History of Personal Computers Quiz
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Questions and Answers

Which of the following computers is considered the first real mainstream personal computer?

  • Apple Macintosh
  • Apple Lisa
  • Commodore 64
  • IBM PC (correct)

    • Which term refers to a complete package including a keyboard, printer, and monitor that helped popularize personal computing?

  • Personal Computer
  • Integrated Workstation (correct)
  • Slick Package
  • Monolithic Computer

    • What significant development in personal computing occurred in 1984?

  • Debut of the Apple Lisa
  • Release of the Apple Macintosh (correct)
  • Launch of the Commodore 64
  • Introduction of the IBM PS2

    • Which of the following devices was released first?

    <p>Hewlett Packard 150</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which company produced the first personal computer featuring a graphical user interface?

    <p>Apple</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What major contribution did Alan Turing make during World War II?

    <p>Cracked the Enigma code</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which law was unveiled in 2016 to recognize the injustices faced by gay and bisexual men?

    <p>The Alan Turing Law</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What year was the Harvard Mark-1 completed?

    <p>1937</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Who is credited as the father of artificial intelligence?

    <p>Alan Turing</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What was one of the major impacts of Turing's work, according to Winston Churchill?

    <p>Contributed to the Allied victory</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What was Konrad Zuse's main challenge that led him to develop computing machines?

    <p>The inefficiency of manual calculations</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What role did Alan Turing play in the development of cognitive science?

    <p>He proposed that the brain functions like a digital computer</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What type of machine was the Harvard Mark-1?

    <p>A relay-based calculator</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What was the primary function of the Pascaline created by Blaise Pascal?

    <p>It was primarily an adding machine.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which invention is known for using punched card control?

    <p>Analytical Engine</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Who is considered the 'Father of Computer' for originating the concept of a programmable computer?

    <p>Charles Babbage</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What significant advancement did the Analytical Engine have compared to earlier calculating devices?

    <p>It could process multiple instructions simultaneously.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What was the first product developed by Hewlett-Packard?

    <p>HP 200A Audio Oscillator</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What functionality did Leibniz's calculator, also known as the Stepped Reckoner, provide?

    <p>It could perform addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which company ordered the HP 200B model for sound effects in the movie 'Fantasia'?

    <p>Walt Disney Pictures</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What year is associated with the earliest known use of the abacus?

    <p>2400 BC</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which of the following best describes the capabilities of the abacus?

    <p>It supported basic arithmetic operations.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Who were the designers of the Atanasoff Berry Computer?

    <p>John Vincent Atanasoff and Cliff Berry</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which mathematician is credited with creating the first mechanical calculator that could add and subtract?

    <p>Blaise Pascal</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which electronic computer was initially commissioned for use during World War II?

    <p>ENIAC</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What was the speed of the ENIAC in terms of operations per second?

    <p>5,000 operations per second</p> Signup and view all the answers

    In what year was the patent dispute involving the Atanasoff Berry Computer resolved?

    <p>1973</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Who designed the Colossus computer?

    <p>Tommy Flowers</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What distinguishes the EDVAC from its predecessor, the ENIAC?

    <p>It was the successor of ENIAC</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What was the primary purpose of the Interface Message Processor (IMP) in the development of ARPANET?

    <p>To serve as a gateway for packet switching</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What was a notable feature of the Apple II when it was released?

    <p>It could produce color graphics when connected to a color television.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which of the following was a characteristic of the Kenbak-1 computer?

    <p>It had a computing power of 256 bytes</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What was the price range of the Cray-1 supercomputer?

    <p>$5 million to $10 million</p> Signup and view all the answers

    How did the Altair 8800 differ from the Kenbak-1?

    <p>It was marketed as a personal computer</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What significant capability did the VAX 11/780 feature?

    <p>It had the ability to address up to 4.3 gigabytes of virtual memory.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What was the selling price of the Altair 8800?

    <p>$297 without a case</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which company introduced the Atari Model 400 and 800 computers?

    <p>Atari</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Who were the individuals that licensed BASIC for the Altair 8800?

    <p>Bill Gates and Paul Allen</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which microprocessor powered the first IBM PC?

    <p>Intel 8088</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What was a significant factor in the low sales of the Apple I computer?

    <p>It was initially only a build-it-yourself kit</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What challenge did the Atari Model 400 and 800 computers face?

    <p>They faced strong competition from other popular computers.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What type of memory did the Altair 8800 have initially?

    <p>256 bytes</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What was a notable feature of the Kenbak-1 computer?

    <p>It had only blinking lights for output</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What aspect of computing did Seymour Cray focus on in his designs?

    <p>Supercomputers with high processing capacity and speed</p> Signup and view all the answers

    In what year did Apple II launch?

    <p>1977</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Study Notes

    Early Computing Devices

    • Abacus (2400 BC): A calculating tool used for arithmetic operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and square roots.

    Pascaline (17th Century)

    • Blaise Pascal invented a mechanical adding machine, initially called the "arithmetic machine" or Pascal's calculator.
    • It was primarily used for addition and subtraction of numbers.

    Leibniz Calculator (17th Century)

    • Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz developed a more advanced calculating machine that performed addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
    • It was also known as the Stepped Reckoner.

    Analytical Engine (18th Century)

    • Charles Babbage designed a mechanical general-purpose computer.
    • Features similar to modern computers, including punched cards for input control, fast multiplication/division, various peripherals, and even array processing.
    • This design was assembled according to Babbage's original designs in 1991.

    Punched Card

    • A 12-row/80-column IBM punched card from the post-early 20th century.
    • These cards presented data, in a variety of formats, for use in tabulating machines.

    Tabulating Machine (1890)

    • Herman Hollerith invented electromechanical tabulating machines.
    • Used punched cards to represent individual's census data for the 1890 US census.

    Alan Turing (1912-1954)

    • An English mathematician, computer scientist, cryptanalyst, philosopher, and theoretical biologist.
    • In 1936, Turing designed the Turing Machine, an abstract computing machine, which paved the way for modern digital computers.
    • He outlined the logical principles of the digital computer, and provided the first systematic method to decipher sophisticated German cyphers.
    • Recognized as a founding father of Artificial Intelligence and modern cognitive science.

    Konrad Zuse (1910-1995)

    • A German civil engineer, inventor, and computer pioneer.
    • Created the Z1-Z4 computers between 1936 and 1943, which faced challenges in calculating construction of buildings and roads.

    Harvard Mark 1 (1937)

    • Conceived by Howard Aiken and built by IBM.
    • A room-sized relay-based calculator.
    • Used to generate mathematical tables but was superseded by stored-program computers.

    HP 200A Audio Oscillator (1939)

    • David Packard and Bill Hewlett founded Hewlett-Packard.
    • Created the HP 200A Audio Oscillator which became popular testing equipment for engineers.

    Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC), (1937-1942)

    • First electronic digital computer.
    • Designed and constructed by Professor John Vincent Atanasoff and student Cliff Berry.
    • Used vacuum tubes and regenerative memory to compute up to 29 simultaneous equations.
    • The ABC was an early innovation of computer design, but was not patented due to circumstances relating to its designer.

    Colossus (1943)

    • Built at Bletchley Park, designed by Tommy Flowers.
    • Designed to break complex Nazi Lorenz ciphers during World War II.
    • A remarkable feat of wartime engineering and breaking of complex encryption.

    ENIAC (1946)

    • Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer.
    • Conceived and designed by John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert.
    • Comprised 17,468 vacuum tubes, 7200 crystal diodes and over 10,000 capacitors and resistors.
    • A remarkable machine, with an initial estimate to accomplish 5000 operations per second.

    EDVAC (1947)

    • Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer.
    • Followed the work of ENIAC, which was designed by Mauchly and Eckert, but advanced in many aspects, including the addition of a high-speed serial memory architecture.

    Manchester Mark I (1949)

    • First stored-program digital computer.
    • Prototype for the Ferranti Mark I.
    • A fundamental building block of the computing paradigm shift.

    John von Neumann (1903-1957)

    • Hungarian-born American mathematician who defined the architecture behind computers such as the Manchester Mark I.

    EDSAC (1949)

    • Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator.
    • Second usefully operational electronic stored-program digital computer with programs running on May 6 1949.

    Transistors (1947)

    • Key advancement in electronics, and used in computers beginning around the 1960s era.

    UNIVAC (1951)

    • Universal Automatic Computer, the first general-purpose computer used for commercial use.

    IBM System 360 (1964)

    • A family of compatible computers from IBM.
    • Initially a successful computer model, due to the low initial investment cost and high initial sales rate.

    Integrated Circuits (1950s/60s)

    • A key advancement to transistorized computing.

    DEC PDP (1965)

    • The Digital Equipment Corporation introduced a successful minicomputer in 1965.
    • It was one fifth the price of a small sized IBM mainframe.

    Apollo Guidance Computer (1968)

    • Used for the Apollo 11 launch, using two-digit codes entered through a keyboard interface.

    Interface Message Processor (IMP) (1969)

    • An early gateway and router.
    • Enabled communications between ARPANET systems, acting as a key element in the development of the internet.

    Cray-1 (1976)

    • Supercomputer.
    • Featured a significant increase in speed compared to computers released prior to its time.

    Kenbak-1 (1971)

    • Often considered the world's first personal computer.
    • It lacked a microprocessor.

    Altair 8800 (1975)

    • First widely sold microcomputer.
    • Inundated the company making the Altair, with thousands of orders.

    Apple I (1976)

    • Steve Wozniak designed and Steve Jobs started marketing a computer for hobbyists to build themselves.

    Apple II (1977)

    • A successful computer that came pre-built, with a variety of features to interact with color displays.

    Atari 400/800 (1979)

    • Sold largely as game consoles, the Atari models introduced a variety of microcomputers.

    IBM PC (1981)

    • A complete-looking computer package with individual devices such as the keyboard, printer, and monitor.
    • The IBM PC helped push personal computers to mainstream users.

    Osborne (1981)

    • Introduced a portable computer.

    Commodore 64 (1982)

    • A successful home computer.

    Hewlett-Packard 150 (1983)

    • An early personal computer.

    Apple Lisa (1983)

    • Introduced features like a graphical user interface.

    Apple Macintosh (1984)

    • Marketed as a revolutionary home computer, due to ease of use.

    IBM PS/2 (1987)

    • A computer series from IBM.

    NeXT (1988)

    • Released by Steve Jobs after being dismissed from Apple.

    Deep Blue (1997)

    • A chess-playing supercomputer.

    iPhone (2007)

    • Released by Apple.

    iPad (2010)

    • Tablet computer by Apple.

    Google Glass (2013)

    • Popularized wearable technology.

    Apple Watch (2014)

    • Popular wearable device.

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    History of Computing.pdf

    Description

    Test your knowledge of the significant milestones in the evolution of personal computing. This quiz covers key developments, major companies, and important devices that shaped the landscape of mainstream computers. Challenge yourself to see how well you understand the history of personal computing.

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