cs 185c: the history of computing august 29 class meeting department of computer science san jose...

CS 185C: The History of ComputingAugust 29 Class Meeting

Department of Computer ScienceSan Jose State University

Fall 2011Instructor: Ron Mak

www.cs.sjsu.edu/~mak

SJSU Dept. of Computer ScienceFall 2011: August 29

CS 185C: This History of Computing© R. Mak

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CS 286-03 for Graduate Students

This course will be cross-listed with CS 286-03 Counts as an options course

Use this course to prepare for your masters thesis project. Research the historical context for your thesis. Hook up with a famous industry advisor. Convince the advisor to stay on as your thesis

advisor.



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Projects

Each team works throughout the semester on a project related to computing history. Project depends on students’ interest (with instructor consent).

Select and connect with suitable advisors.

Research primary (original) sources. Interview the original designers and developers. Read books, articles, and websites written by the original

designers and developers. Research historic artifacts in the archives of the

Computer History Museum. etc.

Reference secondary sources. Books, articles, websites, etc.



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Some Project Ideas Restore a historic hardware or software artifact. Create a software simulation of a legendary computer

architecture. Study the evolution of a specific hardware or software

technology, including key decision points, controversies, politics, etc.

Chronicle the early history and legacy of a pioneering computing company or organization such as Control Data Corporation, Burroughs Corporation, Wang Laboratories, Digital Equipment Corporation, Zilog, Xerox PARC, and others.

Investigate past programming languages and demonstrate their influences on today's languages and programming paradigms.



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More Project Ideas

Trace the advancement of business or scientific data processing applications over the decades as application requirements and computing technologies evolved.

Study the impact of computing on society from the punched-card culture to the Web and social networking.

Collect, analyze, categorize, and index original software, documentation, and other artifacts related to a particular technology.

Interview industry pioneers and videotape and record their oral histories.

... etc.



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Evolution of a Specific Technology

Number representation in a computer Fixed size vs. variable length (as in IBM 1401) Floating-point numbers and arithmetic

formats operations in software vs. hardware rounding errors

Evolution of computer memory Mechanical relays semiconductor

Evolution of secondary storage systems Punched cards flash memory



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Computer Memory: Mercury Delay Line (1940s)

UNIVAC I: 1000 35-bit words



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Computer Memory: Williams Tube (1940s)

First random-access computer storage device.Each tube stored 512 – 1024 bits.



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Computer Memory: Magnetic Core (1950s)



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Software Simulation

Develop a software simulation of a historic computer system. Emulate the instruction set Graphical display of the front panel Run programs compiled for the original system on your

simulation

The Computer History Simulation Projecthttp://simh.trailing-edge.com/

Demo: ROPE/1401 simulation of the IBM 1401 Autocoder cross-assembler written in FORTRAN 90 SIMH 1401 simulator written in C GUI wrapper written in Java



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IBM 1401 Workshop

Small team of two students spend the semester learning everything about the IBM 1401 Architecture How to operate How to program Work with the 1401 restoration project at the

Computer History Museum

At the end of the semester, teach a hands-on workshop for local high school students. With handouts



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The History of Zilog

Zilog had a significant role in the history of Silicon Valley and the history of the semiconductor industry. First corporation specializing in microprocessors The Z80 chip helped launch the personal computer revolution However, the history of Zilog is not well known.

Project: Document the history of Zilog. Advisors: Bernard Peuto, former engineering director at Zilog,

and Christophe Lécuyer, professional historian and author of books on the history of the high-tech industry.

Gather archival materials from Zilog and its competitors. technical and marketing documents, business records, etc.

Conduct oral histories of former Zilog engineers and managers. Supported by the Computer History Museum.



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Publish on the IEEE Website

Each project team posts to the IEEE Global History Network website. http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Special:Home Each student will get an account

Edit only your project’s wiki Read everybody else’s wiki

Post drafts, blogs, final reports, etc. Get early exposure to experts worldwide

Receive comments, criticisms, advice, research guidance

You will be able to link to your project report. Add to your list of published works. The IEEE (Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers)

is a well-known and highly respected professional organization with over 400,000 members worldwide in over 160 countries.



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Getting an IEEE GHN Account

If you already have an IEEE account, you can just click on the “Sign In” button. Student memberships fees are discounted. Join the IEEE and access all of its benefits.

To create a guest account:http://www.ieee.org/about/help/Task/my_account/web_account.html Click on the “Create an IEEE Web Account” link Click on the “Create an IEEE Account” button E-mail me your IEEE user name

I will enable it for the Global History Network An account is needed to create and edit pages. All content can be read and viewed without first logging in.



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Create a New Topic Article First look at the existing articles to see what’s already out there.

Click the “Submit a Topic Article” link For help, click the “Help Contents” link Identify at the top of your article:

“I’m a student in the History of Computing class at San Jose State University ( http://www.cs.sjsu.edu/~mak/CS185C/ ). This is a work in progress that will turn into a final article by the end of the semester. I welcome your comments and advice!”

Otherwise, other IEEE members may try to edit it. E-mail your topic title to [email protected]

Each article has a “Discussion” button that others can use to start discussion threads about your article. You can reply to the comments.

You can also use your account to post a blog of your research in progress.



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Topic Gaps in Computing Alan Turing Computer Virus Infects PCs ASCII Herman Hollerith UNIVAC UNIX Sun Microsystems FORTRAN CMOS C John von Neumann ARPANET Leon O. Chua Shmuel Winograd Charles H. Bennett Ralph E. Gomory Jamie Fenton

Henrietta Swan Leavitt Betty Holberton Adele Katz Goldstine Frances Spence Marlyn Meltzer Lempel-Ziv Compression

Algorithm Ruth Teitelbaum HTTP Ethernet Distributed Networks Mary Allen Wilkes Mary Shaw Computer Language Compiler ACE Computer Packet Switching



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Project Ideas

Send project descriptions to [email protected] by Friday, September 2.



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TAKE ROLL!



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Next Guest Speaker: Gordon Bell

Famous computer architect and manager. “Father of the minicomputer”

Early employee of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) 1960-1966 VP of Engineering, 1972-1983

Co-author of the textbook, Computer Structures

Co-founder of the Computer History Museum Other co-founder was his wife Gwen Bell

He has also agreed to be a project advisor for students of this class.



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Gordon Bell, cont’d

Talk is Wednesday, August 316:00 – 7:00 PMAuditorium ENGR 189Davidson Engineering Building

Come early for the reception outside the auditorium starting at 5:00



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At the console of the PDP-6, circa 1964

Gordon Bell today



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Computer Structures

Classic classic textbook on computer architecture 1971 (first edition) and 1982 (second edition)

Introduced the PMS and ISP notations to describe the structure and behavior of computer systems PMS notation did not become very popular

Description languages such as VHDL more commonly used today ISP is the forerunner of today’s register transfer languages for

simulation, verification, and design generally



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PMS Notation

PMS: processor-memory-switch Describes the structure of a computer system at the

information flow level.

L = linkS = switchD = data T = transducerK = controlP = processorM = memory



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ISP Notation

ISP: Instruction Set Processor Describes a computer

system at the programming (logic) level

It is possible to create a simulator for a computer system by interpreting its ISP description.



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Computer Structures, cont’d

Gordon Bell and his co-author Dan Siewiorek are starting to work on a third edition.

They are open to having top computer architecture students work with them on small writing and research projects. “Tracing the evolution using PMS structures for chips level to

full system level to understand where performance or reliability is coming from.”

“In a few cases, e.g. iPhone the notion of PMS structures of both hardware and software systems … this is a pioneering project as neither of us have done it before … we just share the belief that is will work.”



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Bell’s Law of Computer Classes

Please look over his article (link on class website)

A computer class is a set of computers in a particular price range defined by: Programming environment (Windows, Linux, etc.) Network User interface

Bell’s Law describes how computer classes are born, evolve, and die



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Minicomputers

Class of computer systems between the large expensive mainframe systems and the small inexpensive personal computer systems. Cheap enough to be purchased by individual departments,

such as a school or a scientific laboratory.

Popular during the 1960s and 1970s. Major manufacturers were Digital Equipment Corporation

(DEC), Data General, and Hewlett-Packard. Mostly 16- and 32-bit machines, up to 1 MB memory.

Overtaken by the microcomputers during the 1980s.



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Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC)

Major minicomputer manufacturer, 1957-1998 CEO during most of that period was its cofounder

Ken Olsen (1926-2011)

Computer systems PDP-1, PDP-6, PDP-8, PDP-10, PDP-11 VAX



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DEC, cont’d

PDP-1 (1960) at the Computer History Museumwith Steve Russell, programmer of Spacewar!the very first video game, as an MIT student.18-bit word, 4-64 K words of memory

PDP-8 (1965)12-bit word4-32 K words of memory



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DEC, cont’d

PDP-11 (1970s-1990s)16-bit wordup to 56 KB of memoryEarly development of UNIX and C

Introduced October 25, 197732-bit word, virtual memory

cs 185c: the history of computing august 29 class meeting department of computer science san jose...

Documents

computing history

historic computer system

index original software

software technology

original system

software artifact

original designers

project ideasrestore