G5AHOC - History of Computers & Computing

Lecture 1 - Introduction

Do some web searches using words and phases from this lecture and start to build a bookmark list for the topic/module.

Classify your bookmarks according to the type of information they point to
- a chronicle of events?
- political background?
- social background?
- technical details?
use whatever you think is appropriate

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Lecture 2 -  Babbage and Before

Use the method of differences to compute y = 4x3 + 3x + 5 for x = 1,2,3,4,5,6. 

Find out what effect the Jacquard Loom had on the textiles industry. What effect do you think DE1 would have had if Babbage and Clement had been successful and it had become widely available in the mid-late 1820s?

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Lecture 3 - Babbage's Engines

Do a web search for material on Ada Lovelace and her Notes on Menebrae. What do you think her role and contribution was? 

The Science Museum project strongly suggests that the Difference Engine could have been built. Would an Analytical Engine have been possible in the 19th Century?

What evidence is there to support your beliefs?

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Lecture 4 - 19th Century Data Processing

Look into the early history of IBM. We think of them as computer manufacturers, but what were the first products they made and sold? When did they become computer manufacturers as we would understand the term?

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Lecture 5 - Analogue to Digital

Quite a few people/groups/countries claim to have produced "the first computer", how legitimate is Zuse’s claim?

What evidence is there to support your belief?

What is the value of rebuild projects like this and the Science Museum’s recreation of the Difference Engine 

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Lecture 6 - Alan Mathison Turing (1912-54)

Visit Andrew Hodges’ and other websites devoted to Turing. Hodges believes that Turing’s feelings for Christopher Morcombe inspired much of his work. Do you?

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Lecture 7 - Finite Automata to Turing Machines

The Halting Problem and its role in answering Hilbert’s question is a key event in the history of computing. Make sure you understand the argument. There are pointers to alternative descriptions are on the module website.

Turing was a well-known figure in certain parts of the UK computing community, but contributions were made by people with a variety of backgrounds in both Europe and the US. Can you find any evidence that the Turing machine influenced (i)  the practical design of any computers? (ii) any US developments?

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Lecture 8 - Bletchley Park

Find out as much as you can about the architecture of the Pilot ACE. How does this compare to (i) the Turing Machine (ii) the Von Neumann architecture (next week)?

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Lecture 9 - US Developments 1935 - 50

Find out about the Moore School lectures; who attended, and what did they do afterwards? Just how big an effect on the development of electronic computers did this event have? What evidence is there to support your answer?

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Lecture 10 - Back in the UK

Compare and contrast the Cambridge and Manchester machines, i.e. look for similarities and differences in (i)  the motivation behind them (ii) their technical features and physical construction (iii) the way the were used (iv) the effect they had on future development.

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Lecture 11 - Programming the EDSAC

Add 38 to 52 using two’s complement.

The Warwick simulator is installed in the lab and/or can be downloaded from 
http://www.dcs.warwick.ac.uk/~edsac/
The PDF tutorial provided is self-contained, easy to read and assumes you know nothing about EDSAC. Read through the tutorial and do as many exercises as you can or feel necessary. There is a “hello world” program in there too, though the one in my notes was taken from the Cambridge Echo simulator tutorial because it fits on one slide.

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Lecture 12 - Postwar Commercial Developments

Lots of companies tried to break into the computer market in the mid-late 1950s. See if you can find any remaining evidence of them. Did they all make the same mistakes 
as Lyons?

Georgina Ferry’s recent book A Computer Called Leo is well worth a look, it centres on LEO but covers quite a bit of the material in this module in outline. Paperback is out mid-august 2003.

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Lecture 13 -  Making Computing Easier: Programming Languages

It is often said that women’s contributions to the development of computers and computing tend to be overlooked and/or played down. Grace Hopper and Ada Lovelace were separated by a century; what similarities and differences can you see in the way their work was supported and their contributions acknowledged? 

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Lecture 14 - The Triumph of the Nerds: Part 1

Nerd culture is considered key to the development of the PC. Had this type of behaviour driven any previous developments? 

There was a huge demand (250 orders/day) for Altairs. Why do you think people wanted them so badly? Have there been any similar excessive demands for computing equipment since?

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Lecture 15 - The Triumph of the Nerds: Part 2

Look back through the notes for the module and list the major machines and technical developments covered. Can you identify the “killer app” for each? How important do you think a killer app is?

A previous exam paper included a question on Gary Kildall. Find and try to answer it.

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Lecture 16 - The Triumph of the Nerds: Part 3

Microsoft and IBM were very closely related during the 1980s. Would Microsoft have reached its current level of success without "riding the bear"?

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Lecture 17 - The Triumph of the Nerds: Part 4

Triumph of the Nerds is a rich description of the historical development of the PC. To help you revise, identify the key characters and events and summarise the story in bullet-point form.

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Lecture 18 - Intellectual Issues in the History of Artificial Intelligence

Is the intellectual issues approach a valid historical tool? Can it help explain why things happened?

Can you think of another area of computer science where Newell’s approach could be applied?

Newell’s paper was written in 1982, what were the intellectual issues in AI over the last 20 years?

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Lecture 19 - The Internet and World-Wide Web

The other notable UK network project was the Cambridge Ring, work on which began in 1974. Find out why the Ring was considered necessary and what effect it had on the future development of computer networks.

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Lecture 20 - Hypermedia and the WWW

Look at the past exam papers on the University web site and plan your revision questions - I don’t do revision, you do.

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