Module 1
Section 2
2.2 Prehistory
There are a number of people to whom the title 'Grandfather', 'Father', or even 'Godfather' of computing have been applied. One of these is
1. Charles Babbage: a Victorian engineer, mathematician and philosopher.
Babbage designed:
The Difference Engine: This was a device to calculate navigational tables, which were so important at the time but which were often ridden with errors introduced through manual calculations.
Analytical Engine: it is a general-purpose device, capable of performing arithmetic or logical functions.
Interest in machines for automating processes was not renewed until two factors made it urgent:
1. The Second World War.
2. The growth in office-based work.
2. Alan Turing: He studied mathematics. he published a paper to refute the mathematician David Hilbert, who claimed that any mathematical problem could be solved.
Turing designed:
Turning Machine: general-purpose mechanical device which would receive basic instructions from a tape stream telling it what to do.
English: Two pieces of ENIAC currently on display ...
Kay McNulty hands a print-out of ENIAC results to ...
Turing at the time of his election to Fellowship o...By using this hypothetical device Turing proved Hilbert wrong - not all mathematical problems can be solved. It was the basis for the computers which were to follow, in that it could imitate the function of another machine, such as a typewriter, given the appropriate instructions.
He is the founder of what is now called Artificial Intelligence
During the Second World War Turing worked at the secret British code-breaking centre. He worked on an electronic computer called Colossus, which had many similarities to the American pioneering computer ENIAC.
3. John von Neumann: When talking about digital computers many people refer to the von Neumann architecture. Neumann made his name as a brilliant mathematician and extraordinary intellect.
ENIAC: (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was the first large-scale computer, and was conceived by John Mauchly and Presper Eckert. It used vacuum tubes instead of...