Evolution of Computers Quiz - IDT

Grace Murray Hopper invented the first computer compiler. What does she say about information and knowledge?

"We're flooding people with information. We need to feed it through a processor. A human must turn information into intelligence or knowledge. We've tended to forget that no computer will ever ask a new question."

Linus Torvalds developed a basic operating system for computers called Linux. What did he do with that OS (Operating System) that challenges companies that charge for their computer software?

Linus Torvalds allowed everyone to use the OS without charge, "as long as any improvements they make are not copyrighted and remain freely available."

Logic Gate

Manages the amount of flow of information.

Input Devices of a Digital Assistant

Microphone and the Buttons

Input Devices of a Smartphone

Microphone, Touchscreen, Camera, Pointer/Mouse, and the Touch Keyboard

Problem Solving Process: Step 1

● Define ○ What problem are you trying to solve? ○ What are your constraints? ○ What does success look like?

Problem Solving Process: Step 2

● Prepare ○ Brainstorm / research possible solutions ○ Compare pros and cons ○ Make a plan

Problem Solving Process: Step 4

● Reflect ○ How do your results compare to the goals you set while defining the problem? ○ What can you learn from this or do better next time? ○ What new problems have you discovered?

Problem Solving Process: Step 3

● Try ○ Put your plan into action

What is the difference between hardware and software in a computer?

Hardware is the physical components of the computer like the monitor and hard drive. They come in boxes. Software consists of instructions for the computer follow, and they come on disks.

Storage Devices

Have the capability to store huge amounts of information, which can be easily to be reclaimed another time.

Henry Edward "Ed" Roberts

He developed the Altair, which was the first personal computer.

Scott E. Fahlman

He developed the Emoticons.

Vinton Gray Cerf

He has played a vital role in the development of the Internet. He was called the "Father of the Internet."

Herman Hollerith

He invented the "Tabulating Machine." The Tabulating Machine used punch cards to store information. It was later used to tabulate the U.S. Census. Owned the Tabulating Machine Corporations,which later on became the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM).

Douglas Carl Engelbart

He invented the computer mouse, graphical user interface, and hyper-documents.

Steve Wozniak

He invented the first Apple computer. ("Wherever smart people work, doors are unlocked.")

Marcian Edward "Ted" Hoff Jr.

He invented the first microprocessor.

Charles Babbage

He is known as the "Father of Computers." He developed the Difference Engine and the Analytical Engine. These two machines were powered by steam to move the punch cards and operate the gears. His ideas were later used to design calculators and computers.

Bill Gates

He is the founder and CEO of Microsoft, and he become interested in computing at the age of 13.

Steve Jobs' Think Different leadership has changed our lives. Explain.

He made others start thinking about their personal opinions other than other people's opinions hiding his/her personal opinions. He encouraged to think for themselves and not think like your friend/neighbor/family. He influenced other people by letting them understand that everyone is different and everyone is unique in their own way. Everyone has different ideas about things, everyone thinks differently, and everyone acts like themselves, not someone else. Steve Jobs let people believe more in what they are capable of doing.

Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider

He was a revolutionary in thinking about computers, he believed in Man Computer Symbiosis. He also envisioned a network of computers around the world.

Robert Melancton Metcalfe

He was the co-inventor of Ethernet.

Robert Elliot Kahn

He was the co-inventor of the TCP/IP protocols and he also was responsible for originating the DARPA's Internet program. He and Vinton Cerf were awarded the National Medal of Technology for founding and developing the Internet.

Output Devices of a Desktop

Headphones, Projector, Monitor, Speakers, and the Printer

Input Devices of a Fitness Tracker

Heart Rate Monitor and the Touch Screen

Static Random Access Memory (SRAM)

Holds data in a static form, as long as there is enough power in the memory.

Internal Fragmentation

Holds the assigned amount of memory. Often, the assigned amount of memory is quite larger than the requested amount of memory.

Tim Berners-Lee

In 1990, he wrote the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) which is a language used by computers in which they are technically capable of communicating hypertext documents across the Internet.6. You probably cannot speak it or write it. Yet you use it all the time.

Enigma

It was a German code making machine used during World War 2.

Colossus

It was computer-like machine created by the British. It is similar to the Enigma, and the British were easily able to decode the German messages, using the Colossus.

Jack Kilby invented the integrated circuit. What device did he go on to invent that helped people value the power of his IC's?

Jack Kilby and his team tried to go on to invent the first handheld calculator.

In Oct. 1982, the first CD player hit the shelves. Who came up with the idea for cds?

James T. Russell came up with idea for CDs.

Input Devices of a Game System

Joy Stick, Console, DVD Player, and the Television

Input Devices of a Desktop

Keyboard, Mouse, Scanner, Joy Stick, and the Microphone

Input Devices of a Tablet

Touch Keyboard, Touchscreen, Pointer/Mouse, Webcam, and the Microphone

What was Bill Gates' early vision of computing?

Bill Gates' early vision was that there would be a computer on every office desk and in every home.

Input

A device or component that allows information to be given to a computer.

Algorithm

A precise sequence of instructions for processes that can be executed by a computer.

Keyboard

A type of input device which allows us enter any sort of text on a computer.

Mouse

A type of input device which allows us to control the position of the pointer on any computer screen.

Non-Storage Device

Allow the CPU/Main Memory to communicate with the outside world, however, they are not capable of storing information.

Speaker

An output device which allows us to listen to music, sound effects, and videos. It may also be used during office meetings to communicate with others, and plug in our headphones.

Output

Any device or component that receives information from a computer.

Describe the difference engine, the machine Charles Babbage invented in the 1820s. In what ways was it similar to the modern computer? What did he hope to accomplish with the analytical engine?

Charles Babbage designed the difference engine, and if he had finished building it, the difference engine would have been capable of calculating multiplication tables and would have directly printed out the results. Even though Babbage didn't complete the project, he did successfully build one section of his device which functioned pretty well. This section of his device was similar to a modern computer because it was capable of perfectly solving the equations and having six-digit results along with it, and a modern computer is capable of doing all these operations too. After a while, everyone lost interest in his difference engine and the government stopped funding/supporting the engine. After this, Charles Babbage started on working on a new idea. He called his new idea the analytical engine. With this device, Babbage hoped to accomplish a new way to solve mathematical problems. He hoped that the analytical engine would be capable of the solving any mathematical problem. The design of the analytical device had many components similar to those located in a modern computer. The heart of the analytical device, the mill, was just like the CPU in a modern computer. Also, the analytical device had something similar to the RAM or Memory unit, which are located in a modern computer too.

Our keyboard has its roots in the Typewriter which was invented by whom?

Christopher Latham Sholes invented the QWERTY keyboard, which has its roots in the Typewriter.

Internal Bus

Connects with the internal computer's components.

How do contemporary scholars know about Babbage's machines?

Contemporary scholars were able to know Charles Babbage's machine, due to the detailed description Ada Lovelace had published. Ada met Babbage at an expensive/famous dinner party, and Babbage told his vision to Ada. Ada was completely amazed about, which led her to write a detailed description about Babbage's vision and published it. Many people started to call Ada about the device and that is when people knew about Babbage's machines.

Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM)

Data is stored in a different electronic component, which is located in the integrated circuit board. Also, the DRAM is much slower than the SRAM, because it takes a long time to refresh each time.

In 1977, Dennis C. Hayes invented a computer component that is essential to computer communication. What did he invent.? What does his device do?

Dennis C. Hayes invented the PC Modem and which provided a very simple way for us to access the Internet.

Output Devices of a Fitness Tracker

Display/Screen

Computer

Electronic device that receives data, processes data, stores data, and produces a result.

How did the surge in population in the United States in the late nineteenth century contribute to the development of the computer?

Every 10 years, the Constitution needs a census of the population perfectly calculated and completed. However, with the surge of population at that time, it was very hard to finish the census. Immigrants were coming in every day, which made it even more difficult to calculate the population. Due to this difficulty, the Census Bureau decided to stage a contest. Herman Hollerith won this contest due to his idea of punch cards. His idea was very efficient/useful, which caused the Bureau to use this idea. The process of calculating the census became much easier and faster.

Why did most people consider a computer unnecessary in the early 1950s? How did the computer manufacturers convince the public of the machine's utility?

Most people considered the computer unnecessary because they didn't understand how useful a computer could be. However, it was finally proved during the Presidential Elections around that time. John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert, the creators/finders of the ENIAC and the UNIVAC, used the UNIVAC to electrically estimate the percentage of voting for each candidate. Their predications said that Eisenhower would win by a landslide, but no one believed them. Mauchly and Eckert programmed the UNIVAC again for a much more reasonable prediction. When the result came out for the candidate voting, Eisenhower did win by a landslide. The initial predictions made by the UNIVAC was only about 1% off than the actual results. After this incident, people started to realize how useful and valuable computers are.

Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU)

Performs logic, shift, basic arithmetic, and other problem-solving procedures/operations on the given input data.

Control Unit

Regulating and integrates the operations of the computer. It receives instructions from the main memory and activates the other functional elements at the right time, in order for them do the actions they are supposed to perform.

External Fragmentation

Satisfies the request of having the total memory space.

Output Devices of a Game System

Screen, Headphones, and the Speakers

Ada Lovelace

She is credited with being the first computer programmer.

Output Devices of a Digital Assistant

Speaker, Wi-Fi, and the Bluetooth

Output Devices of a Smartphone

Speakers, Headphones, and the Printer

Output Devices of a Tablet

Speakers, Headphones, and the Printer

Register

Stores data temporarily in fast storage locations. To hold the storage for a longer period of time, multiple registers in the CPU are required.

In 1958, William Higinbotham wrote a program that was an interactive display for guests at Brookhaven National Laboratory. What was it called?

Tennis for Two was the name of the program William Higinbotham that was an interactive display for guests at Brookhaven National Laboratory. This was probably the first ever video game.

The 2007 Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to Albert Fert and Peter Grunberg for simultaneously and independently discovering giant magnetoresistance. How have their discoveries impacted your life?

The Giant Magnetoresistance allows us to retrieve data from hard disks and is used by the read-out head, which scans the hard disk and converts the magnetic information into electrical current. Without this discovery, no one would have been able to save their work/files/presentations into their hard disks or flash drives, because they were the ones who had the original thought of retrieving data from hard disks.

How was the Homebrew Computer Club important in computing history?

The Homebrew Computer Club was also the first of its kind. This club was mostly the "important step in the development of a multi-billion-dollar industry." For example, this was where Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak met, and without computer clubs, the first Apple computer would have never been created.

Input/Output Device

The Input Device puts data and information into the computer, and the Output Device sends information from the computer. This device allows the computer to perform these actions, even when it is turned off. Some of the components of the Input/Output Device include the non-storage devices, storage devices, mouse, keyboard, and a speaker.

Main Memory or Random Access Memory (RAM)

The brain of the computer. Some components of the Main Memory include the internal fragmentation, external fragmentation, and the Memory Management Unit (MMU).

Describe the early Apple II computer. How does it differ from contemporary computers? What spurred Steve Jobs to develop the first Macintosh?

The early Apple II did not have graphical interfaces, as compared to contemporary computers. It had a command-line interface, but it didn't have mice. The design of the Xerox Alto spurred Steve Jobs to develop the first Macintosh computer.

Central Processing Unit (CPU)

The heart of a computer. It consists of the the control unit, the arithmetic logic unit (ALU), the registers, the internal clock, internet buses, and logic gates.

What are the origins of I.B.M.?

The origins of I.B.M. came from the Tabulating Machine Corporations, which was founded by Herman Hollerith. When Hollerith was diagnosed with a bad heart, he sold his shares for about $1,000,000. After that, Thomas Watson took over the company and named it the International Business Machines Company (I.B.M.)

Describe the typical computer of the 1950s.

The typical computer of the 1950s would have thousands of vacuum tubes, occupied a lot of space, and required a group of attendants to run it.

John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert

They were the creators/finders of the ENIAC and the UNIVAC.

Internal Clock

Times the computer's process operations, with the help of the vibrations from quartz. The internal bus's purpose is to connect with internal computer's components.

Memory Management Unit's (MMU)

Translates the virtual memory address into addresses.

In what ways did World War II spur development of the computer? How did the British break the German code?

With the inventions of the Colossus and ENIAC, World War II was able to spur the development of the computer. The ENIAC was capable was able to solve many mathematical problems through reprogramming. A young Polish engineer went to the British Embassy in Warsaw, and offered to sell the British the secret to the German code machine, the Enigma. The British obviously wanted to know the secret, in order to increase the safety of their country. The Polish man told the secret of the Enigma to the British, which made them start working on a similar code machine, as the Enigma. Few British codebreakers were able to create a computer-like machine, similar to the Enigma, and called it the Colossus. With the help of the Colossus, the British were easily able to decode the German messages.