The History of Computers
What was the name of the first computer game? Why do some people not consider it a game?
Tennis for Two. It didn't use a compter monitor
Where was the abacus invented? When was it invented? How is the abacus related to the computer?
The Chinese invented the abacus in 3000 BC. It was one of the first devices invented to count and calculate
What technology did the ENIAC use that is different from the Mark 1? What was the difficulty of programming the ENIAC? When was the ENIAC?
Vaccum Tubes. It was a pain to change the wiring to "program it". 1946.
What type of machine did Konrad Zuse create? What was it the first machine to do?
Zuse created the world's first programmable computer
What device stood the test of time? What calculation device was invented in 1622 and used by my father in college?
the slide rule
What are the similarities and differences between a complier and interpreter? Which is faster? Why?
An interpreter goes through each line of code, converts it to machine language, and then executes it (line by line). A complier converts all the lines of code to machine code at once and creates an "executable file which can be run. The complier is a lot faster because the conversion is already done
Who discovered the first computer "bug"? What machines did she work on? How was it discovered?
Grace Hopper, who worked on Harvard Mark 1. A dead moth blocked one of the reading holes
What two scientists invented adding machines in the 1600s? How were their machines different? Which of the two invented "binary" math?
Pascal and Leibniz. Both made machines that could do math operations but Leibniz's could do all 4 operations. Leibniz invented binary math
What were Ada Lovelace's contributions to computer science?
She is considered the world's first programmer. She thought about how to use the machines that Babbage and others were developing/envisioning. She was the first to think about data analysis, looping, and memory addressing
How did Grace Hopper make programming eaiser?
She wrote the complier to translate English words into machine language of the computer. She wrote this in 1952
How many times faster are today's supercomputers compared to the ENIAC of 1946?
88 trillion times faster
Why were vacuum tubes better to use in computers than electronic relay switches?
1000x faster
When was the Harvard Mark 1 made? How many tons did it weigh? How long did a multiplication take? How did someone program it?
1937, 5 tons, 6 seconds per multiplication. It was programmed by electric relay switches
When was the first Apple computer made? Who were the two main creator of Apple computers? When did the Apple lle come out?
1976. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. 1983.
What was Alan Turing's big idea in 1936? What's a "Turing machine"?
Big idea: If something is "computable," then we can develop a "universal machine" to compute it. A "Turning machine" is another name for the "universal machine" that Turing theorized about. These are the computers we work with every day
What was the first object-oriented programming language? How was Java similar to C++? How was Java different than other computer languages?
C++. Java and C++ are both object-oriented programming languages. Java is platform independent, meaning it can run on any computer.
Who is known as the "Father of the Computer"? In what century did he live? What type of machine did he envision? Did the machines get built?
Charles Babbage. 1800s. He imagined the first programmable machines which did all types of calculations used conditional control (if/then), and stored things in memory. "All the essential ideas of modern computers are to be found in Babbage's Analytical Engine. The machines were never built in his time.
How did Bill Gates get Microsoft started?What was Microsoft's first product?
IBM decided not to make its own operating system for its PC so it outsourced it. No other companies wanted to do it, so a small company called Microsoft run by Bill Gates, decided to do it. MS-DOS was the operating system, and its first product
How was Jacquard's loom like a computer? When was it invented?
It had "punch cards" that could store a "program" of how cloth would be woven. 1805
Why was the EDVAC a step forward from ENIAC? How many instruction lines per second could the EDVAC process? When was the EDVAC?
It was the first "stored program" computer: It was stored the instructions in memory just like data, and these instructions could be changed, just like data. This allowed the computer to be easily reprogrammed. 1,000 lines per second. 1950
What was the first programming language? How did assembly language improve upon that? What were still the problems of using assembly language?
Machine language, which is written in binary. Assembly language is a way to communicate with the computer in pseudo-English. But you still had to have a deep understanding of computer architecture and it took a lot of time to compile it into machine language
What's Moore's Law? Was the prediction correct?
Moore's law was a prediction: The number of transistors that will fit on a chip will double every 2 years. The prediction was correct
How do punch cards work? When were they first used and why?
The cards have holes and they're placed on pins. If a pin goes through a hole and makes an electrical connection, the machine counts each hole. US Census in 1890s
What invention allowed us to pack lots of transistors in small chip? When was it invented? What other benefits did it yield?
The integrated circuit, 1958. Decreased power and heat consumption and a lot cheaper
What invention solved all of the vacuum tube problems?
The transistor was smaller, faster, and didn't burn out. 1947
What were the problems with vacuum tubes?
They burned out and had to be replaced by hand, they took up a lot of space, and used a lot of energy
How was the Department of Defense involved in the creation of the internet?
They needed to spread out the network of computers so that the Russians couldn't take it out with one hit to the Pentagon
What role did Alan Turing's Colossus and Bombe machines play in WWII?
They were used to break the Nazi communication codes
