INTRODUCTORY COMPUTER

SCIENCES
 •HISTORY AND
DEVEOPMENT OF
COMPUTERS
 WHAT IS A COMPUTER?
- It can be defined as a data processing machine that can
store, process data, and give output based on the logic
supplied by the user.

- It is made up of various physical and abstract components

used to facilitate the automatic processing of data
supplied.

- The physical parts are known as the hardware

- The abstract parts are known as the software

 History of Computers
• The Abacus
- It emerged about 5,000 years ago or around 7 B.C. in
Asia Minor (China) and is still in use today, and may be
considered the first computer.

- It allows users to make computations using a system of

sliding beads arranged on a rack.

- As the use of paper and pencil spread, particularly in

Europe, the abacus lost its importance.
THE ABACUS DEVICE
 ADDING MACHINES
- Pascal machine (also called Pascaline) invented in 1642
by the son of a French tax collector, Blaise Pascal
(1623 – 1662).

- He called it a numerical wheel calculator; it used eight

movable dials to add sums of up to eight figures long
using base 10 since one dial moved 10 notches or 1
complete revolution.

- Its limitation was that it was only useful for addition

purposes.
PASCALINE
• In 1671, Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (1646
– 1716), a German mathematician and
philosopher, began to invent a machine.

• This machine could execute all four

arithmetical operations - addition,
subtraction, multiplication and division.

• with gradual improvements made on it over a

number of years.
LEIBNIZ CALCULATOR
 BABBAGE MACHINES
• The beginnings of computers as we know them today
started off with Sir Charles Babbage (1791 – 1871), an
English mathematics professor.

- He proposed a machine to perform differential equations,

called a Difference Machine powered by steam and would
have a stored program and could perform calculations and
print the results automatically.

- the Difference Machine, he began work on the first general-

purpose computer that he called the Analytical Engine.
BABBAGE MACHINE
OTHER MACHINES
• Sir Samuel Moreland invented three calculating machines
between 1663 and 1666, and they were independent of
Pascal’s Pascaline.

- The first machine was used for adding and subtracting of

pounds, shillings, pence, and farthings

- the other two provided access to pre-calculated tables

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 RECOMMENDED TEXTBOOK

•Computer Fundamentals & Visual Basic

Language (FSC 113: Introductory
Computer Science)

•Get a copy at the department of

computer sciences
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 ASSIGNMENT ONE
• Read and write short notes on the following:

- ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) project

- EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer)

- The Hollerith Machine

- The Colossus Machine

- The UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer)

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Assignment 2
1. Give a short description of the technology and
components used in the design of the first, second
third and fourth generation computers.

2. How many ways can computers be classified? Name the

various classifications.

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