2nd video- computers Flashcards
What are computers most basic components?
Devices that can be set to on or off
Simply put, a computer does what 3 things?
- takes in info
- processes it
- outputs a result
Hardware vs. Software
Hardware- physical components
Software- digital instructions
During the industrial revolutions, what was heavily relied on to keep track of things in fields like engineering and navigation?
Data Tables, like spreadsheets, they held information about things like tides, gravity, population and more.
Who worked on Data tables?
What was wrong with these tables?
People, they were called “Computers”
The tables were often full of mistakes caused by human error
Charles Babbage
A Smart young man from london said to be “100 years ahead of his time”
How did Babbage show his Brilliance in college?
What college did he go to?
in TRINITY COLLEGE he found tiny errors in many tables
What did Babbage do to help get rid of these errors in data tables?
He came up with plans for the DIFFERENCE ENGINE
Where did Babbage find funds to build his Difference Engine?
-His own personal funds
-15,000 from the gov’t
What caused problems for Babbage when he built his machine
-He was a perfectionist
-stores didn’t carry the precise tools he needed
-He had many critics and practically no investors
Who were Babbage’s enemies
-Critics- said he was taking to long and to much money
-Organ Grinders- He hated their music and tried to have them banished
How well did the first part of the Difference engine work?
What could it do?
- It worked perfectly
-It could solve mathematical equations and answer with 6 digits
What were the two reasons that Babbage lost his financial support?
-He was taking to long & to much money
-He proposed another machine idea
What was Babbages second machine idea?
Who was the only person who could understand it?
-the Analytical Engine- more like a computer - CAME UP WITH AT 43 YEARS OLD
-Ada Lovelace (who Babbage met at a party) could understand it
What was the heart of the Analytical engine called?
What did it do and what could it be compared to?
-The MILL
-Did the CALCULATIONS
-like a CPU or central processing unit
What was the oblong structure in the Analytical engine called?
What did it do and what could it be compared to?
-The STORE
-it HELD THE NUMBERS to be calculated
-like a computer’s MEMORY
How were instructions fed into Babbage’s analytical engine
-Through PUNCH CARDS
Ada Augustus Lovelace
A young Woman who knew of Babbage and understood his genius machines
-she was often called the worlds first programmer because of her intricate descriptions of babbages two machines
How much of Babbage’s machines were done when he died?
What kept his memory alive?
-Only a part of each of them were done
-Ada’s descriptions still live today which stopped babbage from being lost to history
How long before more people had ideas of a programmable computer device after Babbage?
Nearly 100 years
What caused the need for Herman Holerath’s Machine
America’s rapidly growing population caused the need for an instrument to take a more efficient cencus
Herman Hollerith
What did he do before his invention?
What did he invent?
A formerly ‘humorless’ MIT instructor who created a device to read punch cards to count the cencus
When was the contest to creat a machine to document the cencus data done?
1890
How long did it take to tally the population before and after Hollerith’s invention?
Before- 7 years
After- 6 weeks
What was Hollerith’s company called?
The tabulating machine company
(named after his machine)
Who did Hollerith attempt (and fail) to sell his machine to?
The railroad company
-his machine couldn’t keep up with it and he nearly went bankrupt
What did hollerith do after nearly going bankrupt?
He sold his house and pretty much everything to have enough money to FIX HIS MACHINE
- IT WORKED AND THEN HIS COMPANY WAS SAVED AND HE HAD MORE WORK THAN HE COULD HANDLE
Why was hollerith forced to sell shares in his company?
How much money did he gain from this?
-He was diagnosed w/ a heart problem
-He got abt 1 million $
What companies did Holleriths former company merge w/?
What company did they merge into?
- Time record company of New York
- Dayton Scale Company
-IBM- International business machinery
What master salesman led “IBM” (International Business Machinery)
Thomas Watson
What was the name of the machine designed by the germans to encode messages?
The Enigma
What was the Enigma? Why was it so hard to dekrypt?
It was a machine that had a different code daily. It was made with an impossible combination of plugs and roters and there were millions of millions of possible ways to solve its messages
WHat was the name of the place in london where Brits worked on cracking the Enigma?
Blechly Park
What was the name of the ‘computer like’ machine the brits built with the help of a young polish engineer?
Collossus
How many vacuum tubes were in collossus?
How many characters could it process per second?
-2,000
-25,000
What were the deciphered german transmissions called?
the ULTRA SECRET
Where was a device being developed around the time of world war two?
In Philadelphia
(at the same time as collossus)
What calculations were needed for artillery pieces to accurately fire?
Who calculated these peices?
-FIRING TABLES (told them where to fire in different conditions)
-“Computers”
John Mauchly
The man who worked at University of Philidelphia and built the ENIAC
Presper Eckert
The graduate student who helped mauchly to build the machine
How much money did the army commit to the ENIAC
about half a million (400,00)
What does ENIAC stand for and what did it do?
-Electronical NUmerical Integrator and Computer
-I was meant to help calculate the firing tables for the army
The Eniac:
____ feet long, ______ tons, contained ______ registers, _________ capacitors, _________ switches, _______ delicate vacuum tubes
-100 ft. long
-30 tons
-70,000 registers
-10,000 capacitors
-6,000 switches
-18,000 cvacuum tubees
Was ENIAC completed before WW11
No, it was completed 3 months after
What were the eniacs biggest weaknesses?
-memory was primative- conastant rewiring
-no logical decisions
John Voneumann
The advisor of the eniac program
Worked on manhattan program
wrote paper based on ENIAC
What paper about a computer (that was clearly drawn heavily from the ENIAC) was written shortly after WW11?
What did it say about memory?
“First Draft Report of the EDVAC”
-BY: John VonEumann
Said that a computer should hold programming internally in it’s memory
What was the new computer made by Eckert and Mauchly’s buisness?
UNAVAC
What caused people to take intrest in the UNAVAC?
It correctly predicted the out come of:
Isenhouer & Stevensons election
Who caused IBM to begin makign computers?
WHat was their first computer?
Thomas Watson JR.
701
What caused the US to make what small efficient computer?
-The space race
-Transistors
Who is credited with the development of the transistor?
-William Shockley
-Wlter Britain
-John Vardeen
what were 3 advantages of transistors?
-small
-less heat
-more power
Which two people designed the integrated circit?
- Jack Kilby
- Robert Noice
Who were William Shocely, Walter Britain, and JOhn Vardeen?
-THe people credited for the invention of the transistor
What was the Integrated Circit?
-an ientire system on ONE SILICON CHIP
-VERY LIGHT
How were integrated circits incorperated into the space race in 1969?
-There were 5000 in each of the lunar lander and lunar orbiter
Ted Haw
Developed microprocessors
Who was Jack Kilby and Robert NOice?
Peopel who SEPERATELY designed the integrated circit
How was a microprocesser different from an integrated circit?
The entire PROCESSING UNIT was on the chip
Describe a microprocesser:
-what were the parts of it?
-How big was it?
-smaller than a finger nail
-components of comp: control unit and clock
What ddi steve jobs and wozniak sell to finance their comp.
JOBs- voltswagon
WOZ- Calculator
What was wrong with the Apple 1?
It was:
-large
-uwieldy
Mike Markulla
32 - millionaire- intel retiree
-put apple on sound buisness footing
Command Line interface vs. Grafical interface
-early computers used Command line interface
Doug Engelbart
demonstrated a vision of an easy to use computer
-USING A MOUSE!!!
Word Processing Hypertext
Xerox PARC
used Engelbart’s idea and made a graphical user interface
Robert Tailor
Guy on xerox executive team
-challenged engineers to make an easy to use comp.
What computer did Xerox parc invent?
ALTO
Who truly appreaciated ALTO?
Steve Jobs
After being inspired by ALTO- what did steve jobs do?
got to work on the Macintosh
-easy to opperate w/ softwware
Bill gates
founded an empire based on software
