Computer Fundamentals

Lecture # 2:
Introduction to Computer & History
(Continued)
Today’s Aim

 Vacuum Tubes; Electronics arrived

 Advent of Transistors
 IC’s
 Microprocessor – The on-chip processor
 Microcomputer
History (Vacuum Tubes)

 Vacuum Tubes (Thermo-ionic Valves)

 The very first Electronic Devices because they
provided ‘electrically Controlled Current’ &
‘Controlled Voltage’
 But switches and rheostats etc. also control
electricity!
 The special thing about is that “electricity controls
electricity”
History (Vacuum Tubes)

 Edison Effect
 Thomas Edison, in 1880, while developing the
incandescent lamp, observed that “a small current
passed from the heated filament to a metal plate
mounted inside the vacuum envelop
 Electrons would flow from the filament to the
metal plate even if the filament was heated by
some other means, battery is not mandatory
History (Vacuum Tubes)
History (Vacuum Tubes)

 Flemming Valve (Vacuum Diode)

 By 1904, John Flemming, the advisor of Marconi
Wireless Company found that “an externally
applied current only passed in one direction i.e.,
from the filament to plate but not the reverse
direction”
 This invention was called ‘the vacuum diode’ and
was used to convert AC into DC
History (Vacuum Tubes)
History (Vacuum Tubes)
 These were two initial steps towards
electronics
 The era of electronics began with the
invention of the Audion tube, when Lee
DeForest added a third electrode to the
vacuum diode; that allowed a small signal to
control the larger electron flow from filament
to plate
 This device truly provided electrical control of
electricity
History (Vacuum Tubes)

DeForest Audion triode vacuum tube amplifier

History (Vacuum Tubes)

 Drawbacks of Vacuum Tubes

 Large Glass Tubes
 Power Hungry
 Computers using them (e.g., Colossus, ENIAC,
Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine,
EDSAC, Manchester Mark 1) were large enough
to occupy big halls
History (Transistors)
 Advent of Transistors
 Computers using vacuum tubes as their electronic
elements were in use throughout the 1950s
 But by the 1960s had been largely replaced by transistor-
based machines
 smaller, faster, cheaper to produce, require less power and
more reliable.
 The first transistorized computer was demonstrated at the
University of Manchester in 1953
History (ICs)

 Late 1960s - Integrated Circuits

 1971, Intel’s DRAM and EPROM
 4001; 256 Byte ROM with a 4-bit I/O port
 4002; 40 Byte RAM (80x4) with a 4-bit I/O port
 4003; 10-bit parallel output ‘shift register’ for
scanning keyboards, displays, printers, etc
History (microprocessors)
 Intel 4004
 The first complete CPU on a single chip
 Produced from late 1971 to 1981
 Released on November 15, 1971
 New silicon technology at that time, higher speed
and Integration, executed approximately 92,000
instructions per second
 Maximum Clock Speed 740 kHz
 Separate program and data storage (i.e., a
Harvard architecture)
History (microprocessors)
 Intel 4004 (continued)
 12-bit addresses
 8-bit instructions
 4-bit ‘data words’
 ‘Instruction set’ contains
46 instructions
 Register set contains 16
registers of 4 bits each
History (microprocessors)
 Successors of Intel 4004 (pre x86)
 Intel 4040
 Intel 8008
 Intel 8080
 Intel 8085
 X86-16 (16-bit) series
 Intel 8086
 Intel 8088
 Intel 80186
 Intel 80188
 Intel 80286
History (microcomputer)

 Altair 8800 (1975)

 A microcomputer; product of MITS (Micro
Instrumentations & Telemetry System), founded
by ‘Ed Robert, Forrest M. Mims, Stan Cagle &
Robert Zaller in 1969.
 Based on Intel 8080 CPU, an 8-bit microprocessor
 Was expected to be sold in hundreds but
thousands were sold in the first month
 the first programming language for the machine
was Altair BASIC, by Microsoft
History (microcomputer)
 TRS-80 (The Model I)
 Released in 1977 by Tandy Corporation
 Apple and Commodore were major competetors
 It combined the mainboard and keyboard into one
unit
 It used a Zilog Z80 processor clocked at
1.77 MHz
 Popular with the hobbyists and small-scale
businesses
 More than 250,000 were sold, discontinued in
1981
History (microcomputer)
 Model II
 In October 1979, Tandy Corporation began
shipping the Model II
 It was not an upgrade of the Model I, but an
entirely different system, built using the faster
Zilog Z80A chip running at 4 MHz
 The Model II ran the TRSDOS-II operating system
which was not compatible with TRSDOS for the
Model I
 Thus Model II never had the same breadth of
available software as the Model I
History (microcomputers)

 Successors to TRS-80 (Model I)

 Major drawback of Model I was the massive RF
interference it caused in surrounding electronics,
thus violating FCC (Federal Communication
commission) regulations
 This drawback was removed with the release of
Model III in July 1980
 This machine was much more integrated and
used a much faster (2.08 MHz) Z-80 processor
 The successor to the Model III was the Model 4
(April 1983)
History (microcomputers)
 IBM PC
 IBM PC, is the original version and progenitor of
the IBM PC compatible hardware platform
 Introduced on August 12, 1981; used Intel 8088
operating at 4.77 MHz
 Came into the market to compete Commodore
PET, Atari 8-bit family, Apple II and Tandy
Corporation's TRS-80s
 Unlike its competitors, It was specifically designed
for professional and scientific problem-solvers, not
meant just for hobbyists
History (microcomputer)
 IBM PC
 Gained popularity because;
 ‘off-the-shelf’ components were used to reduce cost
 Open architecture was followed so that, other
manufacturers could produce and sell peripheral
components and compatible software without
purchasing licenses
 IBM also sold an IBM PC Technical Reference Manual
which included complete circuit schematics, a listing of
the ‘ROM BIOS source code’
History (microcomputers)
 Hence Columbia Data Products introduced the first
IBM-PC compatible computer in June 1982
 In November 1982, Compaq Computer Corporation
announced the Compaq Portable, the first portable
IBM PC compatible
 The "IBM Personal Computer XT", IBM's model
5160; enhanced for business use
History (microcomputers)

 The "IBM Personal Computer/AT", announced

August 1984
 Used an Intel 80286 processor, originally
running at 6 MHz
 It had a 16-bit ISA bus and 20 MB hard drive
 A faster model, running at 8 MHz, was
introduced in 1986
 IBM Convertible, IBM Portable & PCjr are other
models in this line
History (microprocessors)

 Pentium
 A 32-bit microprocessor produced by Intel.
 The first large-scale x86 architecture processor
 Introduced on March 22, 1993
 Its micro-architecture was called ‘P5’, (pent
means ‘five’ in Greek)
History (microprocessors)

 Pentium
 P5
 The original Pentium Processor was code named
‘P5’
 It operated at 60 MHz and 66 MHz
 It contained 3.1 million transistors
 Measured 16.7 mm by 17.6 mm for an area of
293.92 mm2
 Fabricated in a 0.8 µm BiCMOS process
History (microprocessors)

 Pentium
 P54C
 The P5 was followed by the P54C (80502)
 Operated at 75, 90 and 100 MHz
 It contained 3.3 million transistors
 Measured 163 mm2
 Fabricated in a 0.6 µm BiCMOS process.
History (microprocessors)
 Pentium
 P54CQS
 The P54C was followed by the P54CQS
 Operated at 120 MHz
 The first commercial microprocessor to be
fabricated in a 0.35 µm BiCMOS process
 It had the same area as P54C, to fit into the
existing pad-ring
 Only the logic circuitry was reduced to achieve
higher clock speed
History (microprocessors)

 Pentium
 P54CS
 The P54CQS was followed by the P54CS
 Operated at 133, 150, 166 and 200 MHz
 It contained 3.3 million transistors
 Measured 90 mm2
 Fabricated in a 0.35 µm BiCMOS process with
History (microprocessors)

 Successors of Pentium

 x86-32 / IA-32 (32 bit)

 Pentium Pro, Pentium II, Pentium III, Pentium 4,
Pentium M, Celeron M, Celeron D & Intel A100

 x86-64 (64 bit)

 Pentium 4 (Some), Pentium D, Pentium Extreme
Edition & Celeron D (Some)
History (microprocessors)

 Successors of Pentium
 Current
 Atom, Celeron, Pentium Dual-Core, Core 2, Core
i3, Core i5, Core i7, Xeon and Itanium

 Upcoming
 Moorestown, Core i9