HISTORIA : A EVOLUÇÃO DOS COMPUTADORES

It's no secret that your current computer

is the result of an evolution that took

decades to reach its current state and

is still far from complete.

If we consider that about 10 years ago

processors didn't even have

multiple cores, imagining the machines

that inaugurated computing is an

even more complicated task. Did you know

that computers already existed in the early 1950s?

Logically, they didn't

look anything like what we have

today, but they were already performing some

complex calculations in a very short

time. In these 60 years, elements have

disappeared, components have been created.

So get ready to learn a little

more about this magnificent history: the

evolution of

computers. The first generation of

computers was marked by large

machines that weighed tons, and the sole

purpose of their processing

was to perform calculations. Let's

start with the Harvard Mark 1, an

electromechanical computer that was conceived in 1930

by Grace Hopper and Howard Aen and

built in

1944 by Harvard University in

partnership with IBM. The Mark 1 was about

17 meters long, 2.5 meters high, and

weighed about 5 tons. The Mark 1, the first

and largest large-scale automatic digital calculator

developed in the

United States, worked with 23

decimal places and performed the four

arithmetic operations. It also had

integrated subroutines that calculated

logarithmic and trigonometric functions. It

was a slow calculator, taking from 3

to 5 seconds to perform a

multiplication, but it was fully

automatic and could perform

extensive calculations. Without

human intervention, still in the first generation of

computers, we have the ENAC (Electronic

Numerical Integrator and Computer),

created in February 1946

by American scientists John

Mery and John Mle of the Electronic Control

Company. Totally different from the Mark 1,

which was electromechanical, the ENAC was the first

large-scale electronic digital computer. It

began development in

1943 during World War II

to compute tactical trajectories that

required substantial

mathematical knowledge, but only became operational

after the end of the war. Its

processing capacity was 5,000

editing operations per second. It had

17,468 vacuum tubes and occupied an area of ​​180 The

IBM 7094, which consumed 200,000 watts of energy and

weighed approximately 30 tons at the time,

cost around $500,000,

equivalent to approximately $6 million

today. With the advent of

complex ballistic calculations, they could be

performed in an astonishing 30

seconds, whereas with the

manual calculators used until then, it took 12

hours to obtain the same result. The

second generation of computers,

the IBM

7094, marks the beginning of the second generation

of computers. Initially

developed for use as a

control mechanism in nuclear power plants,

the new generation of

computers, instead of using vacuum tubes

as components, uses another

component created in 1947 by

Bell Laboratories:

transistors. These components are created

from solid materials such as

silicon, the same material still

used today in circuit boards and other

components. There were a number of

advantages of transistors over

vacuum tubes. To begin with, the dimensions

of these components were considerably

reduced, making

second-generation computers 100 times smaller than

those of the first generation. The idea was that the

NAAC weighed 30 tons, while the IBM 7094

weighed less than 1 ton, at

890 kg. Furthermore, the new

computers were more

economical, both in terms of

energy consumption and parts prices,

although their cost was still high,

reaching up to 2 million dollars.

Third generation:

integrated circuits. The use of

silicon materials with electrical conductivity greater

than that of an insulator but less than that of

a conductor was called a semiconductor.

This new component guaranteed a

significant increase in the speed and

efficiency of computers, allowing

more tasks to be performed in

shorter periods of time. In

1964, IBM launched one of the first

computers to use

integrated circuits, the IBM System

360. This model, despite the advantages

brought by semiconductors, remained

large and even weighed more than its

predecessors, but it was extremely advanced

for its time, causing all other

computers to be considered

completely obsolete. This led

IBM to sell more than 30,000 units. Under

the influence of the American space program,

IBM launched in 7 In April

1964, the first machine in the family

created by Genny Amdal, called the IBM

System 360, was launched.

These computers were designed for

commercial purposes and marked the

trend of using integrated circuits

or

chips. The 360 ​​included a

central processor and many peripherals,

allowing for various expansion options. In

other words, the 360 ​​was the first to introduce

the concept of modularity; the buyer

could acquire different modules

according to their needs. This

flexibility allowed several

companies to buy their first

computer. The cheapest 360 model

had 8 bits and

byte-based memory addressing. Its

processing was done by a set

of transistors that were already moving towards a

chip, performing more than 2 million

operations per second and about 500,000

multiplications. This fact made its

predecessors

obsolete. With the third generation of

computers, keyboards for

typing commands emerged, and monitors also

allowed the visualization of

operating systems, still very primitive and

completely distant from the

graphical systems we know and use

today. Fourth generation: the beginning of the

era of personal computers. Finally,

we arrive at the computers that most

users... The computers still in use today

were

the first to be called

microcomputers, or simply micros.

This name is due to the fact that they

weighed less than 20 kg, making their

storage much easier. The

components that made this size

reduction possible were

microprocessors; these small

control and processing chips made

computing much more accessible, in addition to

offering a huge range of new options

for

users. The Apple 8800 could be

bought as a kit to assemble, sold

by specialized magazines in the United States.

It was based on this machine that

Bill Gates and Paul Allen created BASIC and

inaugurated the

Microsoft dynasty. At the same time, Steve

Jobs and Ion created Apple to

dedicate themselves to personal computing projects made

easier for users, similar to Legos, since until

then not everyone knew how to

use a computer, as everything was done

through commands. Thus, the

Apple 1 emerged, a project that was first

presented to HP. It was succeeded

by the Apple 2 after an injection of

250,000 by Intel. This second version

of the computers has a

modified version of the base system. The great

advance presented by the system was the

use of a graphical interface for

software. It was also possible to use

word processors,

spreadsheets, and

databases. Apple was responsible for

inaugurating the mechs in

personal computing, along with

graphical operating systems like

macOS. Shortly after, Microsoft

launched the first version of Windows,

quite similar to its rival's system.

Cycles became clocks. Until the

third generation of computers, the

response time of machines was

measured in cycles, that is, measuring a

number of actions in short periods of

time so that it was possible to know what

fraction of a second was used for

them. With microprocessors, it

was no longer feasible to measure capabilities in this

way, so measurements by

clocks emerged. This definition calculates the number

of processing cycles

that can be performed in just one

second. For example, 1 MHz means that

in just one second the

chip can perform 1 million

cycles. Fifth generation: multiple cores.

We are still in transition from a phase

where processors tried to

reach ever higher clock speeds to

a phase where what really matters is

how these clock speeds can be better

utilized. It is no longer necessary to

achieve processing speeds

higher than 2 GHz, but it has become

mandatory for each chip to have more From a

single core with these frequencies,

processors that

simulated the existence of two

processing cores began to arrive on the market, then came those that

actually had two. Today

there are processors with four cores and

others used by servers that already

offer eight with so much power

executing simultaneous tasks.

A new need arose because the more

tasks a computer performs, the

more energy it consumes. To combat

this problem,

chip manufacturers began researching ways to

reduce consumption without diminishing the

capabilities of their components. That's when

the concept of

Green Processing was born. Intel Core Sandbridge processors

were manufactured with a

reduced microarchitecture, resulting in

shorter clock speeds and less

electricity consumption.

These processes are more efficient, so

performing tasks with this type of

component is good for the user and also

for the environment. It's worth mentioning that this

also applies to Ivy Bridge, Skylake, and

all other

families. Another element involved in these

concepts is the assembly process.

Manufacturers are constantly seeking

ways to reduce the environmental impact of

their industries. Notebooks, for example,

are being created with LED screens, which are

much less harmful to nature than

common LCDs. The sixth generation of

computers is debated; some say it will be driven by

Artificial Intelligence, while others

disagree, stating that robots don't

belong in that category. Still others argue

that sixth-generation computers would

use

superconductors as raw materials for

their processors. Because of

superconductivity, these processors would

n't lose electricity to heat

due to increased resistance, thus gaining

performance and saving energy.

It's estimated that the performance gain would be

approximately 30 times that

of a processor of the same

frequency using common metals.

However, currently, no material

works in common ambient conditions

like a superconductor, making

its

commercial use impossible. The fact is, we cannot deny

that humanity has been incessantly

working to improve

its machines. Who would have imagined 60 years

ago that a computer with the size and

processing capacity it could

fit in the palm of a hand? Or today,

who could imagine that 60 years ago a

computer could weigh up to 30 tons

and not have even half the

processing capacity of a smartphone? What do you

think the next generations of

computers will be like? My name is Manuel, and you

have just watched another video from the

PC marv channel. I hope you enjoyed it.

If you liked it, leave a like, share it

with your friends, and comment on what you think

the next generations of

computers will be like. I'll leave it here and see you

in the next video. Bye!