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
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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).
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_________________________________, 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
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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
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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
INPUT
SYSTEM UNIT
OUTPUT
PERMANENT
STORAGE
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 _______________________________
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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 ___________________________________________
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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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