The Continuing Story of the Computer Age:

Past, Present, and Future

Appendix

Objectives

• Describe the generations of computer design leading up to the present

• Describe the story of personal computer development

• Explain the underlying concepts and terms of artificial intelligence

• Explain the fundamentals of expert systems, robotics, and virtual reality

• Give examples of the impact these fields have on business and everyday life

Contents

• The Computer Age

• The First Generation

• The Second Generation

• The Third Generation

• The Fourth Generation

• The Fifth Generation

The Computer Age

• Rapid changes

• Four generations over 50 years

• Trends across generations– Decrease size– Increase speed

The First Generation

• 1951-1958

• Vacuum Tube– Heat– Burnout– Machine language

• Magnetic core memory

• Storage– Punched cards– Tape (1957)

UNIVACUniversal Automatic Computer

First computer built for business.

The Second Generation

• 1959-1964

• Transistor– Smaller– No warm-up time– Less energy– Less heat– Faster– More reliable

• Storage– Removable disk

pack (1954)– Magnetic tape

• Programming languages– Assembly language– FORTRAN (1954)– COBOL(1959)

Used primarily by business, university, government

The Third Generation

• 1965-1970

• Integrated Circuit– Electronic circuit on

small silicon chip– Reliability– Compactness– Low cost– Inexpensive – mass-

produced

• Family of computers

• Software– Upward compatibility– Unbundled software– Several programs

share computer’s resources

– Interactive processing

The Fourth Generation

• 1971-Present

• Microprocessor– General-purpose processor on a chip

• Explosive growth– Digital watches– Pocket calculators– Personal computers– Cars– Copy machines– Television sets

Personal Computer History

Apple (1975)

• Home use

• Keyboard

• Screen

• VisiCalc spreadsheet software

Personal Computer History

IBM (1981)• Became industry standard• Improved keyboard• 80-character screen• Add memory• Expansion slots• Encouraged hardware and software

development by others• Nonproprietary parts• Clones

Personal Computer History

Microsoft/Intel

• Wintel– Microsoft supplies operating system for PC

• MS-DOS• Windows

– Intel supplies microprocessor

• Continually challenged – others making inroads

Personal Computer HistoryThe Internet Revolution

• Started as ARPANet – a network of computers that could survive a nuclear attack

• Attractive to the average user– Links– Graphical browser

The Fifth Generation

• Mid 1990’s

• Intelligent computers– Artificial intelligence– Expert systems– Natural language

The Fifth GenerationAI – Artificial Intelligence

• How computers can be used for tasks that required human characteristics

• How to make computers do things that people currently do better

• Evolving science

The Fifth GenerationAI – How Computers Learn

• Improve performance based on past errors

• Knowledge base – set of facts and rules

• Inference engine – applies rules to the facts to create new facts

• ExampleFact: Amy is Ken’s wifeRule: If X is Y’s wife, then Y is X’s husbandCreated Fact: Ken is Amy’s husband

The Fifth GenerationData Mining

• Extracting previously unknown information from existing data– Relationships– Trends

• Look for hidden information that cannot be found because of the size of the database

The Fifth GenerationNatural Language

• Humans communicate with computers in the language they use on a daily basis

• Ambiguities of natural language

The Fifth GenerationExpert Systems

• Software used with an extensive set of organized data that presents the computer as an expert on a particular topic

• User– Knowledge seeker– Asks questions in English-like format

• Computer responds with an answer and explanation

The Fifth GenerationBuilding an Expert System

Expert system shellSoftware that contains the basic structure used to find answers to questions

Build knowledge baseKnowledge engineer writes rules

The Fifth GenerationRobotics

• Computer-controlled device that can physically manipulate its surroundings

• Primarily found in factories

• Field robots– Dangerous work– “Dirty” jobs

The Fifth GenerationVR – Virtual Reality

• Engage a user in a computer-created environment– User physically interacts with computer-created

environment– Immersion – user becomes absorbed in the VR

interaction

• How it works– Alters perceptions– Appeals to several senses at once– Presents images that respond immediately to

users movements

The Fifth GenerationVR – Virtual Reality

• The future of VR– Virtual showroom– Try new medical procedures on simulated

patients

• Problem– Simulator sickness– Costs