Chapter 1 Reading Quiz
Name the four important elements of Babbage's Engine that are components of today's computer.
An input device, memory, a central processing unit, an output device
What magazines can you thank for the first microcomputer?
What magazines can you thank for the first microcomputer?
What company controlled 70% or more of the computer marketplace in the '60s and '70s?
International Business Machines
IBM has some of its origins in what 1890 event?
The U.S. census
The Apple computer became very popular. What was its largest market, and what software make it interesting to that market?
The business market and the program VisiCalc
In 1642 Pascal created a mechanical device with gears and levers. This device was capable of what kind of calculation?
Addition and subtraction
What logical elements did Charles Sanders Peirce realize electrical switches could emulate in 1880?
Boolean Algebra
What important pastry helped move your job up in the queue in second-generation software, and what third-generation software development made that pastry unnecessary?
Donuts and time-sharing
In hardware, the next step up from the transistor was the transmitter.
False
The U.S. military used the ENIAC computer for its intended purpose during World War II.
False
Today, Microsoft considers it major competition in operating systems to be what system?
Linux operating system
In 1990, what software company dominated the software market, and what major product did it sell?
Lotus and Lotus 1-2-3
Marc Andreessen released what application that made browsers widespread?
Mosaic
Leibniz built on Pascal's work by creating the Leibniz Wheel. This device was capable of what kind of calculations in addition to the ones Pascal's could do?
Multiplication and division
The Jacquard loom is important in the history of computing for what innovation?
Reusable cards with holes held information
Name the three most likely critical large-scale developments of the fifth generation of software development from this list of options:
The graphical user interface, networking, and computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools
ARPA was created in response to what major event in world history?
The launch of Sputnik
What important concept did the Altair use, which was borrowed by its competition, including the IBM personal computer?
The machine had an open architecture.
What important concept is attributed to John Von Neumann?
The stored program concept
What features of transistors made them superior for computers, compared with vacuum tubes?
They were cheaper, smaller, and cooler than tubes and lasted longer.