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-important people Allen, Paul G. - Co-founder of Microsoft Corp. Allen left the company in 1985 but remained on the board of directors and as founded or financially supported several innovative computer ventures, including Asymetrix and Starware Corp. He is involved with a variety of other projects, including a Jimi Hendrix Museum in Seattle. Amdahl, Gene M - South Dakota native who helped design the IBM 704, the S/ 360 series. He was the founder of the Amdahl Corp.
Andreessen, Marc - Co-founder (at the age of 22) of Netscape Communications, along with Silicon Graphics founder James H. Clark. Before Andreessen graduated from the University of Illinois in Champaign, he had created the NCSA Mosaic prototype with a team of students and staff at the university's National Center for Supercomputing Applications. Babbage, Charles (1791 - 1871) - Eccentric, English mathematician who is considered to have conceptualized the modern computer a century before technology let it be built. He conceptualized the Difference Engine, a machine that would have computed lengthy scientific tables, but money, labor, and health problems prevented its completion. The Analytical Engine, a more ambitious plan, would have done a wide range of calculating tasks.
With it, Babbage recognized the need for an input device, memory, a central processing unit, and an output device, and for this he is known as the Father of Computing. Backus, John W. - Mathematician from Philadelphia who headed the research team at IBM that created FORTRAN, the first machine independent programming language. -important devices / developments Floppy Drive - The floppy drive is always called 'Drive A: '. A floppy disk can hold 1. 5 megabytes of data. That's about 1, 500, 000 characters or letters (or about 300, 000 words). That's more than enough space for the text of a large book. Pictures, however, take up a great deal of room.
You could only fit a small number of good-quality pictures (or graphics) on a floppy disk. Hard drive - This drive uses disks that are made of aluminium or glass (and therefore 'hard'). Each disk can store much more information than either a floppy or CD-ROM. Sometimes, there may be several disks in a hard drive.
However, the disks in a normal hard drive can not be removed or replaced. Today, hard drives are measured in gigabytes. That's one thousand million bytes. 1 gigabyte is about 11 / 3 CD-ROM disks. Motherboard - Everything inside the computer is connected to a circuit board called the 'motherboard'. The motherboard has sockets for the computer's brain, called a CPU; the computer's memory (RAM, ROM and CMOS); and for add-on cards to control the video (picture), audio (sound), printer and anything else that might be connected to the computer. You may also find a modem inside on an add-on card.
RAM - This stands for 'Random Access Memory'. Everything you do with the computer is stored in RAM until you save your work to a disk. If the computer should lose power, everything in RAM is wiped out. You would have to start all over again (unless you saved it)!
Today computers have 16 megabytes of RAM or more. (Some older computers may have less. ) CPU - This stands for 'Central Processing Unit' and is the 'brain' of the computer. Most CPU's today are made by Intel and bear such names as 'Pentium', 'Pentium Pro' and 'Pentium II'. Older Intel CPU's include the 80486 and 80386 families. Other manufacturers also make CPU's: Motorola for the Macintosh, AMD and Cirrus for PC's and others. -generations General Features of First Generation Computers 1. The First Generation was from 1946 to 1956 "X Computers in this generation did from 2, 000 to 16, 000 additions per second "X Had main memory from 100 bytes to 2 kilobytes (2, 000 bytes) 2. All computers of this generation used vacuum tubes to perform calculations "X Vacuum tubes are expensive because of the amount of materials and skill needed to make them. "X Vacuum tubes get hot and burn out light an incandescent light bulb. 3.
All computers in this generation where very large machines "X Needed special rooms to house them with air conditioning because of the heat generated by the vacuum tubes "X All required specially trained technicians to run and maintain them General Features of the Second Generation 1. From 1959 to around 1965 2. Smaller, faster, and more reliable than the First Generation of computers o Used transistors instead of vacuum tubes for performing calculations o 6, 000 to 3, 000, 000 operations per second o 6 kilobytes to 1. 3 megabytes of main memory o Contained in four cabinets about 6 feet high by 4 feet wide, each weighing 250 pounds 3. Cost about one-tenth the price of a First Generation computer 4. Computers become common in larger businesses and universities Third Generation - Integrated Circuits General Features of the Third Generation 1.
Form 1965 to around 1972 2. Used integrated circuits - many transistors on one piece of silicon 3. Computers become smaller, faster, more reliable, and lower in price "X Size of a stove or refrigerator, some can fit on desktops "X Can do 100, 000 to 400, 000, 000 operations per second "X Cost about one-tenth the amount of second generation computers 4. Computers become very common in medium to large businesses General Features of Fourth Generation Computers 1. Form 1972 until now 2. Used large scale to very large scale integrated circuits "X Put more than one IC on a silicon chip "X Can do more than one function 3.
Computers become smaller, faster, more reliable, and lower in price "X Size of a television or much smaller "X Can do 500, 000 to 1, 000, 000, 000 operations per second "X Cost one-tenth, or less, the amount of third generation computers 4. Computers become very common in homes and business What is a Computer? A computer is a electronic machine capable of solving problems by processing or manipulating information according to instructions that have been given to it. When we say processing or manipulating, we mean that information is changed in some way.
If we have typed in a list of employees into the computer, and we want to alphabetize the list, the act of placing the names in alphabetical sequence is considered as processing. Electronically all computers work pretty much the same way. Even though there are several categories of computers, we will concentrate only on the Microcomputers in this tutorial (commonly known as ' Personal Computers'). Types of Computer: 1. Pocket (palmtop) Computer Pocket computers have been designed to allow people to keep lots of information close to hand - wherever they happen to be. A pocket computer has to have small, light batteries that last a long time so that the whole computer is light and small enough to be carried around in someone's pocket.
These computers have special operating systems suited to pocket computers. One problem with small computers is that they don't have full-sized keyboards attached. Both of the computers in these pictures use special pens and touch-sensitive screens to enter data as well as a number of small buttons or keys. 2. Laptop Computer The person using a laptop should be able to run all the same software on the laptop as runs on larger, desktop computers as laptop computers have the same types of operating system as desktop ones. Modern laptops can have floppy drives, CD-ROM drives and CD re-writers, and even DVD drives.
They often have a full-sized, or near-fullsize, keyboards and a mouse or a touch-sensitive mouse pad. The screen is usually a large Liquid Crystal Display (LCD). Laptops are usually much more expensive than desktop computers. They have expensive battery packs that have to power the hard-disk, CD drives and LCD screen.
The batteries generally don't last as long as those in a pocket computer and may need recharging more than once a day. The main advantage of a laptop is that the person using it can have all the programs and data from their desktop computer on a portable computer. 3. micro (desktop) computer At the moment there are two main types of desktop computer available: the Mac (made by Apple Computers) and the PC. Mac is short for Macintosh - it is usually distinguished by its stylish looks and bright colors. The latest operating system for the Apple Mac (in 2002) is OS X. When people talk about PCs they usually mean an 'IBM-compatible' computer based on an Intel (or similar) microprocessor.
The most common operating system for the PC is Microsoft Windows (latest version Windows XP) although other operating systems are available (e. g. Linux). These are very popular computers. They are designed to be used on a desk or table with a separate keyboard and mouse for input. 4. mainframe / supercomputer These computers are used for performing many millions of complex calculations in a short time.
They are very large and expensive. They are used to predict the weather, handle bank accounts, hold insurance details. In between the mainframe and the microcomputer is the minicomputer. -definition of computer What is a computer? A computer is an electronic device that operates under the control of a set of instructions that is stored in its memory unit. A computer accepts data from an input device and processes it into useful information which it displays on its output device. Actually, a computer is a collection of hardware and software components that help you accomplish many different tasks.
Hardware consists of the computer itself, and any equipment connected to it. Software is the set of instructions that the computer follows in performing a task. We will explore hardware and software more in depth in the next module. A typical computer system is shown in the figure below. -what are the characteristics, capabilities and limitations of a computer? Computers of all sizes have common characteristics -- speed, reliability, storage capacity, and productivity. Computers are the foundation of business, travel, and leisure life today.
Computers provide the processing speed required by all facets of society. The quick service we expect at the bank, at the grocery store, on the stock exchange, and on the Internet are dependent on the speed of computers. Can you imagine our world without computers? Computers are extremely reliable as well. Most errors are caused by humans, not computers.
Computers are capable of storing enormous amounts of data that must be located and retrieved very quickly. The capability to store and retrieve volumes of data is at the core of the Information Age.
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Research essay sample on Vacuum Tubes Integrated Circuits
