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EG21002 Assignment 1
EG21002 Assignment 1
ASSIGNMENT PART 1
They control almost everything in our everyday life. From washing machines to
our cars, they are essential, without them Western society would collapse. They
can also be one of the biggest annoyances to us, crashing, turning off without
warning and spewing lewd warning messages at us. They are computers, the
development of which spans 3 centuries and has been a high speed fury of
technological achievement and implementation, and in some cases unfortunate
setbacks.
Back when computers were men with pencils the world was a different place.
Electricity was something that came out of the sky and the play thing of
physicists, however there was a real need for accuracy and the “computers of
the time” were un-reliable in constantly providing it. A gentleman, mechanical
engineer, mathematician, philosopher and inventor, Charles Babbage was what
could be seen as the father of computing. On the 14thJune 1822 Babbage
proposed a machine to the British Government for the “Computation of
astronomical and mathematical tables”. This machine was what was later to be
known as the Difference engine, essentially a mechanical calculator, the
operation of which is highly complicated and would require far more than 2
pages to describe. Unfortunately, the difference engine wasn’t made until 1991,
and was constructed to celebrate Babbage’s 250thBirthday. If the Difference
engine was manufactured back during the Industrial Revolution many things
could have been different, mistakes could have beenavoided such as the sinking
of the Titanic and the failure of many mechanical components. What could have
been the first step in computer technology was forgotten with the death of
Babbage in 1871.
It wasn’t really until the Second World War was the potential of the computer
really understood, and its existence madepossible. Solving the German codes
were becoming increasingly difficult and time consuming, and frankly there were
not enough “computers” to do the work. A real world solution was proposedby
an unknown post office engineer called Tommy Flower, who was very close to
another brain of the time Alan Turing. The two realised that a computer needed
to consist of an array of switches, just like a telephone exchange. Even though
the government dismissed his idea he went ahead with the project and created
in 1943 what was to be known as Colossus, the first programmable, digital,
electronic, computer. Colossus was not mechanical like the Difference engine
that Babbage has designed, but operated using what was at the time cutting
edge electronics. The thermionic valve (of which there were 1500 in its first
iteration).
Christopher Tayler
“When hot, the filament releases electrons into the vacuum: a process called
thermionic emission. The resulting negatively charged cloud of electrons is
called a space charge. These electrons will be drawn to a metal plate inside the
envelope, if the plate (also called the anode) is positively charged relative to the
filament (or cathode). The result is a flow of electrons from filament to plate. This
cannot work in the reverse direction because the plate is not heated and does
not emit electrons. This very simple example described can thus be seen to
operate as a diode: a device that conducts current only in one direction. The
vacuum tube diode conducts conventional current from plate (anode) to the
filament (cathode); this is the opposite direction to the flow of electrons (called
electron current).” (Vacuum tube, 2008)
Colossus had paved the way for computing, using a combination of switches and
various magnetic storage methods, but the machine took up a huge amount of
space, and the only way forward was to miniaturise, and unfortunately was kept
under raps until the mid 70’s by the government. With the invention of the
transistor this was achieved. Transistors performed the same function as valves,
but used the principles of semi-conductors. Computers became smaller and
smaller as more and more transistors were squeezed onto chips. The first
desktop-size system specifically designed for personal use appeared in 1974; it
was offered by Micro Instrumentation Telemetry Systems (MITS) and sparked a
race amongst companies to get a share in this new market.
The form which most computer systems now have (a screen, key board, mouse
and CPU) was established in the mid 80’s when systems were getting even more
affordable and easier to use. Not only were developments in the transistor
technology changing how computers were used, but also storage mediums.
Hard drives had to become larger and larger as programs required more space,
the same goes for RAM. Computers had started to get a grip on our everyday
life, and started to slither their way into everything even slightly automated.
The history of computers has been a rocky one. Setbacks and secrets
hamperedthe development in its early days. Recently computers have
Christopher Tayler
Bibliography
Vacuum tube. (2008, December). Retrieved 2008, from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_tube