HISTORY OF COMPUTER APPLICATION

1. The Early days 1940s-1950s

- The first computer did not have interactive I/O devices
- The first computer had to be programmed by wiring switches
- The early computers had no RAM.
- Applications were limited to calculations
- Punch cards were used for computer programs
- Batch Processing
- During those times, a non-programmer cannot use a computer.
2. Host terminal Set-up 1960s-1970s
- Increase in processing power/memory of computer
- Keyboards and monochrome CRT screens were adapted to computers as
I/O devices
- A keyboard-screen is called a terminal. This device is connected to a
mainframe via a serial communication link of 9600 KBps (max).
- Numb terminals
3. Personal computer Era late 70s-early 80s
- decreasing cost, increasing integration
- CPU was invented by INTEL in 1973
- $10000 = 4Kb RAM
- Apple Computer TV set as display monitor
- Entertainment and educational application
- Office work tools / word processing
- mid 80s (8088 or 80286) offices have acquired more than one comp.
- Person was decentralization
4. Networked Computers late 80s early 90s
- computers were networked
- Powerful-computers were employed in servers
- File-locking
5. Client-Server Technology
- with client-server tech., the server does not allow direct access to the files/
documents only the server has direct access to the files
- Because of separation of tasks, the server can focus on performance and
security while the client can focus on user friendly interfaces.
- Ex. World Wide Web, Network Gaming, Databases

6. Trend for year 2000-distributed computing

- distributed computing is not new
- in distributed computing, a process or task may utilize more than one
computer. Multiple computer can share a task easing the burden of only
one computer was working on the task
- In distributed computing, all connected comp. Can be clients and servers.
- Ex. Napster