Who is known as the first computer programmer?

Lady Augusta Ada Lovelace, daughter of English poet Lord Byron is regarded as the first computer programmer.

Who is called ‘Father of stored program’?

John Von Neumann, a Hungarian born-American mathematician is regarded as father of stored program.

Who invented the punched card?

Joseph Marie Jacquard, a French silk weaver invented the punch card for the Jacquard Loom. Herman Hollerith adapted the technology to use punch cards for data storage and tabulation. Hollerith founded one of companies that eventually merged and became IBM.

Who is called ‘Father of modern computer’?

Charles Babbage, an English mathematician is regarded as the father of modern computer who invented two engines, (i) Difference engine and (ii) Analytical Engine.

The transistors are more reliable than vacuum tubes. Why?

Transistors are more reliable than vacuum tubes because, transistors are faster, smaller, and much cheaper to build than a vacuum tube. One transistor was the equivalent of 40 vacuum tubes. They also did not produce heat compare to vacuum tubes. It conducts electricity faster and better than vacuum tubes.

What developments in computers have taken place in the fourth generation computers?

The development of IC (Integrated Circuit) like LSI (Large Scale Integration) and VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration) took place in the fourth generation computers. Due to the development of microprocessor using LSIC (Large Scale Integrated Circuits) it is possible to place computer’s central processing unit (CPU) on single chip. Magnetic and optical storage devices with capacity more than 100 GB were used as secondary memory. Fourth generation languages (4GL) were also introduced in the fourth generation computers.

What were the languages which emerged during the second generation computers?

FORTRAN (1956), ALGOL (1958) and COBOL (1959) were the languages which emerged during the second generation computers. Those languages were high level languages.

What type of main memory technology was used in second generation computers?

Transistors were used as the main memory in the second generation. Magnetic core memory was used as internal storage. Magnetic tapes were used as secondary storage media.

Which was the first commercially produced computer?

The UNIVAC I (Universal Automatic Computer) was the first commercially produced computer. It was designed by John P. Eckert and John Mauchly., the inventors of the ENIAC in 1951. It was one of the first computer that used magnetic tapes to input and output information. Remington Rand was the first company to sell computers- it sold the UNIVAC in 1951, eventually selling 46 machines at $1 Million each.

Describe about the following: a) Mark – I (IBM ASCC) b) ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) c)EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable AC

a) Mark – I (IBM ASCC): The Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (Harvard Mark - I) was the first operating machine that could execute long computations automatically. It was an electro-mechanical computer built at IBM by Harvard engineer Howard H. Aiken and other three engineers.

- It was 51 ft long, 8 ft height and 3 ft wide.

- 18,000 vacuum tubes were used.

- It consists of 7 lakhs 50 thousand parts.

- Cable connections were nearly 500 miles long.

It was the largest electro-mechanical calculator.

b) ENIAC: ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was the first general purpose electronic computer. It was designed and built by John Mauchly, an American physicist and John Presper Eckert, an American Engineer at University of Pennsylvania, USA in 1946.

- It weighed more than 27,000 kg.

- It contained 18,000 vacuum tubes and 70,000 resistors.

- It consumed 150 Kw of power.

- Input was possible from an IBM card reader, and an output was possible from IBM card punch i.e. punch card were used as input and output devices.

EDVAC: EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer) is the successor of the ENIAC made by the same designers John Mauchly and John P.Eckert in 1950 at Pennsylvania University, USA. It was the first stored program computer ever designed. It used approximately 4000 vacuum tubes and some internal storage.

Write short notes on the achievement of the following computer scientists. a) Howard Aiken b) Herman Hollerith

a) Howard Aiken: Howard H. Aiken designed and built the IBM ASCC (Automatic Sequence Control Calculator) the first digital computer in the United States to work from a program and produce reliable results. The machine was also called Mark I.

- It was 51 ft long, 8 ft height and 3 ft wide.

- 18,000 vacuum tubes were used.

- It consists of 7 lakhs 50 thousand parts.

- Cable connections were nearly 500 miles long.

Herman Hollerith: Herman Hollerith made a major contribution to the development of the modern digital computer with his tabulating machine. An early model of his invention was first used in 1890 to tabulate medical statistics gathered by the United States Army. That same year, the United States Census Bureau adopted Hollerith’s tabulating system for its 1890 census. His tabulating machine used punch card invented in the early 1800s, by a French silk weaver called Joseph-Marie Jacquard. His device could automatically read information which had been punched into card. He is also a founder of IBM Company which is still popular.

Describe at least five ways in which information technology (IT) can help students studying subjects other than computing.

‘Computer Science’ and ‘information technology’ are completely different subjects. Information Technology (IT) is-

(i) the study,

(ii) design,

(iii) development,

(iv) implementation, and

(v) support or management

of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware.

Information Technology (IT) deals with the use of electronic computers and computer software to-

(i) convert,

(ii) store,

(iii) protect,

(iv) process,

(v) transmit, and

(vi) securely retrieve information.

Shortly, information technology (IT) itself means learning to use technology in business or in studies of some subject matter using technology.

Hence, IT could help students studying subjects other than computing with the above mentioned points considered.

Explain the evolution of computer describing the technologies used in different generations.

The evolution of computers started way back in the late 1930s. Binary arithmetic is at the core of the computers of all times. History of computers dates back to the invention of a mechanical adding machine in 1642. Abacus, an early computing tool, invention of logarithm by John Napier and the invention of slide rules by William Oughtred were significant events in the evolution of computers.

Evolution of computer technology can be divided into five generations.

First generation computer consisted of vacuum tubes and they were used from 1943-1958. ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator) computer is an example of first generation computer.

Second generation (1959-1965) computer consisted of transistors i.e. vacuum tubes were replaced by transistors. Thus the size of the computer got reduced considerably.

Third generation (1966-1973) computer consisted of integrated circuits (IC) i.e. many transistors in single silicon chip. A single IC has many transistors, registers and capacitors built on a single thin slice of silicon.

With the invention of microprocessor (1971), fourth generation of computer evolution started and present day computers are also categorized in the fourth generation.

The fifth generation computers are under development. They are going to be based on principles of artificial intelligence and natural language recognition. Developers are aiming at computers capable of organizing themselves. The evolution of computer continues.

Generation	Duration	Memory device
First	(1943-1958)	Vacuum tubes
Second	(1959-1965)	Transistor
Third	(1966-1973)	LSI (Large Scale Integration) IC
Fourth	(1974-1990)	VLSI (Very large Scale Integration) Microprocessor.
Fifth	(1990 onwards)	Biochips (concept of AI)

Table: Time period and its device used in evolution of computer.

Define (a) Abacus, (b) Pascaline, (c) Analytical Engine, (d) Punch card.

Abacus: One of the first devices used for mechanical computations was the abacus. It usually consist of a rectangular frame divided into two parts by mid bar enclosing rods on which balls or beads are moved. The upper part is called heaven consists of two beads and each bead equal to value 5 and lower part is called earth, consists of five beads and each bead equal to value of 1. A person moves the beads to perform arithmetic calculations.

(b) Pascaline: Blaise Pascal, a French Mathematician invented the first mechanical calculating machine called Pascaline in 1642 when he was 19 years old. The Pascaline is a numerical wheel calculator which had 8 movable dials. It worked on the principle of rotating wheels. This machine could only do addition, subtraction and multiplication by repeated addition and division by repeated subtraction. The numbers of calculating capacity of Pascaline was 9,99,99,999.

(c) Analytical Engine: In 1833, an English mathematician named Charles Babbage began designing a new general purpose calculating device, called the Analytical Engine. The idea of Babbage engine can be summarised below.

a) Data and program instructions are fed by suitable device called punched card.

b) Storage device for data and instruction.

c) The unit for calculation called mill.

d) A suitable output device to display result.

Punch Card: The punch card is a recording medium for holding information for use by automated data processing machines. Herman Hollerith took the Jacquard punched card concept a stage further when he applied the technique to counting and sorting in the American Census of 1890. In the first generation of computing, from the 1920s into the 1950s, punch cards were the primary medium for data storage and processing. They were an important medium, particularly for data input.

Application of a computer

Computer is becoming more and more popular these days because of its capabilities in terms of speed, accuracy and versatility. The list of the application of a computer is almost impossible to specify here. However a few of these applications are listed below.
a) Banking and Financial Company
b) Education
c) Hospital
d) Communication
e) Library
f) Business and Industry
g) Entertainment and Advertisement
a) Banking and Financial Company:
Computers are used in banks and financial company for electronic money transfer, statistical report, voucher, ledger, balance sheet etc. New developments such as Automated Teller Machines (ATM’s) have made dealings with the banks easier. It helps to withdrew money easily.
b) Education:
Computer can be used as teaching learning tool, result processing, student data processing, question preparation, hands outs and note preparation etc. The educational software is used to teach children in the classrooms. Many universities offers distance education through Internet. Hence, computer science has become an integral core subject to the students in almost every school and college.
c) Hospital:
Computers are used for the medical research in health. It is used in hospitals by the doctors to have knowledge about the patients and their diseases. They help doctors in diagnosis and treatment of diseases and are also used to check heartbeat and blood pressure.
d) Communication:
Internet is playing very important role in communication using computers. One of the major services of Internet is e-mail or electronic mail. The advantage of this service is that while transferring the messages it saves time, money, avoids wastage of paper, and so on.
e) Library:
Computer software is used for the management of library. It is used for keeping books, borrowing books, records of updating books etc. The computerized system enables whether the books are issued or not.
f) Business and Industry:
The use of computers in business and industry improves their working efficiency. Record keeping like sales record, stock control, staff records, salary preparation etc becomes very easy. The cost of production goes down. Unpleasant and hazardous work can be performed by using robots. They are also used for sales forecasting, production planning etc.
g) Entertainment and Advertisement:
In different fields, computers are used for advertisement such as business advertisement, film advertisement, education advertisement etc. Computers are also used to create cartoon films. Animated films are made with the help of computers. Animation is the process of making an object move and is done with the help of computers.

Limitations of a computer

Although computers are very useful device and applied on various fields for every important work, but there are some limitations of it.
a) Computer cannot think anything on its own.
b) Instructions are needed to perform a task.
c) It needs electricity.

Characteristics/ Features of a computer

The increasing popularity of computer has proved that it is very powerful and useful machine. The power and usefulness of this popular machine is mainly due to the following features:-
a) Speed
b) Accuracy
c) Diligence
d) Versatile
e) Storage
f) Automatic
g) Reliability
a) Speed: - Computer can work at a very high speed. The time taken by the computer to execute instruction is very fast. Its processing speed is measured in a fraction of a second.
Millisecond (KHZ) - a thousandth of a second. (Kilo Hertz)
Microsecond (MHZ) - a millionth of a second. (Mega Hertz)
Nanosecond (GHZ) - a billionth of a second. (Giga Hertz)
Pico second (THZ) - a trillionth of a second. (Tera Hertz)
b) Accuracy: - Though the computer does its work with a very high speed, it does not make any mistake unless the user gives it a wrong instruction. Computers are 100% accurate. But if we feed wrong data to the computer, it returns the same wrong output or information called GIGO (Garbage in garbage out).
c) Diligence: - Computers can work for many hours continuously without taking any rest and without decreasing its speed, accuracy and efficiency. It is free from tiredness, lack of concentration, fatigue etc.
d) Versatile: - Computer is a versatile machine which can do varieties of task such as simple calculation to a complex and logical operation. It is used in various fields for various purposes.
e) Storage: - Computer has mass storage section where we can store large volume of data for future work. Such data are easily recall from the secondary storage devices like floppy disk (FDD), hard disk (HDD), compact disk (CD) etc.
f) Automatic: - Once the instruction to do any work is given to the computer, the computer does its work automatically by itself.
g) Reliability: - Since computer can do its work very fast, without making any mistake and without taking rest and is able to store data for future use, it is a very reliable or trustworthy machine.

Definition of Computer

A computer is an electronic device that accepts input, processes data, store data and produces output all according to a series of stored instructions.
In other words it can be defined as an electronic device that processes the input data according to the given set of instructions to give meaningful output or information.