the
age of 17, Ada met
Charles Babbage,
a mathematician
and inventor. Ada was
fascinated by Babbages
ideas. Known as the
father of the computer,
he invented the difference
engine, which was meant to
perform mathematical calcula-
tions. Babbage also created plans
for another device known as the
analytical engine, designed to handle
more complex calculations.
Ada was later asked to translate an
article on Babbages analytical engine that
had been written by Italian engineer Luigi
Federico Menabrea for a Swiss journal. She not
only translated the original French text in English,
but also added her own thoughts and ideas on
the machine. Her notes ended up being three times
longer than the original article.
In her notes, Ada described how codes could be cre-
ated for the device to handle letters and symbols along
with numbers. She also theorized a method for the engine
to repeat a series of instructions, a process known as looping
that computer programs use today. Ada also offered up other
forward-thinking concepts in the article. For her work, Ada is
often considered to be the first computer programmer.
punched cards to input data
the internal memory (the Store)
could store 1000 numbers of 40 digits each
arithmetical unit (the Mill) able to perform all 4
operations, plus comparison and square roots
hardcopy printout as output
steam-driven, run by one attendant
turning cranks, moving cams and rods, and spinning
gearwheels
the Reader -- to input instructions, as well as a way
to record, on paper, results generated by the machine
son of IBM CEO Thomas Johnson Watson, Sr., con-
ceives the IBM 701 EDPM to help the United Nations
keep tabs on Korea during the war.
1954: The FORTRAN programming language is born.
1958: Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce unveil the inte-
grated circuit, known as the computer chip.
1964: Douglas Engelbart shows a prototype of the
modern computer, with a mouse and a graphical user
interface (GUI).
1890: Herman Hollerith designs a punch card sys-
tem to calculate the 1880 census. He establishes a
company that would ultimately become IBM.
1953: Grace Hopper develops the first computer lan-
guage, which eventually becomes known as COBOL.
Inventor Thomas Johnson Watson, Jr.,
1970: The newly formed Intel unveils the Intel 1103,
the first Dynamic Access Memory (DRAM) chip.
1975: The IBM 5100 becomes the first commercially
available portable computer.
1976: Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak start Apple
Computers on April Fools Day and roll out the Apple I
1981: The first IBM personal computer, code named
Acorn, is introduced.
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1815 - 1852