A Brief History of Computing
Studied by 1 person
Learn
Practice Test
Spaced Repetition
Match
Flashcards1/58
Earn XP
Description and Tags
Week 1 Lecture Material
Name | Mastery | Learn | Test | Matching | Spaced |
|---|
No study sessions yet.
59 Terms
ancient history is up to when?
1930
why was the earliest computing device created?
aid numeric computation
what was the earliest computing device?
abacus
what is the abacus?
‘finger-powered pocket calculator’
what is an algorithm?
finite set of unambiguous instructions to solve a problem
how did the ‘algorithm’ get it’s name?
9th century mathematician Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (latanized to algorithmi)
what are early examples of algorithms?
Euclidean algorithm (300 BC)
Sieve of Eratosthenes (60-120 AD)
what is the Euclidean Algorithm?
finding the greatest common divisor of two numbers
what is the sieve of Eratosthenes algorithm?
finding prime numbers
what were the categories of the early calculating machines?
manual
mechanical
what is an example of an early manual calculating machine?
slide rule used in science and engineering in the 1600s until it was replaced in 1900s by pocket calculators
when were early mechanical calculating machines created?
1600s
(ex. Jacquard Loom - 1804)
How did the Jacquard Loom work?
used punch cards to define complex patterns woven into textiles
What are punch cards; what were their original uses?
piece of stiff paper with holes, where presence or absence of holes in pre-defined positions are used to dictate the design of cloth
What were punch cards later used for?
digital data to be entered in a computer was represented by the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions before the wide use of the keyboard
what were punch cards later used for?
code computer programs
Who was George Boole (1815-1864)?
founded Boolean algebra which laid the foundations of digital computing circuitry
when was the birth of the electronic computer?
1930 to 1951
who was Claude Shannon (1916-2001)?
introduced the application of Boolean Logic in creating digital computing machines (1937)
published ‘A mathematical theory of communication’ which establishes the principles for encoding information so it might be reliably transmitted electronically (1948)
the father of the modern information age
what is the Von Neumann Architecture?
‘stored program’
stored program computer can run different programs
binary internal coding
CPU (central processing unit)-Memory- mass storage-I/O organization
‘fetch-decode-execute’ cycle
earlier computers (ex. ENIAC) hard-wired to do one task, re-wired for different
basis for modern computers
who was Alan Turing (1912-1954)?
led the WW2 research group that broke the (encrypted) code for the German Enigma machine
proposed simple abstract universal machine model for defining computability — The Turing Machine
Devised the ‘Turing Test’ for AI (artificial intelligence)
What is the Enigma Machine (Germany)?
invented in 1918, it was the most sophisticated code system of its day, and a priority for the Allies to break it as the Germans believed it was unbreakable
contributed to the electronic computing machines in the 1940s that helped decrypt German coded messages
what was the first electronic general-purpose computer?
ENIAC: Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer
commissioned by the US army for computing ballistic firing tables
More about ENIAC
noted for massive scale and redundant size
used vacuum tubes to control the flow of electrical signals
contained decimal internal coding
operational in 1946
manual programming of boards, switches and ‘function table’
not ‘von Neumann Architecture’
what are vacuum tubes?
large, generate a lot of heat and are prone to failures
note: early computer programming was slow, tedious, and repetitious
when was the age of the mainframes?
1951 to 1970
what advancement occurred in the 1950s?
computers got dramatically smaller because of vacuum tube computer circuits also becoming smaller
who was Grace Hopper (1906-1992)?
created the first complier because she was tired of writing machine code by hand
greatly improved programming speed and efficiency
what is the function of a compiler?
to go from high level language to low level language (source code → executable code)
what is the transistor?
the most important invention of the 20th century
replaced vacuum tubes which were bulky
formed the basic elements of an integrated circuit (IC)
what is an integrated circuit (IC)?
allows placement of many transistors onto a small surface
lowered cost and decreased space compared to using individual transistors
enabled computers and other electronic devices to become smaller and cheaper to build and maintain
today there exceeds 10 billion transistors in a single package of approximately 25 square centimeters
what was the first device built with transistors in 1953?
the hearing aid: Zenith Royal-T ‘tubeless’ hearing aid
prehistoric ipod
what was the second device built with transistors?
the ‘transistor radio’
what is the IBM System/360 (1960s)?
introduced in 1964 (business)
family of computers, with compatible architecture, covering a wide price range
established the standard for mainframes for a decade and beyond
how were the punch cards used?
student programmers used the IBM 026 keypuncher
used from a Fortran program
how did computing impact going to the moon?
apollo space program depended on computers to calculate trajectories and control guidance
trajectories calculated using IBM mainframes
onboard guidance computer had less processing power than modern appliances, but had auto-pilot capabilities
who was Margaret Hamilton?
led the team who coded programming for the guidance computer
considered a pioneer in software engineering
who was Gordon Bell?
developed the first ‘mini’ computer — Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in 1960-83
brought computing to small businesses
created major competition for IBM, Univac, who only built mainframes
what is the DEC PDP series?
offered mainframe performance at a fraction of the cost
PDP-8 introduced at $20,000 vs. $1M for a mainframe (early 1960s dollars)
what are specialized supercomputers?
first developed in the late 1970s
high-performance systems used for scientific applications (weather forecasting, code breaking)
advanced special purpose designs
IBM, NRCPC, NUDT Dell EMC, Cray, NEC, and others
what are supercomputers used for today? (IBM Summit Supercomputer)
used for hydrodynamics, quantum chemistry, molecular dynamics, climate modeling and financial modeling
what is the age of the personal computers?
after 1970
what is the intel 4004 microprocessor - 1972?
first commercially available microprocessor first used in a programmable calculator
contained 2300 transistors and ran at 100 kHz
made the personal computer possible
about the desktop and portable computers 1975 and later
use microprocessors
all-in-one designs, performance/price tradeoffs
aimed at mass audience
personal computers
workstations
what was the first micro computer (1975)?
altair 8800 by MITS
what’s the beginning of Microsoft?
in 1975 Bill Hates and Paul Allen approached Ed Roberts of MITS, the company that developed the Altair, and promised to deliver a compiler for BASIC language
from that sale Microsoft was born
when was the first apple computer dropped?
by Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs in 1976
what was the first plug and play personal computer available at retail?
the Radio Shack TRS-80 in 1978 programmed in BASIC and very affordable
what was the first ‘portable’ personal computer?
Osborne I (1981)
came with lots of bundled software
only weighed around 20 kilos and sold for $1795 with a 5 inch (13cm) screen
what was IBM’s first personal computer?
the IBM PC (1982)
significant shift for IBM
open architecture
established a new standard — legitimized the personal computer
Operating System (OS) supplied by Microsoft
what is the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC)?
contributions to computing:
ethernet networking technology
laser printers/copiers
Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) programming paradigm
workstations Alto and Star were the first to use a window-based Graphical User Interface (GUI)
who was the first to use the window-based Graphical User Interface (GUI)?
Xerox Star (1981)
what was the second personal computer with GUI interface?
Apple Macintosh (1984)
adapted from the work done at Xerox
designed to be a computer appliance for ‘real people’
introduced at the 1984 Superbowl
What is the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET)?
large-area computer network established in 1969
allowed universities to share data
University of California, LA
University of California, Santa Barbara
Stanford Research
University of Utah, CS Dept.
communication protocols developed for ARPANET in early 1980s served as the basis for the internet
what is Moore’s Law?
the observation that the number of transistors on an integrated circuit will double every two years with minimal rise in cost
what is today’s price/performance?
over 3 billion operations per second costs less than $300
what is memory?
measured in gigabytes
NOT megabytes/kilobytes
what is secondary storage?
terabytes soon to be petabytes
how is communication speed measured?
megabits or gigabits per second