Lesson 4: Four Basic Computer Periods Flashcards
Four basic periods are:
Pre-Mechanical
Mechanical
Electromechanical
Electronic
is the earliest age of information tech-
nology
Premechanical
The ___ devised a writing system called ___.
Sumerians; cuneiform
When humans first started com-
municating, they would try to use language or simple pictures or
drawings known as ____.
petroglyths,
pens and paper began to be developed.
Premechanical
the first numbering systems was invented
Premechanical
A popular model of calculator
Abacus
invented the mov-
able metal-type printing process in 1450 and sped up the process
of composing pages from weeks to a few minutes.
Johannes Gutenberg
invented the slide rule, a device that allowed the user to multiply
and divide by sliding two pieces of precisely machines and scribed
wood against each other.
William Oughtred
created a machine that could both calculate numbers and
print
Charles Babbage
helped Babbage design the instructions that would be given to the machine on punch cards and to
describe, analyze, and publicize his ideas.
Lady Augusta Ada Byron
She has been called the
”first programmer”.
Lady Augusta Ada Byron
invented the Pascaline around 1642 which was a very popular mechanical computer;
it used a series of wheels and cogs to add and subtract numbers
Blaise Pasca
These are
the beginnings of telecommunication.
Electromechanical
It is the first major
invention to use electricity for communication purposes and made it
possible to transmit information over great distances with great speed.
Telegraph
a system that broke
down information (in this case,
the alphabet) into bits (dots
and dashes) that could then be
transformed into electrical im-
pulses and transmitted over a
wire (just as today’s digital technologies break down information
into zeros and ones).
Morse code
perfected a machine that could
automatically sort census cards into
a number of categories using elec-
trical sensing devices to ”read” the
punched holes in each card and thus
count the millions of census cards
and categorize the population into
relevant groups
Herman Hollerith,
decided
to try to combine Hollerith’s
punched card technology with
Babbage’s dreams of a general-
purpose, ”programmable” com-
puting machine
Howard Aiken
he built a ma-
chine known as the Mark I,
which used paper tape to supply
instructions (programs) to the
machine for manipulating data
(input on paper punch cards),
counters to store numbers, and
electromechanical relays to help
register results.
Howard Aiken
was the first high-speed, digital computer capable of
being reprogrammed to solve a full range of computing problems
Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer
(ENIAC)
