NATS 1700 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine, Von Neumann Architecture, John Mauchly
28 Sep 2016
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Document Summary
Before digital computers, you had analog computing machines which were popularized in early 1900s. These systems were in essence small scale physical models of larger phenomena people wanted to learn more about (e. g. mechanical tide predictor) Specifically designed to understand one particular object. Analogue computers were built to solve specific problems first general purpose machine was vannevar bush"s differential analyzer (late 1920s) which could solve a variety of engineering problems. Served as a science director to the american presidents. One of the things that was said was, a computer, it is distinguished, it could be differentiated from other machines. The idea of one machine performing multiple tasks. Until wwii, large scale digital computations were still being done by human computers (who now had machines at their disposal) In the mid-1920s, john comrie (nautical almanac office) changed the nature of human computing by moving away from highly skilled mathematical inclined individuals to using clerical labor with calculating machines.
