HOMEWORK # 1

Review Questions of Chapter 1

1)           What is computer?

Ans: A computer is a programmable machine designed to automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations.

Or

A computer is an electronic device that process data, converting it into information that is useful to people.

2)  Explain a few of the different ways in which computer can be categorized?

ANS: Computers can be categorized in several ways. For example, some

Computers are designed for use by one person, some are meant to be used by

groups of people, and some are not used by people at all. They can also be

categorized by their power, which means the speed at which they operate and

the types of tasks they can handle. Within a single category, computers may

be subcategorized by price, the types of hardware they contain, the kinds of

software they can run, and so on.

3) List six types of computers that are designed for use by a single person?

ANS: Six types of computers that are designed for use by a single person are

Desktop computers, workstations, notebook computers, tablet computers,

Handheld computers, and smart phones.

   

4) Describe the two common designed for desktop computers?

ANS:  The more traditional desktop model features a horizontally oriented system

unit, which usually lies flat on the top of the user’s desk. Many users place

their monitor on top of the system unit. Vertically oriented tower models

have become the more popular style of desktop system. This design allows

the user to place the system unit next to or under the desk, if desired.

5) How much do notebook computers typically weigh?

ANS: Notebook computers generally weigh less than eight pounds, and some even

weigh less than three pounds.

6) List four types of computer that are designed for use by organizations, and are commonly used by multiple people at the same time?

ANS: These computers include network servers, mainframes, minicomputers, and

Supercomputers.

7) Why are mainframe systems usually limited in the number of tasks they perform?

ANS: By limiting the number of tasks the system must perform, administrators

preserve as much power as possible for required operations

8) What is the most popular use for home computers?

ANS: Electronic mail (e-mail) continues to be the most popular use for home

Computers.

9) How are computer technologies used by the military?

ANS: Some of the world’s most sophisticated computer technology has been

developed primarily for use by the military. In fact, some of the earliest

digital computers were created for purposes such as calculating the

trajectory of missiles. Today, from payroll management to weapons control,

the armed forces use the widest array of computer hardware and software

imaginable.

10)         How are computer technologies being used to train   surgeons?

ANS: New virtual-reality technologies are being used to train new surgeons in

cutting-edge techniques, without cutting an actual patient.

11)      How are analog computers different from digital computer?

ANS: An analog computer is a form of computer that uses the continuously-changeable aspects of physical phenomena such as electrical, mechanical, or hydraulic quantities to model the problem being solved. In contrast, digital computers represent varying quantities incrementally, as their numerical values change.
Mechanical analog computers were very important in gun fire control in World War II and the Korean War; they were made in significant numbers. The development of transistors made electronic analog computers practical, and until digital computers had developed sufficiently, they continued to be commonly used in science and industry.
Analog computers can have a very wide range of complexity. Slide rules and nomographs are the simplest, while naval gunfire control computers and large hybrid digital/analog computers were among the most complicated.

12)         What is the workstation? Write down its features?

ANS: A workstation is a specialized, single-user computer that typically have more power & feature than a standard desktop PC. These machines are  popular  among scientist, engineers & animators.
Who need a system with greater than average speed & power to perform sophisticated tasks. Workstation often have large, high resolution monitors & accelerated graphics-handling capability, making them suitable for advance architectural or engineering design, modeling, animation & video editing.

13)           How does a dumb terminal differ from an intelligent terminal?

ANS:  INTELLIGENT-TERMINAL:

A terminal (monitor and keyboard) that contains processing power. Intelligent terminals include memory and a processor to perform special display operations. In contrast, a dumb terminal has no processing capabilities; it must rely entirely on the central computer. A smart terminal has some processing capabilities, but not as much as an intelligent terminal.

DUMB TERMINAL:

A display monitor that has no processing capabilities. A dumb terminal is simply an output device that accepts data from the CPU. In contrast, a smart terminal is a monitor that has its own processor for special features, such as bold and blinking characters. Dumb terminals are not as fast as smart terminals, and they do not support as many display features, but they are adequate for most applications.

14)         What is a mid-range computer? Why is it called so?

ANS: Midrange computers, or midrange systems, are a class of computer systems which fall in between mainframe computers and microcomputers.
The class emerged in the 1960s and machines were generally known at the time as minicomputers - especially models from Digital Equipment Corporation , Data General, Hewlett-Packard (HP3000 line), and successors), and Sun Microsystems (SPARC Enterprise). These were widely used in science and research as well as for business.
IBM favored the term 'midrange computer' for their comparable more business-oriented System/3, System/34, System/32, System/36, System/38, and AS/400 ranges.
Since 1990s, when the client–server model of computing became predominant, computers of the comparable class are instead universally known as servers to recognize that they usually "serve" end users at their "client" computers. Since the client–server model was developed in Unix-like operating systems, using this term frequently implies support of standard, rather than proprietary-protocols and programming interfaces.

15)         How is computer technology used in education?

ANS: More & more schools are adding computer technology to their curricula, not only teaching pure computer skills, but incorporating those skills into other classes. Student may be required to use a drawing program, for example, to draw a plan of the Alamo for a history class, or use spreadsheet software to analyze voter turnouts during the last century’s presidential elections.
Educators see computer technology as an essential learning requirement for all students, starting as early as preschool. Even now, basic computing skills such as keyboarding are being taught in elementary school classes. In the near future, high school graduates will enter college not only with a general diploma, but with a certification that proves their skills in some area of computing, such as networking or programming.

 HOMEWORK # 2

Generation of Computers

Computers, at various stages of their evolution, have been divided into six generation. Every new generation has certain dramatic improvements when compared to its previous generation.

The six generation are as below in the table.

1st  Generation (1937-1953)	Professor John Vincent & his graduate student designed (ABC Computer) during (1939-1953). The ABCComputer never fully functioned.                                ENIC was the first large, general-purpose computer to be made by operational. It worked on vacuum tube & it developed by John Mushily during (1945).          EDVACdepicted major a major improvement when compared toENIC during (1949). It had more internal memory than any other. In EDVAC, binary numbers were used instead of decimal numbers.
2nd Generation (1954-1962)	TRADIC was the first fully transistorized computer which made use of only transistors & diodes & no vacuum tubes. Belt Labs built it for US Air Force.                                                   IBM 704 was one of the first computers that were commercially available for the incorporation of floating point arithmetic’s & indexing.                   The first programmable, general-purpose computer which was built by researchers in MIT was TX-0.                                                             IBM 7030 computers also known as Stretch, had the capability of multiprogramming, flexibility in input & output, good memory capacity & also unrivalled speed. These computers enable commercial data processing by making use of decimal arithmetic.
3rd Generation (1963-1971)	System/360 was announced by IBM in the year 1964. It was a family of 40 peripherals & six mutually compatible computers which had the capacity to work together.                                    The first minicomputer which was commercially successful was PDP-8, introduced by Digital Equipment Corp. It was sold $18,000 in the year (1965).                                                              INTEL 4004 was one the world’s first microprocessor with a single chip Introduced by INTEL.
4th Generation (1972-1984)	Alto was designed by the researchers at the Xerox Palo Alto Research centre & was considered to be the first workstation.                  Apple-1 was single-board computer which was designed by Steve. The Apple-1 board had two upper-rows for a video terminal. Digital Equipment Corporation designed the VAX 11/780. It was capable of addressing a maximum of 4.3 Giga-Bytes.                                                The PC was introduced by IBM which ignited the personal computer market during the year (1981).
5th Generation (1983-1990)	NewTak introduced Video Toaster which was a production & a video editing system for computers in the Amiga line & had special software & custom hardware.                              INTEL introduced 80486 microprocessor in the year (1989) along with i860 RISC/coprocessor chip.                                                                     IBM invented the video graphics array standard  & the 31/2-inch floppy disk drive was a result of this.                                                                     PC-A7 was released by IBM, It was several faster than the original PC & based on the INTEL 80286 chip.
6th Generation (1990-Till Date)	In 1993, the first Pentium microprocessor was released. In the Intel’s line of microprocessors, the Pentium was the 5th generation of the ‘x86’, which was the base for the IBM PC & its clones.  The Sun-Ultra workstation was introduced by Sun Microsystems in the year 1996. It was a processor-based workstation having 64-bite Opteron.                                                           The CRT-based iMac computers was designed by APPLE using an LCD screen with a flat panel which was mounted on a pedestal having a chrome atm.                                                         The power Mac G5 was introduced by Apple as a professional-grade computer. It was one of the most powerful computers introduced by Apple’s line up. It was widely known the first 64-bit PC during (2003).