Resumen de Milestones in the Information Technology History
Traditionally a syllabus of manysubjects begins with a lecture on the history ofthis particular subject. Obviously it is a goodapproach to provide students with a view of theprogress in the field, and a choice of a startingpoint is very important. Very often it can be seenthat the history of information technology isstarted from very old times. The authors of suchchronics consider that each tool and eachmethod used to carry out calculation and storingdata can be considered as related to informationtechnology. This is a definitely questionableopinion if we consider the term "informationtechnology" itself to clarify what is typical ofinformation technology, who and whenimplemented these specific features.The term includes two words. "Technology" isdefined as "the application of scientificknowledge for practical purposes" in OxfordReference [1]. The second word "information"means "data as processed, stored, ortransmitted by a computer" [2], then OxfordReference describes the whole term"Information Technology" as "The study or useof computers, telecommunication systems, andother devices for storing, retrieving, andtransmitting information" [1]. The last definitionintroduces one more term - "computer". Manyreference resources explain that computer is "anelectronic device for storing and processingdata, typically in binary form, according toinstructions given to it in a variable program".Thus, the key concepts related to informationtechnology are the binary number system, astored program and an electronic computingdevice. Inception of information technologybecame possible only when these concepts hadbeen implemented in devices and tools ofpractical use. The following events are truemilestones in the information technology history.Claude Shannon, a mathematician at BellTelephone Laboratories, identified promisingcharacteristics of binary. In 1938 he showed thatcalculations could be performed much faster inbinary using electromagnetic relays than theycould be performed with mechanical decimalcalculators. Also he applied Boolean algebra.His 1948 paper "A Mathematical Theory ofCommunication" is the foundation of informationtheory and much of computer science.A 1946 paper by Arthur Burks, HermanGoldstine, and John von Neumann titled“Preliminary Discussion of the Logical Design ofan Electronic Computing Instrument” isfrequently cited as the birth certificate of themodern computer. With the proposal of thestored-program computer, the processingparadigm changed. A stored-program computerincludes, by design, an instruction set, and canstore in memory a set of instructions (a program)that details the computation. A stored-programdesign also allows for self-modifying code.Subsequently, computers with stored programswould be known as von Neumann machines.Intel engineer Ted Hoff is one of the inventors oftechnological basis for their implementation. In1971, he developed a single-chip circuit toexecute commands that were accessed frommemory. In particular, he came up with the ideaof a universal central processing module,"universal processor". Before that, processorswere focused on performing only specific tasks.He designed the processor architecture andcore functions. This is how the central processorwas created.Modern-day information technology spectrum isthe result of more than six decades of evolutionof early computers which are binary, electronicand programmable.
