vidyasri1953Very good precise presentation! Intel 8 bit 8085 microprocessor chip is still alive in study and use in colleges. The popularity 8085, over Z80 and 6800 alone gave the lead to the Intel company. A mention on the popular 8085 is missing. Even otherwise this is a beautiful presentation.6 years ago
From Tube to Chip: Early Computer HistoryPresentation Transcript
From Tube to Chip Presentation by Mindy McAdams Thursday, Week 13
In 1895, French scientist Jean B. Perrin discovered that “ cathode rays ” were negatively charged particles. Between 1895 and 1897, British physicist Joseph J. Thompson conducted further experiments and sought to measure the properties of these particles. The negatively charged particles were later named electrons .
The Vacuum Tube
John Ambrose Fleming , an Englishman, was one of Thomas Edison’s assistants
Later he worked on designing a radio transmitter the Marconi company
1904: Fleming sees that the diode can convert alternating current (AC) into direct current (DC)
Incorporates the diode into his radio wave detector
Vacuum Tube 1904
Fleming calls his diode a thermionic valve (it used heat to control the flow of electricity)
In the United States, the thermionic valve was known as a vacuum tube
Source
1906: Lee De Forest’s Audion (the one above c. 1912) is also called a triode
Diode Triode
The Computer Connection
The ENIAC contained more than 18,000 triode vacuum tubes
Programs had to be physically wired into the computer (plugs into sockets)
The ENIAC was designed to integrate ballistic equations and calculate trajectories of naval shells
Completed in 1946, ENIAC was too late to help the war effort
It remained in use until 1955
The ENIAC computer, University of Pennsylvania, 1945
Size: over 100 feet long, filling a 30 ft. x 50 ft. room. Height: 10 feet. Depth: about 3 feet. Weight: about 30 tons. Cost: about $486,000 ENIAC
Television also used vacuum tubes
1923: Vladimir Zworykin (b. 1889) applies for a patent on his electronic television system and later demonstrates it to engineers at Westinghouse
Zworykin is often credited with having invented the cathode ray tube (CRT), the basis for video display monitors and television screens
1926: Philo T. Farnsworth (b. 1906) produces the first all-electronic television image
You could build (and repair) your own TV set
Early Computers
The ENIAC was funded by the U.S. government
Built at the University of Pennsylvania
Completed in 1946
It was later used by the Los Alamos National Laboratory for calculations to develop a hydrogen bomb (the first atom bomb had been built at Los Alamos in 1945)
Early Computers (2)
Before, during and after ENIAC, others were also building big computers
Private companies, including IBM and RCA
Other universities, such as MIT and the University of Manchester (England)
By the end of 1947 , at least nine such projects were under way in the U.S. and Britain
Government funding played a large role
Whirlwind
Developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); team led by Jay Forrester
This was the first computer that:
Operated “in real time”
Used video displays for output
Was not just an electronic copy of older mechanical systems
Led directly to U.S. Air Force Semiautomatic Ground Environment (SAGE) system
Led indirectly to almost all business computers and minicomputers that followed in the 1960s
Whirlwind used approximately 5,000 vacuum tubes. It took 3 years to build and first went online in 1951. Budget: $1 million per year.
Open Access
Enormous costs = public benefits
Because the U.S. government had funded much of the research, it became “open source,” in a sense
No private company controlled it
(Remember the patent wars in radio?)
Grad students who worked on projects later went on to work for private companies, building on these technologies
Next Step: The Transistor
Invented at Bell Labs in 1947
Replaced the glass vacuum tube
Smaller than a vacuum tube
Did not have to “warm up” before it would work
Uses less power; more reliable
Made it possible to construct smaller devices, e.g. the “transistor radio”
[1954]
Edwin Howard Armstrong and the first portable radio, 1923
Transistor
Functions as a switch (on / off)
Made of semiconductor material such as germanium or silicon
Bell Labs
Founded in 1925 (AT&T and Western Electric)
1947: Invents the transistor
1954: Builds first functional solar cell
1958: Pioneers the concept of the laser
1962: Builds and launches the first orbiting communications satellite (Telstar I)
1969–1972: Creates the Unix operating system and the C programming language
Integrated Circuits
1958: First integrated circuit (IC) invented by Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments, a manufacturer of transistors
Until then, each component occupied a separate germanium wafer in a stack of wafers (discrete components); these were connected via wires running up the sides of the stack
Kilby realized: If one piece of germanium were engineered properly, it could hold all of these components
Integrated Circuits (2)
The old way: One separate piece of germanium for each component (e.g., transistors, resistors, capacitors)
Kilby built a prototype: One thin piece of germanium (about half an inch long) containing five separate components linked together by tiny wires
1961: The U.S. Patent Office awards the first patent on an integrated circuit to Robert Noyce , co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor
Kilby’s patent application was still under consideration
Today, both men are credited with having independently invented the integrated circuit
The first integrated circuit developed at Fairchild Semiconductor by Robert Noyce
And then came …
1968: Robert Noyce and two other top engineers resigned from Fairchild Semiconductor
They founded their own company -- Intel (short for Int egrated El ectronics)
Intel soon developed a reputation for expertise in making high transistor-count chips (ICs)
The Microprocessor
Busicom, a Japanese company, had designed 12 chips for its next-generation programmable calculators
Busicom asked Intel to produce them
Marcian (Ted) Hoff Jr., an Intel engineer, realized that the Busicom 12-chip scheme was too much for a mere calculator
He suggested a new single-chip general-purpose central processor unit (CPU) that could be programmed to perform most of the calculator functions
Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC) challenged IBM’s dominance of the computer industry of with smaller “minicomputers” and different purchase options in the 1980s
1975: The MITS Altair 8800 Based on the Intel 8080 CPU World’s first “personal” computer
Two guys in Boston sent a letter to the Altair's inventor, asking if he would be interested in selling their BASIC programming language for the machine …
Apple-1: Demonstrated in April 1976 at the Homebrew Computer Club in Palo Alto, Calif.
Went on sale in July 1976 at a price of $666.66
IBM was actually quite late to the market: 1981
Price: $1,995
From Tube to Chip Presentation by Mindy McAdams University of Florida
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