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Text File | 1993-08-16 | 16.2 KB | 293 lines

---------------------------------------------------------------- A LITTLE PC HISTORY WHERE WE'VE BEEN WITH NO IDEA WHERE WE'RE GOING! ---------------------------------------------------------------- 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 PCL6, PO Box 1506, Mercer Island, WA 98040. Latest version of PC-Learn and two bonus disks shipped promptly!