HISTORY OF COMPUTING5000 B.C. – 1900 A.D.

Geoffrey Butterworth & Jessy Turnidge

Earliest History

5000 B.C. Concept of Abax or Algorithmic Unit (ALU) Precursor to notion of computing unit Lines & pebbles

3200 B.C. Sumer Origin of accounting and number storage

Clay tablets Arithmetic

Early History

3000 B.C. China & Babylon First use of beads on wires - Abacus Counting before numbers Commercial uses 2400 B.C. – used to compute the first

recorded mention of π 31/8

2500 B.C. Egypt First ideas of a “thinking machine” Primitive conception of AI

Early History

2000 B.C. Sanskrit & Chinese writing

1850 B.C. Egypt “the Rhind”: First record of collections of math

problems Puzzles & story problems; math riddles

1800 B.C. Egypt Developed use of addition systems

1438 B.C. Egypt Water clock Control flow

Early History

1300 B.C. China Development of decimal system Basis of floating-point numbers

600 B.C. Pythagorean theorem “rediscovered” Spread of Abacus Advancements in arithmetic in China 550 B.C. - Rediscovery of irrational numbers

Early History

300 B.C. Widespread use of 1-9 sequence of

numerals Babylonian Salamis tablet

200 B.C. India The invention of Binary Decimal binary 1’s and 2’s instead of 0’s and 1’s

As the Roman Empire fell…

150 - 100 B.C. Antikythera mechanism

First analog computer Astronomy Advanced technology

724 First mechanical clock Precedent for computers and robotics

The spread of education

1200 Logic Formal thought

1502 Da Vinci Plans for first mechanical calculator Gears

1642 Blaise Pascal Constructed the first mechanical calculator

Early technologies

1724 China First fully mechanical clock

1804 the Jacquard loom Punched card as “key” to a mechanized

loom 1850 Difference Engine

Charles Babbage designed, failed to create Hand cranked, mechanical, digital

computer Same basic functions as modern computers

“Modern” Uses

19th century - Ada Lovelace First computer programmer computer algorithm Pioneer of multimedia Even has a programming language named

after her

“Modern” Uses

Herman Hollerith Father of automatic

computation 1880 census

Loom & punch card design Tabulator and sorter

Founded CTR company IBM

Citations

http://www.thocp.net/timeline/0000.htm Abax, Abacus, Water clock

http://www.atariarchives.org/deli/artificial_intelligence.php Thinking Machine

http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ab34 Sanskrit

http://www.world-mysteries.com/sar_4.htm Antikythera Mechanism

http://www.thocp.net/timeline/0469.htm Antikythera Mechanism 2, Mechanical Clock, Abelard's

http://www.readcube.com/articles/10.1038/444534a Antikythera 3

Citations

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/abelard/#Log Peter Abelard's Logic

http://www.educalc.net/197481.page Da Vinci's Calculator http://lecture.eingang.org/pascaline.html Pascal's Calculator http://www.thocp.net/timeline/1620.htm Pascal 2 http://groups.engin.umd.umich.edu/CIS/course.des/cis400/ad

a/ada.html Ada Lovelace

http://www.computerhistory.org/babbage/adalovelace/ Ada 2

http://www.computerhistory.org/babbage/engines/ Babbage Engine

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/hollerith.html - Herman Hollerith

Citations

http://www.assa10.dsl.pipex.com/pre1945/count%20board.jpg - Abax

http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb309/NWA747/keys2.jpg  - Loom

http://financialsensei.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/cogs2.jpg - Antikythera

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/Difference_engine_plate_1853.jpg - Babbage Engine

http://www.neac2.eu/water/images/miscellaneous/clock-water.gif - water clock

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/census-tabulator.html - tabulator