Program (machine)

Mechanisms

• The automatic flute player, which was invented in the 9th century by the Banū Mūsā brothers in Baghdad, is the first known example of a programmable machine. The work of the Banu Musa was influenced by their Hellenistic forebears, but it also makes significant improvements over Greek creation. The pinned-barrel mechanism, which allowed for programmable variations in the rhythm and melody of the music, was the key contribution given by the Banu Musa.
• In 1206, the Muslim inventor Ismail al-Jazari described a drum machine which may have been an example of a programmable automaton.
• Barrels, punched cards, and music rolls encoding music to be played by player pianos, fairground organs, barrel organs, and music boxes.
• The sequence of punched cards used by a Jacquard loom to produce a given pattern within woven cloth. Invented in 1801, it used holes in punched cards to represent sewing loom arm movements in order to generate decorative patterns automatically.

  Electronics

• The "program" of a programmable thermostat consist of user-changeable parameters in the entries of a schedule.
• The "program" or patch of a programmable music synthesizer adjusts parameters and switches that interconnect modules.
• The "program" of many programmable integrated circuits is data that it permanently stores for retrieval, and/or govern operation.

  Computers

• A computer program is a list of instructions that can be executed by a computer.