Intro Computer Science Exercises 01. 07 Date

1. List 3 things that were done long ago to keep track of numbers before the invention of the Abacus.

2. Where and when was the Abacus invented?

3. Who not only invented logarithms, but also designed a more efficient way to do Lattice Multiplication?

4. The slide rule was used for centuries. What 1970s invention finally replaced it?

5. Blaise Pascal made an adding machine way back in 1642. Why were many people still using a plastic version of this ancient device in the 1970s?

6. A loom is a device used to make cloth. What was special about Jacquard’s Loom?

8. Who was Charles Babbage’s assistant?

9. Refer to your answer to the previous question. Why is she considered “The Mother of Programming?”

10. Why did the 1880 Census take 8 years to complete?

11. Refer to the previous question. The US Government was very concerned that the 1890 Census would not be completed by 1900. What did Herman Hollerith invent to solve this problem?

12. Harold Locke Hazen and Vannevar Bush built the Differential Analyzer, a large scale computing machine capable of solving _______________ _______________.

13. A computer is _______________ _______________ if it can solve any computational problem provided memory and execution time are not issues.

14. Which country first “Broke Enigma” in 1932?

16. Why do some people credit Konrad Zuse as the “inventor of the computer?”

17. How big was Harvard’s Mark-I calculator?

18. What computer stopped working on September 9, 1947 when a moth got stuck in one of its relays?

19. What invention marks the beginning of “The First Generation of Computers?”

20. What was the first electronic digital computer?

21. What coding machine was used by the Nazis in the 1940s which was even more complicated than the Enigma machine?

22. Refer to your answer to the previous question. What computer was used by British code breakers to help decrypt the secret coded messages from this device?

23. What do the Turing Machine and the Von Neumann Architecture have in common?

24. What was the first electronic general purpose computer?

25. What computer was the successor to the ENIAC and was the first stored program computer?

26. What was the first commercially available computer?

27. What invention marks the beginning of “The Second Generation of Computers?”

28. What invention marks the beginning of “The Third Generation of Computers?”

29. How many transistors can we fit on a tiny microchip today?


30. IBM’s System/360 essentially standardized computer _______________.


31. What was the first successful personal computer?

32. What was the first personal computer to be taken seriously as a business tool?

33. Refer to your answer to the previous question. What was the first operating system for this computer and which company made it?

34. What 2 things is the Compaq known for?

36. What company developed mouse technology?

38. When referring to Windows operating systems, what do “NT” and “XP” stand for?

39. Contrary to popular belief, Windows 2000 is not the operating that succeeded Windows 98.

Which operating system did succeed Windows 98?

40. As of 2013, what is the fastest computer in the world?