Evolution of Computers
|
Increasing
need for numerical calculations, storage of data and information etc. with
minimum of mental and manual efforts led to invention of computers.
·ABACUS, used for calculations, was the earliest devise that
qualifies as a computer widely used 6000 years ago. The ABACUS was
built using the idea of place values.
·John Napier developed Logarithm, a tabular system of numbers
through which many arithmetical calculations were simplified, in 1617.
·Blaise Pascal, a Frenchman, invented a mechanical unit in 1642
that could add and subtract, using a set of toothed wheels. This ‘calculator’
was the first digital machine.
·Pascal’s machine was further improved by a German mathematician
Gottfried that could add, subtract, multiply, divide and extract roots.
·In 1822, Charles Babbage built the ‘Difference
Engine’. This could do only one kind of calculations.
·In 1833, Charles Babbage designed and worked on Analytical
Engine. It was a general-purpose computer designed to solve almost any type
of problem. It contained most of the elements we find in modern digital
computer systems. Hence, Charles Babbage is considered as Father
of modern computer.
·Joseph Jacquard invented punch cards in 1801. Punch card had
holes punched in it. These were used by him to produce weaving pattern on the
cloths.
·In 1880, Dr.Herman Hollerith used punched cards for data
processing by building a tabulating machine that could punch holes in cards
and read them as well. This machine worked on electricity and had mechanical
parts and could handle 50 to 75 cards per minute.
·In 1944, Howard Alken built MARK1, the first digital computer,
at Harvard University. It lacked speed but had the ability to continuously
perform complex arithmetic functions without frequent human intervention. It
was partly electronic and partly mechanical machine.
·In 1936, Alan Turing from Cambridge University submitted his
brilliant logical analysis on ‘artificial intelligence’. His contribution on
the development of electronic computers remains the single biggest
contribution ever made to the science.
·In 1930, Germans developed a mechanical machine called as
‘ENIGMA’ for coding military messages.
·In 1939, Britain initiated to build machines that could decipher
Enigma’s codes.
·In 1942, USA started to develop an electronic computer. In
1946, it could put to operation ‘ENIAC’ (Electronic Numerical Integrator and
Calculator), made in University of Pennsylvania. John Mauchly and
J.Presper Eckert were the two people involved in its development. This
computer was made of 18,000 vacuum tubes. ENIAC could process the data at
great speeds (though not comparable to today’s computers).
·UNIVAC-1 was the first business-oriented computer developed in
1952 used by US Bureau of Census.
More Questions >> |
Saturday, April 30, 2016
University Asst 2016 : Free Study Material
Friday, April 29, 2016
IT & Cyberlaw: Who coined the Term ' Bit ' ?
- Claude Elwood Shannon was an American mathematician, electrical engineer, and cryptographer known as "the father of information theory". Shannon is famous for having founded information theory with a landmark paper that he published in 1948.
- Claude E. Shannon first used the word bit in his seminal 1948 paper A Mathematical Theory of Communication. He attributed its origin to John W. Tukey, who had written a Bell Labs memo on 9 January 1947 in which he contracted "binary digit" to simply "bit".
Related Questions in IT
SET -1
1.
Who
coined the term ‘Computer Virus’?
a)
Frederick
Cohen
b)
William Gibson
c)
John
Von Neumann
d)
Charles
Babbage
Answer:
( a)
· Frederick Cohen is an American Computer Scientist and best known as
inventor of computer virus defense techniques.
· The term VIRUS stands for Vital
Information Resource Under Siege.
· A computer virus is a
malware that, when executed, replicates by inserting copies of itself into
other computer programs, data files, or the boot sector of the hard
drive.
· William Gibson coined the term ‘ Cyber
Space’ in his novel ‘ Neuromancer ‘ published in 1984.
· John Von Neumann formulated the ‘
Stored program concept ‘.
· Charles Babbage, the Father of
Computer who invented Analytical Engine and Difference Engine
2.
Operating
system is a type of
a)
Application
software
b)
Utility
software
c)
System
software
d)
None
of these
Answer: (c)
· Operating System is System Software.
· Operating system acts as an interface
between user and hardware.
· System software is a type of computer
program that is designed to run a computer’s hardware and application
program.
3.
What
is the expansion of the term ASCII
a)
American
security code for information Interchange
b)
American
scientific code for information Interchange
c)
American
Standard Code for Interchange information
d)
American
Standard Code for Information Interchange
Answer:
(d)
· ASCII Stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange.
· ASCII is a character-encoding scheme
used in a Computer.
· ASCII uses 7 bits or 8 bits to
represent character.
· ASCII-7 can represent 128 characters
and ASCII-8 can represent 256 characters.
4.
Attempt
to acquire sensitive information such as passwords and credit card details by
masquerading as a trustworthy entity.
a)
Phishing
b)
Spoofing
c)
Hacking
d)
None
of these
Answer:
(a)
· Phishing is an attempt to acquire sensitive information such as passwords
and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity.
· Phishing is a cybercrime carried out
by email spoofing.
· Spoofing is a cyber crime mostly used
for concealing the identity of the sender impersonating another computer
system.
· Hacking is the practice of modifying
the features of a system, in order to accomplish a goal outside of the
creator's original purpose.
· The person who is consistently
engaging in hacking activities, and has accepted hacking as a lifestyle and
philosophy of their choice, is called a hacker.
5. Process of ‘knowledge discovery in
databases' is
a)
Data tuning
b) Data Diddling
c) Data Fragmentation
d) Data Mining
Answer: (d)
· Data mining is the extraction of
patterns and knowledge from large amount of data.
· Database Tuning is the activity
of making a database application run more quickly.
· Changing data before or during entry
in to computer system is called Data Diddling
· Data Fragmentation means in some
operating system's file systems, a data file over a certain size is
stored in several fragments rather than in a single contiguous sequence of bits
in one place on the storage medium.
Thursday, April 28, 2016
Information Technology & Cyber Law Questions
1.
Who
invented the Computer Mouse ?
a)
Douglas
Engel Bart
b)
Ray
Tomlinson
c)
Gordon
Moore
d)
Robert
Noyce
2.
Accumulator
and Program Counter are eg:-s of
a)
RAM
b)
ROM
c)
REGISTER
d)
CPU
3.
An
Entry point in an information processing system which circumvents the normal
safety measures.
a)
Logic
Door
b)
Trap
Door
c)
Loop
Hole
d)
Logic
Hole
4.
A
mode of operation in which a process is split into parts which are executed
simultaneously on different processors attached to the same computer.
a)
Parallel
Processing
b)
Distributed
Processing
c)
Multi
processing
d)
None
of these
5.
“ Number of transistors in an integrated
circuits had doubled every year since IC was invented “ Better known as
a)
Stored
Program
b)
Newton’s
Law
c)
Moore’s
Law
d)
None
of these
6.
Bot
programs used in search engines are called _____________
a)
Spambot
b)
Search
bot
c)
Crawler
d)
Doodle
7.
Which
protocol is used in Internet telephony?
a)
VOIP
b)
DHCP
c)
TCP/IP
d)
WAP
8.
The
problem of fragmentation can be avoided by
a)
De
allocation
b)
Compaction
c)
Zipping
d)
Debugging
9.
What
is key logger?
a)
Bloat
ware
b)
Adware
c)
Firmware
d)
Spyware
10.
Which
of the following is a content Management System ( CMS) ?
a)
Joomla
b)
Drupal
c)
Wordpress
d)
All
of these
Answer: (d )
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