MINISTRY OF EDUCATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF BELARUS
BELARUSIAN STATE UNIVERSITY
HISTORY DEPARTMENT
DEPARTMENT OF SOURCES STUDIES
ESSAY ON THE TOPIC OF:
CHARLES BABBAGE'S ANALYTICAL COMPUTER.
INTRODUCTION:
The Analytical Engine, designed by the outstanding English mathematician and inventor Charles Babbage, is a significant milestone in the history of the development of computer technology. When designing it in 1836-1848, Babbage actually set the direction for all subsequent development of electronic computers (hereinafter referred to as computers). After all, the project to create an analytical engine included whole line mechanisms inherent in modern computers. Firstly, the presence of the same five devices (arithmetic, memory, control, input and output) was assumed. Secondly, the number of operations, in addition to the four arithmetic ones, included a conditional jump operation and operations with instruction codes. In addition, it should be emphasized that all calculation programs in analytical engine Babbage's writings were written on punched cards.
In my essay I will try to consider the reasons that prompted Babbage to attempt to create a computer, to identify the ideas that influenced creative process British inventor, explain the reasons why Babbage was never able to create an analytical machine, despite the enormous moral and physical costs of the scientist.
Although Babbage himself did not see the fruits of his work, his undoubted influence on the more than century-long process of creating the computer known to us is proven by the following facts: in 1854, the Swedish inventor Scheutz built a difference engine in only a slightly modified form, and in 1991, by Babbage's bicentenary, British scientists, using his drawings, recreated the difference engine No. 2, as well as a 3.5-ton printer. Both devices still work excellently – only two errors were found in Babbage’s drawings.
1. THE YOUTH OF CHARLES BABBAGE
Charles Babbage was born on December 26, 1791 in the southwest of England in the town of Totnes, Devonshire, in the family of a banker. His father, Benjamin Babbage, a banker at the firm Prad, Munkworth and Babbage, subsequently left his son quite a large fortune. Charles was a very weak, sickly child, and therefore his parents were in no hurry to send him to school. Since childhood, he studied individually with an algebra teacher, and it is not surprising that it soon became his favorite science. By the time he entered Trinity College, Oxford University, in 1811, eighteen-year-old Babbage surpassed all his peers in his mathematical knowledge. There is information that young Babbage’s questions repeatedly baffled the college teachers themselves.
Despite his illness, young Babbage was a very versatile and sociable young man. His closest friends in college were John Herschel, grandson of the great astronomer W. Herschel, and George Peacock. Friends once even entered into an interesting agreement: “to leave this world wiser than they found it.”
A year after entering college, Babbage and his friends took part in the creation of the Analytical Society, aimed at reforming certain postulates of Newton's mathematics taught at the university and studying the cutting-edge achievements of European science. The Analytical Society began to hold regular meetings, at which its members gave scientific reports, and developed vigorous publishing activity. Thus, Babbage, Herschel and Peacock in 1816 translated Professor Lacroix’s mathematical treatise from French and supplemented it with two volumes of their own examples.
Babbage was a gifted student, but he believed that his friends - Herschel and Peacock - achieved much greater success in mathematics than he did. Not wanting to be third on the list of the best students at the end of college, Charles transferred to St. Peter's College. Indeed, there he became the first student and received a bachelor's degree in 1814. Three years later, Babbage received his master's degree.
2. SCIENTIFIC INTERESTS. START OF WORK ON THE COMPUTING MACHINE.
The newly minted master was an extremely active person with a wide range of scientific interests. In his youth, he began to write a dictionary and grammar of the world universal language, but this work remained unfinished. Around the same time, Babbage became interested in the possibility of creating a computer that eliminated the possibility of inaccurate calculations and mathematical errors when calculating logarithmic tables. There are two beautiful legends regarding how Babbage finally formulated for himself the task of creating a machine capable of independently creating error-free tables. According to the first version set forth by Babbage, one day Herschel brought him calculations made by calculators of the Astronomical Society. However, Babbage and Herschel had doubts about the quality of the calculators' work. They began a tedious check and discovered a large number of errors. Babbage said, “I would like these calculations to be carried out by means of a source of energy,” to which Herschel replied, “It is quite possible.” According to Babbage, this conversation gave rise to an idea that he spent his whole life implementing.
According to the second version, set forth by Babbage, the situation was somewhat different. One evening Babbage sat in the room of the Analytical Society and reflected on the difficulty of calculating logarithmic tables. At this time one of his friends entered the room and asked: “Well, Charles, what are you dreaming about?” Pointing to a table of logarithms, Babbage replied: “I think all these tables can be calculated by a machine.” Babbage writes that "this event must have occurred in 1812 or 1813."
The creation of a computer became the life's work for the young mathematician after he moved to France to continue his studies. There Babbage met the great Pierre Laplace and Jean-Baptiste Fourier, but it was Baron Gaspard de Prony who made the greatest impression on him. It was from the writings of de Prony that Babbage got the idea of creating computing technology.
In order to understand the detachment with which the British inventor took up the creation of the machine, I will cite the following fact. In 1828, Babbage was elected professor of mathematics at Lucas College, Cambridge University (many years later he would say that this was the only honor he received in his country). So: in 11 years of professorial activity, the scientist did not give a single lecture at the university, devoting all his time to machine calculations.
Nevertheless, the department still took up some time, and then in 1839 Babbage left his professorship. From now on until the end, his life will be entirely devoted to the creation of computers.
3. BABBAGE'S DIFFERENCE ENGINE.
In order to better understand Babbage's future ideas, let's take a closer look at the main scientific milestones in de Prony's life. The government of the renewed French Empire after the period decided to create new logarithmic and trigonometric tables. This work was entrusted to Baron de Prony, who at that time headed the Census Bureau.
De Prony transferred the idea of division of labor to the computing process. He distributed the performers into three skill levels: the highest level was occupied by several outstanding mathematicians, among whom were Legendre and Lazare Nicolas Carnot, who prepared mathematical software. At the second level there were educated “technologists” who organized the routine process of computational work. The last in this structure were calculators - computers (the first use of this word): their maximum qualification was the ability to add and subtract (usually calculators were recruited from girls of easy virtue who, after the revolution, decided to change their profession).
De Prony's merit is that he found algorithmic and technological approaches to reduce complex calculations to routine operations that do not require a creative approach from most performers. In principle, de Prony created the first computer that used calculators as a processor. This approach has been successfully used for 150 years when carrying out complex and even very complex calculations - from the development of ship designs to the creation of the first atomic bombs.
The distribution of computational labor in de Prony suggests to Babbage the idea of replacing the human calculator (who inevitably makes mistakes) with a machine - which, as Babbage believed, was unknown to mistakes.
The British scientist plunges headlong into a new form of mathematical science. In 1819, Babbage described a machine capable of calculating and printing large mathematical tables, and designed a tabulating machine consisting of rollers and gears turned by a lever. The machine could perform some mathematical calculations to the eighth decimal place. On it, Babbage, in particular, calculated the table of squares. After finishing this machine, Babbage was full of creative enthusiasm, believing that the main difficulties had already been overcome. The inventor's further plans were very optimistic.
In 1822, Babbage addressed the President of the Royal Society, Davy, with a letter in which he proposed to build a difference engine significantly large sizes than the previous one, for the calculation, first of all, of astronomical and navigation tables. Charles Babbage began work on the construction of a difference engine in 1823, immediately after he received a government scholarship to continue work on the creation of computers. Difference machine had to make calculations accurate to the twentieth decimal place. The construction of the mechanism took Babbage ten years, its design became more and more complex, cumbersome and expensive. It was precisely because of the financial insolvency of the project that work on the creation of a difference engine had to be stopped without achieving a tangible result. True, the difference engine will still be built, but only after almost 200 years (see introduction)…
The value of Charles Babbage's difference machine is that he was the first to propose a machine that, unlike all previous ones, could not only perform a given action once, but also carry out an entire calculation program. Along with tabulating polynomials using the finite difference method, it was possible on the machine to calculate the values of functions that do not have constant differences using skillfully selected empirical formulas.
Babbage himself was quite clear about the purpose of his machine. He promoted the use of mathematical methods in various fields of science and predicted the widespread use of computers
4. Babbage's Analytical Engine
At the time of the termination of work on the creation of a difference engine, Babbage's active brain was busy solving another, more difficult problem. Babbage wanted to create new device– Analytical Engine. Its main difference from the difference machine was supposed to be the fact that it was programmable and could perform any calculations given to it.
From the adding machine new car differed in the presence of registers. They stored the intermediate result of the calculation, and with their help the actions prescribed by the program were performed. The computing possibilities that opened up after the invention of registers amazed Babbage himself. On this score, the following remark from the inventor has been preserved: “For six months I drafted a machine that was more advanced than the first. I myself am completely amazed at the computing power it will have. Just a year ago I wouldn’t have been able to believe this!”
The architecture of Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine is almost identical to modern computers. It contains all three classic components of a computer:
Controlbarrel - control drum (control device - CU), -store - storage (now we call it memory - memory) -mill - mill (arithmetic device - AU).
The register memory of Babbage's machine was capable of storing at least one hundred decimal numbers of 40 digits each, and theoretically could be expanded to a thousand 50-bit numbers (for comparison, we point out that the memory device of one of the first Eniak computers in 1945 stored only 20 ten-bit numbers ). The arithmetic device had, as we would now say, hardware support for all four arithmetic operations. The machine performed addition in 3 seconds, multiplication and division in 2 minutes. This "mill" consisted of three main registers: two for the operands, and the third for the results of operations related to multiplication. There was also a table for storing intermediate results and a counter for the number of iterations. The main program was recorded on a drum (Control device); in addition to it, punched cards could be used, proposed by Joseph Marie Jacquard back in 1801 for quickly switching from pattern to pattern in weaving machines.
Ada Lovelace (née Byron) provided Babbage with great assistance in developing the machine. Lovelace was the daughter of the famous English poet Lord Byron, but she never saw him, since shortly before her birth he left for Greece, where he died as part of a rebel detachment. Lovelace visited Babbage with her friend Mary Sommerville. Babbage always treated them kindly and spent a long time explaining the purpose of all the devices of the machine. And soon he discovered the extraordinary mathematical abilities of Ada Lovelace. It was she who would later create the world’s first theoretical foundations of programming, write the first textbook on programming, and go down in history as the “first programmer.”
It was Lovelace who came up with the idea of using two streams of punched cards to feed the machine input, which were called operational cards and variable cards: the first controlled the process of processing data that was recorded on the second.
Information was entered onto punched cards by punching holes. From the operating cards it was possible to compile a library of functions. In addition, AnalyticalEngine, as conceived by the author, was supposed to contain a printing device and a device for outputting results onto punched cards for subsequent use. So Babbage pioneered the idea of input-output.
Babbage also proposed creating a mechanism for perforating digital results on form or metal plates. To store information in memory, the scientist planned to use not only punched cards, but also metal disks that would rotate on an axis. Metal plates and metal disks can now be considered by us as distant prototypes of magnetic cards and magnetic disks.
In only one respect was the Analytical Engine not automatic. Functions written in tables had to be punched out in advance. Anticipating the future of computing, Babbage wrote: “It seems most likely that it calculates much faster by appropriate formulas than by using its own tables.” Indeed, in modern computers there is an extensive library of standard routines, with the help of which functions of varying degrees of complexity are calculated. Interestingly, the term "library" for of this application was also first used by Charles Babbage!
5. REASONS FOR BABBAGE'S FAILURE
And yet, despite a number of brilliant guesses and innovative inventions that were a century ahead of their time, Charles Babbage never managed to complete the Analytical Engine. The main reason for the failure is the main advantage of the machine: Babbage really surpassed his time too much (it is no coincidence that at the end of his life he will say: “I am ready to give last years of my life in order to live three days in 150 years, and to have the principle of operation of future machines explained to me in detail"). As we see, Babbage no longer doubted the future development of computer technology. The fact is that one of the two main reasons for the unfinished work is the inability at that time to process the metal with high degree accuracy (while to implement the Analytical Engine project, several thousand gears alone would have been required!) And today technologists would think very hard about the possibility of building such a machine, and in those days Babbage himself often had to invent technologies for the production of parts, distracting from the general project directions.
The second problem was financial. If at first various scientific societies enthusiastically supported Babbage, then very soon they cooled down to the costly project with vague goals. In 1851, Babbage bitterly declared that he did everything related to the machine with his own money. It is known that the scientist wrote a novel in order to obtain material resources, tried to be elected to the Parliament of the British Empire, and even played the lottery at one time!
Babbage's fate is tragic fate a scientist who never saw the fruits of his labor. Until his very end, he declared that he hated life, people and the English government. When he felt unwell on December 14, 1871, he said only one thing: “The long-awaited time is coming!” He died that same day, in the evening, in the arms of his own son, just a few days short of his eightieth birthday. At the funeral of the man who anticipated the development of computing technology hundreds of years into the future, only a few close friends were present.
CONCLUSION
The great English scientist Charles Babbage tried to create a machine on a mechanical basis that belonged to the electronic period. Accordingly, this undertaking simply could not end in success. However, this same discrepancy emphasizes Babbage’s genius: long before the advent of electronic computers, he developed the principles of constructing machines, their main components, established the capabilities of computers and predicted the paths of their further development.
When studying Babbage's work, one is struck by even a simple enumeration of the problems that he posed and tried to solve, some more successfully, others less, in the Analytical Engine: 1) development of the basic composition of blocks; 2) planning a large amount of memory; 3) separation of arithmetic and storage devices; 4) use of a variable calculation program; 5) transfer of control using a conditional transition; 6) working with addresses and command codes; 7) control by reading; 8) availability of a library of subroutines; 9) the use of punched cards, printing input and output data and some others. The vast majority of Babbage's ideas were implemented more than a hundred years later.
Every new discovery in modern science makes you look at the achievements of past centuries in a new way. If at the end of the last and beginning of our century the name of Babbage was almost forgotten, and his works were not appreciated and understood, then with the development of computers, interest in his works and personality increased.
Babbage appears before us as a brilliant scientist who in many ways anticipated the development of computer technology, which has become the most important manifestation of the modern scientific and technological revolution.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Dorofeeva A.V. Charles Babbage and his Analytical Engine: Developed. project computing cars with pro-gr. ex. English mathematician in the mid-40s of the XIX century. //New methods and means of teaching - In general. author: Dorofeeva V.V. - M. - 1993. - P. 65-69.
2. Dorofeeva A.V. Charles Babbage and his Analytical Engine: [On the life and work of English. mathematics, 1791-1871] // Mathematics in school. - 1995. – No. 2. - P. 78-80.
3. I.A. Apokin, L.E.Maistrov, I.S. Edlin "Charles Babbage".
4. Great encyclopedia Cyril and Methodius - 2004. Articles “Charles Babbage” and “Ada Lovelace”.
5. Website: http:/joinbiz.ru. Article: “Charles Babbage. A man ahead of his era."
6. Website: http:/eakolesnikov.ru. Article " Short story punch cards."
(First, I advise you to read the first and second parts of the article.)
Charles Babbage's Difference Engine made it possible for the first time to automate the calculation process and perform it to some extent without human intervention. As was said in the previous part, to calculate functions such as logarithms, trigonometric functions and others, they had to be divided into sections, each of which was represented by its own polynomial, and only then it was possible to calculate the function values for a given section. When moving from one polynomial to another, the machine operator had to manually enter all the original register values. In addition, the machine only allowed for the addition operation, which was not much even by the standards of the 19th century.
Thinking about this problem, Babbage came to the conclusion that it was possible to build a machine that would itself change the values of the source registers depending on the value of the result. That is, she could manage the calculation process herself. Later, developing this idea, Babbage came up with the idea of not just making a machine that would tabulate a function completely automatically, but creating a machine that would allow solving the entire class of computational problems. To do this, the algorithm of such a machine should not be hardwired into its design, but rather be specified from the outside, and the machine itself should be able to perform all arithmetic operations, as well as control the progress of calculations. Babbage called the new computer Analytical.
The main parts of the Analytical Engine were:
1. “warehouse” - a device for storing numbers, that is, memory in modern terminology;
2. “mill” - devices for performing arithmetic operations (Arithmetic device);
3.device that controls the operations of the machine;
4.input and output devices;
(Element of the “mill”. Drawing by Henry Babbage.)
In such an architecture it is not difficult to see the prototype of a modern computer with its memory, processor (mill + control device) and input/output devices.
The data “exchange bus” between the ALU and memory was a set racks. The memory capacity was supposed to be a thousand numbers of 50 decimal places. For a signed number of 50 decimal places, 168 bits are required, that is, the amount of RAM was a little more than twenty kilobytes. For comparison, I advise you to look at the amount of RAM on the first computers.
As mentioned in the previous part, while working on the Analytical Engine, Babbage came up with an original preliminary transfer scheme. It is worth saying that before this he thought through more than twenty options for implementing a sequential transfer scheme before he realized that to radically speed up the process, a completely different principle was needed.
As in the difference engine, the registers storing numbers were gears. The sign of the number was set by a separate gear wheel. If a given wheel displayed an even number, then this was interpreted as a positive sign, otherwise as a negative sign.
The operations of multiplication and division were supposed to be implemented as sequential additions or subtractions.
The estimated execution time for operations was one second for addition and subtraction and one minute for multiplication and division, which is not too bad for the 19th century.
To enter data into memory and control the operation of the machine, Babbage decided to use punched cards. At that time, they had already existed for decades, and were invented by Jacquard Joseph-Marie to control the pattern of an automated loom.
The Analytical Engine used two punched card mechanisms - one mechanism specified the operations that the mill was supposed to perform, while the second controlled the transfer of data between the “mill” and the “warehouse”.
(Loom with Jaccard cards.)
During Babbage's stay in Italy, he was approached by a mathematician, Professor Mosotti. “He noted that he was now quite ready to believe in the ability of the mechanism to master arithmetic and even algebraic relations to any desired degree. But he added that he could not understand how a machine could make the choice that is often necessary in analytical research (that is, in the process of calculation) when two or more paths are presented, especially when the correct path, as is often the case, is unknown until the previous calculations have been completed." For this case, the Analytical Engine provided the ability to organize conditional execution and loops. To do this, the mechanism for transferring the last digit controlled the movement of punched cards and could force this mechanism to repeat the action or skip it.
Output devices made it possible to print the result of machine calculations in one or two copies, reproduce it in the form of a stereotyped print, or punch the result on punched cards.
While working on the Analytical Engine, Babbage made more than 200 drawings of it various nodes and about 30 vehicle layout options. However, the size of the plan and the complex nature of the inventor delayed the birth of his inventions for a good hundred years. If you look at the difference machine, which, according to Babbage’s plan, was supposed to tabulate functions with constant seventh-order differences up to the 20th digit, then a machine with similar capabilities appeared in 1934 - it tabulated functions with constant seventh-order differences and with an accuracy of up to 13 digits . What can we say about the gigantic capabilities of the planned analytical machine...
(Part of the printing mechanism of the machine.)
After the death of Charles Babbage, his son, Henry, took up the Analytical Engine, deciding to focus on two components - the “mill” and the printing device. In 1888, the data of the machine unit was ready, which was able to calculate and print the product of natural numbers with 29 digits. When calculating the 32nd term, the machine produced an incorrect result due to a failure in the transfer mechanism. For the rest of his life, Henry continued to work on his father's analytical engine, and also popularized the ideas of computers.
Despite the fact that Babbage wrote many books and articles during his life, he never created a detailed presentation of the principles of operation of the difference and analytical engine, since he considered the creation of machines to be a more important activity than their description. Detailed description The difference engine was given by Dionysius Lardner, and the analytical engine was described in an article by Luigi Frederigo Menabrea. It was this article that led to the birth of the world's first program and the first programmer. Ada Augusta Lovelace, daughter of the poet Byron, has the honor of bearing this title. Charles Babbage knew the family of a young talented girl and in every possible way encouraged her desire for science. One day, Ada became interested in Babbage's computers and took on the task of translating Menabrea's article. While working on the translation, Ada supplemented it with her comments and examples practical use machines, and also compiled a “program” for calculating Bernoulli numbers. Ada's name was immortalized in the name of one of the programming languages - Ada. I won’t go into more detail into Ada’s biography, because... This topic has already been covered on Habré.
The fate of Charles Babbage was no less complex than the fate of his computers. The attitude of his contemporaries towards this scientist changed over time from a genius to an eccentric and even to an inventor whose mind was damaged by computers. During his life he created a large number of various inventions, such as a speedometer, a dynamometer, came up with a unified postal tariff, etc. The President of the Royal Society, Lord Ross, wrote that “Babbage alone fully compensated for the funds that the government invested in the construction of his difference engine with his inventions in the field of mechanical engineering.”
The idea, born in the nineteenth century and becoming a reality in the twentieth century, revolutionized not only science, but also our daily lives. Babbage's life, the history of the creation of his computers, is the clearest example of how far-sighted and persistent a genius can be, and how thorny and long the path of creation can be.
PS: For anyone who is interested in mechanical computers, their history of creation, a description of the design and operating principles and the origins of their electronic counterparts, I recommend finding and reading the book “From the Abacus to the Computer” by R. S. Guter and Yu. L. Polunov, 1981 edition .
Charles Babbage is considered the founder of modern computing. In the work of Charles Babbage, two directions can be traced: difference and analytical computers. Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine uses the principle program control and is the predecessor of modern computers.
The first small model of Charles Babbage's apparatus
In 1822, Charles Babbage created the first small model of his apparatus, called the “difference engine.” The mechanism of the difference machine consisted of rollers and gears, manually rotated using a special lever. The difference engine could manipulate six-digit numbers and express in numbers any function that had a constant second difference. The value of Charles Babbage's difference engine is that it could not only perform a given action once, but also carry out an entire program of calculations. Babbage himself was quite clear about the purpose of his machine. He promoted the use of mathematical methods in various fields of science and predicted the widespread use of computers.
Babbage approached the British government with a request to finance full-scale development. The British government, interested in the idea, allocated money for further development project. In 1834, Babbage began developing an even more complex unit - an analytical engine, capable of performing certain actions in accordance with instructions given by the operator. The Analytical Engine model can actually be considered a prototype of the modern computer. The main difference between an analytical engine and a difference engine is that it is programmable and can perform any calculations given to it.
Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine Principle
Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine uses the principle of program control and is the predecessor of modern computers.
Main parts of the analytical engine
The analytical engine consisted of the following four main parts:
- a block for storing initial, intermediate data and calculation results. (consisted of a set of gears identifying numbers like an adding machine);
- a number processing unit from the warehouse, called a mill (in modern terminology, this is an arithmetic device);
- calculation sequence control unit (in modern terminology, this is a control device for the control unit);
- block for inputting initial data and printing results (in modern terminology, this is an input/output device).
The Analytical Engine was never built by Charles Babbge. In addition to the chronic lack of financial resources, the most important reason is technological. At that time, they did not know how to process metal with a high degree of accuracy and high productivity - and to implement the project, thousands of gear wheels alone were required.
General Babbage, the son of the inventor, had a great influence on the posthumous fate of the machine. After retiring in 1874, he devoted several years to studying his father's heritage, and in 1880 he began work on restoring the Difference Engine to hardware. Work continued from with varying success until 1896. Eventually, by 1904, a small fragment of a machine was created that printed the results of calculations. In addition, Babbage Jr. made several mini-copies of the Difference Engine and sent them around the world.
In 1991, on the occasion of the bicentenary of the scientist’s birth, employees of the London Science Museum recreated the 2.6-ton “difference engine No. 2” based on his drawings, and in 2000, they also recreated Babbage’s 3.5-ton printer. Both devices, made using mid-19th century technology, work excellently - only two errors were found in Babbage's calculations.
As I already wrote in the article, it was not built by its creator. However, during the course of his work, Babbage had the idea of creating a universal computing machine that was supposed to work according to a program without human intervention.
He called such a machine analytical. More than 100 years later, this idea became the basis for the creation of electronic computers.
In 1834, Charles Babbage described his analytical engine(Analytical Engine). It was a computer project general purpose using punched cards, as well as steam engine as a source of energy.
Card
Punch cards were pieces of perforated cardboard. They were first used in 1804 by the Frenchman Jacquard for a mechanical loom controlled by a sequence of punched cards. In accordance with the positions of the holes on the card, the shuttle made certain movements, giving the fabric the appropriate structure.
By the way, in the early 1980s, all user programmers of that time typed their programs onto punched cards.
Punched cards were necessary to automate the work of the analytical engine, which is achieved by working according to a pre-compiled human program. It was Charles Babbage who originated the idea mechanical machine with program control.
Indeed, without automatic software control of the computing process, each subsequent operation of the machine must be “prompted” by a person by pressing the appropriate buttons. And a meaningful person in the most best case scenario can do this 1-2 times per second due to the inertia of its nervous system.
Consequently, no matter how fast the machine’s blocks work, it, performing each operation as directed by a person, will work slowly - at the pace of its owner’s work. And only by introducing a problem-solving program into the machine in advance, “teaching” it to solve this or that problem on its own, can you ensure that it counts “without regard to the person,” at the speed characteristic of the machine.
According to the 1834 project, developed by Babbage on paper, the Analytical Engine included 4 blocks:
- memory registers (in Babbage's terminology, store - storage, warehouse) are an analogue of a modern memory device (memory device) for storing source data and results;
- an arithmetic block (in Babbage's terminology mill) is an analogue modern device for calculations;
- the drum that controls the operations of the machine (control barrel) is a prototype of a modern control device (CU);
- punched cards - a prototype of information input/output.
Does this scheme remind you of anything? After all, this is practically the architecture of electronic computers (computers). All that remains is to come up with a scheme for joint storage of programs and data in computer memory. This was done 100 years later by a team of scientists led by the American mathematician John von Neumann.
Let's go back to 1834. Photography and electricity have not yet been invented, there is no telephone and radio. Only sailing ships sail the seas, but on land the horse is man's best friend. And suddenly - an analytical machine, that is, mechanical device with ideas for automatic program control! Humanity was able to realize this more than 100 years later thanks to the advent of electronics.
By 1834, the adding machine had already been invented. The Analytical Engine differed from it in the presence of registers, which allowed it to work according to a program previously compiled by a person. The intermediate result of the calculation was stored in the registers, and with their help the actions prescribed by the “program” were performed.
The invention of registers provided computing capabilities that amazed Babbage in comparison with his first difference engine: “For six months I drafted a machine more perfect than the first. I myself am amazed at the processing power it will have; a year ago I wouldn’t have been able to believe it.”
As already noted, Babbage linked an arithmetic device (“mill”), memory registers combined into a single whole (“warehouse”), and a third device, which the author did not name, into a single logical circuit. It was implemented using three types of punched cards:
- transaction cards ( English operation card) served to switch the machine between addition, subtraction, division and multiplication modes;
- variable maps ( English variable cards) controlled the transfer of information from the “warehouse” to the “mill” and back;
- numerical punch cards could be used to enter data into the machine, as well as to store intermediate results of calculations if space in the "warehouse" was limited.
In addition, a library of functions could be compiled from operating cards. According to the author's plan, the analytical engine was supposed to contain a printing device and a device for outputting results onto punched cards for subsequent use. Thus, it was Babbage who became the author of the idea of input-output.
The Analytical Engine was not built. The inventor wrote in 1851: “All developments connected with the Analytical Engine have been carried out at my expense. I carried out a number of experiments and reached the point where my capabilities are not enough. In this regard, I am forced to refuse further work.”
Friends, the hour has come when all the boys are measured against... Computer power! But today I would like to remember the first prototype of this miracle. Not many people know that it was Charles Babbage who created the first programmable computer, making an attempt to implement many ideas that would find their application in computer technology in the 20th century. But do you also know that even today’s modern computer essentially remains an improved copy of Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine? Let's talk about this car.
And so, for starters, in order to understand a little what we’re talking about, I offer a short quote from Wikipedia:
Although difference engine was not built by its inventor, the main thing for the future development of computing technology was something else: in the course of his work, Babbage had the idea of creating a universal computing machine, which he called analytical and which became the prototype of the modern digital computer. Into a single logical circuit, Babbage linked an arithmetic device (which he called a “mill”), memory registers combined into a single whole (“warehouse”), and an input/output device implemented using three types of punched cards. Punched operation cards switched the machine between addition, subtraction, division and multiplication modes. Variable punch cards controlled the transfer of data from memory to the arithmetic unit and back. Numerical punch cards could be used both to enter data into the machine and to store the results of calculations if memory was insufficient.
And so, as always, I suggest dividing the publication into several parts. First, we will find out who Charles Babbage is, after which we will get acquainted with his works, and in the fourth part we will talk directly about his analytical engine and why we still use these principles?
Part 1. Who is Charles Babbage?
And of course, who else but Wikipedia Ivanovna can tell us better about this person.
