History and Generation of Computers

Question 1

Evolution of Computers: Origin of Abacus

Answer 1

Asia Minor

Question 2

What is an Abacus?

Answer 2

a counting device used for calculations using a system of sliding beads arranged on a rack

Question 3

Napier Bones was on and made by

Answer 3

John Napier (1617)

Question 4

What are Napier Bones?

Answer 4

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

origins in lattice
multiplication.

used for multiplication and division.

Question 5

What is a Slide Rule

Answer 5

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

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

Question 6

Who Invented the First Devised Logarithmic Slide Rule

Answer 6

Edmund Gunter (lived 1581-1626) English Mathematician

Question 7

First Adjustable Logarithmic Rule (Photograph) Was Made When and by Who

Answer 7

William Oughtred (1632)

Also designed the first linear slide rule

Question 8

Who Made the Inner Sliding Rule

Answer 8

Robert Bissaker (1654)
- an English instrument-maker

Question 9

Pascaline Made by Who and When

Answer 9

Blaise Pascal (1642)

French mathematician

made the first adding machine to be produced

made to help is father as a tax collector

Question 10

What is a Pascaline?

Answer 10

The first functional automatic computer

Addition and Subtraction

Manipulates its dials

Question 11

Stepped Reckoner

Answer 11

a calculating machine

multiplication by repeated addition and shifting

Question 12

Who Made the Stepped Reckoner and When

Answer 12

Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz

Designed on 1671

Built on 1673

expanded on Pascal’s ideas

used binary digits “bits” in Stepped Reckoner

Question 13

Difference Engine

Answer 13

verged on being the first computer

a digital device that operated on discrete digits (decimal 0 - 9)

represented by positions on toothed wheels

Question 14

Who Made the Difference Engine

Answer 14

Charles Babbage (built partially 1820’s to 30’s)

English mathematician

Question 15

Jacquard Loom

Answer 15

Jacquard Attachment/Mechanism

device incorporated
in special looms to control individual warp yarns.

Question 16

Who developed the Jacquard System?

Answer 16

Joseph-Marie Jacquard (1804-1805) - French

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

Question 17

Who is Herman Hollerith

Answer 17

1889 - worked for us census
bureau, also applied the Jacquard loom concept to
computing

Question 18

Atanasoff-Berry Computer

Answer 18

first electronic digital computer

Question 19

Who built the first electronic digital computer (ABC - Atinsoff-Berry Computer)

Answer 19

John V. Atanasoff - American mathematician and physicist

Clifford E. Berry - graduate student

constructed 1939 - 1942

Question 20

Who made the the first operational program-controlled calculating
machine?

Answer 20

Konrad Zuse (1941) - German engineer

Question 21

Harvard Mark 1

Answer 21

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

electronic calculating machine used relays and electromagnetic components to replace mechanical components.

Question 22

Who built the Harvard Mark 1?

Answer 22

built as a partnership
between Harvard Aiken and IBM in 1944

Starting 1937, Aiken laid out plans for a series of calculating machines: Mark I to Mark IV.

Question 23

ENIAC

Answer 23

Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer

The 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

used plugboards for
communicating instructions to the machine

Question 24

Who Made ENIAC?

Answer 24

John Eckert and John Mauchy (1946)

Question 25

EDVAC

Answer 25

Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer

Made by Eckert and Mauchy

first electronic computer to use the stored program concept introduced by John von Neumann (1940s)

Implemented the storing of instruction codes and data

Designed 1944, built in the 1940s

Question 26

EDSAC

Answer 26

Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator

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

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

Question 27

Who built EDSAC?

Answer 27

at the University of
Cambridge, by Maurice Wilkes

Question 28

UNIVAC

Answer 28

Universal Automatic Computer

The Eckert – mauchy corporation manufactured UNIVAC (universal automatic
computer) in 1951

one of the earliest commercial computers

intended to replace
the punched-card accounting machines

could read 7,200 decimal digits per second