FrançaisGet started

History of computing

Milestones from the Pascaline to the microcomputer and the Web: inventors and contributions, technology generations (tubes, transistors, integrated circuits, microprocessors) and Moore's law.

  • 28 cards
  • 6 topics
  • Free
Study this deck

The outline, topic by topic

Each topic is weighted the way the exam weighs it.

  1. Concepts
  2. Questions
  3. Sort and link
  4. On the timeline
  5. The numbers
  6. Understand

A few cards from the deck

  • Ada Lovelace: what is it?

    Show the answer

    A British mathematician who in 1843 published an algorithm intended for Babbage's Analytical Engine, often presented as the first program.

    Her text sets out the calculation of Bernoulli numbers step by step. She also sees that such a machine could handle things other than numbers.

  • From 1834, Charles Babbage designed a machine that already separated a calculating unit (the “mill”), a memory (the “store”) and a program read from punched cards. Which one?

    • The Analytical Engine
    • The Difference Engine
    • The Pascaline
    • The Harvard Mark I
    Show the answer

    The Analytical Engine

    The Difference Engine, his earlier project, only computed tables by the method of differences, with no program. The Analytical Engine, never completed, is the one Ada Lovelace published her program for in 1843. The Pascaline (1642) only adds, and the Harvard Mark I dates from 1944.

  • In …, … designs a mechanical adding machine to help his father with his tax calculations.

    Show the answer

    In 1642, Blaise Pascal designs a mechanical adding machine to help his father with his tax calculations.

    This is the Pascaline, one of the first mechanical calculators, three centuries before electronics. It adds by turning toothed wheels, with an automatic carry.

  • Alan Turing: what is it?

    Show the answer

    A British mathematician who in 1936 defined an abstract machine model, able to run any algorithmic calculation, to study what is computable.

    His 1936 paper also shows that one problem, whether a program halts, cannot be decided by any algorithm. The Turing machine is a theoretical object, not a built computer.

Study this deck