Technology Part III
In the first document, we saw that humans tried to invent some devices for doing calculations many, many years ago.
Those devices were mechanical. The devices like the abacus, Leibniz’s machine and Babbage’s analytical machine needed to store numbers in mechanical devices. So a number would be stored in a physical bead or piece of metal or a cog in a sprocket.
For example, if a sprocket had 10 notches and the sprocket was turned 4 notches clockwise, it meant that the cog stored the number 4.
I SURE HOPE THAT THIS MAKES KIND OF SENSE.
During the 20th century (the 19 hundreds 1900-1999) the two most important people with computers were Conrad Zuse (a German engineer) and Alan Turing (a British mathematician).
Then, during the late 1940s and 1950s, humans were creating “mainframe” computers. These were computers that often were the size of an entire room. They used a lot of energy and often only worked for a minute or so and then they “Crashed”.
Take a look at these images:
https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/254242341442378716/
Question 1
Take a guess. How many more times powerful is your cell phone compared to those huge mainframe computers?
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Question #2
How big was a mainframe computer? Could you carry a mainframe computer with you?
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Personal computer.
Then in the 1970s (not a long time ago for Mr. S) the very first personal computers were developed. They were called personal computer because one person was able to use one computer. Mainframe computers were built to be used by 10s and sometimes 100s of people at the same time.
Some of the names of the first computers were the Commodor Pet computer:
https://www.commodore.ca/commodore-products/commodore-pet-the-worlds-first-personal-computer/
Question #3
Look at the above image.
How much RAM (random access memory) did the computer contain?[ Random access memory is labeled as kilobytes K (1000s of bytes), megabytes, M ( millions of bytes), gigabytes G ( billions of bytes) and today we are heading into terabytes T (trillions of bytes).] To answer this question look at the 5th bullet in the The PET came fully functional out of the box with: heading
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Another famous personal computer was the Apple. Here is a picture of the Apple I computer released in 1976.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/gallery/2016/apr/01/40-years-of-apple-in-pictures
What was missing with this computer?
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Here is the Apple II computer that was released for sale a year or so later.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_II_series
Question:
What does the Apple II computer contain that the Apple I computer did not have.
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Other famous computers were the Amiga and the Radio shack. You could Google those if you like.
But when Mr. S came to Dryden in 1985, just about every kid in Dryden had the Commodore 64. (We all called it the C64).
Check out the images:
https://www.gettyimages.ca/photos/commodore-64?mediatype=photography&phrase=commodore%2064&sort=best
Approximately how much money in 2018 dollars did the C64 cost?
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To answer the above question, visit: (go down to the Sub title The Costs)
https://www.commodore.ca/commodore-products/commodore-64-the-best-selling-computer-in-history/
Hello everyone,
A super thank you to those who have been trying my assignments. It is important that you just show me that you tried them and not to get the correct answers.
This document deals with huge "mainframe" computers and the first "personal computers" that were used by people.
Good luck and stay safe!!
Mr.s