COMPUTER 111

HISTORY OF COMPUTERS

The earliest data processing equipment were all manual mechanical devices due to the absence of electricity
and adequate industrial technology. Among the most popular were:

1) ABACUS- the first manual data processing device developed in China in the 12th century A.D. The device
has a frame with beads strung on wires or rods and arithmetic calculations are performed by manipulating
the beads. In this form the abacus is still used, especially in the Middle East and Asia. There are two
reasons for its popularity. It is simple and effective.

2) NAPIER'S BONES- Was developed by John Napier a Scottish mathematician who invented the logarithms.
His "Bones" are a set of eleven rods with numbers marked on them in such a way that by simply placing
the rods side by side products and quotients of large numbers can be obtained. The sticks were called
"bones" because they were made of bones or ivory.

3) OUGHTRED'S SLIDE RULE- Appeared in various forms in Europe during the seventh century and its
invention was attributed to the English Mathematician William Oughtred. It is basically consists of two
movable rulers placed side by side. Each rulers are marked in such a way that the actual distances from the
beginning of the ruler are proportional to the logarithms of the numbers printed on the ruler. By sliding
the rulers, one can quickly multiply and divide.

4) PASCAL'S CALCULATOR- Was developed in 1645 by Blaise Pascal a French Mathematician and experimental
physicist. The machine was operated by dialing a series of wheels and could add and subtract numbers
containing up to 8 digits. It is approximately the size of the cigar box and a hand cranked mechanical gear
system, in which a series of ten loathed wheels or dials represented decimal numbers. This machine had
one serious drawback for it could not be produced by the technology of his time and the need was not
critical.

5) LEIBNIZ'S CALCULATOR- was invented by Gottfried Wilheim Von Leibniz in 1694. It has the same
techniques as that of PASCALs, doing addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, as well as
extracting square root. The machine was somewhat ahead of its time and the society for the most part,
was not yet ready for calculating devices designed to save labor. The working models constructed in 1694
and 1704 was never duplicated.

6) BABBAGE ANALYTICAL ENGINE- was invented in 1822 by Charles Babbage an Englishman Although he did
not actually build an operational computer himself, his ideas became the basis for modern computational
devices. He called his work as the "difference engine, which was designed to automate standard
procedure for calculating the roots of polynomials. The machine was based on the principle that, for
certain formulas, the difference between certain values is constant. This type of procedure was used
frequently for producing astronomical tables. Because he lacked the perseverance to finish the project, he
abandoned it and work on a more powerful device, the "ANALYTICAL ENGINE, which was similar in
concept to 20th century digital computers. The engine was designed to use two type of card, one called
the "OPERATION CARD, to indicate the specific functions to be performed, and the other called the
"VARIABLE CARDS", to specify the actual data. This idea of entering a program or set of instruction, on
cards, followed by data cards, is one method used by modern computers for implementing the stored
program concept. Lady Ada Byron, Countess of Lovelace, worked with Babbage, and wrote a
demonstration program for the Analytical engine, and was referred to as the "first programmer".

7) HOLLERITH'S PUNCHED CARD MACHINE- was invented in 1880's by Herman Hollerith a tactician with the
U.S. Bureau of the Census intended to process the results of the 1890 census. Unlike Babbage, however,
Hollerith has the advantage of electricity. His machine made use of 3 to 5 inch punched cards to record the
data and is coupled with an electromagnetic counting machine to sort the data manually and tabulate the
data. The cards were passed between the metal pins and trays containing mercury filled cups. Whenever a
metal pin encountered a hole in the card, it passed through the card and made contact with the mercury.
As the pin touched the mercury, it closed a electric circuit and thus activated a counting mechanism. The
1890 census was processed in one fourth the time needed. Hollerith left the Census Bureau to build and
 sell his own tabulating machines. His company was the forerunner of IRM corporation. His machine was
the first commercially successful data processing machine that could sort 800 cards per minute.

EARLY DEVELOPMENTS IN ELECTRONIC DATA PROCESSING

1) MARK I- was developed by Howard Aiken at Harvard University with the assistance of graduate students
and engineers from IBM in 1944.

The official name of Mark 1 is "Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator"

It was approximately 5 ft. long and 8 ft. high, and considered of some 700,000 moving parts and
several hundreds miles of wiring.
It processed numbers up to 23 digits long and could multiply 3 eight digit numbers in 1 second using
decimal arithmetic.
Internal operations was controlled automatically by electromagnetic relays and the arithmetic counters
were mechanical.
It was an electromechanical computer because it was powered by an electric motor and used switches
and relays.
It was the first automatic general purpose digital computer.
It was now on display at Harvard University.

2) ENIAC- was developed by young engineers from University of Pennsylvania intended for the U.S.
government during the second world war.
First electronic digital computer to solve ballistic problems.
Directed by Presper Eckert Jr. and John Mauchly during the period 1943 to 1946.
ENIAC means Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator.
Consisted of over 18,000 vacuum tubes and required manual setting of switches to achieve desired
results.
It could perform 300 multiplication per second and used decimal arithmetic.
Operating instructions are not stored internally but were fed externally located plus boards and
switches.
It was test ran on February 1946 and took only two hours to solve a nuclear physics problem that
would have previously have required 100 years of calculation by a physicist.
It could store only 20 ten digit numbers in its memory in 1 second.
It was moved to Aberdeen Proving Grounds, A government research center, where it continued to be
used until October 1955.
In 1959 it was placed in the Smithsonian Institute.

3) EDVAC- a modified version of the ENIAC by a Hungarian born Mathematician John Von Neumann in 1946.
EDVAC means Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer.
Employs binary arithmetic.
It has stored program capability.
It was not the first stored program machine for the honor went to EDSAC(Electronic Delay Storage
Automatic Calculator)made in 1949 by an English designer who also attended a course at University of
Pennsylvania, and returned to England to build a machine that had a more accurate memory, with
smaller capacity, than EDVAC.

COMPUTER GENERATIONS

The term "GENERATION" refers to the major developments in electronic processing and is a general
characterization rather than absolute distinction:

FIRST GENERATION COMPUTERS (1951-1959)

Started with the UNIVAC, the first commercial computer in 1951.
Used vacuum tubes in place of relays as a means of storing data in memory and the use of stored
program concept.
No educational programs precisely met the requirements of the technology when the first generation
computer became available.
 Computer installations had to be stuffed with a new breed of workers who initially had to cope with
the necessity of preparing programs in a tedious machine language.

SECOND GENERATION COMPUTERS(1959-1964)

Solid state components in the form of transistors and diodes and magnetic cold storage formed the
basis of the second generation computer.
Built-in error detecting devices were installed and more efficient means were developed to input data
into and retrieve data from the computers.
More efficient programming methods became available.
Essential accessories such as high speed card readers and printers were being developed
The microsecond was becoming the standard unit for measuring a computers access to data and
instructions.
In programming different languages began to replace machine languages.
Some companies were starting to build supercomputers for scientific research financed by the U.S.
government.

THIRD GENERATION COMPUTERS(1965-1970)

Integrated solid state circuitry, improved secondary storage devices, and new input/output devices
were the most important advances in this generation.
Arithmetic and logical operations of the computers were now being performed in microseconds or
even in nanoseconds.
More than one program can be run through the computer at the same time because of the faster
speed.
Remote terminal was introduced to permit geographically dispersed users to communicate with a
central computer.
IBM ushered in the 3rd generation computers by standardizing computer characteristics, instruction
codes, units of information and arithmetic modes through its IBM 360 model.
Further Improvements in speed, cost and storage capacity was realized.

FOURTH GENERATION COMPUTERS(1970 to present)

Major innovations were in the development of microelectronics.
Development in the areas of computer technology such as multi-processing, multi-programming,
miniaturization, time sharing, operating speed, and virtual storage.
Introduction of advanced input/output devices such as optical readers, audio response terminals and
graphic display terminals.

COMPUTER CAPABILITIES

1) ABILITY TO PERFORM CERTAIN LOGIC OPERATIONS this is by following the programs made earlier by the
computer. This simple ability to compare is an important computer capability because more sophisticated questions
can be answered by using combinations of comparison decisions.
2) ABILITY TO PROVIDE NEW TIME DIMENSIONS it works mathematical sequence one step at a time. What is
significant is the speed with which the computer can perform them. It is so fast that it saves a tremendous amount
of time.
3) ABILITY TO STORE AND RETRIEVE INFORMATION it stores in internal storage both facts and instructions. The
access time required for information to be recalled from internal storage and be available for use is measured in
micro seconds or more precise units. Few machines that are used by man have stored program ability.
4) ABILITY TO CONTROL ERROR it has been estimated that a person would make one error in every 500 to 1000
operations with desk calculator. A computer on the other hand can perform hundreds if thousands of arithmetic
operations every second and can run errorless for hours and days at a time.
5) ABILITY TO CHECK IT SELF using the method known as parity checking computers check on data when they
enter storage when they are moved internally and when they leave in the form of output. The parity check
performed by the computers involved the examination of each characters code to determine whether BITS
(binary digits or 0s and 1s) has been added or lost by mistake.
COMPUTER LIMITATIONS
1) DEPENDENCE ON PREPARED INSTRUCTION - it performs only what it is programmed to do and nothing else.
by using instructions, it can sort and straighten data if required. All these can only be possible if the computer is
given the correct instructions or commands. It can never do things by itself.

2) INABILITY TO DERIVE MEANINGS FROM OBJECTS a computer does not have feelings. It is unable to
recognize and respond to living objects. Whatever meaning the computer deals with are only fed to it by the
programmer.

3) INABILITY TO GENERATE INFORMATION the computer cannot generate information on its own. It is not able
to think and perceive relevant aspects of a given situation and adopt means to fulfill goal or course of action. It has
the capacity to put information together from many sources only if properly programmed but never independently.

4) IT CANNOT CORRECT WRONG INSTRUCTIONS - a human being is likely to do what you mean and not what
you say when you dont give enough detail. The computer on the other hand, will do exactly what you instruct it to
do regardless of what you mean. It cannot decipher the correct instructions from the wrong instruction. It does not
have the ability to select and perform the right ones.

WHY COMPUTER SOMETIMES FAIL

1) INPUT ERROR inputting a wrong data will give an undesired result. Programmers call it GIGO (Garbage In
Garbage Out).

2) ERRORS IN INSTRUCTING A COMPUTER - program errors or bugs sometimes are not evident until a
specific set of circumstances arise and errors may be hard to detect, isolate and correct.

3) THE COMPUTER COMMUNICATION GAP users and programmers doest not communicate successfully
and not fully understanding the users needs or vice versa.

4) IMPROPER CONTROLS due to the continuing growth of computers the need for proper control and security
measures increased dramatically.

5) LACK OF STANDARDS there are times that prepared software for an application may not work on a certain
brand of computer system because it is only designed to be used on a particular set of equipment.

6) LACK OF ADEQUATE MANUFACTURES SUPPORT Larger computers are relatively expensive, thus,
when users acquire such a system, they are likely to be able to receive support from the manufacturer. But
experience shows that manufacturers or distributors are not always able to maintain purchased equipment usually
due to lack of spare parts, trained technicians, or the particular machine model is no longer in production.

CLASSIFICATION BY PURPOSE:

1) GENERAL PURPOSE COMPUTER these machine have capabilities variety of different problems and
able to act in response to different needs.

It has the ability to store different programs of instructions

It has the versatility to make possible the processing of a payroll and inventory control application
the next.

2) SPECIAL PURPOSE COMPUTER designed to perform one specific task.

The program of instructions is built into or permanently stored in the machine.
Frequently referred to an dedicated computers because of theirs limitation to the performance of a
specific task at hand.
It lacks the versatility and flexibility and cannot be used to perform other operations.
Successfully used for collecting highway tolls, air traffic control satellite , industrial process control
and airline reservations.

CLASSIFICATION BY TYPE OF DATA HANDLED:

 1) ANALOG COMPUTER the word analog comes from the word analogous meaning similar.
Used for scientific engineering and process control application.
Deal with quantities that continuously variable, they give approximate result.
Especially useful for solving problems that involve relationship between variable quantities in
system that change with time.
It express changing relationship in output in the from of graphs.
An example of an analog device is the service gasoline which convert the flow of pumped fuel into
two measurements the price of the delivered gas to the nearest centavo and the nearest tenth or
hundredth of a liter.

2) DIGITAL COMPUTER are machine that specialize in counting and operates by counting values that are
discrete or separate and distinct.

Used for both business data processing and scientific purposes because the computational results
are more accurate.
It can store data as long as needed performing logical operations, editing input date, and printing
out the result of its processing at high speed.
Idea where repetitive routine arithmetic operations are involved and when 100% accuracy is
desired.

3) HYBRID COMPUTERS combined both the measuring capability of an analog computer and the logical
and control capabilities of the digital computers.

It offers an efficient and economical method of working out special types of problems in science
and various areas of engineering.
Contain special equipment to convert analog voltages into special types and vice versa.

Among the applications are space vehicle simulations and the training of space pilots analysis of
signals received from sensors attached to human and animals in laboratories and the solving of
differential equations from chemical reactions.

CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT

Introduction : Each computer installation consist of a series of devices that together operate as an integrated unit of
computer system. Such a system typically consist of four (4) functional units:

1) Central Processing Unit

2) Input Unit
3) Output Unit
4) Auxiliary or Secondary Storage Unit

The interrelationship of this units are schematically shown below:

ARITHMETIC
& LOGIC
INPUT
OUTPUT
MEMORY
UNIT REGISTER

CONTROL UNIT

CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT

The processor is made up of the memory , arithmetic , logic and control units. All devices that are connected to the CPU but
are not part of it are called PERIPHERALS. These includes the input/output (I/O) and auxiliary storage units, and other
computer devices such as converters and items for interfacing other equipment. The collection of all peripheral equipment is
called the COMPUTER CONFIGURATION.

A computer center may also have various auxiliary devices that are not directly connected to the CPU, such as verifiers,
interpreters, keypunch machines, data encoding station and so on. These are called OFF-LINE DEVICES. The term ON
LINE DEVICES refers to equipment connected to CPU.

CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT :

All operations performed by the computer system are controlled by the physical device called the Central Processing Unit.
It is the brain of the computer system.
It is sometimes referred to as the MAIN FRAME.
It contains the arithmetic and logic unit, a control unit and an internal storage unit also called MEMORY, PRIMARY
STORAGE or MAIN STORAGE..

CONTROL UNIT - It supervises or monitor the functions performed by the entire computer system according to conditions
set forth by the stored program.

It fetches instructions of the stored program from main storage and interpret them.
It then generates signals and commands that cause other system units to perform certain operations and appropriate times.

This unit acts as the central nervous system, but performs no actual processing operations on data.
A special program called SUPERVISOR is responsible for controlling the operation of the system. This supervisor
calls in each application program and integrates the processing of each.

PEOPLE WARE represent the personnel involved in systems analysis programming computer operations
systems maintain and the like.

System analysis and design are the jobs of the systems analysis
Program development is the specialty of the programmer
System development is carried out by a computer operator; input date preparation clerks and out
put preparation clerks.
Out put preparation involved collating bursting and binding the report before they are delivered to
the user.

ADVANTAGE OF ELECTRONIC DATA PROCESING:

1) SPEED being electronic device, a computer is faster than any other

machine designed to do similar. Computers operate on data at
phenomenal speeds that they can produce result which would simply not
be feasible otherwise.

2) ACCURACY high speed processing by computer is accompanied result which can be considered as 100%
the electronic circuitry of computers is such that when the machines are programmed correctly and when
incoming data is error free, the accuracy of the output is relatively assured. Because of their speed and
accuracy computer system are capable of processing large amounts of data more cheaply than if manual
methods are used.

3) AUTOMATIC OPERATION an electronic computer can carry out a system of many data processing
operations without human intervention. The various operations are executed automatically by way of stored
computer program.

4) DECISION MAKING CAPABILITY - a computer can perform certain decision instructions automatically
which is consist of two steps namely:
 1. Determine whether a certain statement is true or false.
2. based on the result choosing one or the other course of action out of alternatives
included in the computer program.
5) COMPACT STORAGE electronic data processing system have the ability to store large amounts of data
in a compact and easily retrievable form.
6) DISCIPLINE IT IMPOSES - to solve problem with a computer you must fist understand the problem is one
thing, but understanding it to the depth of detail and insight and required to program the computer is a
complete different matter.

THE STORED PROGRAM CONCEPT:

Before a computer can actually read data , process it and produce information it must read a set of
instructions called program which actually indicates what processing is required Program like data are stored
in the computer. This arrangement is referred to as the stored program concept.

The task of writing series of instruction to direct the operations of a computer it called programming.
The person who writes the instruction is called a programmer
It is possible for more than one program to be stored in the computer at any given time the only
requirement is that sufficient storage location are available for both the programs and necessary data.
This is termed as multi-programming.
Since only one instruction can be executed at time simultaneous execution of instructions from
different programs is not possible. However the computer can execute instructions from one program.
Then instruction form another program then instruction from the first program again and so on. This
type of processing is called concurrent processing