Introduction to Information and

Communication Technology (ICT)(CS-301)

Instructor : Dr. Abdul Razzaq

Email: abdul.razzaq@mnsuam.edu.pk
ICT(CS-301)
 Lecture 02
Evolution of Computing

Please be on time
(better: before time)
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 During the Last Lecture …
• We learnt about the Analytical Engine - the first
general-purpose, digital computer – and its inventor
Charles Babbage

• We had a discussion about the key strengths (speed,

do not get bored) and weaknesses (pattern
recognition, innovative ideas) of the modern computer

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 What Is a Computer?

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 Today’s Goal
1st Part

To learn about the evolution of computing

To recount the important milestones and the key events

To learn about the steps that took us from Babbage’s idea of the
Analytical Engine to today’s ultra-smart hand held computers.

2nd Part

To learn to classify computers according to their capability and

targeted applications

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 But first, why should we spend time
on recounting the events of the past

Why?

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• If you do not learn from the history, your condemned
to repeat it

• Recounting the events of the past provides an

excellent opportunity to:
– learn lessons
– discover patterns of evolution
– use them in the future

• If we learn from history well, we will:

– neither repeat the mistakes of the past
– nor would we waste time re-inventing what already has
been invented

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Babbage’s Analytical Engine - 1833

• Mechanical, digital, general-purpose

• Was crank-driven

• Could store instructions

• Could perform mathematical calculations

• Could store information permanently in punched cards

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 Babbage’s second computer
• Analytical engine
– general-purpose
– used binary system
– punched cards as input
– branch on result of previous
instruction
– Ada Lovelace (first
programmer)
– machined parts not accurate
enough
– never quite completed

analytical engine, 1834

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 Vacuum Tube - 1904
• John Fleming, an English Physicist, developed the very first
one

• These electronic devices consist of 2 or more electrodes

encased in a glass or metal tube

• They along with electric relays were used in the construction of

earlier computers

• These tubes have now been almost completely replaced by

more reliable and less costly transistors

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 ABC - 1939
• Attanasoff-Berry Computer

• John Attanasoff & Clifford Berry at

Iowa State College

• World’s first electronic computer

• The first computer that used binary

numbers instead of decimal

• Helped grad students in solving

simultaneous linear equations

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 Harvard Mark 1 - 1943
• Howard Aiken of Harvard University

• The first program controlled machine

• Included all the ideas proposed by

Babbage for the Analytical Engine
• The last famous electromechanical
computer

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 ENIAC – 1946
• Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer
• World’s first large-scale, general-purpose electronic
computer
• Built by John Mauchly & John Echert at the University
of Pennsylvania
• Developed for military applications
• 5,000 operations/sec, 19000 tubes,
• 150 kilowatts: Used to dim the lights in the City of
Philadelphia down when it ran

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 ENIAC

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 Transistor - 1947
• Invented by Shockly, Bardeen, and Brattain at the Bell Labs in
the US

• Compared to vacuum tubes, it offered:

– much smaller size
– better reliability
– much lower power consumption
– much lower cost

• All modern computers are made of miniaturized transistors

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 EDVAC – 1948
• Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer

• Built by Echert & Mauchly and included many design

ideas proposed by Von Neumann

• The first electronic computer design to incorporate a

program stored entirely within its memory

• First computer to use Magnetic Tape for storing

programs. Before this, computers needed to be re-
wired each time a new program was to be run

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 • Tubes replaced mechanicals

• Transistors replaced tubes

• What is going to replace the

transistors?

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 UNIVAC 1 - 1951
• UNIVersal Automatic Computer
• Echert & Mauchly Computer Company
• First computer designed for commercial apps
• First computer that could not only manipulate numbers
but text data as well
• Max speed: 1905 operations/sec
• Cost: US$1,000,000
• 5000 tubes. 943 cu ft. 8 tons. 100 kilowatts
• Between 1951-57, 48 were sold

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 Compiler - 1952
• Grace Hopper of US Navy develops the very first high-
level language compiler

• Before the invention of this compiler, developing a

computer program was tedious and prone to errors

• A compiler translates a high-level language (that is

easy to understand for humans) into a language that
the computer can understand

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 BASIC - 1965
• Beginner All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code
• Developed by Thomas Kurtz & John Kemeny at
Dartmouth College
• The first programming language designed for the
• non-techies
• The grand-mother of the most popular programming
language in the world today – Visual BASIC

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 IBM PC & MS DOS - 1981
• IBM PC: The tremendously popular PC; the
grand-daddy of 95% of the PC’s in use today

• MS DOS: The tremendously popular

operating system that came bundled with the
IBM PC

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 Apple Macintosh - 1984
• The first popular, user-friendly, WIMP-based
PC
• Based on the WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus,
Pointing Device) ideas first developed for the
Star computer at Xerox PARC (1981)

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 Mobile Phone-Computer
• A small computer, no bigger than the hand set of desktop
phone

• Can do whatever an Internet-capable computer can plus can

function as a regular phone

• First consumer device formed by the fusion of computing and

wireless telecommunication

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 Electronic Devices Used in Computers of
Different Generations

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 What is the next major
Milestone?
1. Mechanical computing

2. Electro-mechanical computing

3. Vacuum tube computing

4. Transistor computing
(the current state-of the-art)

5. Quantum computing

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 What is the next major
Milestone?
• Quantum computers may one day be millions of times more
efficient than the current state-of-the-art computers.
• They take advantage of the laws that govern the behavior of
subatomic particles.
• These laws allow quantum computers to examine all possible
answers to a question simultaneously
• For example, if you want to find the largest from a list of four
numbers:
– The current computers require on average 2 to 3 steps to get to the
answer
– Whereas, the quantum computer may be able to do that in a single step

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 Classification of
computer

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Computer Types According to Capability
• Supercomputers

• Mainframes

• Servers/Minicomputers

• Desktops

• Portables

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 Supercomputers (1)
• State-of-the-art machines designed to perform
calculations as fast as the current technology allows

• Used to solve extremely complex and large-scale

problems: weather prediction, simulation of atomic
explosions; aircraft design; movie animation

• Cost tens of millions of dollars

• Unique in that unlike mainframes & personal

computers, designed to focus all their
resources and capabilities on a single task at
a time
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 Supercomputers (2)
• Early supercomputers used a single or a few
processors working in parallel

• Those processors were custom-built for the

supercomputers, and were, therefore, very
expensive
• Modern supercomputers use the same processors
that are used in desktop PCs. They, however, are
designed to use 1000’s of them working together in
parallel

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 Why use many not-so-
powerful processors
working in parallel ?
Why not just design a
single, really powerful
processor ?
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 Mainframe Computers (1)
• Also called “Enterprise Servers”

• Designed for performing multiple, intensive

tasks for multiple users simultaneously

• Used by large businesses (e.g. banks, e-

commerce sites), military, and industrial
organizations

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 Mainframe Computers (2)
• Designed for very-high reliability
• Can be serviced/upgraded while in operation

• Generally consist of multiple processors,

GB’s of memory, and TB’s of storage

• Cost in millions of dollars

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 Servers/Minicomputers (1)
• The name minicomputers used to define
the class of computers that lies between
personal computers and mainframes

• Then very high-end desktop computers

– called low-end or mid-range servers –
took over the role that was previously
played by minicomputers

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 Servers/Minicomputers (2)
• Low-end and mid-range servers are used by
small businesses and organizations as file-
stores, to run e-mail systems and Web sites
• Generally are more reliable than desktops, but
not as solid as the mainframes
• Generally consist of 2 or more processors,
GB’s of memory, and TB’s of storage

• Costs in hundreds of thousands of dollars

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 Desktop Computers (1)
• Also called microcomputers

• Low-end desktops are called PC’s and high-end

ones “Workstations”

• Generally consist of a single processor only,

some times 2, along with MB’s of memory, and
GB’s of storage

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 Desktop Computers (2)
• PC’s are used for running productivity
applications, Web surfing, messaging

• Workstations for more demanding tasks like

low-end 3-D simulations and other engineering
& scientific apps

• Are not as reliable and fault-tolerant as servers

• Workstations cost a few thousand dollars; PC

around a $1000
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 Mobile Computers (1)
• Laptops, palmtops, and wearable computers are
very capable computers but are light-weight and
consume very little power

• Laptops (also called notebook computers) generally

weigh around 2kg, use special low-power
processors, typically have 256MB memory, 40GB of
storage, can work for more than 2 hours on battery

• Their usage is similar to that of PCs

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 Mobile Computers (2)
• Palmtops, also known as PDA’s - Personal Digital
Assistants

• Weigh less than a pound, have very low-power

processors, KB’s of memory, MB’s of storage capacity

• Can run for many hours on AA batteries

• Used as an electronic version of a pocket diary. Also

for Web surfing and e-mail or even as mobile phones

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 Mobile Computers (3)
• Wearables are small in size, carried in a pocket, worn
on the arm, waist, or head or elsewhere on the body
• Capability similar to PDA’s, but more expensive

• They are always ON, and always accessible. That is,

the user can always enter and execute commands,
even while walking around or doing other activities
• Each soldier of the future will be fitted with one

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 Computer Generations
• Generation in computer terminology is a change in
technology a computer is/was being used.
• Initially, the generation term was used to distinguish between
varying hardware technologies.
• Nowadays, generation includes both hardware and software,
which together make up an entire computer system.

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 Computer Generations
• There are totally five computer generations known
till date
• We are discussing the generations of the computer in
terms of—
• Technology used by them (hardware and softwares)
• Computing characteristics( speed .. etc)
• Physical appearance
• Their applications
• Examples

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 Computer Generations

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 Computer Generations

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 Computer Generations

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 Computer Generations

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 At the highest level, two things are
required for computing
Hardware: The physical equipment in a
computing environment such as the
computer and its peripheral devices (printers,
speakers, etc.)

Software: The set of instructions that operates

various parts of the hardware. Also termed
as “computer program”

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 Let’s summarize the things that we have
covered today?
Now that we have learnt..

Evolution of the computer

Generations of the computer
Various types of computers and about their typical
applications.

However, for the next lecture discussion, let’s

concentrate on hardware, essential
components that are present in every type of
computers
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 Homework

What are Applications of Computer/ Usages

of Computer
?

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Today Message:

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