Introduction to Computer Systems - Fundamentals of Computer Organization and Architecture - page 2

A number of technological developments are presented in Section 1.3. Our discus-
sion in this chapter concludes with a detailed coverage of CPU performance measures.
1.1. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
In this section, we would like to provide a historical background on the evolution of
cornerstone ideas in the computing industry. We should emphasize at the outset that
the effort to build computers has not originated at one single place. There is every
reason for us to believe that attempts to build the first computer existed in different
geographically distributed places. We also firmly believe that building a computer
requires teamwork. Therefore, when some people attribute a machine to the name
of a single researcher, what they actually mean is that such researcher may have
led the team who introduced the machine. We, therefore, see it more appropriate
to mention the machine and the place it was first introduced without linking that
to a specific name. We believe that such an approach is fair and should eliminate
any controversy about researchers and their names.
It is probably fair to say that the first program-controlled (mechanical) computer
ever build was the Z1 (1938). This was followed in 1939 by the Z2 as the first oper-
ational program-controlled computer with fixed-point arithmetic. However, the first
recorded university-based attempt to build a computer originated on Iowa State
University campus in the early 1940s. Researchers on that campus were able to
build a small-scale special-purpose electronic computer. However, that computer
was never completely operational. Just about the same time a complete design of
a fully functional programmable special-purpose machine, the Z3, was reported in
Germany in 1941. It appears that the lack of funding prevented such design from
being implemented. History recorded that while these two attempts were in progress,
researchers from different parts of the world had opportunities to gain first-hand
experience through their visits to the laboratories and institutes carrying out the
work. It is assumed that such first-hand visits and interchange of ideas enabled
the visitors to embark on similar projects in their own laboratories back home.
As far as general-purpose machines are concerned, the University of Pennsylvania
is recorded to have hosted the building of the Electronic Numerical Integrator and
Calculator (ENIAC) machine in 1944. It was the first operational general-purpose
machine built using vacuum tubes. The machine was primarily built to help compute
artillery firing tables during World War II. It was programmable through manual set-
ting of switches and plugging of cables. The machine was slow by today's standard,
with a limited amount of storage and primitive programmability. An improved version
of the ENIAC was proposed on the same campus. The improved version of the
ENIAC, called the Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer (EDVAC),
was an attempt to improve the way programs are entered and explore the concept
of stored programs. It was not until 1952 that the EDVAC project was completed.
Inspired by the ideas implemented in the ENIAC, researchers at the Institute for
Advanced Study (IAS) at Princeton built (in 1946) the IAS machine, which was
about 10 times faster than the ENIAC.