History of computing

History of Computing

history
CPUs
CPU chipsets
see also:

History:

Charles Babbage (b. 1791):
- difference engine;
- analytical engine (mechanical powered);
Herman Hollerith (1890):
- electrical tabulating machine using punched cards;
- => Tabulating Machine Co. (1896);
IBM:
- 1924: formed from merger of 3 companies incl. TMC;
- 1936: Harvard Mark 1 - electromechanical version of
- Babbage's analytical engine;
  - 8' high x 55' long, $1million;
UK:
- 1940: Colossus - special purpose computer used to crack Nazi radio-communications codes;
First Generation Computer (vacuum tubes):
- Mauchly, Eckert, (Atanasoff) (1946):
  - ENIAC
    - first general purpose electronic digital computer;
    - 18,000 vacuum tubes -> tube failure, heat problems;
    - $400,000, 140,000 Watts, huge room;
    - able to multiply a pair of no's in 3msec;
    - had to be rewired to change program;
- von Neumann (1946):
  - proposed the EDVAC, using a stored program concept to avoid the need to rewire the machine to change program;
- Mauchly, Eckert (1951):
  - UNIVAC (actually a ENIAC in disguise), sold to US Bureau of the Census;
    - used machine language only and data stored on punch cards;
    - magnetic core used for primary storage;
- 1957: magnetic tape used for storage;
Bell Lab. (1959):
- developed the transistor;
Second Generation Computers (transistors) (1959-1964):
- Transistors: 1/100th size, faster, more efficient, reliable;
- Higher languages developed:
  - Assembly:
    - use abbreviations/mnemonics (eg. A for Add);
    - require an assembler program to translate it into machine language;
  - High level:
    - English-like languages procedure or problem oriented;
    - require a compiler to translate into machine language;
      - Fortran (1954) -for complex scientific formulae;
      - Lisp (1958) -to process non-numeric data; esp. for artificial intelligence;
      - Cobol (1959) -business oriented;
      - Algol (1960) -scientific;
      - Snobol (early 60's) -string processing;
        
        esp. for text/language;
      - PLI (1964) -general purpose;
        
        requires large memory;
      - RPG (1964) -business problem oriented;
- Disk storage developed (1962):
Third Generation Computers (integrated circuit) (1965-1970):
- Silicon Chip:
  - 1 sq. cm able to hold 10,000 words;
  - developed simultaneously by Texas Inst. & Fairchild Semiconductor;
  - failure rate 1 in 33 million hours, small, cheap;
- IBM:
  - 1964: 360 Series (development costs $5 billion);
- More High Languages:
  - Basic (1965) -general purpose;
  - APL (1968) -for table handling; needs special keyboard and large memory;
Fourth Generation Computers (microprocessor) (1971-):
- Intel (1969) - developed the microprocessor, a general purpose processor on a chip;
- Large Scale Integration (1970):
  - thousands of int. circ. per chip;
- Very Large Scale Integration (1975):
- More High Languages:
  - Pascal (1971):
    - simple but limited i/o capabilities;
    - not for business;
  - Ada (1980) -complex, large;
- IBM PC (1981) with 8bit CPU & DOS
- IBM PC AT (1984) with 16bit 80286 CPU & DOS
- MS Windows v1.0 (1985) - not readily accepted, all windows tiled
- MS Windows v2.0 (1987):
  - compatible with OS/2 Presentation Manager; no default tiling;
  - but unstable, crashed a lot;
- 1990: 80486 32bit CPU shipped
- MS Windows v3.0 (May'90) the start of a new era - Windows became popular
- MS Windows v3.1 (Apr'92) more stable, OLE, drag-drop;
- MS WindowsNT 32bit but needed 16Mb RAM;
- MS Windows v3.11(Feb'94) inbuilt networking, faster.
- MS Windows 95 (mid'95) "Chicago" - 32bit-16bit hybrid DOS-Windows combined;
- IBM OS/2 Warp (Oct'94) 32bit, able to run well on 4Mb, needs separate MS Windows!
- MS Windows 95 OEM late'96 32bit FAT
- MS Windows 98 (mid-1998)
- 1994:
  - 486 CPU replaces 386 as base CPU for IBM compatibles.
  - Intel ships Pentium CPU's initially 60 & 66MHz then 3.3V 90 & 100MHz
  - Motorola ships PowerPC RISC CPU (jt devel. with Apple & IBM)
- Nov'94:
  - Fault found in Pentium FPU - Intel to replace all CPUs
- 1995:
  - Despite 5yrs of decline in supercomputing Cray Research (one of the survivors, now holding 70% of the market ), launch a new range: the T90 - 60billion calcs/sec.
  - Researchers demonstrate use of brain waves to move a cursor.
  - Borland releases Delphi.
  - Windows95 released with ill-faited Microsoft Network which failed due to the Internet.
  - Sun launches JAVA programming language for Internet applications.
  - Zip HDD cartridges 100Mb 27msec access, 0.79-1.4Mbps sustained transfer;
  - Most new software now distributed on CDROM.
- 1996:
  - Pentium 100-120, 16Mb RAM, 1.2Gb HDD, Hex speed CDROM, 15" monitor now "average"
  - Cyrix 5x86-133 now "base" - fits into 486 socket equiv. to Pentium75;
  - AMD Nx586 - requires proprietary non-Intel motherboard & chipsets.
  - Pentium Pro released mid-96 but runs 16bit slower than Pentium of same speed.
  - Cyrix 6x86 faster than same speed Pentium EXCEPT for floating point - much slower.
  - AMD 5K86 - pin compatible with P54C
  - Internet takes spotlight as large numbers sign up with 28.8k modems.
  - Toshiba release "Zoom Video" PC card with 27Mbps transfer.
  - Jaz HDD cartridges 1Gb, 12msec av.seek; 3.77-6.73Mbps sustained transfer;
  - Ram chip prices fall dramatically, EDO becomes popular as Triton II chipsets standard.
  - Borland releases Delphi 2 - 32bit version.
  - NEC introduce PD-CD 650Mb phase change rewritable drive which also reads CDROMs.
  - Video cards with 3D chips arrive for general use.
  - Syquest SyJet 1.3Gb removable cartridges $965 drive; $186/disk;
  - .35 micron chip processing for mobile pentium chips - not as hot or battery-draining as desktop ones
- 1997:
  - Pentium P55C - MMX - 64bit multimedia register for native signal processing.
  - MPEG2 & digital video disc- DVD player $1200 Aug'97;
  - Infra-red serial communications IRDA 4Mbps but still all use only 115kbps.
  - 32bit BUS (PCMCIA or PC) cards for notebooks
  - Zoomed video ports on notebooks
  - 128bit video bus common on both desktops and the better notebooks
  - 32Mb RAM becoming standard but still an option
  - Most buy Pentium 133-166 +/- MMX which is an extra $200-$300
  - Universal serial bus but as yet no operating system support
  - Firewire but as yet no operating system support
  - Lithium polymer batteries being developed for notebooks but still only NiMH or Li ion.
  - Borland Delphi 3:
    - MIDAS multi-tiered database; ActiveX builder; DCOM;
- 1998:
  - Pentium II 233-366MHz, 64Mb RAM, USB becoming commonplace in home computers.
  - AGP video card slots but poor support as yet.
  - Sony 200Mb removable drive which also uses 1.44" floppies
  - v.90 modem 56K modem format agreed & modems with combined K56Flex, US robotics and v.90 standards introduced.
  - Re-writable CDROM drives $600-$900
  - Writable DVD drive $1500
  - IE 4:
    - can incorporate into Windows desktop
  - Netscape Communicator 4
  - Borland Delphi 4:
    - CORBA technology
  - Windows98
  - .25 micron chip processing => smaller, faster, less battery-draining chips (eg. Tillamook Pentiums)
  - Intel mobile module - CPU, L2 cache & chipset on a mini-board for laptops so can upgrade easier
  - Kodak DVC323 USB-based digital video camera $A349
  - Nokia cellular PCMCIA card phone 1.0 $A799
  - Dragon Naturally Speaking Deluxe v2.02 $A1399
- 1999:
  - MS Chrome 3D XML-based graphics engine:
    - min. hardware needed: Pentium II 350 with AGP video card!
  - MS IE 5:
    - proprietary XML support;
    - Chrome 3D engine
  - Netscape Communicator 5:
    - proprietary XML support;
    - Raptor HTML/graphics rendering engine
  - MS Office 9:
    - XML/HTML editing in MS Word
  - Pentium II, Celeron & Xeon CPUs will incorporate Katmai instruction set:
    - 70 instructions for floating point operations (cw MMX: integer operations)
    - will be supported by DirectX
- 2000:
  - Windows 2000 OS; MS Office 2000; Delphi 6
- 2003:
  - Pentium 4 chips;
  - Windows XP OS; MS Office 2003; MS .Net v1.0; C# language;
  - Delphi 8 with some .NET support
  - cable broadband internet commonplace
  - Adobe Photoshop 9
- 2004:
  - ADSL broadband internet commonplace
  - Adobe Photoshop CS
- 2005:
  - Adobe Photoshop CS/2;
  - Borland Visual Studio Suite 2005 - Delphi for Win32, Delphi for .NET v1.0 incl. C# support, C+
  - MS .Net v2.0;
- 2006:
  - Borland Visual Studio Suite 2006 - Delphi for Win32, Delphi for .NET v1.0 incl. C# support, C+
  - multi-touch touch screen invented;
  - ADSL/2 broadband becoming commonplace in Aust.
  - medium price laptops have Core Duo chips, 512Mb-1Gb RAM, 60-100Gb HDD, WiFi, DVD-RW drives, 15.4" screens
- 2007:
  - Core2 Duo chips;
  - Windows Vista OS;
  - Delphi 2007 for Win32 & Delphi for PHP;
  - Adobe Photoshop CS/3
  - medium price laptops have Core2 Duo chips, 1Gb RAM, 80-120Gb HDD, WiFi, DVD-RW drives, 15.4" screens

CPU's:

1981:
- 8bit 8086 ("XT")
1984:
- 16bit 80286 ("AT")
1988?:
- 32bit 80386 & separate maths co-processor
1990:
- 64bit 80486
  - built-in maths coprocessor (except SX models)
1994:
- ill-fated 5Volt Pentium 60/66
1995:
- Pentium 100MHz
1996:
- Pentium Pro
1997:
- Pentium MMX
- Pentium II (slot 1)
1998:
- Celeron ('Mendocino') processors (slot 1):
  - 266MHz 1st release models got bad press
  - 300 & 333 MHz have 128K L2 cache
- Pentium II 450MHz - 100MHz system bus;
1999:
- Xeon CPU (slot 2):
  - incorporates 2 processors with P6 cores with 512k-2Mb L2 cache running at full CPU clockspeed
  - inbuilt management features; Katmai;
  - 8 way multiprocessing
  - ? 133-200MHz system bus;
- AMD K7 (slot A):
  - 0.18micron technology; 500MHz initially; 200Mhz system bus; ? 8Mb secondary cache;
2000:
- National Semiconductor (Cyrix) Jalapeno chip:
  - 3D graphics, vid. capture & playback incorporated in CPU
  - 0.18micron technology; 600-800MHz initially;
2004:
- Intel Celeron M:
  - 65nm, 90nm & 130nm technology;
  - 0.5-1Mb L2 cache; 1.2-2GHz; 400-533MHz FS Bus;
- Intel Pentium M (centrino):
  - 90nm technology; 2Mb L2 cache; 533MHz FS Bus;
- Intel Pentium 4 HT:
  - with hyper-threading technology
2005:
- Intel Core:
  - 65nm technology; 2Mb L2 cache; 533/667MHz FS Bus;
- Intel Core Duo:
  - dual processors in core chip
  - 65nm technology; 2Mb L2 cache; 667MHz FS Bus;
2006:
- Intel Core2 Duo:
  - dual processors in core chip
  - 65nm technology; 2 or 4Mb L2 cache; 667MHz FS Bus for laptop and 1066MHz for desktop;

Chipsets:

Pentium based (Socket 7):

1996-7:

Function	Intel 430HX	Intel 430VX	Intel 430TX	AMD 640
Dual processor support	Y	N	N	?
Max RAM	512M	128M	256M	512M
SDRAM support	N	Y	Y	Y
ECC/parity	Y	N	N	Y
Onboard IDE	busmaster	busmaster	ultra DMA	ultra DMA
Power management	n/a	n/a	ACPI	ACPI
AGP	N	N	N	N
USB	Y	Y	Y	Y

Intel 430FX (Triton 1) was Intel's 1st Socket 7 chipset but had no EDO ram or USB support.
- Replaced by the HX.
VX brought out for home market as better EDO timing than HX, SDRAM support.
TX brought out in 1997 for the MMX chips as it has improved SDRAM support, ultra DMA, and Dynamic Power Management Architecture (DPMA) - also for notebooks.

Pentium Pro & Pentium II based (slot 1) chipsets:

1996-7:

functions	Intel Natoma 440FX
dual processor	Y
max memory	1024M
SDRAM support	N
ECC/parity	Y
USB	Y
IDE	EIDE mode 4
AGP	N
Power management	SMM

1998:
- 440BX:
  - companion to 233-450MHz Pentium II Slot 1 CPUs
  - 3 DIMM slots 384Mb SDRAM; 1xAGP;
  - 2xUDMA/33 PCI Bus master EIDE ports (or newer VIA chipset UDMA/66)
  - 2 USB; +/- SoundBlaster SBLink for new SB cards to provide DOS SB compatibility;
  - 100MHz frontside bus (FSB) - the external pathway b/n CPU & RAM:
    - also can use the old 66MHz FSB as on earlier motherboards
    - requires 100MHz SDRAM ("PC100") if run at 100MHz

Slot 2 processors:
- 1998:
  - 450NX chipset:
    - 66MHz PCI bus; 4G RAM; > 4 processors;
  - 440GX chipset:
    - cut-down version of the NX
    - 2G RAM;