History of Computer Science - LIACS

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Informatica – Oriëntatie 2015-10-06

History of Computer Science


Ada Lovelace Computer Pioneer

Ada Augusta Byron 1815-1852 Exhibit October 13 – December 20, 2015 University of Oxford Celebrating 200 years of a computer visionary Symposium December 10 George Boole Father of Digital Logic 1815-1864 Computer History Museum, California November 16, 2015


“is joining with the University of Oxford and the Computer History Museum to celebrate the 200th birthdays of Ada Lovelace (1815-1852) and George Boole (1815-1864). The bicentennial events will feature exhibits, lectures and a symposium on their lives and fundamental contributions to computing and computer programming.” * since 1947

ACM* Association for Computing Machinery


ACM Technews Oct 5, 2015 •  HEADLINES AT A GLANCE Quantum Information Workshop Draws Experts From Around the World

A Manifesto for Algorithms in the Environment

Study Rates UW CSE Software and Engineering Research Most Practically Relevant of the Past Five Years

IQ Test Result: Advanced AI Machine Matches Four-Year-Old Child's Score

Rise of Concerns About AI: Reflections and Directions

Got 'Em! Researchers Steal Crypto Keys From Amazon Cloud More-Flexible Machine Learning Activist Bots Recruit Humans to Their Cause on Twitter Picture This: An App for Blind Photographers

On What Facebook Knows--An Interview With the Man Behind Facebook's Personality Experiment


History of ?? •  Computer Science

•  Computers

•  Computer Programming

•  Computing

•  Informatics


History of ?? •  Computer Science The study of the principles and use of computers •  Computer An electronic device which is capable of receiving information (data) in a particular form and of performing a sequence of operations in accordance with a predetermined but variable set of procedural instructions (program) to produce a result in the form of information or signals. A person who makes calculations, especially with a calculating machine.


History of ?? •  To compute to reckon, calculate, enumerate, evaluate to make sense From com-putare: to settle an account (early 17th century) •  Computing Science eg Newcastle University: School of Computing Science •  Informatics Information + ics From Russian, German, French, … (1960’s) The science of processing data for storage or retrieval •  INFORMATICA


History of Informatics

Informatica – Oriëntatie 2015-10-06


Ancient History •  Numeration Numbers and counting

fingers, pebbles record (knotted cords, tally sticks, symbols)

Written number systems

additive positional


Additive number system 2319 = MM CCC X V IIII +821 = D CCC XX I = ------------------------------------------ 3140 = MMDCCCCCCXXXVIIIII = MMM CXXXX Multiplication (repeated addition) Division, Subtraction (duplation, mediation) Modified: 4 = IV, 9 =IX


Ancient History Addition, subtraction, multplication, division, duplation, mediation, … Mesopotamia (60), Egypt (10), Greece (alphabetic), Far East, … Hindu-Arabic notation


1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 •  India Place values and a decimal system Nine digits and a symbol for zero Arab traders brought the system to Europe ‘Arabic numerals’ House of Wisdom (Baghdad) 800 AD


c.780-c.850 •  Hisab Al Jabr Wal-Mugabalah The compendium on calculations by completion and balancing Used Hindu numerals and decimal system Spread throughout Europe Business problems (inheritance) •  Algebra •  Algorithm

Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī


Aids to calculation •  Antikythera mechanism ‘first analog computer’ •  Abacus •  … •  Symbol manipulation (arabic numerals) •  Leonardo Pisano c.1170-c.1280 •  Fibonacci •  Liber Abaci •  Rabbits 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 … •  John Napier 1550-1617 •  Logarithms •  Decimal point •  Bones


Mechanical Devices


Mechanical devices •  To automatically perform the four standard arithmetic

functions •  Levers, gears, wheels, … •  Technically constrained, new techniques set up, select, register, carry, control, reset Wilhelm Schickard 1592-1635 Arithmeticum organum: not realised, rotatable Napier’s bones Blaise Pascal 1623-1662 Pascaline 1642 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz 1646-1716 ‘first computer scientist’ Stepped Reckoner 1671


Charles Babbage 1791-1871 ‘Grandfather of the computer age’ Programmable computer

Data and program memory separated Operation instruction-based, Control unit conditional jumps Separate input/output

Difference Engine funding problems, not fully realised Analytical Engine to be programmed using punched Ada Augusta Byron 1815-1852 ‘first computer programmer’ developed an algorithm for the AE to calculate Bernouilli numbers


Herman Hollerith 1860-1929 US census 1896 Tabulating Machine Company Computer Tab. Recording Cy 1924 IBM International Business Machine Corp. Punch cards Idea from Jacquard Loom 1801


Modern times


The electronic revolution World War II

John Atanasoff, Clifford Berry: ABC ENIAC

Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer Moore School: stored program J.Preper Eckert (1919-1995); John Mauchly (1907-1980)

John von Neumann 1903-1957 Von Neumann architecture

Konrad Zuse 1910-1995

1938: Z1 ‘first programmable calculator’ 1945: Z4 Zuse KG, BBC, Siemens


Turing World War II Enigma, Bletchley Park Colossus ‘first programmable, electronic, digital computer’ Bombe: Turing Alan Mathison Turing 1912-1954 Entscheidungs Problem Turing machine ‘algorithm’ Turing Test, Captcha …


Digital era Micro chip 1958 Jack Kilby (1923-2005) www mobile, ubiquitous computing social media big data …


Timelines Computer History Museum http://documents.mx/documents/a-brief-history-of-computing.html http://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/1941/ http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/cgi/computing-timeline.pl http://www.livescience.com/20718-computer-history.html Youtube Jacquard loom: early computer programming https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwozgRPLVC8 Babbage difference engine in motion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiRgdaknJCg


Some references Michael R. Williams, History of Computing Technology, IEEE 1997 Herman H. Goldstine, The Computer from Pascal to von Neumann, Princeton, 1972-1993 Paul E. Ceruzzi, A History of Modern Computing, 2nd Ed., MIT, 2003

•  Material from Tim Bergin, A Short History of Computing, Computing History Museum, American University

History of Computer Science - LIACS

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