Early Computing Concepts

• Information processing is vital for life with every organism having the ability to receive, process, and react to information.
• Humans started using technology to communicate and process information early on.
• The development of information processing now includes nearly all areas of human activity, leading to discussions about the possibility of humans becoming obsolete due to their own creations.

Introduction to Information Processing

• Information processing is present in every part of daily life.
• Computers are now synonymous with information processing technology and did not have a straightforward path of development.
• Early computers were calculating machines that functioned mechanically to link information, where both rules and storage were in the same components. It quickly became practical to separate these functions into hardware and software

Origins of the Term "Computer"

• The term "computer" initially referred to individuals who performed calculations to measure time, as noted by Sir Thomas Browne in 1646.
• Until the 1930s, "computers" were people with mathematical training who calculated in offices and observatories.

Development of Data Storage

• Punch cards marked the start of storage development and were initially used to control weaving looms and automate music.
• They briefly became significant for data and software storage before being replaced by magnetic memory technology which was later replaced by other processes.

Development of News Transfer

• Another advancement was news transfer, starting from optical semaphores to worldwide telephone and news networks.
• This network is essential for the World Wide Web's development

Wireless Transmission

• Wireless news transmission was primarily used for radio, television, and radar which led to the development of semiconductors.
• Integrated circuits from this technology are now crucial in information processing and have merged with news networks.

Data Transfer in Computers

• The BUS (binary unit system) was designed for data transfer in computers from the CPU to peripherals.
• Today, it supports technical systems networks in manufacturing and vehicles.

Subjects for Emphasis in Subsequent Chapters

• Observations on information and information processing
• Early tools for information processing
• Electromechanical and electronic calculators
• Information transmission and storage
• Future development perspectives

Communication and Calculation

• Humans developed language and used instruments for information processing starting one to two million years ago and agriculture 13,000 years ago.
• Writing and numbers were developed due to the need to manage supplies, trade, and crafts which allowed humans to store and communicate information over time.

Development of Writing and Numbers

• Writing was independently developed only a few times in history with early forms based on numbers for bookkeeping and administration around 3000 B.C, and China around 1300 B.C.
• For thousands of years, people used notched wood and bones for counting

Counting methods

• Stones were used for counting, leading to the term "calculus," and knotting bands were another method for storing numbers but not as common.
• The Sumerians printed signs in clay using wedges for one and circles for ten to make trade and tax inventory lists.

Numbering Systems

• The base ten system is not universal as systems based on twelve, twenty, and sixty were previously developed.
• The development of positional notation and the use of zero are significant achievements, attributed to the Babylonians and Indians respectively.

Evolution of Numerical Systems

• The space value and zero made writing and counting systematic.
• By the 12th century, Arabic numerals spread from Spain, taking 300 years to replace Roman numerals.
• This shift dramatically advanced counting technologies

Information Theory

• Energy, matter, and information are the most important concepts in the natural sciences.
• Information processing includes the reception, processing, and reaction to information, involving receptors and specialized units. The result is a reaction.

Characteristics of Information

• Information can be presented in various forms, stored, linked, and transmitted without needing fixed carriers or originals.
• Information does not age, only its content, and can be manipulated without detection and meaning manipulations are also information.
• Signals are fundamental change and serve to facilitate information processing, with Norbert Wiener explaining they consist of syntax, semantics, and pragmatics explained by Norbert Wiener. Intelligence is the reduction and selection of information.

Calculation Aids

• Humans began creating tools for processing, storing, and transferring information with the abacus and counting table being the first counting aids.
• The abacus which is independent of the number system, lost significance in Europe after the Roman system was changed but remains used in other regions.

Logarithms

• John Napier's discovery of logarithms in 1614 led to the slide rule which was used until the electronic calculator emerged.
• Henry Briggs published the first logarithm table seven years later, and Napier modified Hindu-Arabic tables.

Mechanical Calculators

• Refined mechanisms, including sexagecimal systems, were developed to mechanize calculations with Leonardo da Vinci conceiving a mechanical calculator.
• Wilhelm Schickard's mechanical calculator from Tübingen, inspired by Kepler, was the first in the world.

Schickard's Calculating Clock

• Schickard described his device as a "calculating clock" and built it in 1623.
• The clock used a wheelwork for addition/subtraction and Napier's Bones for multiplication/division.
• It could carry over tens and signaled when 999,999 was reached.

Blaise Pascal's Calculator

• Blaise Pascal developed the eight-figure two-species calculator in 1643 to assist his father.
• Used a lever mechanism for carry-overs and included counting wheels for 20- and 12-divisions with originals of the 50 machines remaining.

Development of the Calculator

• Mechanical calculators with wheel works predate Schikard.
• Leibniz created five calculators starting in 1672 which were the first four-species versions calculating multiplication through addition and division through subtraction.

Key Inventions for Calculators

• Echelon roller
• Sequential sled
• Spring ten carry-over

Impact of Leibniz

• Contributed to the binary system which was only applied in the 20th century.
• Giovanni Poleni also contributed to the calculator idea, using a sprocket wheel.

Evolution of Calculator Production

• Charles-Xavier Thomas was the first to mass-produce calculators in 1820.
• The Brunsviga Co. in Germany and others in Switzerland, Germany, and the US later produced machines on a large scale.

Transition to Electronic Calculators

• The era of mechanical calculators ended with the arrival of electronic table calculators.
• Mathematical tables were used for astronomical and nautical calculations in the 18th century that used the difference method.

Charles Babbage

• Charles Babbage's "Difference Engine" used this principle, needing only addition for multiplication.
• Babbage was ahead of his time, starting the first of his three calculators in 1821.
• Babbage's machines included a central unit, memory, program control, and input/output equipment with Augusta Ada Byron as the first programmer.

Predecessors

• E. Klippstein reported on J.H. Müller's derivation-based calculator in 1786 which was never built due to funding.

Punch Card Technology

• Babbage planned to use punch cards to control his calculator.
• Jean Baptiste Falcon, Jacque de Vaucanson, and Marie Jacquard used punch cards for looms.
• Hermann Hollerith used punch cards for the 1890 US Census and created a tabulator machine that could process 1000 cards per hour.

Emergence of IBM

• Hollerith's Tabulating Machine Company merged to form IBM.
• Punch cards were first used for census and organizational tasks and were also used in computer technology post-1950s

Electromechanical Developments

• Mechanical calculators were improved but their core functions remained the same.
• The German Hollerith Society made new contributions in 1935.

Konrad Zuse

• Konrad Zuse, influenced by boredom, created the first freely programmable computer.
• He used the binary system and a control unit with memory and calculator and his first model (Z1) was fully mechanical.

Construction of Subsequent Zuse Models

• Zuse built models in his private accommodations.
• Due to lack of support, tubes could not be used to build further models until after the war.

Details of the Z3 and Z4 Zuse Models

• The Z3, completed in 1941, featured relays and a 64-word storage capacity with a 22-bit word length.
• It was destroyed in 1944.
• Zuse planned for subprograms and his patent application was denied.
• The Z4 was used by ETH Zurich until 1955 and then sold before being moved to the German Museum.
• The Z3 used programmed punched tapes and a numerical keyboard and lamps were used for input and output.

Innovations From Others In the Field

• R. L. A. Voltat and L. Couffignal used binary arithmetic. E. W. Phillips presented an octal system model and L. Kozma developed a relay-based machine.
• J. V. Atanasoff and C. E. Berry created the ABC prototype for solving linear equations.

Noteworthy Contributions

• Georg R Stibitz contributed to the design of complex computers at Bell Telephone Laboratories, in part to develop filters and amplifiers.
• Howard A. Aiken started work on the Mark I at Harvard in 1937.
• Machine dimensions were 2.5 m in height, 14 m in width with a weight of five tons, as well as costing half a million US dollars.

Connection to Earlier Inventors

• Aiken was familiar with Babbage's earlier work. C. E. Shannon proved in 1938 that machines could process information like any material.

Government Recognition of Computing Power

• The US military supported computer technology giving a contract to develop new military technologies.
• The Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer (ENIAC), an electrical analogue to mechanical computers, was developed for ballistic calculations and to improve bombing accuracy.

Details About the ENIAC

• ENIAC did not function in binary and lacked features of Zues's and Atanasoff's computer.
• But, ENIAC used tubes and was faster, with an internal tact frequency of about 100 kHz containing 20,000 tubes with a weight of 30 tons that needed 174 kW.
• The programming of ENIAC could take months through hardware and cable linkages which decreased effort required after initial programming for ballistic calculations.

Alternative Technologies for Calculations

• Analogue mechanical computers were being developed for ballistic calculations around the same time, but were replaced.
• Von Nuemann tested his computers to try producing a hydrogen bomb.
• He published that all computers should have functional components of calculating, control unit, memory, and input and output units. His principles are still valid.

Advancements in Computing Power

• In theoretical works as well as within the Z3, the shift from calculator automatons to modern-day machines was made.
• Enhancements were made through relays, tubes, semiconductors, and then circuit boards.

Emergence of Computer Scientists

• Staffs of engineers and natural scientists began continuously working, with notable the SAGE program containing 4000 people.
• The Whirlwind computer, finished in 1951 with a graphic surface, was developed.

Cold War Era Technology

• Only a few documents describe the computing power in Russia an East Bloc countries.
• Any lack of documentation is due to economic and political reason and not a lack of computing prowess.

Importance of Data Storage

• Storing information is an important aspect which evolved from writing methods to 18th-century permanent punch cards on looms
• Punch tapes, magnetic data media, and optical memories have aided telegraphy, multimedia and computer areas, increasing data. Molecular structures are intensely being researched for these.

Advances in Internal Computer Memory Storage

• Relays and tube flip-flops were used as internal memory units as acoustic running wires and magnetostrictive material were tested.
• Data could be secured for longer time but only be accessed by the end of running time.

Improvements to Computer Memory Storage

• Cathode ray storage and Williams's tube memory allowed for more access to data more quickly which lead to the development of other electrostatic memories (the seletron and the neon lamps memory)
• The first magnetic core memory came about only in 0.2 seconds developed at the end of the 1940's, with Fredriech Viehe selling this invention in 1965.
• Magnetic drum memory was also invented for data storage until recently but has been replaced by semiconductor memories.

Human-Computer Interface

• The man/machine interface links humans and machines for efficiency and usability, impacting computer inputs and outputs.
• Programmers needed to manually connect cables to change switch positions which was simplified by interfaces and consoles.

Improvements in Human-Computer Interface

• In 1951 ,the Whirlwind computer contained a graphic user face, which was a huge advantage for future human and computer interaction.
• In ,1968 Douglas Engelbart designed the "mouse"
• User friendly software and hardware are essential for users to use systems and equipment that should not require training to use.

Importance of Transmitting Information

• Transmitting information across large distances is important.
• Signals, runners, and homing pigeons served this function in ancient times

Optical Development

• In 1836 Claude Chappe invented the semaphore system for functional optical signals
• In 1836, Claude Chappe created the semaphore to send optical messages

Communication Protocols

• Coding with data books, data packets, and route encoding are all used.
• Early systems showed data speed transmission of 0.5 bits per second, the network of optical telegraphs traveling 4800 kilometers.

Invention of Electrical Telegraphs

• Around 1837 electrical telegraph lines had been constructed even though it was long in the making.
• Carl Fredrich Gauss and Wilhem Weber maintained the idea of using electric telegraphs instead of optical signals.
• A five hole punch was used despite pushback from the purchase from Leipzig Dresden Railroad Company

Telegraph System Development

• Samuel Morse created an automatic writer system
• Carl August von Steinhel used ground as and made signals audible and printed.

Improvements to telegraphs lead

• As it evolved, the transmission cables linked overseas through multiple inventions.
• Underwater cables were built using hemp and rubber before electrical insulation.
• Telegraphs were made by automatic punch tape transferrable at 2000 characters a minute. International Telegraph Union was formed in 1865.

Creation of Telephone System

• As electric cables formed, electrical telecommunications grew which improved the system transferrable with 30000 telegraphs. However. telephones were more simple to use than the telegraph.

Wireless Technology

• The invention of wireless technology needed electrical physics skills since the invention could not be solved empirically.
• 1887-1888 Henrich Hertz proved electromagnetic waves which was supported with Thermo Electric.

Key Scientific Contributions

• Georg Simon Oman discovered the law of electricity
• Ampere's discovered magnetic effects through circuits and created electro dynamics theory.
• J.C Maxwell discovered power line and interaction that was called the Marconi Wireless Telegraph. In 1906 with the invention of the electron tubes, the path was made to create wireless information technology.

Bus Technology

• A bus indicates all the data transmissions across units. In 1895 bus technology was invented and improved through internal and external units.

Evolution of Semiconductor Technology

• Since some hardware required many components, the implementation of agricultural bus systems was proposed to overcome some issues with implementation and hardware usage.
• Metal objects with electronic signals by Christian Hulsmeyer was patented in 1904 that industry did not care about.

Impact of World War II

• During the scope of the war, military navigation was a priority for airplane and ship navigation. In 1935 practical navigation through radio was developed, followed by semiconductors that are used crystal detectors and radio by Karl Fredrich Braun.
• Tubes were slow for for radio, since they have high frequencies but eventually John Bardeen transistors with 50x amplification followed that development with plane transmission.

Silicon Advancement and Integrated Circuits

• J.S.C. Kilby, the man who developed silicon and circuit semiconductors, invented the integrated computer with circuits and conductors that could be built using lithographic processes.

US Government

• As an answer to the Sputnik 1958 the US developed new communication measures which helped to develop computer structures since 1973

Innovation on Computer Technology.

In 1974 Nelson designed a reading/writing software named "Hypertext" called HTML designed by Tim Beners -Lee and this system connected new networks across the globe using the Internet.

Development of the Modern Internet

• CERN software made the WWW service available to everyone.
• The Netscape navigator was free to use for Internet access in 1994 and by 1995 over 45 people were using it.

New Computer Systems

• David Andersen developed a program to use computing capacity when owners were not using it.
• If 10 million computers participated a virtual computer would be created at that time.

Perspectives on the Future

• The future of technology is hard to predict and often times the market is greatly understated with few people seeing a point to having a home computer.
• Moore's Law shows that computational ability doubles every 18 months and scientists wonder how far it can develop.

Computing Limits

• In an article about Seth Lloyd, technology's performance is set by memory, storage, and processing which is based on the Heisenberg's theorry where computing speed grows with energy that allows laptop with many TB of memory to become powerful.
• Famous scientists such as Hans Moravec even stated that robots will be more intelligent than humans but Joseph Weizenbaum states that technology and humans have different types of intelligence

Explore the origins of computing before the 1930s, the role of punch cards, and the impact of technologies like radar. Discover the connection between agriculture and information processing. Understand the evolution of news transfer and information's role in survival.