Chapter 1: Advent of Commercial Computing

Univac Advertisement “You… fellows ought to go back and change your program entirely, stop this… foolishness with Eckert & Mauchley” - Howard Aiken, 1948 * Historical Note: there were no computer scientists

Hollerith to IBM 1880 – US Census Bureau 1890 – Tabulating Machines Tabulating Machines Co. International Business Machines Unit record equipment Decks of punch cards Basis of IBM’s success 3

Punch Card Systems Same operation on each record of deck Not well suited for scientific applications 1930’s – Some scientific users IBM – through the 1950’s Sold thousands of pc systems Card Programmed Calculator (CPC) Variety of new components 4

Card Controlled Calculator Northrop Aircraft, CA Attached printer to punch card machines Attached cables IBM marketed new set-up Transition to electronic computers 5

Punch Card Equipment 6

ENIAC J. Presper Eckert & John Mauchley U. of PA Moore School of EE Firing tables of US Army 18,000 vacuum tubes Pressure to complete 1949 Programming (set up) Plug Cables Set Switches 7

ENIAC Move to Aberdeen delayed due to demand for use 1948 – fully booked for 2 years But…already had better ideas Stored program to eliminate plugs & switches 8

First College Computer Course Summer 1946 Moore School of U of PA with U. S. Military Theory & Techniques for Design of Electronic Digital Computers Result of the staff’s inability to accommodate requests for information after unveiling of the ENIAC 9

Howard Aiken Harvard mathematician MARK I Calculator “You fellows ought to go back and change your program entirely, stop this foolishness with Mauchley & Eckert.” US need for only 5 or 6 such machines 10

EDVAC Electronic Discrete Variable Computer “An important feature of this device was that operating instructions and function tables would be stored exactly in the same sort of memory device as that used for numbers.” 6 months later – Mauchley & Eckert left to form UNIVAC (stored program computer) 11

John von Neumann Chance Meeting with Herman Goldstine “First Draft of a report on EDVAC” June 30 th, 1945 Von Neumann Architecture Instruction and data in same memory device *Summer Moore School - 1 st course “Theory & Techniques for Design of Electronic Digital Computers” 12

Eckert Mauchley Computer Corp. Left PA March 31, 1946 (patent disagreement) Incorporated in Dec *DETAILS IN VIDEO* Bought by Remington-Rand 1 st UNIVAC - US Census Bureau March 31 st, 1951 #2 Pentagon: USAF June 1952 See Table on Pg. 28 for installations 13

UNIVAC Features One Memory for data & Instructions (1000 words) Binary Coded Decimal Clock Speed 2.25 MHz 465 Multiplications/ Second Mercury Tubes and Magnetic Tape (no cards) Excessive Redundancy – reliability Alphanumeric Processing Check Bits & Buffers Output – high speed line printer (1954) 14

UNIVAC 1 – Central Computer 15

UNIVAC – The First Users (p.26) *Revolutionary: tape replaced punch cards Too late for 1950 Census; some state work USAF & Atomic Energy Commission Pentagon- Project SCOOP Scientific Computation of Optimum Problems- Linear programming discovered Presidential Election UNIVAC became generic G.E: 1 st Payroll Oct. 15,

IBM Still selling punch card machines May IBM mult/sec (4x UNIVAC) Hired Von Neumann as consultant 1 st IBM Headquarters, NY, Dec nd - Los Alamos Nuclear Weapons Lab, ’53 19 Built- US Def. Dept or military aerospace firms Rent Only: $15,000 a month September ’ built 14 17

Punch Card Computer System 18 Railroad Computer 1967

Engineering Research Associates Spun off from NAVY - codebreakers Seymour Cray, William Norris Task 13 – general purpose electronic computer, 1947 to 1951 Atlas for NAVY; Model 1101 for public-20 Bought by Remington Rand st core memory (not tubes), binary arithmetic, “interrupt” 19

Magnetic Drum Late 1930’s –John V. Atanasoff ERA developed; 4.3 to 34 inch diameter Inexpensive but slow Number of inexpensive Computers in 1950’s Computer Research Corp., CA Bought by National Cash Register Labrascope/General Precision $30,000, one of cheapest ever Small, affordable Univac Drum 20

Magnetic Drum (contd) Bendix – Turing vs. von Neumann design Minimum latency coding for drum (Turing) $45,000 Fast but difficult to program Bought by Control Data Corp. IBM 650, 1954 (modest computer) $3,500 per month Universities 60% discount If promised to teach courses Mag Drum

Summary First Generation of Computer Cards, Tubes, Tapes, Drums, Diodes… Numerous start-ups bought out IBM & Others quite successful 22