Revolutionary Technologies In the Field of Information Science

Major Technologies

Calculators Manual Mechanical

Difference and Analytical Engines

Punched Card System/Tabulating Machine

Computers

Databases

Microfilm

The Beginnings of Calculators

Manual Calculators Abacus – used in Rome, Greece, India, China, Japan

Rectangular in shape – columns of beads mounted on rods

Each column of beads representing different values: specific algorithms for manipulating the beads

Napier’s Bones – invented by John Napier

Device for multiplication and division – several rods divided into 10 squares, each square possessed two numbers

Rods positioned according to different calculations

Hence the name, the rods were made from bones

Manual Calculators Cont.

Slide RuleEnglish mathematician, William Oughtred, derived the slide rule from Napier’s logarithms

Early example of an analog computer

Mechanical Calculators

Implement algorithms autonomously

Schickard’s Calculator Interlocking gears – each had 10 spokes which represented a specific digit

Every time a gear completed a full rotation it moved one notch to the left

In essence, this movement represented the “carrying of a one”

Difference Engine

Run by steam power

Calculates large tables of numbers

Unable to make gears with enough precision – machine was not successfully

Analytical Engine

Also, this machine was never fully completed

The design of the machine paralleled with the modern day computer: memory, programmable processor, output device, input of programs/data

Punched Card System/Tabulating

MachinePunched Card System

Began with Joseph-Marie Jacquard and the programmable loom

First practical use of the binary system, which led to the development of the computer

Hollerith Tabulating MachineCensus Bureau held a competition – best way to tabulate the 1890 census

Herman Hollerith won cards had areas to represent different fields and then they were punched

Card reader used metal rods to read the data

Transition to Computers

First-Generation ComputersVacuum tubes used to store individual bits of data – controls flow of electrons

Two distinct states – 0 or 1

Custom application programs

Second-Generation Computers Use of transistors instead of vacuum tubes

Advantages – smaller, cheaper, more reliable, didn’t consume as much power

Supported operating systems that supported standard routines

Programming language compilers – used English instead of binary

Computers Cont.

Third-Generation Computers Development of integrated circuits – comparable to thousands of vacuum tubes or transistors in a miniature chip

DEC PDP-8 – first successful minicomputer

Fourth-Generation Computers Ted Hoff – developed the first general-purpose microprocessor

Intel 4004 – miniature in size, possessed the power of the ENIAC

DatabasesFunctions:

Collect/store data

Update data

Organize data

Distribute data

Find data

Analyze data

Relational Databases A collection of related tables

Entity-RelationshipFocuses on how each individual entity relates to another

Microfilm

Reducing the size of images

Reprographic science – preservation of written materials

Becoming a large part of library services because a lot of printed documents are deteriorating

Negatives can be kept for approximately 500 years