- The computer is a versatile tool.
ex: compute taxes, deploy missile
- All computers take in information ca;;ed input and give out info called output.
- Hardware: the physical part
- Software the instructions that tell the software what to do.
- 1939: Konrad Zuse-first digital computer
- 1943: First electronic digital computer called Colossus by mathematician Alan Turing.
- 1939: Professor John Atanasoff developed possibly the first electronic digital computer, the Atanasoff-Berry Computer(ABC)
- 1944: Professor Howard Aiken developed the Mark I, by a one million dollar grant from IBM.
- 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.
- After the war, John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert started a private company called Sperry and created UNIVAC I, the first general-purose commercial computer.
- Vacum Tubes- were used in early computers
- ENIAC Electronical Numerical Integrator Computer
- Transistors replaced vacuum tubes starting in 1956
- By the mid-1960 transistors were replaced by integrated circuits.
- Integrated circuits brought:
- Increased reliability
- Smaller size
- Higher speed
- Higher effciency
- Lower cost
- 1971: The first microprocessor was invented by Intel engineers
- THe personal computer
- Desktop Computers
- Embedded Computers- perform specific tasks
- Special purpose computers
- controling the temperature and humidity
- Monitoring your heart rate
- Monitoring your house security system
- The program is etched on silicon so it cannot be altered . This is called firmware.
- Personal Computers
- PCs serve a single user at a time.
- Common applications include:
- word processing
- Workstations: high-end desktoop computers with massive computing power used for high-end interactive applications.
- Portable Computers: machines that are not tied to the desktop
- Notebooks-laptops
- Handheld Computers-PDA
- Servers: Computers designed to provide software and other resources to other computers over a network.
- Mainframes:
- Used by large organizations, such 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.
- The Emergance of Networks
- Connect devices together.
- 1960s: Internet developed with backing of the U.S goverment.
- The Internet Explosion- Pver a billion people with Internet acceses by the end of 2005.
- Electronic mail- email
- World Wide Web
- Led the Internet's tranformation from a text-only environment into a multimedia
- Web Browsers: Programs that serve as navigable wilndows into the Web.
- explorer, firefox. chrome
- Hypertext links: millions of Web pages tied together created by different authors.
- Internet varied activities:
- eBay-international transactions
- Real-time multiplayer games
- In history we have had:
- Agricultural Age
- Industrial Age
- Now we are in the Information Age- people earn a living now by working with words, numbers, and ideas
- Social and Ethical issues
- personal privacy
- high-tech crime and keeping data secure
- defining and protecting intellectual property
- The threat of automation and the dehumanization of work
- The abuse of info as a tool of political and economic power
- The emergence of bio-digital technology
- The dangers of dependence on complex technology
- Bio-digital examples:
- Micro-chipping pets
- Prosthetic limbs
- Virtual Surgery
- Brain fused with PC chip
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