Computers and computing (2)

In this series of posts about computers and computing, it is worth considering some of the history of the technology and the way things used to be.


The first computers were real live people who solved equations and performed other lengthy calculations for scientists and engineers. The technology available to them included mechanical and electromechanical calculators as well as slide rules. The Manhattan Project employed hundreds of "computers" to support the design of the first atomic bombs.

Then came electronic computers. Even though the transistor - the most critical component of any computer - was invented in 1947, the process of miniaturisation and cost reduction took decades. By 1957, however, the cost of transistors (a "transistor radio" given to me as a birthday present that year had exactly three transistors - each the size of a thimble) had finally dropped enough that they had become competitive with vacuum tube technology.

The earliest electronic computers enabled scientists, at least in well funded applications such as nuclear weapons and reactor design, as well as the space program, to dispense with their armies of living "computers".

As much as any organization, NASA is responsible for driving computer miniaturization and improved performance during the 1960s. The cost of moving mass to orbit - and even more so to the moon - was so high that saving ounces mattered. Minimizing the use of electrical power was another critical objective. Replacing vacuum tubes with transistors saved space and mass while reducing power consumption and increasing reliability. We take the extreme miniaturization of transistors for granted now but there was no reason to do so then.

Even so, it took until the early 1970s for the first electronic calculators to become affordable for consumer use. I recall buying a basic four function calculator (with a memory) in 1974. The cost, then, was approximately $200. Using today's depreciated currency, that would be equivalent to about $800!

I bought my first personal computer in 1982. It was an Osborne 1 whose operating system was one of the many versions of CP/M. It was slow - taking as long as 15 seconds to save a ten page document - but for a writer whose typing skills were less than stellar, the ability to edit and revise a document without spending hours retyping, was the major benefit. Easy correction of spelling errors was a bonus. More important than being a word processor, however, the Osborne 1 was capable of running one of the early spreadsheet programs.

Since much of my work was, and still is now, the provision of advice and assistance to entrepreneurs, the use of this newly available tool provided me with major productivity and quality improvements. No longer was I forced to create financial projections on 14 column spreadsheet pads where, since errors were inevitable, the work was done in pencil and losing one's eraser was a disaster!

As annoying as the modern computer - and the uses to which it is put - can be, it is hard to imagine returning to the days of typewriter, pen, paper, and pencil. What we now regard as historical curiosities, with minimal capabilities, still provided major productivity improvements.