INTRO TO COMP (Reviewer by Chelsea) software, and networks for the processing

and distribution of data.

Computing – any goal oriented activity that 2. IT companies and professionals are often
requires benefits from, or creates computer referred to as the “tech sector”.
machinery is referred to as computing. In business,
the computing industry is defined as a sector of Data Processing Concerns
any given economy that is concerned with
technology research, development, sales and • Manipulating Data
production. • Storing Data
• Retrieving Stored Data
• Transmitting or broadcasting data
• Managing large amounts of data, often
Computer Science through a database or data warehouse.
• Information ethics, including privacy
1. A branch of science that deals with the theory of concerns when data is stored or
computation or design of computers. broadcasted.

2. Theory is a documented, testable ad Entertainment and Multimedia Computing

observable explanation of what is being theorized.
1. The use of computer technology to design,
3. Hypothesis is a speculative report or proposal. develop and deliver entertainment and
multimedia products and services.
2. professionals typically Entertainment and
multimedia computing have a strong
Theory of Computation
background in computer science, as well as
in art and design. They need to be able to
1. Automata Theory is one of the branches of
understand and use a variety of software
theory of computation.
and hardware tools, as well as have creative
1.1 “What are the fundamental capabilities and and problem-solving skills.
limitations of computers?

• A system where particular inputs cause Formal Science - Computing is a formal science. It
particular changes in state can be is an area of study which uses mathematically-
represented using finite state machines. definable logic systems to generate a result.

1.3 Three Great Insights of Computer Science Natural Science - is an area of study which
describes, understands, explains and predicts
• A computer can represent anything with natural phenomena by observing and
only two objects. experimenting.
• A computer can perform anything using
only five actions. Social Science - is an area of study which is
• A computer can combine its five actions in concerned with society and the relationship
only three ways. between humans.

ACM - The Association for Computing Machinery is

Information Technology the world’s largest educational and scientific
computing society which delivers resources that
1. The technology involves the development, advance computing as a science and as a
maintenance and use of computer systems, profession.
ACM Publications - communications of the ACM is First Generation (1940-1956)
a monthly magazine for all members which
contains case studies, practitioner-oriented
Hardware
articles, as well as, columns and blogs.
• Uses Vacuum Tubes and Punch cards.
Features
History of Computers • It supported machine language.
• It had slow performance.
• It occupied a large size due to the use of
(2500 BCE) - Abacus is made of beads and rods, is a
vacuum tubes.
computing tool that has been used as early as the
• It had a poor storage capacity.
Mesopotamian period. Most designs are able to
• It consumed a lot of electricity and
perform the four basic arithmetic operations but
generated a lot of heat.
have difficulty in longer or more complex
operations.
(1940) - Colossus 1 the first really successful
electronic computer was built in Bletchley Park,
(225 BCE) - Astrolabe is a computing tool that was
England. It was capable of performing only one
invented around the Hellenistic civilization. Most
function, that of code breaking during World War
designs are modeled after the universe of some
II. It could not be re-programmed.
aspect thereof.
First Generation (1946 - 1959)

(1642 - 1644) - Blaise Pascal, a french mathematical

Transistors - in In 1948 an event occurred that was
genius, at the age of 19 invented a machine, which
to forever change the course of computers and
he called the Pascaline that could do addition and
electronics. Working at Bell Labs three scientists,
subtraction to help his father, who was also a
John Bardeen (1908-1991) , Waltar Brattain (1902-
mathematician.
1987), and William Shockley (1910-1989) invented
the transistor.
(1745) - Jacquard Loom; it took inventor Joseph M.
Jacquard to bring together Bouchon’s idea of a
(1951) - The first practical electronic computer was
continuous punched roll, and Falcon’s idea of
built by Eckert and Mauchly (of ENIAC fame) and
durable punched cards to produce a really
was known as UNIVAC (Universal Automatic
workable programmable loom. This idea of
Computer). The first UNIVAC was used by the
punched data storage was later adapted for
Bureau of Census. The unique feature of the
computer data input.
UNIVAC was that it was not a one- of-a-kind
• Bouchon Loom
computer. It was mass-produced.
• Falcon Loom

(1954) - the first electronic computer for business

(1834) - Charles Babbage, known as the Father of
was installed at General Electric Appliance Park in
the modern computer, designed the Automatic
Louisville, Kentucky. This year also saw the
Difference Engine for mathematical tables and the
beginning of the operation of the IBM 650 in
Analytical Engine for general-purpose mechanical
Boston. This comparatively inexpensive computer
computing. Ada Lovelace translated Luigi
gave IBM the lead in the computer market. Over
Menabrea's memoir on Babbage's Analytical
1000 650s were sold.
Engine in 1842-1843.
Second Generation (1956 - 1963) Third Generation (1956 - 1963)

Hardware Hardware
• Uses Transistors and Magnetic Tapes. • Uses Integrated Circuits made from
Features semiconductor materials and Large
• Computers were smaller in size. capacity disks and magnetic tapes
• Transistors were used instead of vacuum Features
tubes • Supports time-sharing OS
• Computers were cheaper in cost than the • Faster, smaller, more reliable and cheaper
earlier computers. than the previous generations
• Computers were faster at calculating data, • Easy to access
taking only microseconds.
• Assembly language was used instead of
(1965) - the first integrated circuit computer, the
machine language for programming.
PDP-8 from Digital Equipment Corporation
• Computers required less energy and
appeared. (PDP stands for Programmable Data
produced less heat than earlier versions of
Processor) After this the real revolution in
computers.
computer cost and size began.

(1952-1962) - many programming languages were

(1971) - The Intel corporation produced the
developed.
first microprocessor chip which was a 4-bit chip.
Today’s chips are 64- bit. At approximately 1/16 x ⅛
• FORTRAN (FORmulaTRANslator) inches in size, this chip contained 250 transistors
• COBOL (COmmon Business Oriented and had all the computing power of ENIAC. It
Language) matched IBM computers of the early 60s that had a
• LISP (LISt Processor) CPU the size of an office desk.
• ALGOL (ALGOrithmic Language)
• BASIC (Beginners All-purpose Symbolic
Fourth Generation (1972 - 2010)
Instruction Code)

Hardware
(1957-1959) - the IBM 704 computer appeared, for
• Uses ICs with Very Large Scale Integration
which the Fortran language was developed. At this
(VLSI) technology
time the state of the art in computers allowed 1
• Semiconductor memory
component per chip, that is, individual transistors.
• Magnetic tapes and Floppy
Features
(1959) - CDC 1604 was the most powerful • Multiprocessing & distributed OS
computer in its day, designed by Seymour Cray, • Object-oriented high level programs
who would go on to a career in building supported
supercomputers. Applications of the CDC 1604 • Small & easy to use; hand-held computers
included processing data in real time, controlling have evolved
weapons systems, solving large-scale scientific • No external cooling required & affordable
problems, and commercial applications. • This generation saw the development of
networks and
• the internet
(1960) - The Honeywell 400 was a general purpose
• It saw the development of new trends in
computer delivered in 1960.
GUIs and mouse
The Microcomputer Explosion (Late 1970s to • purposes, such as navigating, browsing,
early 1980s) video analyzing, image processing, etc.
• Huge development in storage capacity, with
faster and larger storage expected.
• During this period many companies
• It saw the development of new trends in
appeared and disappeared, manufacturing
GUIs and mouse
a variety of microcomputers (they were
called micro to distinguish them from the
Fifth Generation Computers
mainframes which some people referred to
as real computers).
• Laptop
• Desktop
(1977) - The most successful of the early • Notebook
microcomputers was the Apple II, designed and • Chromebook
built by Steve Wozniak. With fellow computer whiz
and business-savvy friend, Steve Jobs, they started
Apple Computer in 1977 in Woz’s garage.

(1981) - IBM produced their first microcomputer.

Then the clones started to appear.

(1984) - the Macintosh was introduced. This was

the first mass-produced, commercially-available
computer with a Graphical User Interface. In 1989
Windows 1.0 was introduced for the PC. It was sort
of Mac-like but greatly inferior. Macintosh owners
were known to refer to it sarcastically as AGAM-84
Almost as Good As Macintosh 84.

Fifth Generation (2010 – present)

Hardware
• Uses Integrated Circuits with VLSI and Nano
technology
• Large capacity hard disk with RAID support
• Powerful servers, Internet, Cluster
computing
Features
• Magnetic-enabled chips.
• Use of optical fibre in circuits.
• Development of powerful computers with
AI.
• User-friendly interfaces with multimedia
• features.
• Advancement in superconductor
technology and parallel processing.
• Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for various