Published On:Sunday, 27 November 2011

Posted by Muhammad Atif Saeed

Creator of the Analytical Engine - the first general-purpose digital computer (1833)
The Analytical Engine was not built until 1943 (in the form of the Harvard Mark I)

A programmable, mechanical, digital machine
Could carryout any calculation
Could make decisions based upon the results of the previous calculation
Components: input; memory; processor; output

Babbage: the father of computing
Ada: the mother?
Wrote a program for computing the Bernoulli’s sequence on the Analytical Engine - world’s 1st
computer program
Ada: A programming language specifically designed by the US Dept of Defense for developing military
applications was named Ada to honor her contributions towards computing

Charles Babbage had huge difficulties raising money to fund his research
As a last resort, he designed a clever mathematical scheme along with Ada, the Countess of Lovelace
It was designed to increase their odds while gambling. They bet money on horse races to raise enough
money to support their research experiments
Guess what happened at the end? The lost every penny that they had.
Fast
Bored
Storage

Here is a fact
:
In 1997 Deep Blue, a supercomputer designed by IBM, beat Gary Kasparov, the World Chess
Champion
That computer was exceptionally fast, did not get tired or bored. It just kept on
analyzing  the situation and kept on  searching  until it found the perfect move from its list of possible moves

To develop an appreciation about the capabilities of computing
To find about the structure & policies of this course
It could analyze up to 300 billion chess moves in
three minutes

To build an appreciation for the fundamental concepts in computing
To achieve a beginners proficiency in Web page development
To become familiar with popular PC productivity software
Intro to computing

Computer organization
Building a PC

Binary numbers & logic
Computer software
Operating systems
Application software

Flowcharts
Programming languages
Development methodology
Design heuristics
Web design for usability

Intro to the Internet

Graphics & animation

Data management

Social implications
The computing profession
The future of computing

The World Wide Web
Making a Web page
Lists & tables
Interactive forms
Objective & methods
Data types & operators
Flow control & loops Arrays
Built-in functions
User-defined functions
Events handling
String manipulation
Images & graphics
Programming methodology

Word processor
Spreadsheet
Presentation software
Database

We try not to use any new terms without explaining them first
However, it is not possible to do that all the time
If you encounter any unfamiliar terms during the lectures, please note them down and consult the
GLOSSARY provided at the end of the “Understanding Computers” text book for their meaning

A few things about:
the very first digital computer & its inventor
the capability of modern computers

We’ll continue the story of the evolution of digital computers form the Analytical Engine onwards.
We’ll discuss many of the key inventions and developments that he lead to the shape of the current field
of computing.