History Flashcards
What is Church’s thesis?
A computer is a machine that can simulate any other machine given enough memory.
Name some of the early computational devices.
Ishango bone, Abacus, odometry cart, barrel organs, pascal’s mechanism, punch card machine, analytical / difference engine.
When did Babbage invent the difference and analytical engines?
Difference engine - 1822 // Analytical engine 1830s
What architecture was the analytical engine?
Harvard
Does the analytical engine satisfy Church’s thesis? Why?
No, because it can read but not write.
IBM created what device in the 1890s?
Punch card tabulator.
What was the 1890 IBM device used for?
American census of 1890 and WW2 code breaking.
What machine did Germany develop in 1941?
Konrad Zeus
What machine did Britain develop in 1944?
Colossus machine
Does the Colossus machine satisfy Church’s thesis? Why?
Yes, because it can read and it is partially programmable
What did America develop in 1946?
ENIAC.
Does the ENIAC satisfy Church’s thesis?
Yes.
How many valves and how fast was ENIAC?
17000 valves, and 5000kHz
What did Britain develop in 1948?
The Manchester baby
Who developed the Manchester baby?
Williams, Kilburn, Toothill
What architecture was the Manchester baby? Why?
Vonn Neumann, because it stored its programs and data in the RAM.
Does the Manchester baby satisfy Church’s thesis?
Yes
What type of computing hardware was introduced in the 1960s?
Transistor based computing
Name 3 microprocessors from the 1970s
Intel 4004, intel 8080, intel 8086
What type of computers were developed in the 1980s?
16bit computers
What is Moore’s law?
The number of transistors per square inch will double every 18 months.
What is the difference between Harvard and Vonn Neumann architecture?
Harvard has two memory locations for the data and programs, whereas, Vonn Neumann has just one with both stored together.
