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 – ______

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