Computer Science CP 1-10
Grace Hopper's immeasurable contributions to computer science have earned her the nickname
"Amazing Grace"
What was the first commercially successful computer with the mouse/GUI technology?
"Mac"
What was the first electronic digital computer?
(ABC) Atanasoff Berry Computer
List 3 things that were done long ago to keep track of numbers before the invention of the Abacus.
- Marking rocks -carving notches in bones -tying knots in rope
What does CPU stand for?
-Central Processing Unit -The CPU is essentially the brains of the computer.
In what 3 areas are computers superior to human beings?
-Computers are faster -more accurate -do not forget -are more intelligent than human beings
List 2 human errors that can cause a computer to give erroneous information.
-If the information given by a human being to a computer are faulty -Sloppy data entry
What are the 2 most common applications for a computer?
-Word processors -Electronic spreadsheets
Computer Science is...
-computer programming. -Computer science is not the same thing as Computer Literacy or Computer Applications.
What 2 things is the Compaq known for?
-first portable computer -first computer to be 100% compatible with an IBM PC.
How big was Harvard's Mark-I calculator? What was required to enter numbers?
51 feet long and 8 feet tall. required rewiring the machine with thousands of wires.
How does a compiler translate?
A compiler translates the entire program into an executable file before execution.
Describe a Very-High-Level Language.
A high-level language consists of a set of specific commands. Each of these commands is very exact in is meaning and purpose.
Describe a High-Level Language.
A language that uses English words as instructions. -BASIC -Pascal -FORTRAN -COBOL -LISP -Java -Python
What is a program?
A program is a sequence of instructions, which enables a computer to perform a desired task
Who was Charles Babbage's assistant?
Ada Byron (the Countess of Lovelace)
How does an interpreter translate?
An interpreter translates one program statement at a time during execution.
What type of device measures in a continuous fashion?
Analog
What common term is often used to refer to the application software found on a cell phone?
App
What was the first successful personal computer?
Apple-II computer
What is the "exposure equation"?
Bewilderment + Exposure = Obvious
During World War II, Enigma became much more complicated and codes were changed daily. What was the name of the improved decryption machine designed by Alan Turing?
Bomba Kryptologiczna
What is the major difference between Java and C++?
C++ was designed to be backwardly compatible with the original C. This meant you could chose to use OOP.
What secondary storage device is coded with areas that reflect and absorb laser light?
CDs
What does CRT stand for?
Cathode Ray Tube
^What computer was used by British code breakers to help decrypt the secret coded messages from this device?
Colossus computers
What does computer hardware refer to?
Computer hardware refers to any physical piece of computer equipment that can be seen or touched.
What does computer software refer to?
Computer software is intangible, it refers to set of computer instructions which make the computer perform a specific task
What type of information allows you to make a precise copy of the original?
Digital
What computer first introduced Assembly Language?
EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Computer).
What computer was the successor to the ENIAC and was the first stored program computer?
EDVAC
What was the first electronic general purpose computer? -What was required to program it?
ENIAC required rewiring the machine with thousands of wires
Explain why the use of BASIC become widespread when personal computers came out in 1976.
Early PCs had very little memory and could not handle big languages like FORTRAN or COBOL. They were able to handle a small language like BASIC.
When a metal is a semiconductor, that means it allows you to precisely control the flow of what?
Electrons
Python in the successor to ABC with new features added. List 2 of these features.
Exception Handling and the ability to interface with the Amoeba operating system
Where are external peripheral devices located? Examples:
External peripheral devices are located outside the computer and connected with some interface, which is usually a cable -Printer -keyboard -mouse -scanner -jump drive
What was the first successful programming language?
FORTRAN
PL/I was created by combining all of the features of which 2 languages?
FORTRAN COBOL
The intention was that PL/I would be "everything for everyone". The reality was this language was not popular. Explain why.
FORTRAN programmers did not like the COBOL features, the COBOL programmers did not like the FORTRAN features, and new programmers found the language too complex and overwhelming to learn.
What does GUI stand for?
Graphics User Interface
What was the first personal computer to be taken seriously as a business tool?
IBM P.C.
Where are internal peripheral devices connected? Examples:
Internal peripheral devices are connected to the computer inside the system unit. -Disk drive -CD ROM drive -hard drive -network interface card -video card
What is the first Platform Independent language?
Java
Who invented logarithms and designed a more efficient way to do Lattice Multiplication?
John Napier
Least to Greatest bytes
Kilo Byte 1 thousand bytes Mega Byte 1 million bytes Giga Byte 1 billion bytes Tera Byte 1 trillion bytes Peta Byte 1 thousand terabytes Exa Byte 1 million terabytes Zetta Byte 1 billion terabytes Yotta Byte 1 trillion terabytes
What are Machine Code and Assembly Language considered "low-level languages?"
Languages because they function at, or very close to, the level of 1s and 0s.
What does LCD stand for?
Liquid Crystal Display
What coding machine was used by the Nazis in the 1940s which was even more complicated than the Enigma machine?
Lorenz SZ-40 Cypher
What was the first operating system for this computer and which company made it?
MS-DOS by Microsoft
What does programming in Machine Language entail?
Machine Code means you are directly manipulating the 1s and 0s of the computer's binary language
What computer stopped working on September 9, 1947 when a moth got stuck in one of its relays?
Mark II
Where and when was the Abacus invented?
Middle Eastern Area in 3000 BC
When referring to Windows operating systems, what do "NT" and "XP" stand for?
NT (New Technology) XP (experience)
What does OOP stand for?
Object Oriented Programming
Blaise Pascal made an adding machine way back in 1642. What was the plastic version that many people were still using in the 1970s?
Pocket adder
Which country first "Broke Enigma" in 1932?
Poland
What kind of chip stores temporary information for the computer?
RAM (Random Access Memory) chips
What kind of chip stores permanent information for the computer?
ROM (Read Only Memory) chips
Iron Oxide is the technical term for something we use to store information on an old floppy disk.
Rust
What are computer chips made out of?
Silicon
What is Sneaker Net?
Sneakernet was when you had to store a document on a floppy diskette and walked to the computer with an attached printer to print
what is one of the most important elements of learning in a classroom?
Student teacher relationship
What does system software refer to? Examples:
System software refers to the instructions that the computer requires to operate properly. -Windows -UNIX -Linux -MAC OS
What is the name for the piece of hardware which contains the CPU and computer memory?
System unit
After IBM standardized hardware with _____________, they set out to standardize software as well by creating _____________.
System/360 PL/I (Programming Language 1).
Why did the 1880 Census take 8 years to complete?
The "Great Wave of Immigration" meant that there were more people in the country. As a result, it took much longer to count everyone.
The slide rule was used for centuries. What 1970s invention finally replaced it?
The Scientific calculator
^What did Herman Hollerith invent to solve this problem?
The Tabulating Machine
What do the Turing Machine and the Von Neumann Architecture have in common?
They share both programs instructions and its data in RAM
In 1983, Bjarne Stroustrup created a new language by combining C with OOP. What was that language called?
This new language became C++.
As of 2013, what is the fastest computer in the world?
Titan Supercomputer
What is the most important aspect of this course?
To learn how to give correct and logical instructions to a computer with the help of a programming language.
What was the first commercially available computer?
UNIVAC
How was Python 3.0 different from any of the earlier version of Python?
Version 3.0 Python eliminated redundant ways to perform the same task.
What company developed mouse technology?
Xerox Corporation
What does "Platform Independence" mean?
a program created on one computer will work and have the exact same output on any computer.
LISP is known for being one of the languages specifically designed to help develop____________ _____________
artificial intelligence
How many transistors can we fit on a tiny microchip today?
billions
Formula Translator (FORTRAN) was designed for which groups of people?
designed for mathematicians, scientists and engineers.
Harold Locke Hazen and Vannevar Bush built the Differential Analyzer, a large scale computing machine capable of solving_______
differential equations
List 3 things that Tim Berners-Lee invented in 1990.
first web server first web browser HTML (HyperText Markup Language)
Why is Charles Babbage considered "The Father of Computers?"
for creating the first design of a general purpose computer
COBOL (Common Business Oriented Language) was designed for which group of people?
for the business community, it became extremely successful when the Department of Defense adopted COBOL as its official programming language
IBM's System/360 essentially standardized computer_________
hardware.
A loom is a device used to make cloth. What was special about Jacquard's Loom?
his loom accepted special flexible cards that are punched with information in a way that it is possible to program how cloth will be weaved. It didn't require the continuous manual recalibration.
What does periphery mean?
imprecise boundary
What invention marks the beginning of "The Third Generation of Computers?"
integrated circuit
Why did a number of college professors did not like BASIC?
it did not teach proper programming structure.
Why did Tom Kurtz and John Kemeny create BASIC?
it was a simple, basic, easy-to-learn language would give non-math and non-science majors the ability to use computers.
What is the main board in a computer, with all the primary computer components, called?
motherboard
What does application software refer to?
refers to the instructions that the computer requires to do something specific.
Why is Ada Byron considered "The Mother of Programming?"
she developed certain programming ideas and techniques that are still used in programming languages today.
Niklaus Wirth created the language Pascal specifically for the purpose of ____________ ___________.
teaching programming
Why do some people credit Konrad Zuse as the "inventor of the computer?"
the Z3 was Turing Complete and therefore proclaim Konrad Zuse as the "inventor of the computer".
In 1969, a slimmed down version of BCPL was released. It was simply called B. In 1972, an improved version of B was released. What was that language called?
the new language was called C.
Computers are inferior to humans in that
they have no creativity
What invention marks the beginning of "The Second Generation of Computers?"
transistor
What does a computer translator do?
translates a high-level language into low-level machine code.
A computer is__________ if it can solve any computational problem provided memory and execution time are not issues.
turing complete
What invention marks the beginning of "The First Generation of Computers?"
vacuum tubes
