Towards Commercialization —— The Formation of Computer Industry —— A Brief History of Computers in the Digital Age (XV)

Only five computers are needed in the world?

"I think there are abou

Towards Commercialization —— The Formation of Computer Industry —— A Brief History of Computers in the Digital Age (XV)

Only five computers are needed in the world?

"I think there are about five computers in the global market. -thomas watson, president-IBM, 1943.

This sentence seems quite ridiculous now, especially from the mouth of the president of IBM, which is even more incredible. Of course, it is unfair to judge Watson's judgment by the market size of personal computers today. After all, it is impossible to imagine that every family has a computer.

But in any case, the market size of medium and large computers must be more than single digits, right? IBM started as a watchmaker and has been doing statistics for large institutions such as * * * departments, railway companies and life insurance companies for more than 30 years. Why do you still underestimate the demand for computers?

Watson, the first president of IBM. Photo: Wikipedia In fact, Watson decided to develop computers with Harvard University in 1939. He must think that other universities must also have computer needs. At the same time, he should also know that the military is actively building computers to calculate ballistics and make shooting tables for World War II.

It's just that for Watson, these computers were built for a specific purpose, and they were developed in a cooperative mode. In his eyes, they are not commercial products. What he wants is a commercial market where standard products can be directly adopted. But at that time, there were few enterprises that needed a lot of calculations, and most of those calculations were simple statistical analysis, so IBM's tabulator was more than enough. Therefore, Watson was right when he saw the decline of the computer market.

Watson's point of view exactly reflects the role of computers in that era: calculating complex mathematical equations. This is obviously only used by scholars, either for their own scientific research or to help the military calculate ballistics and aerodynamics.

In fact, at that time, both universities and the military promoted the development of computers (Bell Laboratories took the initiative to manufacture complex computers at first, then stopped computer research and development, and it was not until the war broke out that it was entrusted by the military to continue research and development). If the use of computers is limited to this, Watson's prediction is likely to be close. Fortunately, after the end of World War II, the commercial market rose, and the computer industry has today's glory. But you probably can't imagine that the first computer company to build a commercial computer was not a computer company like IBM, but a British catering company.

The biscuit factory and J. Lyons and Co of Cambridge University were founded as a small teahouse in 1884. Later, they not only developed into chain teahouses all over Britain, but also expanded to different chain stores such as desserts and restaurants, and set up their own factories to produce all kinds of biscuits and cakes. After the Second World War, in view of the continuous expansion of the organization, the management hopes to buy commercial machines from the United States to improve management efficiency.

The restaurant chain owned by Leon Enterprise was shot by 1942. Figure: After collecting all kinds of information, Wikipedia found that the US Army published the first general-purpose electronic computer ENIAC in February 1946. Lyon's high-level officials were very interested in this, so they sent people to the United States for investigation in May 1947.

They visited Goldstein (previously on: He represented the army in Moore Institute of Electrical Engineering during the war and was responsible for coordinating the design and construction of ENIAC. It was he who took the initiative to distribute the First Draft of the EDVAC Report written by von Newman to the relevant institutions in the United States and Britain, which led to the birth of many computers based on von Newman, indicating that he wanted to build a computer. Gao kindly told them that they didn't have to go further and further. A team of Cambridge University, not far from their company headquarters, is making computers.

It turns out that maurice wilkes, a physicist at Cambridge University, also got a copy of the first draft of the EDVAC Report. Fortunately for Turing, one of his graduate students served in the navy during World War II and was responsible for designing the delay line memory used in radar, so he knew how to build a mercury delay line.

Although the technical obstacles have been overcome, Cambridge University is not interested in developing computers and is unwilling to give money. Wilkes had to start designing and look for sources of funds at the same time. I didn't expect luck to come to me again. Leon enterprises actually took the initiative to come to me and was willing to sponsor development funds in exchange for Wilkes' assistance in building commercial computers.

Electronic delay storage automatic calculator (EDSAC) designed by Wilkes? It was completed in less than two years. 1On May 6th, 949, the program for calculating the square number was successfully executed, becoming the second digital computer to access this program after Manchester Baby.

EDSAC created many firsts. Strictly speaking, Manchester Baby was originally a test model for building Manchester No.1, and it can only do simple calculations. The input/output equipment is quite difficult and its functions are quite limited. Therefore, for a truly fully functional computer, the first computer that can access programs should be EDSAC；; Manchester 1 came second with a gap of 40 days.

After EDSAC is finished, designer Wilkes is on the left. Figure: Wikipedia also has several firsts in computer history related to EDSAC. When the machine is just turned on, there will be a basic program to get the relevant components ready, which is completed by controlling the electromagnetic switch through a series of electronic signals. David Wheeler, a graduate student in charge of programming, changed the startup program into a set of initial commands, which were described in English code, so that programmers could set up the machine in a more intuitive way.

The initial instruction designed by Wheeler was the earliest assembly language, so he was regarded as the inventor of "assembler" (a system that converts assembly language into machine code). 195 1 year, Wheeler received his Ph.D. with his thesis "EDSAC Automatic Computing" and became the first doctor of computer science in history.

After the completion of EDSAC, Wilkes did not flatter himself, but quickly opened to the outside world from 1950. For this reason, he and Wheeler wrote the first textbook of computer programs in history, so that scholars who are interested in using EDSAC know how to write programs. Four of them later won the Nobel Prize (two won the 1962 chemistry prize, one won the 1963 medicine prize and one won the 1974 physics prize), especially at the awarding ceremony, they delivered a speech thanking EDSAC for its great help to their research.

Incidentally, the first visual computer game in history also appeared on EDSAC. EDSAC was originally equipped with cathode ray tube for monitoring circuit; 1952, a graduate student wrote a TIC-tac-toe game program to let people play computer, and TIC-tac-toe and "o" and "x" symbols were directly presented on the cathode ray tube.

Wilkes, the world's first commercial computer, will certainly fulfill his promise to Leon, the master behind the scenes, after completing EDSAC as he wishes. High-level enterprises in Lyon have high expectations for computers, and a special department "Leo" has been set up. Instead of purchasing ready-made models, they have to build their own customized computers. The name is Leo I (Leo 1).

Leo I, the first commercial computer. Figure: Wikipedia Leo- 1 completely refers to the design of EDSAC, but the memory capacity is doubled, which will be completed in February of 195 1. 1 1 In June, Leó n began to computerize its order, distribution, inventory and other management systems, and realized the so-called "management information system" for the first time today, thus making Leo I the first commercial computer in the world.

So far, Britain is still ahead of the United States in computer development. Although both Manchester University and Cambridge University got the first draft of the EDVAC Report, they began to design computers based on von Newman. Several of them also flew to the United States to attend the summer course of Moore Electric Machinery Institute, just to gain relevant computer knowledge, but the British team built the machine earlier than the United States.

In addition to taking the lead in reaching several technical milestones, Britain's attempt in software application is also braver. When Leon enterprises began to introduce management information system, American computers were mainly used for scientific calculation or solving specific problems for departments. As for IBM, which has mastered the commercial market, it still uses electromechanical tabulators to handle simple addition, subtraction, multiplication and division operations for customers.

The rise and fall of British and American computer power is only accidental. EDVAC was delayed until February 1952 because the core members left. Moakley and eckert, who started their business angrily, started from scratch, so in March 1949, they completed the first computer in the United States, "BINAC automatic computer", which was nearly one year later than the Manchester baby in Britain. After all, von Newman, who returned to Princeton Institute for Advanced Studies, was a scholar rather than an engineer. It was not until 1952 that he built the IAS machine.

Sleeping IBM is about to wake up. Due to the outbreak of the Korean War, the US Department of Defense needs to calculate nuclear bombs. 1in April, 952, IBM finally launched a "national defense calculator" with high-speed computing capability, which was IBM's first vacuum tube computer with von Neumann architecture. Now that it has been developed and is a general-purpose computer that can execute various programs, it is renamed as 70 1 and put into the commercial market for a try. So IBM began to sell 70 1 to enterprise users from 1953, which opened the era when IBM dominated the medium and large computer market and marked the beginning when the United States came from behind.

The arithmetic unit of IBM 70 1 Figure: By the way, Wikipedia quoted Watson, the president of IBM, at the beginning of the article, which I believe actually came from what he said when reporting the sales performance of 70 1 at the shareholders' meeting of 1953: "Before we visited our customers, we originally expected to order up to 5 sets, but we got feedback from the order of 18 sets. Later, it turned out that he said that famous saying in 1943.

Watson actually visited only 20 customers during that visit, and as a result, 90% of customers were willing to buy computers, which proved that there was a considerable market demand for commercial computers. IBM has just sold 2,000 cheap 650 computers in eight years, and seven other smaller computer companies have also made considerable profits. The market also gave them the nickname "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs".

It is the inevitable result of the great era that the American computer industry is surging and leaving the leading Britain quickly. European countries were ravaged by World War II, and their national strength was seriously depleted. Relatively speaking, the United States was completely unaffected by the war. In addition, it also produced a large number of weapons and ammunition for its allies, which greatly increased the economy and promoted the demand for commercial computers. Moreover, as mentioned in Vanner Bush's introduction before, under his vigorous promotion, the United States * * * delegated research funds to universities or private laboratories, which not only promoted industrial development, but also allowed technology to take root in the private sector, thus leading the world in scientific and technological strength.

The same is true of magnetic memory computer related technology. As far as memory is concerned, Mercury delay line and Williams tube are too expensive, which makes the cost of computers prohibitive for enterprise users. Although the sound was recorded by electromagnetic induction as early as the end of19th century, it is always difficult to record data.

It was not until 1947 that an American "engineering research association" developed the "magic drum memory" under the entrustment of the navy. Its principle is similar to that of a hard disk, except that the magnetic material is sprayed on the cylinder.

1958 drum memory. Figure: Although Wikipedia's drum memory is not as fast as mercury delay line and Williams tube because of the mechanical effect of rotation, it is the key to realize cheap computer because of its large capacity, high reliability, no volatility (meaning that data will not disappear when unplugged) and low cost. It is the use of drum memory that makes the price of IBM 650 lower.

1949, magnetic memory goes a step further. Wang An, a doctor of physics in China, was Aiken's research assistant at that time. He invented the magic core memory when he participated in the construction of Harvard IV computer. This is an array of wires passing through many magnetic rings. There is no mechanical action, only current passes, so the speed is fast. But because of the high cost, it is only used for high-end models or core memory.

Just as the memory technology has made new progress, a revolutionary invention has quietly started in Bell Laboratories, which will completely change the face of computers and bring them into another new century. That is-transistor.