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Summary History of Science (XB_0076) - Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU)
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Provides a summary for the course History of Science (XB_0076) at the VU. Includes chapters 1, 2, 6, 9, 14 and 15.
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History of Science❗ Introduction not included, but useful.
Chapter 1
ENIAC (1943-1955)
EDVAC
EDVAC-like computers
Programming Tools
ACM and commercialization
UNIVAC
Chapter 2
Cray 1 (1976)
IBM computer 701 (1952)
IBM computer 704 (1954)
New technologies
Core memory
Floating point arithmetic
Interrupts
Drum-based computers
Compilers
Fortran
SHARE and operating systems
Mathematical Software
ALGOL
Stacks
Transistors
IBM computers
Virtual memory
The Control Data 6600
The Cray 1 (1976)
Chapter 6
Introduction
Timesharing Systems
Electronic mail
Engelbart’s Online System
Plato
Packet Switching
The ARPANET
Internetworking
Other Academic Networks
Usenet
CS Net
BITNET
Commercial networks
Online Services
LEXIS and Dialog
Electronic mail
CompuServe
Growth of Internal Data Networks
Middle-class
Minitel (1983)
History of Science 1
, Commercial Packet Switched Networks
Internet Commercialization
NSFNET
The Acceptable Use Policy
The Domain Name System
Legacy of the Academic Internet
Chapter 9
Introduction
Xerox invents graphical computing
Xerox PARC
Smalltalk and OOP
What you see is what you get
Client-Server Applications
Commercializing Alto
Bringing the graphical interface to personal computers
Graphic Workstations
Apple Lisa
The Macintosh
Desktop Publishing
Macintosh Competitors
Chapter 14
Introduction
Specialized mobile devices
Handheld computers
Pen computers
Cellphones, Pagers, and Beepers
GPS navigation systems
Enter the iPhone
The first iPhone
The App Store
The Mobile Cloud
Voice Controlled Assistants
Apple wins
Tablets
Smartphones evolve
Android
Smartphones in the developing world
After the iPhone?
Chapter 15
Introduction
Into the valley
A one-way trip to an uncertain future
Technology and pandemic
Chapter 1
ENIAC (1943-1955)
Stands for: electronic numerical integrator and computer.
“first electronic, general purpose, programmable computer.”
ENIAC introduced programming concepts globally, stimulating interest in electronic computation. Before its
completion, work on the successor EDVAC laid the foundation for modern computers, marking the first time
History of Science 2
, people envisioned machines autonomously performing complex computations at remarkable speeds.
Electronic and programmable
Electronic distinguishes it from electromechanical computers whose logic units worked thousands of times
more slowly.
General purpose and programmable separated ENIAC from special purpose electronic machines whose
sequence of operations was built into hardware and so could not be reprogrammed to carry out fundamentally
different tasks.
Discussion of programming a computer first appeared in the ENIAC project.
Programming: a computer program was a configuration that carried out the operations needed for a job. The
act of creating it was called programming.
ENIAC was not the first programmable computer → it was the first to automate the job of deciding what to do
next after a sequence of operations finished.
It fixed public impressions of what a computer looked like and what it could do. It even inspired the practice of
naming early computers with five- or six-letter acronyms ending with AC.
Pioneered applications such as Monte Carlo simulation, numerical weather prediction, and the modelling of
supersonic air flow.
“Aim was to kill more efficiently.”
It took ENIAC 30 seconds to simulate a trajectory, potentially tracing the shell’s journey faster than the shell
itself could travel.
Remembered as a machine programmed by women.
The women of ENIAC → often called the first ever computer programmers.
When in use it needed frequent human attention.
Data went in and out on punched cards that stored 80 digits as a pattern of holes.
Output cards went through an IBM tabulating machine to print their contents.
ENIAC was reconfigured in March and April 1948 to run modern code entered by turning switches on read-only
memory panels. It was used in that mode for the rest of its career.
EDVAC
Stands for: electronic discrete variable automatic computer
New kind of memory → the delay line
ENIAC required one tube per bit, EDVAC could use a delay line and 10 vacuum tubes to store 1,000 bits.
Delay lines were rather slow → the computer had to wait for the bits of interest to take their turn cycling
through the sensing equipment at the end of the tube.
The idea:
Pulses representing several hundred digits moved through a fluid-filled tube. Signals received at one end were
immediately retransmitted at the other end, so that the same sequence was cycling constantly. Whenever a
number reached the end of the tube it was available to be copied to the computer’s processor if needed.
EDVAC incorporated the concept of stored programs and instructions, which allowed for easier reprogramming
and greater flexibility in operations.
The stored program concept: coded instructions were stored in the same storage devices used to hold data.
Influence of EDVAC gets separated in 3 clusters of ideas:
History of Science 3
, 1. The EDVAC hardware paradigm, specified an all electronic machine with a large high-speed memory using
binary number storage.
2. The von Neumann architecture paradigm.
3. A system of instruction codes: the modern code paradigm. Instruction codes represented mathematical
operations and utilized registers such as the accumulator for storing and manipulating data, allowing for more
efficient and flexible computation.
EDVAC-like computers
In the 1940s, computer projects experimented with variations of the EDVAC design, leading to the adoption of
successful ideas such as using matrix structures for data and introducing index registers for efficient data
manipulation. Different choices were made regarding word length and instruction encoding, and the concept of
serial and parallel transmission was considered for moving data.
Manchester Mark 1 (1949)
Designers added to the processor an index register to simplify work with data structures. The instructions
stayed the same. The program updated an offset value in the index register, which was added to the base
address held in the instruction to determine the actual memory location acted on.
EDSAC
EDSAC became the basis of a scientific computing service, solving problems in biology, chemistry, and radio
astronomy as well as physics and mathematics.
Programmed to aid in the task of deducing the 3D structure of proteins from the scattering of x-rays.
The hallmark of the EDVAC approach: storing programs and data in addressable memory.
A word of memory: a single memory location
Original EDVAC design: 32-bits in each word
Early computers: between 17 (EDSAC) and 40 (IAS and M. Mark 1) bits
Factor influencing word length: the maximum number of addresses specified in a single instruction.
EDVAC: four-address machine.
Serial and parallel computer design: move all the bits in a word sequentially on a single wire or send them together
along a set of parallel wires.
EDSAC was serial → delay line memory which delivered data one bit at a time.
Serial is slower but simpler
Most parallel-word computers used Williams tubes, which could retrieve all the bits in a word of memory
simultaneously.
Programming Tools
General purpose computers can do many things, but it takes detailed programming.
Subroutines: standard sequences for routine operations.
EDVAC-like computers could be programmed to handle chores involved in reusing code, such as renumbering
memory addresses within each subroutine according to its eventual position in memory.
Assemblers: tools that assembled subroutines and new code into a single executable program
Mnemonics: short abbreviations (ex. LOAD)
Assembly language: the list of instruction mnemonics and parameters.
History of Science 4
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