diff --git a/.zk/notebook.db b/.zk/notebook.db index a8c5067..0e712d9 100644 Binary files a/.zk/notebook.db and b/.zk/notebook.db differ diff --git a/zk/The_History_of_Computing_Swade.md b/zk/The_History_of_Computing_Swade.md index cbc2971..b571be9 100644 --- a/zk/The_History_of_Computing_Swade.md +++ b/zk/The_History_of_Computing_Swade.md @@ -1,6 +1,7 @@ --- title: Very_Short_History_of_Computing_2022 -tags: [literature, computer-history] +tags: + [literature, computer-history, Leibniz, Babbage, Lovelace, Turing, Neumann] created: Friday, August 23, 2024 --- @@ -20,7 +21,7 @@ A typical timeline approach rooted in major innovations. Pascal, Leibniz) - Modern aids to calculation: slide rules following the discovery of [logarithms](Logarithms.md) -- Mechanized calculating engines of Babbage in the 19th century +- Mechanised, automated calculating engines of Babbage in the 19th century - Punched-card machines leading to IBM in the early 20th century - Analogue and electro-mechanical computers of the early 20th century inclusive of wartime computers @@ -33,3 +34,64 @@ A typical timeline approach rooted in major innovations. - Consumer personal computers - Internet and later, Web - Smart phones + +## Mechanical calculating devices in the 17th century + +Focus was chiefly on creating a desktop calculator capable of four-function +arithmetic. + +![Photograph of Pascaline](../img/pascaline.jpg) + +![Photograph of replica of Leibniz stepped drum machine](../img/leibniz-stepped-drum.jpg) + +The main contenders were Pascal's Pascaline (which only did cumulative addition) +and Leibniz's wheel or "stepped drum" calculator that could do all operations +(in theory). + +Subsequent designs were based on these artefacts. In practice, neither worked +consistently well with the carriage of tens remaining a sticking point. + +![Photograph of Arithmometer](../img/arithmometer.jpg) + +![Photograph of Comptometer](../img/comptometer.png) + +The arithmometer (crank driven) and comptometer (key-driven) were descendents of +the Leibniz design that became commercially viable by the 19th century along +with other mechanical calculators. In the US, Burroughs dominated the market. + +## Babbage: mechanized, automated calculation + +> I wish to God these calculations had been executed by Steam (Babbage) + +With Babbage's machines we see an approach to computation that can only be +understood against the backdrop of the Industrial Revolution in which they were +conceived. + +The idea is that the machine is a factory and number is the product. In the same +way as the mechanised looms created textiles. It is the extension of a model of +industrial production from goods/commodities to information. + +Babbage conceived two machines: the Difference Engine (DE) and the Analytical +Engine (AE). Neither were successfully built in his lifetime. The DE preceded +the AE and was basically an advanced mechanical calculator whereas the AE +approximated a general purpose computer. + +## Difference Engine + +The DE's single purpose was to calculate and output mathematical tables such as +the results of polynomial equations. The idea was that you would input the +variables of the equation and activate the machine and it would output the +results. Associated with this concept was the idea that once it arrived at the +answer a bell would ring and the machine would _halt_. This influenced Turing +later. It was non-programmable and designed for a specific set of calculations. + +## Analytical Engine + +Conceived as a general-purpose computing machine capable of perfoming a wide +range of calculations, programmable using punched cards similar to those used +with Jacquard looms. + +It more resembled modern computers in that Babbage used concepts that would +later translate into the von Neumann architecture. There was a "mill" (CPU), +"store" (memory) and input/output mechanisms. It also had a concept of looping +and conditional branching.