200711_FT_Computing_Ages, Events, Evolution.pdf

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Fast Track
to
Computing
Ages, Events, Evolution
By Team Digit
Credits
The People Behind This Book
EDITORIAL
Deepak Ajwani
Editor
Ram Mohan Rao
Writer, Copy Editor
Nimish Chandiramani
Writer, Copy Editor
Robert Sovereign-Smith
Writer, Copy Editor
Aditya Anupkumar
Writer
Samir Makwana
Writer
Asfaq Tapia
Writer
Bhaskar Sarma
Writer
R Srikanth
Writer
DESIGN AND LAYOUT
Shivshankar Pillai, Vijay Padaya, Sivalal S
Layout Designers
Sivalal S
Cover Design
Harsho Mohan Chattoraj
Illustrator
© Jasubhai Digital Media
Published by Maulik Jasubhai on behalf of Jasubhai Digital Media
.
No part of this book may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the
prior written permission of the publisher.
November 2007
Free with Digit. Not to be sold separately. If you have paid separately for this book, please
e-mail the editor at
editor@thinkdigit.com
along with details of location of purchase, for
appropriate action.
Introduction
A Ridiculously
Fascinating Journey
You’re at your desk and fire a printout. Data on your hard disk,
stored as tiny magnetic polarisations that a head some nanometres
above them picks up, is sent over some wires as tiny variations in
voltage to the printer. This, now, picks the data up into its RAM;
what happens is, the voltage variations in the wire get converted
into voltage changes in some transistors a few microns large. Then
the print head: etc. etc. … you get the idea. All this is routine, but
it’s insanely complex. Just how did we get to where we are? Sitting
at a desk and firing a print, from using gas lamps at night just a
few hundred years ago?
Edison invented the bulb, Baird (this is disputable) brought in
the TV, and more, but here we’re interested in just how the
information age was shaped.
There are many ways to view it. You can think about it as
inventors and innovators with their creations; you can think about
it as pieces in a puzzle; you can think about it as fierce competition
in capitalism-driven countries (where most of all this happened).
The fact is, we have chosen this path. And what’s happened along
the journey is what we bring you here in this book.
We first talk about prehistoric times leading up to 1949,
clubbing it all into one chapter, then start off with the decades: the
50s, the 60s, and so on up to the 00s (if you like to call it that). We
then look at what prominent (and not-so-prominent but
nevertheless important) figureheads in tech have to say about the
future of this journey we’re dwelling on.
Make your own trends: we see a gradual shift from
innovation to building upon existing ideas. Derive your own
insights: we see that Microsoft’s supremacy has been much
dictated by fate (or so it would seem). Take your pleasure in this
year-wise presentation of the facts. It’s a massive build-up, this—
from the adding of numbers to the precise control of the extra-
planetary behaviour of electrons.
CONTENTS
Chapter 1
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.5
1.7
1.8
1.9
1.10
1.11
1.12
1.13
Chapter 2
1950
1951
1952
1953
1954
1955
1956
1957
1958
1959
Chapter 3
1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
1965
1966
1967
1968
1969
Chapter 4
1970
1971
1972
Abacus To Transistor
What Is This About?
Before Babbage
Babbage
The Mathematical Foundation
Towards The Twentieth Century
The Vacuum Tube And Flip-Flops
IBM
The Universe Opens Up
Atanasoff And Zuse
Wartime 1943
Three E-ACs And A Transistor
Two Cs
Z4 To IC
The Turing Test
The Coming Of Interactivity
The Compiler
Transistorisation!
Silicon And Supercomputers
User Groups
Disk Storage
Fairchild And DEC
The IC Arrives
COBOL And Automation
The Decade Of Networking
Programming And Neural Networks
Time-sharing—The Concept
Packet Switching Comes In
Sketchpad, ASCII
Supercomputing, Moore’s Law, BASIC
Object-oriented Programming
The First Modem
The ARPANET
The Coming Of Intel And The Software Industry
UNIX, And The First Dialup Service
The Microprocessor Decade
Xerox PARC
The Microprocessor Arrives
Games—And C
9
10
11
15
18
20
22
24
25
29
31
34
36
37
38
39
41
43
44
47
47
50
52
55
57
58
58
61
63
65
68
68
71
73
75
77
78
80
83
6
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