Zyan Rey E.

De Asis
BS-CE 2C

I. EARLY COUNTING AND CALCULATING DEVICES

1.) Abacus – The abacus is one of the earliest counting devices used for
arithmetic calculations. It originated 2700 years ago in Sumer. The abacus
is made of beads strung by several wires. The position of a bead determines
its value. Thus, only a few beads are required to represent large numbers.
The abacus is used typically for basic addition and subtraction and the way
it works is that the beads on the wooden rows are moved according to
certain rules. For example, if the abacus is used for addition, beads are
grouped together and if it were subtraction, they are moved away from each
other.

2.) Napier Bones – Napier’s Bones is a manual calculating device using strips
of ivory or other types of material that are divided into sections. This was
published in 1617. This device consists of numbered rods which can be
used to perform multiplication of any number by a number 2-9. By placing
"bones" corresponding to the multiplier on the left side and the bones
corresponding to the digits of the multiplicand next to it to the right, the
product can be read off simply by adding pairs of numbers (with appropriate
carries as needed) in the row determined by the multiplier.

There are ten bones corresponding to the digits 0-9, and a special eleventh
bone that is used to represent the multiplier. The multiplier bone is simply a
list of the digits 1-9 arranged vertically downward. The remainder of the
bones each have a digit written in the top square, with the multiplication
table for those digits written downward, with the digits split by a diagonal
line going from the lower left to the upper right.
 In practice, multiple sets of bones were needed for multiplication of numbers
containing repeated digits as needed in the row determined by
the multiplier.

3.) Pascaline Calculator - The Pascaline was designed and built by the
French mathematician-philosopher Blaise Pascal between 1642 and 1644.
This was invented to help his father, a tax collector, where arithmetic
operations involving large numbers had to be added or subtracted. This
mathematical apparatus had the ability to add, subtract, although it did not
do so directly, the machine was also capable of multiplying and dividing by
means of subtractions or additions in a repetitive manner.

The Pascaline had the shape of a shoe box and was low and somewhat
elongated. On the inside, there were a series of sprockets that were
connected to each other, thus forming a transmission chain, so that when a
wheel turned completely on its axle, it advanced one degree to the next.
These different wheels that were inside the Pascaline had as function to
represent the decimal system of numeration. Each wheel consisted of ten
steps, so it was also marked with numbers ranging from 9 to 0.

In total it consisted of eight wheels, six of them were used to represent

whole numbers and two more wheels, at the far left, to represent decimal
numbers. With this arrangement, whole numbers between 0’01 and
999.999’99 could be handled.
 By means of a crank, the toothed wheels could turn to achieve adding or
subtracting in this way. If a number needed to be subtracted, the crank had
to be operated in the opposite direction.

4.) Stepped Reckoner – Gottfried Leibniz’s 1673 “Step Reckoner” introduced

a design innovation that enabled a single gear to represent any digit from 0
to 9 in just one revolution. Using a stepped drum, this device mechanized
multiplication as well as addition by performing repetitive additions. This
aimed to expand on the Pascaline so that it can multiply and divide more
efficiently.
II. MECHANICAL CALCULATING DEVICES

1.) Arithmometer – This device was patented by Thomas de Colmar in 1820

and was the first successful mechanical calculator to be used in offices.
From 1851 to 1890, the Arithmometer was the only type of mechanical
calculator in production. The machine can perform addition and subtraction
directly and can perform long multiplication and division. The 1820 machine
had a ribbon to pull (instead of a crank as later models), a second set of
result displays for subtraction and division, and a multiplication gear, set by
the first slider from left, which allowed the “multiple add” by one “pull” and
showed the number of the revolutions of the calculating mechanism. It had
a three-digit capacity in the input mechanism and a six-digit capacity in the
result mechanism. It only had the clearance of the single result digits.

2.) Comptometer and Comptograph - The comptometer was the first

mechanical calculator with keyboard. The keyboard consists of 8 columns
of 9 keys. The comptometer is very similar to Pascal’s Calculator but can
perform faster calculations due to its keyboard. It can perform addition,
subtraction, and long multiplication and division. Some comptometers have
keys for special purposes such as currency and weight. The basic function
of the comptometer is addition. There is a column of keys (in general 1-9)
for each decade. When a key is pressed, that number is added to that
decade, with carry to the next higher decade, if applicable. Pulling the lever
forwards clears the total to zero.
3.) Difference Engine - The Difference Engine was designed by Charles
Babbage in 1822. It would have been the first machine capable of
calculating and holding 7 numbers with 31 digits each and automatically
used results from previous operations as inputs. It was designed to tabulate
polynomial functions. Difference engines are strictly calculators. They
crunch numbers the only way they know how - by repeated addition
according to the method of finite differences. They cannot be used for
general arithmetical calculation.

4.) The Millionaire - The millionaire was the first calculating machine that could
perform direct multiplication. Unlike its predecessors like the Pascaline
where multiplication is performed by repeated addition, the millionaire only
requires one turn of a crank and handle to multiply an entered number by a
multiply. The device used a mechanical representation of the multiplication
table to form partial products and it solves problems involving multiplication
by basing on that representation.
III. GENERATION OF COMPUTERS

A. First Generation Computers (1940-1956)

Vacuum tubes were the brains of the first-generation computers. These

computers were enormous in size and weight. Because they employed
high-level programming languages and had no operating system, they
weren't particularly dependable, and programming on them was
incredibly time-consuming. They were used for calculations, storage,
and control. They required an entire room since they were so big and
because of their size, they consumed a lot of electricity.

Some of the main computers of this generation were:

• Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) - the
first programmable general-purpose electronic digital computer
produced by the United States during World War II. It lacked
versatility as it was only designed and intended for computing
values for artillery range tables.
• Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer (EDVAC) -
One of the first major mainframe computers created in the 1940s
was the Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer
(EDVAC). It was the first mainframe computer to use binary
instead of decimal number system. As a binary serial computer,
EDVAC processed mathematical operations with a serial memory
capacity of roughly 5.5 kB. EDVAC used magnetic tape as a data
media and could run over 20 hours a day.
• Universal Automatic Computer (UNIVAC) – It was an updated
version of the ENIAC. The UNIVAC I was designed as a
commercial data-processing computer, intended to replace the
punched-card accounting machines of the day. Data could be
inputted using magnetic computer tape and it was tabulated using
vacuum tubes and state-of-the-art circuits then either printed out
or stored on more magnetic tape. It was the first successful
civilian computer and was a key part of the dawn of the computer
age.
B. Second Generation Computers (1956-1963)

Second-generation computers used the technology of transistors rather

than bulky vacuum tubes from the first generation. Another feature was
the core storage. Transistors are devices composed of semiconductor
material that amplifies a sign or opens or closes a circuit. The use of
these semiconductors made the computers of this generation perform
much faster and powerful than its predecessors. Because of this, the
size of these computers has been reduced and the power consumption
is low as a result. Despite this, a significant improvement in performance
was evident in this generation of computers. Programming language
was shifted from high level to programming language and made
programming comparatively a simple task for programmers. Languages
used for programming during this era were FORTRAN (1956), ALGOL
(1958), and COBOL (1959).

C. Third Generation Computers (1964-1971)

During this generation, there was a shift from the use of transistors to
integrated circuits. Third generation computers emerged because of the
development of the integrated circuit. A single circuit has many
transistors, registers, and capacitors built on one thin slice of silicon, now
known as a microchip. The value size was reduced and memory space
and dealing efficiency were increased during this generation.
Minicomputers/microcomputers find their shape during this era because
the use of integrated circuits allowed the machines to be smaller in size.
In comparison to the previous generations where computers would
occupy whole rooms, the size of computers in this generation were
greatly reduced, allowing them to be as small as a toaster.

D. Fourth Generation Computers (1971-1980)

The computers in this generation used the VLSI technology or the Very
Large Scale Integrated (VLSI) circuits technology. LSI circuits having
about 5000 transistors and other circuit elements with their associated
circuits on a single chip made it possible to have microcomputers of
fourth generation. Fourth generation computers became more powerful,
compact, reliable, and affordable. As a result, it gave rise to Personal
Computer (PC) revolution. In this generation, time-sharing, real-time
networks, distributed operating system were used. All the high-level
languages like C, C++, DBASE etc., were used in this generation.
Cathode-ray tube computer monitors were the most commonly used in
this generation.
E. Fifth Generation Computers (1980-Present)

This generation is based on parallel processing hardware and AI

(Artificial Intelligence) software. AI is an emerging branch in computer
science, which interprets the means and method of making computers
think like human beings which is often seen in programs like voice
recognition, area of medicines, and entertainment. All the high-level
languages like C and C++, Java, .Net etc., are used in this generation.
VLSI technology also became ULSI (Ultra Large Scale Integration)
technology, resulting in the production of microprocessor chips having
ten million electronic components. These computers are at the cutting
edge of modern scientific computations and are being utilized to develop
artificial intelligence (AI) software and that the primary goal of this
generation is to ultimately produce computers that can learn and
organize themselves.
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