FOUR BASIC

PERIODS
OF COMPUTER
HISTORY

By: John Philip Diamat

Four basic periods, each characterized by a
principal technology used to solve the
input, processing, output and
communication problems of the time:

1.Pre-mechanical,
2.Mechanical,
3.Electromechanical, and
4.Electronic
1. Writing and Alphabets. The first humans
communicated only through speaking and
picture drawings.
In 3000 B.C., the Sumerians in
Mesopotamia (what is today
southern Iraq) devised a writing
system. The system, called
"cuneiform" used signs
corresponding to spoken sounds,
instead of pictures, to express
words. From this first information
system — writing — came
civilization as we know it today
 Cuneiform is one of the
oldest forms of writing known.
It means "wedge-shaped,"
because people wrote it using a
reed stylus cut to make a
wedge-shaped mark on a clay
tablet. Letters enclosed in clay
envelopes, as well as works of
literature, such as the Epic of
Gilgamesh have been found.
Written and Alphabet petroglyphs
are images created by
removing part of a rock surfaces
by incising pecking, carving, and
abrading. Petroglyphs are found
world-wide, are often (but not
always) associated with
prehistoric peoples. The are one
of the three different techniques
used in Rock art, the prehistoric
precursors to art. The meaning
of these works is still unclear, Cave Paintings
but much conjecture and
speculation has been produced Lascaux france
in academic circles. 15000 B.C.
Ideographs
An ideogram or
ideograph is a graphic
symbol that
represents an idea or
concept, independent
of any particular
language, and specific
words or phrases.
2. Paper and Pens. 
• For the Sumerians,
input technology
consisted of a pen like
device called a stylus
that could scratch
marks in wet clay.
Paper and Pens. 
• About 2600 B.C., the
Egyptians discovered that
they could write on the
papyrus plant, using
hollow reeds or rushes to
hold the first "ink" -
pulverized carbon or ash
mixed with lamp oil and
gelatin from boiled
donkey skin.
Paper and Pens. 
• The Chinese
developed techniques
for making paper
from rags, on which
modern-day
papermaking is
based, around 100
A.D.
3. Book and Libraries and Permanent
Storage
• Religious leaders in
Mesopotamia kept the
earliest "books"" a
collection of rectangular
clay tablets, inscribed with
cuneiform and packaged in
labeled containers — in
their personal "libraries."
Book and Libraries and Permanent Storage

• The Egyptians kept

scrolls - sheets of
papyrus wrapped
around a shaft of
wood.
Book and Libraries and Permanent Storage

• Around 600 B.C., the Greeks

began to fold sheets of papyrus
vertically into leaves and bind
them together. The dictionary
and encyclopedia made their
appearance about the same
time. The Greeks are also
credited with developing the
first truly public libraries
around 500 B.C.
4. The First Numbering System
• The Egyptians
struggled with a
system that depicted
the numbers 1-9 as
vertical lines, the
number 10 as a U or
circle, the number 100
as a coiled rope, and
the number 1,000 as a
lotus blossom.
The First Numbering System
• The first numbering systems
similar to those in use today were
invented between 100 and 200
A.D. by Hindus in India who
created a nine-digit numbering
system.
• Around 875 A.D., the concept of
zero was developed.
• It was through the Arab traders
that today's numbering system —
9 digits plus a 0 — made its way to
Europe sometime in the 12th
century.
4. The First Calculators
The existence of a counting
tool called the abacus, one of
the very first information
processors, permitted people to
"store" numbers temporarily
and to perform calculations
using beads strung on wires. It
continued to be an important
tool throughout the Middle Abacus - was man's first
Ages. recorded adding machine.
Invented in Babylonia and
popularized in China.
1. The First Information Explosion. 

Johann Gutenberg in
Mainz, Germany,
invented the movable
metal-type printing
process in 1450 and
sped up the process of
composing pages from
weeks to a few minutes.
2. Math by Machine
The first general purpose
"computers" were actually
people who held the job title
"computer: one who works
with numbers." Difficulties in
human errors were slowing
scientists and mathematicians
in their pursuit of greater
knowledge.
Math by Machine
• John Napier - (1614) a Baron of
Merchiston, Scotland invented
LOGS (Logarithm)
• LOGS - allows multiplication and
division to be reduce in addition
and subtraction
• 1614 - Arabian Lattice - lays out a
special version of the
multiplication tables on a set of
four-sided wooden rods.
(Multiply, divide large numbers
and first square and cube root)
Math by Machine
Wilhelm Shickard - 1623
(Professor at University of
Tubingen, Germany) -
Invented the First
Mechanical
Calculator that can work
with six digits and can
carries digits across
columns.
3. Slide Rules, the Pascaline and Leibniz's
Machine.
Slide Rule. In the early 1600s,
William Oughtred, an English
clergyman, invented the slide
rule, a device that allowed the
user to multiply and divide by
sliding two pieces of precisely
machines and scribed wood
against each other. The slide rule
is an early example of an analog
computer — an instrument that
measures instead of counts.
Slide Rules, the Pascaline and Leibniz's Machine.

Pascaline. Blaise Pascal, later

to become a famous French
mathematician, built one of
the first mechanical computing
machines as a teenager,
around 1642. It was called a
Pascaline (made of clock gears
and levers), and it used a series
of wheels and cogs to add and
subtract numbers.
Slide Rules, the Pascaline and Leibniz's Machine.

Leibniz's Machine. Gottfried von

Leibniz, an important German
mathematician and philosopher
(he independently invented
calculus at the same time as
Newton) was able to improve on
Pascal's machine in the 1670s by
adding additional components
that made multiplication and
division easier.
Slide Rules, the Pascaline and Leibniz's Machine.

He invented
Stepped Reckoner
that could multiply
5 digit and 12 digit
numbers yielding up
to 16 digit numbers.
Joseph Marie Jacquard
(1801) developed the
automatic loom (weaving
loom) that was controlled
by punched cards

Charles Xavier Thomas

de Colmar - 1820 -
developed
Arithmometer (the first
mass produced
calculator)
4. Babbage’s Engine

He invented the
difference engine
(1821) and
analytical engine
(1821)
He is also the Father
of modern computer.
Babbage’s Engine
Augusta Ada Byron. She helped
Babbage design the instructions
that would be given to the
machine on punch cards (for
which she has been called the
"first programmer") and to
describe, analyze, and publicize
his ideas. Babbage eventually
was forced to abandon his hopes
of building the Analytical Engine,
once again because of a failure
to find funding.
The Electromechanical Age: 1840 - 1940

The discovery of ways

to harness electricity was
the key advance made
during this period.
Knowledge and
information could now
be converted into
electrical impulses.
1. The Beginnings of Telecommunication. 
Technologies that form the basis for
modern-day telecommunication
systems include:
A. Voltaic battery. The discovery of
a reliable method of creating and
storing electricity (with a voltaic
battery) at the end of the 18th
century made possible a whole new
method of communicating
information.
Voltaic Battery - first electric
battery known as voltaic pile.
Invented by Alessandro Volta
The Beginnings of Telecommunication. 
b. Telegraph. The telegraph,
the first major invention to use
electricity for communication
purposes, made it possible to
transmit information over great
distances with great speed.
Telegraph - Samuel F.B.
Morse - conceived of his
version of an Electromagnetic
Telegraph (1832).
The Beginnings of Telecommunication. 
Morse Code (1835) Morse
devised a system that broke
down information (in this case,
the alphabet) into bits (dots
and dashes) that could then be
transformed into electrical
impulses and transmitted over
a wire (just as today's digital
technologies break down
information into zeros and
ones).
The Beginnings of Telecommunication. 
Telephone and
Radio. Alexander Graham
Bell invented the telephone
in 1876. This was followed by
the discovery that electrical
waves travel through space
and can produce an effect far
from the point at which they
originated. These two events
led to the invention of the
radio by Marconi in 1894.
The Beginnings of Telecommunication. 
Guglielmo Marconi –
1894 (Radio)
discovered that
electrical waves
travel through space
and can produce and
effect far from the
point at which it
originated
Electromechanical Computing
Pehr and Edvard
Scheutz 1853 -
completed a
Tabulating Machine,
capable of
processing fifteen
digit numbers,
printing out result
and rounding off to
eight digits.
Electromechanical Computing
Dorr Felt - 1885 –
devises the
comptometer, a key
driven adding and
subtracting calculator.
Comptograph
containing a built-in
printer
Electromechanical Computing
Herman Hollerith – Father of
Information processing.
Punched Card - Provided
computer programmers with
a new way to put information
into their machines.
He founded the Tabulating
Machine Company, later
became Computer Tabulating
Recording Company and
International Business
Machines Corporation (IBM)
Electromechanical Computing
Otto Shweiger - 1893 -
invented the first efficient
four function calculator
called Millionaire.
Lee de Forest - 1906 -
developed vacuum
tubes – This is important
for it provided
electrically controlled
switch.
First Tries
In the early 1940s,
scientists around the
world began to realize
that electronic vacuum
tubes, like the type used
to create early radios,
could be used to replace
electromechanical parts.
The First High-Speed, General-
Purpose Computer Using Vacuum
Tubes
ENIAC. John Mauchly, a physicist,
and J. Presper Eckert, an electrical
engineer, developed
the Electronic Numerical
Integrator and Computer
(ENIAC) in 1946. It could add,
subtract, multiply and divide in
milliseconds and calculate the
trajectory of an artillery round in
about 20 seconds.
The First Stored-Program Computer
A problem with the ENIAC was
that the machine had no means
of storing program instructions
in its memory - to change the
instructions, the machine would
literally have to be rewired.
Mauchly and Eckert began to
design the EDVAC - the
Electronic Discrete Variable
Computer 
The First General-Purpose Computer
for Commercial Use
Eckert and Mauchly began the
development of a computer
called UNIVAC (Universal
Automatic Computer), which
they hoped would be the
world's first general-purpose
computer for commercial use,
but they ran out of money and
sold their company to
Remington Rand
The First General-Purpose Computer
for Commercial Use
A machine called LEO
(Lyons Electronic Office)
went into action a few
months before UNIVAC
and became the world's
first commercial
computer.
MARK 1
Howard Aiken, a Ph.D. student at
Harvard University, decided to try to
combine Hollerith's punched card
technology with Babbage's dreams
of a general-purpose,
"programmable" computing
machine.
Mark 1 - which used paper tape
to supply instructions(programs)
to the machine for manipulating
data (input on paper punch Mark 1 the first
cards), counters to store stored program
numbers, and electromechanical
computer
relays to help register results.
Z3
Konrad Zuse – 1941
- built the first
programmable
computer called Z3
Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC)
John Atanasoff and Clifford
Berry - 1942 – completed
the first all-electronic
computer called ABC o
Atanasoff-Berry Computer
1 Generation
st
This was from the period of
1940 to 1956. This was when
machine language was developed
for the use of computers. They used
vacuum tubes for the circuitry. For
the purpose of memory, they used
magnetic drums. These machines
were complicated, large, and
expensive. They were mostly reliant
on batch operating systems and
punch cards. As output and input
devices, magnetic tape and paper
tape were implemented.
1 Generation
st
Vacuum tube – an electronic device
that controls the flow of electrons in a
vacuum. It used as a switch, amplifier,
or display screen in many older model
radios, televisions, computers, etc.
Magnetic drum – a cylinder coated with
magnetic material, on which data and
programs can be stored.
Machine language – a low-level
programming language comprised of a
collection of binary digits (ones and
zeros) that the computer can read and
understand.
1 Generation
st

For example,
ENIAC, UNIVAC-
1, EDVAC, and
so on.
2 nd
Generation
The years 1957-1963 were
referred to as the “second
generation of computers” at the
time. In second-generation
computers, COBOL and FORTRAN
are employed as assembly
languages and programming
languages. Here they advanced
from vacuum tubes to transistors.
This made the computers smaller,
faster and more energy-efficient.
And they advanced from binary to
assembly languages. 
2 nd
Generation
Transistor – an
electronic component
that can be used as an
amplifier or as a switch.
It is used to control the
flow of electricity in
radios, televisions,
computers, etc.
2 Generation
nd

For instance, IBM

1620, IBM 7094, CDC
1604, CDC 3600, and
so forth.
3rd
Generation
The hallmark of this period
(1964-1971) was the
development of the integrated
circuit.  A single integrated circuit
(IC) is made up of many
transistors, which increases the
power of a computer while
simultaneously lowering its cost.
These computers were quicker,
smaller, more reliable, and less
expensive than their
predecessors.
3rd
Generation
Integrated circuit (IC) – a
small electronic circuit
printed on a chip
(usually made of silicon)
that contains many its
own circuit elements
(e.g. transistors, diodes,
resistors, etc.).
3rd
Generation
High-level programming
languages such as
FORTRON-II to IV, COBOL,
and PASCAL PL/1 were
utilized. For example, the
IBM-360 series, the
Honeywell-6000 series, and
the IBM-370/168.
4th
Generation
The invention of the
microprocessors brought along
the fourth generation of
computers. The years 1971-
1980 were dominated by
fourth generation computers.
C, C++ and Java were the
programming languages
utilized in this generation of
computers.
4th
Generation
Microprocessor – an electronic
component held on an
integrated circuit that contains a
computer’s central processing
unit (CPU) and other associated
circuits.
CPU (central processing unit) – It
is often referred to as the brain
or engine of a computer where
most of the processing and
operations take place (CPU is
part of a microprocessor).
4th
Generation
For instance, the
STAR 1000, PDP 11,
CRAY-1, CRAY-X-MP,
and Apple II. This was
when we started
producing computers
for home use.
5th
Generation
These computers have been
utilized since 1980 and continue to be
used now. This is the present and the
future of the computer world. The
defining aspect of this generation is
artificial intelligence. The use of
parallel processing and
superconductors are making this a
reality and provide a lot of scope for
the future. Fifth-generation computers
use ULSI (Ultra Large Scale Integration)
technology. These are the most recent
and sophisticated computers.
5th
Generation
Artificial intelligence (AI) –
an area of computer
science that deals with the
simulation and creation of
intelligent machines or
intelligent behave in
computers (they think,
learn, work, and react like
humans).
5th
Generation
For instance, IBM,
Pentium, Desktop,
Laptop, Notebook,
Ultrabook, and so
on.