ICT Project by John Williams

1. John Martin Williams
Table of Contents Page
George Boole picture 2
Wall plaque 2
George Boole’s timeline table 2
George Boole’s personal history 2&3
Boole family tree 3
George Boole’s family history 3
Boolean logic laws 4
Moore’s Law 4
Transistors on a microchip table 4
Transistors on a microchip graph 4
Truth tables 5
Logic gate diagrams 5
AND and OR Gates explained 6
Acknowledgements 6
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2. John Martin Williams
The Unsung Hero
If you ask who George Boole was, most people would have no idea. Not only the operation
of computers, but all today’s electronic devices that use logic chips (CPUs, Control units,
ROM, RAM etc) depend on “Boolean (pronounced bOOlē-un) algebra” to function. George
Boole is best known as the originator of Boolean algebra.
George Boole Timeline Date
Born 2 November 1815
Became Bread winner 1831
Royal Society Gold Medal November 1844
Boolean Law Developed 1854
Married 1855
Made Dean of Cork College (later Cork University) 1857
Died (Pneumonia) 8 December 1864
George was born at 34 Silver Street, Lincoln, the eldest of five children, his father John
Boole was a cobbler. Though they were comparatively poor, John had a fine mind, with an
interest in science and mathematics in which he encouraged his son George. John wanted
George to have a practical education and together they built telescopes, cameras and
sundials, as well as studying academic subjects including mathematics. There is a story
that they attempted to build a calculating machine, though how much truth there is in this
I can’t say.
Like his father John Boole, George showed a prodigious intelligence at an early age. The
family was too poor to send George to grammar school where fees were charged, so he was
enrolled in Mr Bainbridge’s academy where of course he excelled and was soon assisting in
lessons. Boole was linguistically gifted, he learned Greek and Latin at an early age and a
little later Italian, German and French; having a background in the classics he considered
joining the clergy.
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3. John Martin Williams
In 1831 John Boole’s business failed and George became the family bread winner. He
began working as an assistant teacher at Mr Heigham’s school in Doncaster. It was at this
time that George changed his focus from the classics to mathematics. At first he
concentrated on natural philosophy (applied mathematics) he later said that the reason for
his change to pure (theoretical) mathematics was due to the sale of his friend William
Blake’s library which he had free access to. George was required to buy his own books and
considered maths books better value as they were generally thicker and took longer to
read. George was an amateur in the best sense of the word, as he studied the subject purely
for the love of it.
George never attended university or gained a degree, but later in life was made Professor
of logic and mathematics at Cork University in 18517 he was made Dean of the College.
George continued his research and writing alongside his teaching for the rest of his life.
In 1855 George married the then Mary Everest (pronounced E as in evil) the niece of Sir
George Everest after whom the great mountain was misnamed in 1855. They were blessed
with five girls?
George Boole Family Tree
George Mary
Boole Everest
Margaret
Mary Boole Alicia Boole Lucy Boole Ethel Boole
Boole
Ethel Lillian Boole became a novelist, she moved to Russia, while working as a governess
for the widow of the chamberlain of to the Tsar. Ethel met him and said they took an
instant dislike to each other. On seeing the poverty and injustice there, Ethel became a
revolutionary. Toward the end of 1890 she met Wilfred Michael Voynich and after what
can only be described as the plot from a mystery/romance thriller (please Ctrl click on the
link below for their full story) they lived as man and wife from 1890 before marrying in
1902.
http://www.freewebs.com/boole-family/ethellilianboole.htm
George Boole’s nephew also called George had a position as mining engineer at the
Treharris mine in south Wales. He married Kate Eliza Thomas in Cardiff and
honeymooned in Ilfracoombe.
Alicia Boole studied chemistry with the idea of becoming a chemist dispenser but ended up
as a lecturer in chemistry. It is believed she was the first female professor of chemistry at
The Royal Free Hospital, London.
George’s Boolean logic laws were developed in 1854; he published a paper with the catchy
title “Laws of Thought”, which was founded on a previous paper entitled “Mathematical
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4. John Martin Williams
Theories of Logic and Probabilities”. George’s influence on the world of mathematics was
much wider then in the field of electronics he made it possible to convert words and letters
into numerical form for example E=MC2 which belongs to Albert Einstein.
To illustrate this you can Ctrl click the link below for a short video if you don’t mind the
advert.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/media/83569/Boolean-Algebra-invented-by-
George-Boole-began-the-process-
Transistors and Logic Gates
Logic gates need transistors to function; the amount of transistors on a chip has increased
immensely.
Gordon Moore (co-founder of Intel) stated in 1965 that the number of transistors put on a
microchip had doubled every year and in his opinion would hold true for the next ten
years; this has broadly held true to the present day and has become known as “Moore’s.
Transistors on a chip
Clock speed: ghz = Gigahertz
Number of
Date Name of Processor
Trasistors
Mar-91 486 1 200000
Mar-94 Pentium 3200000
Jun-95 Pentium 3300000
Aug-98 Pentium 2 7500000
Aug-99 Pentium 3 9500000
Jan-00 Pentium 3 28000000
Apr-01 Pentium 4 42000000
Jun-02 Pentium 4 55000000
Jul-06 Core 2 Duo 253000000
Nov-06 Core 2 Extreme QX6700 582000000
Number of Trasistors
700000000
600000000
500000000
400000000
Number of Trasistors
300000000
200000000
100000000
0
Pentium
Pentium
Extreme
Pentium
Pentium
Pentium
Pentium
Pentium
Core 2
486
Core 2
Duo
2
3
3
4
4
M M Jun- A A Jan- A Jun- Jul- N
ar- ar- 95 ug- ug- 00 pr- 02 06 ov-
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5. John Martin Williams
Logic Gates
To access the video on logic gates in the link below please press the Ctrl key while clicking
on the link below
http://youtu.be/H-53TVR9EOw
Below are various truth Tables that compliment the YouTube video.
AND Gate Table AND Gate Diagram
2 Input AND Gate
A B A.B
0 0 0
0 1 0
1 0 0
1 1 1
AND gates give out high output if all inputs are high, the [dot] in A.B is important as it is
Boolean notation.
OR Gate Table OR Gate Diagram
2 Input OR gate
A B A+B
0 0 0
0 1 1
1 0 1
1 1 1
OR gates give high output if one or more inputs are high, the [+] in A+B is important it is
Boolean notation.
Not Gate Not Gate Diagram
NOT Gate
A -A
0 1
1 0
NOT gates invert or reverses other gates in other words an AND becomes a NAND (not
AND) and an OR becomes a NOR (not OR).
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6. John Martin Williams
The differences between AND and OR gates might seem small but they are vital in
channelling the correct signals within a microchip. I have only mentioned AND, OR and
NOT gates here but there are others, using them in combination enables modern
electronics to function. The main limitation is the physical size of the logic gates that can
be fitted on the microchip.
For a more in depth description please Ctrl click on the link below.
http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Projects/Labview/gatesfunc/index.html#example
For our purposes I have concentrated on his impact on electronics, we must remember
that in his lifetime electricity was considered little more than a parlour game. So not only is
he an unsung hero but an accidental one because electronics probably wasn’t even a
theory.
George’s death was something of a tragic affair; he was caught in a downpour and became
delirious. His wife who adhered to the strange but quite common belief that a more
extreme version of what made you ill would cure you. She is supposed to have thrown
buckets of ice cold water over him, after this treatment his daughter said he was left
shivering between the wet sheets. He suffered for three weeks, after which poor George
died.
We can eulogise people like Tim Berners-Lee, Bill Gates, Steve Job and even Alan Turing,
but without Mr George Boole, they could just be shelf stackers at Wal-Mart or Tesco’s. Of
course I am joking these are great men in their own right. But if the saying about standing
on the shoulders of giants is true George Boole was definitely a giant.
Acknowledgements
• The plaque (photo on page 1) is on George Boole’s house in Cork, Eire
• On Boole by Dale Jacquette.
• Boole family history by Kevin Boole Australia.
• http://www.infoplease.com/biography/var/georgeboole.html#ixzz1SjeEHO6k
• http://www.rogerparsons.info/george/boole.html
• http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=george+boole
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