Computer Basic’s & Its History

A computer is an electronic device which consists of hardware and software.

Hardware components describe the physical parts of the computer and software

controls hardware and run the operating system

A Computer executes programs in the

sequence of Fetch, Decode and

Execute.

C - Commonly;

O - Oriented;

M - Machine;

P - Particularly;

U - Used;

T - for Trade;

E - Education;

R - and Research.

DATA: - A collection of raw, fact and figure is known as data. Data is always in
unprocessed form.

Characterstics of Computer

The major characteristics of computers are the following:

• Speed : A powerful computer is capable of executing about 3 million calculations per

second.

• Accuracy : A computer’s accuracy is consistently high; if there are errors, they are

due to errors in instructions given by the programmer.

• Reliability : The output generated by the computer is very reliable as long as the data

is reliable.

• Memory/Storage Capacity : The computer can store large volumes of data and makes

the retrieval of data an easy task.

• Versatility: The computer can accomplish many different things. It can accept

information through various input-output devices, perform arithmetic and logic

operations, generate a variety of outputs in a variety of forms, etc.

• Automation: Once the instructions are fed into computer it works automatically

without any human intervention.

•Diligence : A computer will never fail to perform its task due to distraction or laziness.

• Convenience : Computers are usually easy to access, and allow people to find

information easily that without a would be very difficult.

• Flexibility : Computers can be used for entertainment, for business, by people who

hold different ideals or who have varied goals. Almost anyone can use a computer,

and computers can be used to assist with almost any goal.

Review of brief history of Computer

Abacus:

Abacus is the first Ancient calculating device of the

world. It was developed by china. It is a rectangular

wooden frame which is consists of rows of beads, or

similar objects, strung on a wire.

Napier ‘Bones:

It is invented early age of 17th century. Napier Bones is a machine which is consists
of bones. In Napier Bone 0-9 numbers can be stored. It is a mechanical calculating

device which is used to calculate division and multiplication of numbers

Pascal's calculators: Pascal's calculator was developed by French Mathematical

Blasé Pascal in 1642.

Lebanese calculator:

Lebanese Calculator is invented by Gottfried Leibniz in

1671 modified the Pascal calculator, and he designed his

own machine for performing various mathematical

calculations which are based on multiplication and division as well.

Jacquard Loom:

Jacquard loom is developed by "Joseph

Merry Jacquard in 1801. It was first

mechanical loom machine.Josheph merry Jacquard firstly used Punch card in

textile design

Arithmometer:

Arithmometer was invented by charls Xavier Thomas D Kolmar in 1820. It was

first digital mechanical calculator. Census tabulating Machine:

Difference Engine:

Difference Engine is developed by

"Charles Babbage". It was the first steam

based machine
First Generations of Computers (1940 - 1956)
• Vacuum tubes were widely used in computers from 1940 through 1956.

• For Example ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer), UNIVAC

I (Universal Automatic Computer I), IBM 701, IBM 650

• They consumed a lot of power, produced a lot of heat, and often encountered

frequent failures

• In this generation, mainly the batch processing operating system was used.

• These computers were very large, taking up the entire room.

• First generation computers relied on machine language.

• They were very expensive to operate

A vacuum tube, electron tube, valve (British usage), or tube (North America), is a

device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to
which an electric potential difference has been applied.

Examples - The ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) & UNIVAC

(Universal Automatic Computer), IBM 701, IBM 702, IBM 650, EDSAC, EDVAC

J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly built the ENIAC at the University of

Pennsylvania's Moore School of Electrical Engineering between 1943 and 1946.

ENIAC was the first programmable general-purpose electronic digital computer.

(The Atanasoff–Berry computer (ABC) was the first automatic electronic digital

computer

Second Generations of Computers (1956 - 1963)

• The second generation of computers saw the use of transistors

instead of vacuum tubes

• Examples include IBM 1620, IBM 7094

• A transistor is a miniature semiconductor that

regulates or controls current or voltage flow in addition amplifying and

generating these electrical signals and acting as a switch/gate for them.

 Typically, transistors consist of three layers, or terminals, of a semiconductor

material, each of which can carry a current.

• The language evolved from cryptic binary language to symbolic (‘assembly’)

languages. This meant programmers could create instructions in words. About

the same time high level programming languages were being developed (early

versions of COBOL and FORTRAN).

• The early versions of these machines were developed for the atomic energy

industry.

• Example – IBM 1401, UNIVAC 1107, CDC 1604, CDC 360

Third Generations of Computer (1964 - 1971)

• The third generation of computers introduced the use of IC (integrated

circuits) in computers.

An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit (also referred to as an IC, a

chip, or a microchip) is a set of electronic circuits on one small flat piece (or "chip")

of semiconductor material, usually silicon. Large numbers of miniaturized

transistors and other electronic components are integrated together on the chip.

• This results in circuits that are orders of magnitude smaller, faster, and less

expensive than those constructed of discrete components, allowing a large

transistor count.

• This innovative development significantly reduced computer sizes while

simultaneously enhancing computational power.

• Instead of punched cards and printouts, users interacted with third generation

computers through keyboards and monitors and interfaced with an operating

system.

• Allowed the device to run many different applications at one time.

• Example - IBM System/360 series, IBM 370 Series and DEC PDP-8.

Fourth Generations of Computers (1971 - 2010)

• The fourth generation computers were made using very large scale

integration technology.

• The computers made in the fourth generation were based upon the

microprocessor.

• The Intel 4004 chip, developed in 1971, located all the components of the
 computer from the central processing unit and memory to input/output

controls—on a single chip.

• The arrival of supercomputers equipped with enormous processing

capabilities, driving progress in weather prediction, scientific exploration, and

data interpretation was a game changer.

• Examples - Apple II, IBM PC, Commodore 64, STAR 1000, CRAY-X-MP(Super

Computer), DEC 10, PDP 11, CRAY-1.

Fifth Generations of Computers (2010 - present)

• This generation is based on parallel processing hardware and AI (Artificial

Intelligence) software and parallel processing.

• Examples → IBM laptops, Ultrabook Param 1000, Intel P4

• Natural Language Processing (NLP), Solid state drives, use of optical fibers in

circuits, robotics, neural networks are features of this generation.

• Today, two of the most common AI (Artificial Intelligence) computer

programming languages are LISP and Prolog.

• These employ the ULSI or the Ultra Large Scale Integration technology.

• Knowledge-based systems are a form of artificial intelligence (AI) designed

 to capture the knowledge of human experts to support decision-making.

• Examples – laptops, tablets, smartphones

Classification Based on size:

I. Micro Computer:

They are in small in size and have low cost.

Microcomputers are used mostly in offices and home.

Microcomputer has low storage capacity and speed of

work. This computer can be used by single user at a

time so that these computers are known as Personal Computer (PC).

Note: PC-XT stands for Personal Computer Extended Technology. It is the version of

IBM PC.

IBM stands for International Business Machine

Microcomputers have 3 basic hardware physical equipment categories as like

system unit, input/output and secondary storage.

Types of microcomputer are as follows

• Desktop Computer or Personal Computer (PC) are small, relatively economical

computers. These are based on the microprocessor technology (Integrated

 Circuit-IC).

• Laptop are also known as ultra book or notebook. These are portable and

lightweighted. They include rechargeable battery, so these can work anywhere.

• Handheld or Palmtop Computer are the smallest and are designed to fit into

the palm. So, these are also known as Palmtop. They are practical for certain

functions such as phone books and calendars. They use the pen for input

instead of keyboard. e.g. PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), tablets, etc

• Tablet Computer have key features of the notebook computer, but these can

accept input from a pen instead of the keyboard or mouse.

• Workstation Computer

2. Mini Computer:

The capacity of to do work is more than microcomputer and less than mainframe

computer. Minicomputer uses more than one processor at a time. Mini computers

are used in bank, offices. PDP-8 was the first minicomputer.

3. Mainframe Computer:

Minicomputer has more capacity to stores data rather than mini or microcomputer.

On this computer more than one people can work at a time. Mainframe computers are

used in research, railway reservation and big organization. Main Frame computers
are known as “Big Iron”.

4. Super Computer:

These computers are large in size, powerful and very costly. These computers have

the large capacity to store data and high processing speed. Supercomputers are used

to perform complex calculations. The word length of super computer is 64bit.

Supercomputers are primarily useful for mathematically intensive scientific

applications. These computers are used in scientific research, nuclear reactor,

weather forecasting, and climate research.

CDC 6600

• The first supercomputer, the CDC 6600 by Control Data Corporation only had a

single CPU.

• Released in 1964

• CDC 6600 cost $8 million and operated at up to 40MHz, capable of giving a peak

performance of 3 million floating point operations per second (flops)

• CRAY-1 was the world’s first supercomputer introduced by Seymour R CRAY

in 1976.

PARAM: The first super computer of India was Param 8000. Param 8000 super
computer developed and designed by Shree Vijay Bhatkar and C-DAC (Centre for

Development of Advance Computing) Pune in 1991. PARAM stands for 'PARAllel

machine’

Pratyush: Pratyush is India’s first multi -petaflop super computer that has been set

up at Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) Pune Developed At a cost of Rs

450 crores

Param yuva2 is a super computer developed by India.

Among World’s fastest

1—Frontier - by HP, USA

2—Fugaku Supercomputer Fugaku, Japan

3—LUMI, Finland,

4—Leonardo, Italy

5—Summit by IBM, USA

Classification Based on Work:

Analog Computer

These computers carry out arithmetic and logical

operations by manipulating and processing of data.

e.g. Speedometers, seismograph, etc. Analog

computer can perform several mathematical

operations simultaneously. It uses continuous

variables for mathematical operations and utilises

mechanical or electrical energy.

Digital Computer

These do work by calculating the binary digits. A digital computer, not only performs

mathematical calculations, but also combines the bytes to produce desired graphics,

sounds. e.g. Desktop (PC).

Hybrid Computer

These are the combination of analog and digital computers. Machines used in

hospitals like ECG and DIALYSIS are the commonly used hybrid computers.
Classification Based on Purpose:

General Purpose Computer

General purpose computers are those computers,

which are used to solve variety of problems by

changing the program or instructions. e.g. To make

small database, calculations, accounting, etc

Special Purpose Computer

Special purpose computers are those computers which are used to solve a single and

dedicated types of problem. e.g. Automatic aircraft landing, multimedia computer, etc

Quantum computer was first introduced by Richard Feynman

Q1. Second-generation computers (1955 - 1964) were made of:

(a) large scale integrated circuit chips

(b) vacuum tubes

(c) transistors

(d) small scale integrated circuit chips

Q.2. Abacus can perform

a) Addition

b) subtraction

c) multiplication

d) Both ‘1’ and ‘2’

Q.3. The Napier’s technology used for calculation called

a) Naptologia

b) Vibologia

c) Semiconductor

d) Rabdologia

Q.4. COBOL is an example of ________ generation programming language.

(a) 1st

(b) 4th

(c) 2nd

(d) 3rd
Q.5. Punched cards were first introduced by

a) Powers

b) Pascal

c) Jacquard

d) Herman Hollerith

Q.6. Which of the following is known as father of Modern computer?

a) Dennis Ritchie

b) Napier

c) Charles Babbage

d) Alan Turing

Q.7. Name the first general purpose electronic computer.

a) ADVAC

b) ADSAC

c) UNIVAC

d) EDVAC

Q.8. Artificial Intelligence is an example of

a) first generation computer

b) second generation computer

c) third generation computer

d) fourth generation computer

e) fifth generation computer

Q.9. IBM 370 was a ______ generation computer.

(a) 3rd

(b) 2nd

(c) 1st

(d) 4th

Q.10. Tablet PC is a type of

a) microcomputer

b) supercomputer

c) minicomputer

d) mainframe computer

Q.11. Palmtop computer is also known as

a) personal computer

b) notebook computer

c) tablet PC

d) handheld computer
Q.12. First supercomputer developed in India is

a) PARAM

b) CRAY-1

c) PARAM ISHAN

d) EPRA

Q.13. Pratyush supercomputer is dedicated for

a) multimedia

b) weather forecasting

c) recreation

d) military personnel

Q.14. Seismograph is an example of

a) Analog computer

b) Digital computer

c) Hybrid computer

d) All of these

Q.15. ENIAC is the first automatic, general-purpose digital computer. What is the full
form of ENIAC?

(a) Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator

(b) Elementary Numerical Integrator and

(c) Elementary Non- numerical Integrator and Calculator

(d) Electronic Non- numerical Integrator and Calculator

Q.16. Who developed integrated chip?

a) Robert Nayak
b) C Babbage
c) JS Kilby
d) CV Raman

Q.17. Computer’s basic architecture was developed by

a) John Von Neumann
b) Charles Babbage
c) Blaise Pascal
d) Jordan Murn

Q.18. Tabulating machine was the first electromechanical machine developed by

a) Herman Hollerith
b) Howard Aiken
c) Blaise Pascal
d) John Napier

Q.19. Who designed the first electronic computer-ENIAC?

a) Von Neumann
b) Joseph M Jacquard
c) Presper Eckert and John W Mauchly
d) All of the above
Q.20. Which of the following deals with the design, construction, operation and use of
robots?
a) Robotics
b) Artificial Intelligence
c) Nano computer
d) Quantum computer