History And Generation Of Computers

Question 1

Fingers or Pebbles

Answer 1

In the beginning, when the task was simply counting or adding

Question 2

Abacus

Answer 2

People in Asia Minor built this

allowed users to do calculations using a system of sliding beads arranged on a rack

Question 3

Napier’s Bones

Answer 3

manual calculating device using strips of ivory or other types of material that are divided into sections.

for quickly finding quotients and products of numbers.

Question 4

Napier’s Bones Components

Answer 4

marked with numbers or digits and are used primarily for multiplication and division.

Question 5

Napier’s Bones Origins

Answer 5

In Lattice Multiplication

Question 6

Inventor of Napier’s Bones

Answer 6

John Napier

Question 7

Napier’s Bones Publication Date

Answer 7

1617

Question 8

Slide Rule

Answer 8

A device consisting of graduated scales capable of relative movement, by means of which simple calculations may be carried out mechanically.

Question 9

Slide Rule Components

Answer 9

contain scales for multiplying, dividing, and extracting square roots, and some also contain scales for calculating trigonometric functions and logarithms.

Question 10

Gunter’s Scale (the gunter)

Answer 10

Earliest known logarithmic rule
Aided in nautical calculations

Question 11

Gunter’s Scale inventor

Answer 11

Edmun Gunter (1581-1626), English Mathematician

Question 12

William Outred

Answer 12

English Mathematician
Designed first adjustable logarithmic rule (circular)
Designed first linear slide rule

Question 13

Robert Bissaker

Answer 13

English instrument-maker
Invented the familiar inner sliding rule in 1654

Question 14

Pascaline

Answer 14

Also called Arithmetic machine, the first calculator or adding machine to be produced in any quantity and actually used.

Could only do addition and subtraction, with numbers being entered by manipulating its dials.

First business machine too (if one does not count the abacus)

Question 15

Pascaline inventor

Answer 15

1642, French Mathematician, Blaise Pascal

invented the machine for his father, a tax collector

Question 16

Stepped Reckoner

Answer 16

expanded on the French mathematician- philosopher Blaise Pascal’s ideas and did multiplication by repeated addition and shifting.

Question 17

Stepped Reckoner inventor

Answer 17

designed (1671) and built (1673) by the German mathematician-philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz.

Question 18

Difference Engine

Answer 18

an early calculating machine, verging on being the first computer

A digital device

Question 19

Difference Engine Components

Answer 19

operated on discrete digits rather than smooth quantities, and the digits were decimal (0–9), represented by positions on toothed wheels

rather than the binary digits (“bits”) that the German mathematician-philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz had favoured (but did not use) in his Step Reckoner.

Question 20

Difference Engine inventor

Answer 20

designed and partially built during the 1820s and ’30s by Charles Babbage, an English Mathematician

Question 21

Jacquard Loom also called

Answer 21

Jacquard attachment/mechanism

Question 22

Jacquard Loom components

Answer 22

in weaving, device incorporated in special looms to control individual warp yarns. It enabled looms to produce fabrics having intricate woven patterns such as tapestry, brocade, and damask, and it has also been adapted to the production of patterned knitted fabrics.

improved on the punched-card technology of Jacques de Vaucanson’s loom (1745).

Question 23

Jacquard System inventor

Answer 23

developed in 1804–05 by Joseph-Marie Jacquard of France

Question 24

Jacquard System

Answer 24

improved on the punched-card technology of Jacques de Vaucanson’s loom (1745).

Question 25

Herman Hollerith in 1889

Answer 25

worked for us census bureau, also applied the Jacquard loom concept to computing.

Question 26

Atanasoff-Berry Computer

Answer 26

first electronic digital computer

Question 27

Atanasoff-Berry Computer inventor

Answer 27

John V. Atanasoff, American mathematician and physicist

Constructed from 1939-1942

Assistance of his graduate student Clifford E. Berry

Question 28

Konrad Zuse

Answer 28

German engineer acting in virtual isolation

completed construction in 1941 of the first operational program-controlled calculating machine.

Question 29

Harvard Mark 1

Answer 29

early protocomputer, built during World War II in the United States.

used relays and electromagnetic components to replace mechanical components.

Question 30

Hardvard Mark 1 Inventor

Answer 30

built as a partnership between Harvard Aiken and IBM in 1944

Question 31

Plans for Mark Series

Answer 31

Starting in 1937, detailed plans of a series of four calculating machines of increasing sophistication, based on different technologies, from the largely mechanical Mark I to the electronic Mark IV

Question 32

ENIAC meaning

Answer 32

Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer

Question 33

ENIAC

Answer 33

first programmable general-purpose electronic digital computer, built during World War II by the United States

Designed specifically for computing values for artillery range tables, it lacked some features

Question 34

ENIAC Components

Answer 34

It used plugboards for communicating instructions to the machine; this had the advantage that, once the instructions were thus “programmed,” the machine ran at electronic speed.

Question 35

ENIAC inventor

Answer 35

Developed in 1946 by John Eckart and John Mauchy

Question 36

EDVAC meaning

Answer 36

electronic discrete variable automatic computer

Question 37

EDVAC

Answer 37

first electronic computer to use the stored program concept introduced by John von Neumann.

Question 38

EDVAC Concept

Answer 38

The concept of a stored-program computer was introduced in the mid-1940s, and the idea of storing instruction codes as well as data in an electrically alterable memory was implemented in EDVAC

Question 39

EDSAC meaning

Answer 39

Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator

Question 40

EDSAC

Answer 40

the first full-size stored- program computer

used mercury delay lines for memory and vacuum tubes for logic.

Question 41

EDSAC inventor

Answer 41

built at the University of Cambridge, by Maurice Wilkes and others to provide a formal computing service for users.

Question 42

EDSAC Concept

Answer 42

built according to the von Neumann machine principles enunciated by the Hungarian American scientist John von Neumann and, like the Manchester Mark I, became operational in 1949.

built the machine chiefly to study computer programming issues, which he realized would become as important as the hardware details.

Question 43

UNIVAC meaning

Answer 43

Universal Automatic Computer

Question 44

UNIVAC

Answer 44

One of the earliest commercial computers
Marked the real beginning of the computer era

could read 7,200 decimal digits per second (it did not use binary numbers), making it by far the fastest business machine yet built.

Question 45

UNIVAC concept

Answer 45

designed as a commercial data-processing computer, intended to replace the punched-card accounting machines of the day.