In 1936, American physicist Howard Aiken, future creator of the Mark 1 computer, began making plans for an automatic computing device. A shift occurred when he was researching for his dissertation. The subject of the thesis was space charge. Soon, his dissertation consisted mainly of solving nonlinear (differential) equations. The only methods available then for the numerical solution of problems were developments on the creation of electromagnetic desktop calculators. The article will discuss in which year the first computer appeared, and who needs to be thanked for the basis of current technology.
The history of the device
Since Aiken was fully aware that it would take a lot of money to create such a computer, he decided to turn to one of the largest manufacturers of mechanical and electromechanical calculators in the USA - Monroe Calculating Machine Company. On April 22, 1937, he presented his plans for automatic computing to the chief engineer Chase in the following areas:
- "four rules of arithmetic";
- preset sequence control;
- storage and memory of set or calculated values;
- sequence management, which can automatically respond to calculated results or characters, together with a printed record of everything that happens in the machine;
- record of all calculated results.
Aiken was encouraged by Chase's energetic support. He went to his leadership at Monroe and did everything in his power to convince them of the correctness of his choice and the ideas of Aiken. Chase assured that the project would "shoot", although it would require considerable costs for the implementation of the idea. He had a certain foresight and foresight to admit that the proposed machine would be invaluable in the business of the company in the coming years. Despite persuasion, the creation of the car was refused.
Project Support and Idea Failure
Monroe’s decision not to support Aiken’s project was certainly a blow, but the scientist must have been inspired by Chase’s enthusiasm for the new idea. In addition, it was Chase who invited Aiken to seek help from Professor Theodore Brown of Harvard, a close associate of Thomas J. Watson, president of IBM.
Thus, Aiken established a successful contact with IBM. Brown recommended Aiken to IBM's senior engineer, Bryce, who approved his project and recommended how to make a computer and build his dream machine. Bryce's opinion was decisive for IBM's decision, and the scientist received the support of President Watson to create a Harvard project.
Computer Engineering
Aiken has prepared an official proposal entitled "Offered Automatic Computing Machine." It occupied 22 print pages with double spacing. The document began with a brief history of auxiliary tools for computing, discussing Babbage mechanisms, and mentioning the difference mechanisms of Schoitz, Wiberg, and Grant. Briefly described the invention of punch cards, counting, sorting and arithmetic machines.
It is known that Henry Babbage, the son of Charles Babbage, put together about six small demonstration options for the engines of the machine - how it will perform sequential operations and work. He sent one of them to Harvard. Aiken also notes that machines manufactured by IBM made it possible for daily bookkeeping in industrial accounting departments around the world to reach what Babbage wanted to achieve a long time ago.
Aiken then addresses the need for more powerful calculation methods in the mathematical and physical sciences. He outlined the areas of use of his computer — theoretical physics, radio communications and television, astronomy, relativity, and even the fast-growing science of mathematical economics and sociology.
What does science need?
Aiken identified four design features that distinguished conventional punch card accounting and computing mechanisms, as required by science:
- A machine designed for mathematics should be able to process both positive and negative values, while the accounting technique is almost completely designed for problems with positive numbers.
- Computing for mathematical purposes must supply and use many types of transcendental functions (for example, trigonometric), elliptic, Bessel functions and probability functions.
- For mathematics, the computer must be fully automatic in operation. When calculating the value of a function in its expansion in a series, evaluating a formula, or numerically integrating (when solving a differential equation), the process, as soon as it is created, should continue indefinitely until a range of independent variables is covered.
- Computers intended for mathematics must be able to calculate rows instead of columns, because often when solving a differential equation numerically, the calculation of a value is dependent on previous values. This, in fact, is considered the reverse way by which existing computing equipment is able to evaluate a function in stages.
The first two tasks set for the new machine were the calculation of some integrals and tables.
Development and implementation of devices for military purposes
In 1944, the car was transferred to the Navy during the war. After that, she began to be listed as an official device in the division of the Bureau of Ships under the command of Aiken. By August, the Mark 1 computer was working with a large naval staff, including a number of officers, including Grace Hopper and Richard Bloch. They became the main programmers.
There was a funny story that it was Grace Hopper, who was programming on the Mark I computer, who found the first computer "error": a dead moth that hit Mark I, whose wings blocked the reading of holes in the paper tape. The word "error" has been used to describe a defect since at least 1889, but Hopper is credited with the word "debugging" to describe the work of fixing program errors.
In 1944 and 1945, the Mark 1 computer worked almost continuously, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The wartime problems that the machine was supposed to solve included the study of magnetic fields related to the protection of ships from magnetic mines, as well as the mathematical aspects of the design and use of radar. Without a doubt, the most important wartime issue was the set of calculations for implosions brought from Los Alamos by John von Neumann.
Only a year later, the employees learned that these calculations were made in connection with the development of the atomic bomb. The outstanding success and lag in computer work led to the fact that the Navy asked Aiken in early 1945 to design and build a second such machine. Aiken did just that. The computer became known as Mark II.
Characteristics of the first device
Computer Mark 1 was a gigantic impressive size - as much as 2.5 meters in height. Length - 16 m, and almost 1 m in depth. Such sizes of the first computers did not surprise anyone, on the contrary, due to their capabilities, they inspired their power to others:
- He weighed five tons.
- Contained 760,000 parts.
- Used 530 miles of wires.
- 3,000,000 wired connections.
- 3500 multiple relays with 35000 contacts.
- 2225 counters.
- 1484 ten-pole switches.
Based on the technology developed by IBM in 1944, statistical and accounting business machines used traditional IBM components such as electromagnetic relays, counters, cam contacts, punchers, and electric typewriters. Also present were elements of a new design, including relays and counters that had not previously been used in an IBM machine.
They were smaller and faster. The input data consisted of a punched tape, and the output was a series of punched cards or a printout from a standard IBM electric machine.
The computer was powered by a long, horizontal, continuously rotating shaft that emitted a hum that was described as the noise of a giant sewing machine. The shaft made about 3 revolutions per second. Storage and computing devices gave out 23 decimal places, and twenty-fourth was reserved for an algebraic sign. The calculations were carried out in decimal numbers with a fixed decimal point.
What was able to machine the last century?
The machine consists of 7 main modules, located from left to right:
- Two sections with 60 registers for entering numerical data (constants that appear in any algebraic or differential equation), each of which contained 24 switches, corresponding to 23 digits and 1 for the sign (plus / minus). The location of each of these 60 registers was assigned a number so that people could use this location according to the instructions for identifying the number called up during the calculation. For any problem, they must be installed manually.
- Seven sections containing 72 additional registers (the so-called accumulators, because they can not only store numbers, but also add and subtract; in fact, subtraction is performed by adding).
- Each register consisted of 24 electromagnetic counterwheels, again providing capacity for 23-digit numbers, with one seat reserved for the sign. This second set of panels includes both storage and a data processing unit. Adding and subtracting takes 1 cycle of the machine (about 330 ms).
- 70 general-purpose batteries, 2 - for special purposes. Very interesting is the last battery, with which you can do something like supplying a conditional operator signal (after comparing two numbers).
However, a more powerful signal was added to the programmable computer after 1945, when a second tape reader for commands was built in.
At the far right are electric typewriters, a magnetic tape reader for commands, and a punch. Typewriters printed the final solution to the problem. A card punch automatically punches data cards. The tape had 24 columns (i.e. 24 holes in a row). One data series required 4 lines (23 digital positions and 1 for a character for each number, each position required 4 holes, 24 x 4 = 96).
The main functions of the device
The first generation of computers was equipped with four readers. One was used to provide instructions to the machine, while the other three contained function tables and could provide values ​​as needed. Interpolation of the values ​​indicated on the tapes was also provided. Thus, there were built-in “routines” (as Aiken called them) that involved converting a number using some built-in function (such as a sine, exponent, logarithm, or exponentiation).
Characteristics of the "Mark 1" suggested that the car will last about 10 years. However, it continued to function at Harvard for 14 years after the war, producing useful work. And only by 1959 the device finally "retired." During this time, he also served as an object of practical training for several students at Harvard, where Aiken created an innovative program that was later called computer science - with courses for undergraduate and graduate students going to a master's or doctorate degree. Many important figures in the computer world have been featured on this topic about Harvard and Mark I.
Progress ahead of technology - the emergence of new "smart" machines
Looking back, we can say in which year the first computer actually appeared. But the greatest importance of “Mark I” was that it was the first fully automatic computing machine that did not require any human intervention in the workflow, it performed an automatic sequence of calculations in accordance with the program and did it without errors.
Howard Aiken continued to work on the creation of new computers. At the computer, "Mark 1 & amp; raquo; followed by Mark II, then in 1949 Mark III / ADEC, and in 1952 Mark IV. IBM began creating the new SSEC without the participation of Howard Aiken.
Improving technology and innovation at work
Since mechanical and relay technologies were used to create the first computer, the work was very slow. The new “Mark” produced results faster than conventional computational techniques, but not as fast as machines that were soon introduced to the world later. These included others such as ENIAC. Addition or subtraction requires one machine cycle, which takes about 0.3 seconds. Multiplication required 20 cycles or 6 seconds, and division can take up to 51 cycles or more than 15 seconds. Because of this, in later models, division was replaced by multiplication of reciprocal quantities.
Although Mark I was slow, it was not only programmed for a specific operation, but also universal. While ENIAC was limited in its initial design to the mission of computing ballistic tables, Mark I was able to adapt to more firmware.