Charles Babbage, Alan Turing, John von Neumann
computer science
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Computer
- If it had been built,
- Babbage’s Analytical Engine,
- a mechanical computer,
- would have been programmed
- using punched cards.
- Babbage continued to improve the design
- until he died in 1871.
- In 1936, Alan Turing invented
- a hypothetical device,
- a universal logical computing model
- that could model anything computable,
- even itself.
- And by 1948, Von Neumann established
- the basis of modern computer architecture
- and designed the instruction set
- for ENIAC, which some say was the first
- programmable general-purpose computer.
- All efforts have steadily ensured that
- our expectations have exceeded
- the speed of our machines.
Colossus
- During World War II,
- Turing and von Neumann contributed
- to the British effort to decode
- messages from the German High Command.
- The Colossus machines, the first
- programmable electronic digital computers,
- were built to help decipher streams
- from the German’s cipher attachments
- for the Lorenz teleprinters.
- The Colossus machines were destroyed
- and their existence kept secret,
- but they shortened the war
- and gave vitality to British computer science
- lasting many years after.
Patterns
- A stick with notches
- can simulate a drumming pattern.
- Stencils can repeat designs.
- Punched holes in a paper roll
- can control a loom.
- Pins in a cylinder can match a key;
- pins on a drum can play a tune.
- Why waste time repeating yourself?
- If you say “Hello,” I’ll just say “No.”
Babbage and Hollerith had previously created machines that performed analysis and statistical compilations. Even the Colossus machines were not general-purpose computers, but were rather designed to perform specific cryptanalytic tasks. However, Babbage’s Analytical Engine design, Turing’s model, and von Neumann’s design for ENIAC were for general-purpose programmable computers.
See also in The book of science:
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