Nevil Maskelyne – 1766 – prudence each year a set of navigational tables known as Nautical Almanac
Charles Babbage – problem of table making and errors in tables, Gaspard de Prony (1819) – invented Difference machine (1822)>calculations and
printing. Analytical engine funding’s not good and end. Travels in 1820s EU writes book 1832. Duke of Wellington only difference engine not
analytical > stopped funding project – Luigi Menabrea account of AnaEng, translated first programmer Ada Byron, first language Ada. Tried
improving machine but failed > dark age of digital computing
Victorian period: important info structures: Railway clearing house – check passenger paid & Telegraph – not 2 trains on same track (1874 central
hub for telegraphs)
Herman Hollerith – census data processing: Tabulating machine company and foundation of IBM. Breaks w/ census 1905, 1911 office-machine but
health failing – tried make it office machine – in 1911 were automatic.
Remington Rand: typewriters & filing systems for info storage – James Rand index system & Kardex system – made largest business machine
company (1925), 1927 fuses with Remington. Power (once asked by IBM) asked by Rand. 1947: bought EMCC, James knew comp would be imp
offices. Remington lost to IBM: failure marketing, rivalry between factories & unwilling invest.
Burroughs: adding machines, fixed arithmometer with Burroughs adding machine (make additions and print) – incorporate in companies & not rely
on 1 product
IBM: punched card accounting machines – first Hollerith when done, sold to Charles R. Flint. First CTR then IBM. Watson general manager of CTR
(1924) with THINK motto & CTR to IBM. Watson friends with Roosevelt, due to social security act IBM greatest supplier office machines – Harvard
Mark 1 (automatic sequence-controlled calculator), showed how aware (1930) IBM was. Howard Aiken engineer, needed nonlinear diff equations
went to Harvard for this, said no also George Chase said no. Already was machine from Babbage, sent proposal of Babbage concept to IBM –
Babbage was better than Mark 1, didn’t do many com comp till 1944. 1950s mid, only dominance position, before comp dev projects but uncertainty
of market. SSEC by W. Eckert enhanced reputation as leader in comp tech. Model 604, later heart of Card Programmed Calc – not stored-program
but effective and reliable (40/50s). 1949: Magnetic Drum Calc & Tape Processing Machine, accelerated bec E&M got BINAC and UNIVAC. Slow bec
conservatism in IBM’s marketing. Thomas Watson Jr. saw opp to speed up comp dev of large-scale comp > E&M now take data processing market.
Watson: IBM into data-processing comp (1951) Def calc, TPM & MDC. First one, Model 702 (EDPM) (based on TPM) 1953. Remington Rand no more
UNIVACs so IBM gained ground. Low-cost MCD leadership for IBM, IBM created gen of programmers > imp marketing strat. Desk Set, film first comp
marketing for comp, partic IBM. Customers: punched card machines better, 650 less reliable, hire programming, and not diff from pc-m. 1401 model
high speed printer, imp factor success. Overcome prog problem, Report Program Generator (familiar to pc-m). Dev software used by any medium-
sized comp. 1960: prod 12000. 1960: 7 diff comp models: scien, data-proc & large machines. Oct 1965: T.V. Learson SPREAD (group establish plan
IBMs data-proc products). RCA tried making 360 to compete. Or make software compatible not 360 but Honeywell, Burroughs, and NCR. Or compete
in niche not occ by IBM. IBM strong end1960s > destruction of RCA & General Electric (bought by Sperry Rand & Honeywell). Porotype Ww
transformed into IBM AN/FSQ-7 comp. SAGE sys provided training ground for engineering talent. With American Airlines: SABRE; 1960-63 > 10 mill
passengers, improv res service & updated and inst acc pass name record. Other airlines also wanted, payed IBM. A-0 compiler too slow, John Backus
and team made FORTRAN, first succ prog lang. 1959: 2nd version FORTRAN came out, dominated all other prog lang > first prog lang standardized by
American Nat Stand Ins. Dec 1986, IBM decided price hardware and software separately > unbundling decision. IBM offered QUICTRAN 1967 for
calcs. IBM interested in pers comp: word proc and spreadsheet packages > could make machine office. Lowe (senior manager): focus on pers comp.
Were late and could make better comp: used Intel’s 8088 chip: approached Gill Kildall (digital research) make oper software; couldn’t agree > so to
Microsoft > didn’t have actual product so bought from Seattle for 30000 and improved, later MS-Dos. 1980: Acorn complete pers comp, control of
Philip D. Estridge, had to use components from other firms. Used Chiat Day Campaign using Charlie Chaplin lookalikes for intimidated home users.
August 12th 1981: press launch pers comp: weeks later popular, became indus standard in 1982-83. IBM got GUI from Apple comps. Xerox Star
launch: firms dev GUIs for IBM compatible PCs: Microsoft, DR and IBM. Created Prodigy – extension of its mail order catalog, abandoned 1996.
NCR: accounting machines (John H. Patterson) – sold 2000 cash register machines from Ritty – when 1922 died, introduced sales quota & sales
training. Watson top salesman (THINK motto) left for IBM. 1950s had post-Tronic, sold it, and bought CRC.
Thomas de Colmar of Alsace (1820) adding machine – Arithmometer, Dorr E. Felt & Burroughs wanting to fix
James Ritty: first cash register (amount of sales recorded all sales on paper)
Pehr Georg Scheutz: build engine (1834) of Babbage’s difference engine (Schutzian calculation engine) won gold medal
Lord Kevin (1876) tide predicting machine until 1950s improved
Vannevar Bush – differential analyser (1928-31) – most important computing machine between wars, could solve diff equations by integration
Lewis Fry Richardson – wrote book on weather predicts, nobody took him seriously
Leslie J. Comrie brought punched card machines into world of scientific computing, with E. Brown brought to US – in 1937 set up Scientific
Computing Service Limited
Alan Turing & Alonzo Church: Turing machine: logical capabilities of comp, Turing back UK – pioneer in elec com dev and appl of comp to math bio.
Much therapy bec gay, comp science theory much love and name repaired. Work inspired Neumann. In 1943: The Colossus. Max Newman helped
him, became prof of math & got funding to build EDVAC type comp together with F.C. Williams. Williams: memory technology was problem
John Mauchly & Arthur Burks: Moore school program during war, became instructors. Became key players for modern electronic comp. Also train
females working com machines. Moore school computing activities, goal to produce firing tables. Mauchly proposed elec comp, also John V.
Atanasoff this idea. With Clifford Berry build ABC comp, binary arithmetic and elec switching elem. Base for Mauchly’s elec comp machine. John P.
Eckert interested in Mauchly, working on MIT project. Memorandum of Mauchly (1942) elec comp perform calcs in 100 sec. 1946: set up Elec
Control Company build computers, scientific and public attention. Data processing sold comp but worth 3x. Made UNIVAC magnetic tape storage ipv
pinch cards. BINAC for aircraft corp. Started Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, get investors, Straus vice pres bought 40% of EMCC. Moved but
Straus killed, in financial trouble now.
Goldstine: Mauchly’s ideas and promote. Construct this machine: ENIAC. 1944: had encounter with Von Neumann, led to project PY: EDVAC stored-
program comp. Also, key decision: binary represent numbers. EDVAC report good publicity but no patent. Nov 1945 ENIAC became alive. Spring
1946
Wilkes: EDSAC, inspired by EDVAC. 1/6 tube count of ENIAC and smaller. EDSAC needed debugging. Wilkes wanted programmer friendly notation
not binary. Goldstine & Neumann thought people had to translate, Wilkes found computer had to.
Neumann: applied flowcharts in comp prog (1950s), first used in 1920s.
Grace Murray Hopper: (1951) software for UNIVAC. Machine property of Census Bureau. Intro to public UNIVAC used for pres elec predict. Public
said UNIVAC not IBM. Dev at UNIVAC aut programming sys: A-0 compiler > slow and inefficient. Invented COBOL for business appl, bec FORTRAN
caused eco when comp replaced all prog need rewritten. Government new prog lang for commercial data proc > COBOL 60 – had to be used on
comp government.
Sperry Rand: made UNIVAC 1004, improv of pc-m.
William Norris: Control Data Corporation, found niche not occupied IBM.
Honeywell: announced 200 comps, machine compatible 1401 and perf better. Took over market. IBM make decisions 360 or 1401 2.0. Announced
360 3 weeks later, 3 years made 5 billion$.
MIT: project Whirlwind: design aircraft trainer WW2. Jay W. Forrester charge of simulation flights multiple aircrafts. Forrester met Perry Crawford.
1946: Forrester – only way digital, problem was storage tech.1949: project expensive ONR (office of naval research) stopped funding. Forrester
money from Airforce, Whirlwind: Project Lincoln; computerized nat air-def system > air def sys SAGE (semi-automatic ground environment). 1951:
