Abstract
We’re all quite familiar with what a computer is. You probably have one at home, and you may also have one on your desk at work, or to provide some other work function such as a cash register or for stock control. Basically, your computer at home or work is a box connected, usually by cables, but sometimes wirelessly to a mouse, keyboard, screen, and perhaps a printer and scanner. Every computer you’ve ever seen has probably looked much like this. However, as we will see in this and subsequent chapters, a computer need not look like this; indeed, a computer need not look like anything at all. It can even be an abstract mathematical concept with no physical reality. The computer we will look at in this chapter doesn’t look like your PC or Mac; in fact it’s not even electronic—it’s totally mechanical.
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Notes
- 1.
For x = 7, f(x) = 245, diff1 = 65 and diff2 = 10
- 2.
Since 1998, the British Computer Society has awarded a medal in her name and Ada Lovelace Day is an organization whose goal is to “raise the profile of women in science, technology, engineering and maths” http://findingada.com/
- 3.
As this book was being completed “Plan28” was announced to build a working Analytical Engine just as has been done for the Difference Engine No.2. This project is a little harder though as Babbage didn’t complete the design of the Analytical Engine and complete engineering drawings do not exist. The team members must first complete the design to Babbage’s intentions and then build a working “steam powered-PC.” More information here: http://plan28.org/
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© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Watson, I. (2012). The Dawn of Computing. In: The Universal Machine. Copernicus, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28102-0_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28102-0_2
Publisher Name: Copernicus, Berlin, Heidelberg
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