Libris Britannia 4/science library(b).zip/science library(b)/INFO/PCL57.ZIP/PART1.EXE/HISTORY.TUT

Text File | 1992-12-30 | 17KB | 293 lines

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                              A LITTLE PC HISTORY
               WHERE WE'VE BEEN WITH NO IDEA WHERE WE'RE GOING!

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       In the beginning . . .

       Computing or calculating by machine began in the middle east
       with the use of pegs or stones in trays or channels. The
       Babylonians developed the idea of stone or bead counters into
       the more modern abacus - modern in the sense that the abacus is
       still in use today and in the hands of an experienced operator
       can calculate results faster than a computer!

       The beauty of the abacus is its simplicity in construction and
       operation. Inexpensive beads of stone or wood and a simple frame
       make up the abacus and the uneducated could quickly be trained
       in its use.

       In the 8th and 9th centuries we note the rise of the Arabic
       numeral system which slowly spread through Europe and the then
       civilized world. Although a superior calculating system, Arabic
       numerals required the user to understand the more complicated
       numerical theory associated with the system.

       By the early 1600's Napier (often associated with the
       development of logarithms and their practical application)
       introduced a series of rods which could be used for
       multiplication - a crude slide rule system.

       Soon, ever more complicated "calculating engines" or primitive
       mechanical computing devices appeared. One example is the
       complex Pascaline invented by Blaise Pascal.

       By 1791 the stage was set. Babbage, an English mathematician and
       inventor with the help of Ada Byron (daughter of lord Byron, the
       famous poet) developed the ideas for two mechanical calculators
       or "number engines." The Difference Engine was a device to solve
       polynomial equations by the methods of differences. The
       Analytical Engine (which was never built)) was designed as a
       general computing device. Both were mechanical in concept using
       gears, rods and cams to perform calculations. Unfortunately
       neither machine was built since the tooling and machining
       technology of the day was imprecise and could not construct the
       accurate parts needed.

       However the models and planning of Babbage and Byron did lead to
       important preliminary computing concepts still in use today. As
       an aside, we should note from the work of Babbage and Byron that
       computing even in its infancy was strongly influenced by BOTH
       women and men - let's face it, computing is NOT gender specific!

       Next we jump to the United States. By 1880 a problem had arisen
       with the United States census. By that time, it took 7 years to
       process all of the information gathered by the Census Bureau
       since all tabulation was done by hand on paper. It was assumed
       that the 1890 census might take 10 to 12 years to tabulate.
       Clearly a better method was needed to crunch the volume of
       numbers and data. A public competition was held to produce a
       better indexing or mechanical system to tabulate future census
       results. Herman Hollerith, a census employee, handily won by
       suggesting the use of punch cards and a form of punch card
       reader which tabulated the results in six weeks. Hollerith, wise
       in the ways of computing devices and seeing a good opportunity
       went on to found the Tabulating Machine Company (later changed
       to IBM). Hollerith might be thus thought of as our first
       computer entrepreneur!

       The advent of World War II provided the impetus for the
       development of more refined computing devices. The Mark I was an
       electromechanical device using relays. IBM built that computer
       for the Navy. Later, the Colossus was built for the British and
       used for wartime code breaking of German radio transmissions.
       The ABC (Atanasoff-Berry Computer) was constructed at Iowa State
       and was the first fully electronic digital computer.

       Admiral Grace Hopper, known as "Amazing Grace" to some, was a
       naval officer and pioneer in the field of computer programming
       during the 1940's and 50's. An innovative and fundamental
       thinker, she recognized that computers could be used for
       business applications - a pioneering insight beyond the then
       conventional use of computers for scientific and military
       applications. Her programming language called "Flowmatic" later
       evolved into COBOL, the most common and still popular language
       for programming business software. She died in 1992 and is
       buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

       Computing science continued to evolve rapidly . . .

       Eniac was the most famous of the early computers and contained
       18,000 vacuum tubes and was used by the Army for ballistics
       calculations.

       Edvac was the first stored memory computing device which did
       away with rewiring tasks associated with changing computer
       programs and represented a true computer breakthrough. This
       first generation of machines running from roughly 1951 through
       1958 featured computers characterized by the use of radio type
       vacuum tubes. But the pace was increasing . . .

       Second generation machines such as the famous Univac were
       designed as true general or universal purpose machines and could
       process both alphabetic and numeric problems and data. Punch
       cards still formed the major input path to the machines of this
       era and all programming was done in complex low level machine
       language commands.

       By 1959 with the invention of the transistor, computers began to
       shrink in size and cost and operate faster and more dependably
       than the huge vacuum tube models. Programming languages began to
       feature English-like instructions rather than cumbersome machine
       code or assembly language. Fortran and Cobol are two modern
       "high level" languages developed during this period and still in
       use today.

       In many respects, the personal computer industry began in 1974
       when the Intel corporation introduced a CPU integrated circuit
       chip named the 8080. It contained 4,500 transistors and could
       address 64K of memory through a 16 bit data bus. The 8080 was
       the integrated circuit brain behind the early MITS Altair
       personal computer which fired popular interest in home and small
       business computing when it appeared on the July 1975 cover of
       Popular Electronics Magazine. The first MITS Altair contained no
       keyboard or monitor, only crude LED lights and tiny flip
       switches to facilitate programming.

       Four years later in 1978 Intel released the 8086 chip which had
       a tenfold increase in performance over the 8080 chip. When IBM
       began the design phase of the first desktop PC units in 1980 and
       1981, they chose the cousin of the 8086, the Intel 8088 chip, to
       power the first PC which was designed for modest corporate use
       but quickly exploded in popularity due to an excellent design,
       spectacular keyboard and openess to upgrade by the addition of
       "plug in" boards and cards.

       Early IBM PC computers retained a link with the past by allowing
       the addition of a small "Baby Blue" circuit board which could
       run software programs based on the then dominant CPM operating
       system.

       Finally we come to the present decade . . .

       August 1981. Original IBM PC (personal computer) introduced. Has
       options for monochrome and CGA color display. Receives generally
       good reviews and acceptance by business users and a few home
       users. Original DOS version 1.0 released which supported only
       single sided disks (160K capacity). Later version 1.1 corrected
       bugs (problems) in the DOS programming code and provided double
       sided disks (320K capacity), and faster disk access, date and
       time stamping and better serial communications.

       August 1982. Monochrome resolution of PC screen increased with
       introduction of the Hercules graphics card circuit. Combined
       with the LOTUS 123 spreadsheet, the IBM PC was now a hot choice
       for corporate computing.

       November 1982. Compaq portable arrives. First IBM clone on the
       market. The IBM PC standard is growing in popularity. Clone
       makers start to copy the PC in earnest. Software companies such
       as Phoenix technologies prepare BIOS and SYS programs which run
       the same as the IBM BIOS program without the copyright violation
       which every clone computer tries to avoid. BIOS stands for basic
       input and output system and is the core software essential to
       keyboard, disk and screen input/output. The BIOS is considered
       legally protected IBM software code, but can be simulated (or
       emulated) closely by a clever programmer in an attempt to do the
       same job, without using exactly the same programming code.

       March 1983. IBM introduces the PC XT (increased memory and hard
       drive capability). DOS version 2.0 released. This second DOS
       version includes hard drive capability, filter commands (sort,
       find, more), and a new floppy format system for 360K capacity
       per floppy. IBM bios code upgraded.

       October 1983. IBM PC JR released. Market disappointment for that
       IBM entry into the home market with the underpowered PC JR. The
       larger IBM PC standard is rapidly growing as the standard for
       personal computers and clones.

       March 1984. IBM PC portable introduced. Portable clones already
       on the market with small but growing success.

       August 1984. IBM PC AT machine arrives. More power, a new
       processor (Intel 80286). New screen display standard (EGA). Also
       new version of DOS 3.0. This version of DOS now takes into
       account the AT high density floppy drive (1.2 meg or million
       characters of capacity), read only files and a new disk write
       system for better file recovery in case of errors. Shortly
       thereafter, DOS 3.1 addresses file sharing.

       November 1985. Microsoft windows graphic display environment
       released. NEC multisync monitor is released.

       December 1985. DOS 3.2 supports the new 3.5 inch 720K diskettes.
       DOS now addresses up to 32MB on a single hard disk.

       April 1986. Older IBM PC standard model discontinued for newer
       models. IBM PC convertible model is released.

       September 1986. Compaq jumps the gun on IBM with release of new
       (80386) processor computer with more power than the PC AT.

       April 1987. IBM PS/2 models 30, 50 and 60 released. DOS 3.3
       released. VGA video standard arrives. IBM blesses the new 3.5
       inch minifloppy already in use on Apple Macintosh computers by
       offering that format on IBM machines. 1.44MB format is supported
       for high density floppy users. OS/2 operating system announced.

       August 1987. Microsoft windows version 2.0 arrives.

       November 1988. DOS 4.01 released which includes a shell menu
       interface system. This release of DOS, largely developed by IBM,
       generally ignored due to poor performance and large memory
       requirements. Many users stick with DOS 3.3.

       1988 Laptop computers, smaller versions of desktop computers,
       are sold in large volumes. Size as well as features become
       issues in computer sales.

       1990 Microsoft introduces Windows version 3.0 which includes a
       superb graphical user interface (GUI) display for the PC.
       Improves on earlier versions of Windows. Using software is more
       productive with multiple graphical software windows and the
       possibility of jumping between several software tasks operating
       on screen. But windows can only run acceptably on more expensive
       "high end" machines such as those containing the 386DX or 386SX
       chip. For many users in small offices or home offices, Windows
       may not be a necessity where simple DOS applications offer
       affordable functionality on low priced PC's not equipped to run
       Windows applications.

       1991 Laptop computers, portable FAX systems, and cellular
       portable phone technology allow computers to function anywhere
       on the go for a practical "portable office" concept. Still newer
       "palmtop" computers about the size of portable calculators now
       offer full IBM compatable functionality.

       June 1991. DOS 5.0 is released which includes excellent new
       features including an improved menu interface, full-screen
       editor which improves on the Edlin editor, some limited task-
       swapping abilities, unformat/unerase utility, improved Basic
       interpreter, and ability to load system files to High Memory on
       machines having at least 1MB for improved performance and
       increased conventional memory availability for primary applications.
       DOS 5.0 is seen to be a major and highly necessary update to the
       PC operating system. Generally receives good reviews from computer
       trade press.

       The future? Difficult to predict, but the consensus of industry
       observers is that the IBM PS/2 computers will migrate into the
       office scene while many home and home/office users will stay
       with older XT computers and AT models. Best entry level computer
       system at this time is judged by many experts to the a 386SX PC
       system which allows many types of software both current and
       future to work reliably. Prices continue to tumble on AT and XT
       compatibles ($400 to $500 range) and AT clones ($700 to
       $900 range). The operating system for AT and higher class machines
       (using 80286/80386 processors) is called OS/2 but requires more
       memory and the 80286/80386 processor found only in higher
       priced computers. OS/2 or Windows may slowly replace the older
       DOS system, but for many users of home and home/office machines
       not needing LAN networks (many computers talk to each other and
       share data), the DOS standard will live a long time. The Microsoft
       Windows 3.0 system may delay the acceptance of OS/2 for several
       years.

       In general expect things to happen faster, computers to become
       still smaller and prices to descend still further! Graphical
       user interfaces or GUI's will gradually become the standard so
       that users can point and click at small icon pictures and lists
       of tasks on screen to accomplish the work at hand rather than
       fight with terse and cryptic commands. Computing will become a
       standard in many small and home offices owing to the incredible
       power, accuracy and affordablity of personal computers. Laptop
       computers and even smaller palmtop computers will become new
       standards. Computers and modems linked by wireless cellular
       radio/telephone technology allow a single computer user the
       power of "large office computing" on the go from anywhere in the
       world! Shareware software will make strong inroads into the
       market as users evaluate commercial "high priced" software
       against user support "low cost" shareware software.

       Tutorial finished. Have you registered PC-Learn to receive your
       bonus disks? Registration is encouraged. Shareware works on the
       honor system! Send $25 to Seattle Scientific Photography,
       Department PCL5, PO Box 1506, Mercer Island, WA 98040. Latest
       version of PC-Learn and two bonus disks shipped promptly!