Describe several ways digital technology plays a critical role in modern life
Discuss several key trends in the evolution of computers and digital technology
Describe the major types of computers and their principle uses
Explain how the explosive growth and evolution of the Internet is changing the way people use information technology
Explain how our information age differs from any time that came before
Discuss the social and ethical impact of information technology on our society
Creating Communities on the Living Web
MySpace creates an online community experience for young people. Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe are the founders
Flickr creates a community for people to share their pictures.
Living in a Nondigital World
Computers are no longer a luxury but rather a commodity.
Computers and their applications are involved in all aspects of our daily life.
Computers in Perspective
Every computer in use today follows the basic plan laid out by Charles Babbage and Lady Lovelace.
The first real computers:
1939: Konrad Zuse completed the first programmable, general-purpose digital computer.
About the same time, the British government was assembling a top-secret team of mathematicians and engineers to crack Nazi military codes.
1943: The team led by mathematician Alan Turing and others completed Colossus, considered by many to be the first electronic digital computer.
1939: Iowa State University professor John Atanasoff developed what could have been the first electronic digital computer, the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC).
1944: Thanks to a one million dollar grant from IBM, Harvard professor Howard Aiken developed the Mark I.
John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert helped the U.S. effort in World War II by constructing a machine to calculate trajectory tables for new guns.
ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer)
After the war, Mauchly and Eckert started a private company called Sperry and created UNIVAC I, the first general-purpose commercial computer.
Vacuum tubes were used in early computers.
Transistors replaced vacuum tubes starting in 1956.
By the mid-1960s transistors were replaced by integrated circuits.
Integrated circuits brought:
Increased reliability
Smaller size
Higher speed
Higher efficiency
Lower cost
1971: The first microprocessorwas invented by Intel engineers.
The PC (personal computer) revolution began in 1970:
Apple
Commodore
Tandy
Moore’s law–Gordon Moore predicted that the number of transistors that can be packed into a silicon chip of the same price would roughly double every two years.
As workstations become less expensive and desktops become more powerful, the line that separates them is becoming as much a marketing distinction as a technical one.
Laptop, or notebook, computers are personal computers designed with portability in mind.
Some components are left off to help keep size and weight down.
Handheld devices
Handheld devices are small enough to tuck into pockets and serve the needs of users who value mobility over a full-sized keyboard and screen.
PDA (personal digital assistant)
Palm
Pocket PC
Smart phones
iPhone
Servers
Computers designed to provide software and other resources to other computers over a network.
Mainframes and supercomputers
Mainframes
Used by large organizations, such as banks and airlines, for big computing jobs
Communicate with mainframe through terminals
Multiple communications at one time through process of timesharing
Supercomputers
For power users who need access to the fastest, most powerful computers made
