Introduction, History and Computer Basics Worksheet

Introduction, History and Computer Basics - Worksheet

Computer Science: The discipline that seeks to build a scientific foundation for such topics as:

• 
  computer design
  
• 
  computer programming
  
• 
  information processing
  
• 
  _____________________________
  

Algorithm: A _______________________ that defines how a task is performed

Program: A representation of an _________________

Programming: The process of developing a program

Software: Programs and algorithms

Hardware: Equipment used to input information (data) and output the results of the programs, algorithms.

The Euclidean algorithm

Origins of Computing Machines
Early computing devices

____________: positions of beads represent numbers

______________________________ (1600s-1800s)

• 
  Positions of gears represent numbers
  
• 
  Blaise Pascal, Wilhelm Leibniz, Charles Babbage
  

Early Data Storage

• 
  ________________________________
  
  • 
    First used in Jacquard Loom (1801) to store patterns for weaving cloth
    
  • 
    Storage of programs in Babbage’s Analytical Engine
    
  • 
    Popular through the 1970’s
    

• 
  The Jacquard loom was the ______________________ to use
  

_________________________ to control a sequence of operations.

• 
  Did not do computation, but important in history of computer science.
  

Augusta Ada Byron

• 
  Mainly known for having written a description of Charles Babbage's early mechanical general-purpose computer, the analytical engine.
  
• 
  She is also known as the ___________________________________
  

First Generation – _________________________________
1930’s – Vacuum tubes were used as _________________________ or

______________________________________

1946 - ENIAC
First large-scale electronic digital computer was __________________ (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator)
______ additions every second, (incredibly slow by today’s standards).

_________________________________, one of the first programmers on the ENIAC

and the developer of the programming language _________________, says, “It was the first machine that assisted the power of man’s brain instead of the strength of his arm.”

ENIAC was developed long before the days of silicon chips or microchips, even before the transistor was invented.
Like ABC, ENIAC was made up of vacuum tubes, over _____________ of them!

1951- UNIVAC 1

• 
  1951 the first commercially available computer was developed, the UNIVAC I (UNIVersal Automatic Computer) using vacuum tubes
  
• 
  3,000 additions every second.
  
• 
  In 5 years we were going a _____________________ times faster.
  

Second Generation – _________________________________

• 
  1947 - Walter Brittain and Willaim Shockley invented the transistor at Bell Laboratories
  
• 
  Replaced the vacuum tube as an ________________________________
  

Transistors were:

• 
  ____________________
  

• 
  ____________________
  

• 
  ____________________
  

• 
  ____________________
  

Third Generation – ___________________________________

• 
  1959, Jack Kirby and Robert Noyce at Fairfield Semiconductor (who was later to become the cofounder of Intel Corp.) developed the first integrated circuit (silicon chip or microchip).
  
• 
  An integrated circuit (IC) _______________________________________________________________.
  

_______________________________________________________________

1960 – IBM 360
1 addition every billionth of a second (_________________), or a billion additions every second

Third Generation – _____________________________________
ICs, chips, were

• 
  ____________________
  

• 
  ____________________
  

• 
  ____________________
  

• 
  ____________________
  

Fourth Generation - ____________________________

• 
  A microprocessor is a ____________________________________________________________
  
• 
  1971, ______________________ introduced the first microprocessor chip.
  

Computer Basics

What is a computer?

• 
  A ______________________ is a electromechanical device which can be programmed to change (process) information from one form to another.
  
  • 
    Do exactly as they are told.
    
  • 
    Digital devices: Understand only _____________ different states
    

(_________________________)

Hardware versus Software

• 
  Hardware = _____________________________________________________
  

_______________________________________________________________

• 
  Software = _____________________________________________________
  

_______________________________________________________________

The Processor
________________________ = a board with integrated circuits (microchips)

• 
  system board or motherboard
  
• 
  interface boards or expansion boards
  

The Processor: The CPU
CPU (_____________________________________) = A complex collection of electronic circuits on one or more integrated circuits (chips) which:
1. ________________________________________________________________
2. communicates with other parts of the computer system, especially RAM and input devices




System Unit - Revisited
System Unit:

• 
  CPU (Central Processing Unit)
  
• 
  Memory
  
  • 
    RAM
    
  • 
    ROM or ROM BIOS
    
• 
  expansion slots
  

RAM (Random Access Memory)
RAM (__________________________________) = integrated circuits (chips) used to

__________________________________ store software (programs, instructions) and data
RAM is _______________________________ memory
RAM is _______________________________

ROM (Read Only Memory)
ROM (________________________________________) = integrated circuits

(microchips) that are used to _____________________________ store start-up (boot) instructions and other critical information

Read Only = information which:

• 
  Cannot be _________________
  
• 
  Cannot be _________________
  
• 
  Cannot be appended (added to)
  
• 
  Fixed by manufacturer
  

ROM is sometimes known as ROM ______________ (Basic Input Output System software)

ROM permanently contains:

• 
  ____________________________________________
  
• 
  instructions to do “low level” processing of input and output devices, such as the communications with the keyboard and the monitor
  

________________________ = software program which is stored permanently on a microchip, such as the software on the ROM chip

Computer Performance
_________________________________
_________________________________
_________________________________

Application Software
Written for a specific _____________________________________________________

Operating System Software

• 
  Controls _______________________________________
  
• 
  Permits you to ______________________________________
  
• 
  Acts as intermediary between ___________________________________________
  

1975 - Altair 8800

• 
  ___________________________________ and the first microcomputer or personal computer (for the consumer) the Altair 8800
  

1972 - ______________________________

• 
  Xerox Alto – first microcomputer
  

1976 - ______________________________

• 
  Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak developed the Apple I microcomputer in their basement.
  

1977 – ______________________________

1981 – IBM PC

• 
  __________________________________ and IBM
  

1984 – ______________________________

1985 – ______________________________
1987 – ______________________________