History of Information TechnologyWe study the past to envision the future.

IntroductionInformation technology has been around for a long, long time. Basically as long as people have been around, information technology has been around because there were always ways of communicating through technology available at that point in time.

IntroductionThere are 4 main ages that divide up the history of information technology. Only the latest age (electronic) and some of the electromechanical age really affects us today, but it is important to learn about how we got to the point we are at with technology today.

Ages1. Premechanical2. Mechanical3. Electromechanical4. Electronic

Premechanical Age 3000 B.C. – 1450 A.D.1. Writing and Alphabets – communication

i. First humans communicated only through speaking and picture drawings.

ii. 3000 B.C., the Sumerians in Mesopotamia (what is today southern Iraq) devised cuneiform

iii. Around 2000 B.C., Phoenicians created symbolsiv. The Greeks later adopted the Phoenician

alphabet and added vowels; the Romans gave the letters Latin names to create the alphabet we use today.

Premechanical Age

http://openbookproject.net/courses/intro2ict/_images/petroglyph.jpg

Premechanical Age 3000 B.C. – 1450 A.D.2. Paper and Pens – input technologies

i. Sumerians' input technology was a stylus that could scratch marks in wet clay.

ii. About 2600 B.C., the Egyptians write on the papyrus plant

iii. around 100 A.D., the Chinese made paper from rags, on which modern-day papermaking is based.

http://spotonlists.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/paper.jpg

Premechanical Age 3000 B.C. – 1450 A.D.3. Books and Libraries – Permanent

Storagei. Religious leaders in Mesopotamia kept

the earliest "books"ii. The Egyptians kept scrollsiii. Around 600 B.C., the Greeks began to

fold sheets of papyrus vertically into leaves and bind them together.

http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/writing/explore/images/scroll.jpg

Premechanical Age 3000 B.C. – 1450 A.D.4. First Numbering Systems

i. Egyptian system:a. The numbers 1-9 as vertical lines, the number

10 as a U or circle, the number 100 as a coiled rope, and the number 1,000 as a lotus blossom.

ii. The first numbering systems similar to those in use today were invented between 100 and 200 A.D. by Hindus in India who created a nine-digit numbering system.

iii. Around 875 A.D., the concept of zero was developed.

Premechanical Age 3000 B.C. – 1450 A.D.4. The First Calculators – The Abacus

i. One of the very first information processors

Mechanical Age: 1450 - 18401. The First Information Explosion.

i. Invented the movable metal-type printing process in 1450.

ii. The development of book indexes and the widespread use of page numbers.

2. The first general purpose "computers“i. Actually people who held the job title

"computer: one who works with numbers."

Mechanical Age: 1450 - 18403. Slide Rules, the Pascaline, Leibniz’s

Machine

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Arts_et_Metiers_Pascaline_dsc03869.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pocket_slide_rule.jpg

Mechanical Age: 1450 - 18404. Babbage’s Engines

i. Machine run on punch cardsii. Parts remarkably similar to modern-day

computers

Electromechanical Age: 1840 - 19401. The Beginnings of Telecommunication.

i. Voltaic Battery.ii. Telegraph.iii. Morse Code.iv. Telephone and Radio.

Electromechanical Age: 1840 - 19402. Mark 1.

i. 8 feet tall, 51 feet long, 2 feet thick, weighed 5 tons, used about 750,000 parts

Electronic Age: 1940 - Present1. ENIAC

i. Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer

ii. First High-Speed, General-Purpose computer using Vacuum Tubes

Electronic AgeThere are 4 main sections of digital computing. The first was the era of vacuum tubes and punch cards like the ENIAC and Mark 1. Rotating magnetic drums were used for internal storage. 

Electronic AgeThe second generation replaced vacuum tubes with transistors, punch cards were replaced with magnetic tape, and rotating magnetic drums were replaced by magnetic cores for internal storage. Also during this time high-level programming languages were created such as FORTRAN and COBOL.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:FortranCardPROJ039.agr.jpg

Electronic AgeThe third generation replaced transistors with integrated circuits, magnetic tape was used throughout all computers, and magnetic core turned into metal oxide semiconductors. An actual operating system showed up around this time along with the advanced programming language BASIC.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/42/Kilby_solid_circuit.jpg

Electronic AgeThe fourth and latest generation brought in CPUs (central processing units) which contained memory, logic, and control circuits all on a single chip. The personal computer was developed (Apple II). The graphical user interface (GUI) was developed.

http://openbookproject.net/courses/intro2ict/_images/apple2.jpg

Electronic AgePossible future generations would most likely be based off of artificial intelligence (AI). Some applications are being used today, such as voice recognition, but for the most part it is still in development.