Week 1 - From Transistors to Turing Machines

what is computer science?

• playing computer games?

• designing web pages?

• using a spreadsheet?

• writing software?

• designing computers?

why study computer science?

• one of the newest of the sciences

• applications ot most human activity

• understanding the world around you

the many hats of computer science

• mathematician

• engineer

• artist

• scientist

what is abstraction?

• not ignoring “low level“

• not saying “I dont’ have to care about…“

• understanding the “right“ level of detail to focus on

• ladder of abstraction

ladder of abstraction

• solid-state physics

• transistor circuits

• logic design

• system design

• system software

• application software

• theory

core areas of computer science

• algorithms and data structures

• architecture

• artificial intelligence and robotics

• database and information retrieval

• human-computer interaction

• numerical and symbolic computation

• operating systems

• programming languages

• software methodology and engineering

early computer history: charles babbage

• Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge

• Difference Engine

• Analytical Engine

difference engine

a mechincal calulator that was designed to automatically calculate and print polynomial functions and numerical tables.

analytical engine

a mechanical computer that performed mathematical calculations.

early computer history: konrad zuse

• germany civil engineer

• 1930s and 40s

• the world’s first functional program-controlled turing-commpleted computer, the Z3, in 1941

• z1: first of zuse’s calculators, a mechincal binary calculator with limited programmability

• z2: a follow-up to the z1, based on many of the same ideas

• z3: the world’s first fully functional program-controlled electromechanical digital computer

other early computer history

1. vannevar bush: mechanical analog computer—differential analyzer

2. howard aiken: hardard mark I—electromechanical

3. j prepser eckert and john machly: ENIAC, EDVAC, UNIVAC

the word computer

• before 1930: a person who computes

• after 1950: a machine that computes

what about software?

• ada lovelace: THE notes

• grace hopper:

  1. wrote hardward mark I manual

  2. developed early compiler technology

  3. major influence in COBOL

• the ENIAC “Six“:

  1. jean jennings bartik, kay mcnulty machly, betty snyder holburton, fran bilas spence, marlyn wescoff meltzer, and ruth lichterman titlebaum

  2. hired as human computers, then assigned to the ENIAC

  3. developed techniques as we still use, like breakpoints

ENIAC

• Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC)

• the world’s first general-purpse electronic computer

• a major breakthrough in computing technology

debugging

“I realized that a large part of my life from then on was going to be spent in finding mistakes in my own programs.” — Maurice Wilkes