- The ______ is often considered the first electronic digital computer. Between 1937 and 1942, an Iowa State University professor, John V. Atanasoff, and a graduate student, Clifford E. Berry, worked on the prototype. Its design incorporated the idea of basing calculations on the binary number system and it was the first to use vacuum tubes instead of mechanical switches for processing circuitry. [acronym]
- Second-generation computers used ______ instead of vacuum tubes, which regulate current or voltage flow and act as a switch for electronic signals. They performed similar functions to vacuum tubes, but they were much smaller, cheaper, less power hungry, and more reliable. They first sparked a revolution in the entertainment industry by providing a small, power-efficient technology for portable radios.
- Third-generation computers became possible in 1958, when Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments and Robert Noyce at Fairchild Semiconductor independently developed ______ ______, which made it possible to pack the equivalent of thousands of vacuum tubes or transistors onto single miniature chips, vastly reducing the physical size, weight, and power requirements for devices such as computers.
- In addition to transistors, ______-generation computers introduced operating systems as we know them today along with the ability to run programming language compilers that allowed programmers to write instructions using English-like commands rather than machine language 1s and 0s or cryptic assembly language commands.
- John Napier invented logarithms and a device for multiplication and division. This device is known as Napier’s ______, which is a manual calculator that can be used to perform mathematical calculations by manipulating numbered rods. The rods are made out of ______, which is where the device gets its name.
- In 1621, an English mathematician named William Oughtred used Napier’s logarithms to construct the first ______ ______, which was used through to the 1960s by students, engineers, and scientists to solve complex engineering and scientific calculations.
- The technology for fourth-generation computers appeared in 1971, when Ted Hoff developed the first general-purpose ______ which resulted in faster, smaller, and even less expensive computers than the third-generation ones.
| - The ______ Engine was a mechanical calculator designed by Charles Babbage that included memory and a programmable processor and is widely regarded as the most important ancestor to modern computer design.
- First-generation computers can be characterized by their use of vacuum ______, which are electronic devices that control the flow of electrons in a vacuum. These ______ can be set to one of two states.
- The Hollerith ______ Machine was a mechanical calculator first used in 1890 by the U.S. Census Bureau that used punch cards to store data and led to the creation of IBM.
- The ______ Engine was a mechanical calculator design created by Charles Babbage that was to use steam power for full automatic operation. It was never built.
- A ______ is an experimental device that typically must be further developed and perfected before going into production and becoming widely available.
- A ______ calculator is a device that assists in the process of numeric calculations, but requires the human operator to keep track of the algorithm.
- The U.S. ______ provided incentive for the next generation of calculating machines after Charles Babbage’s Difference and Analytical Engines.
| - ______ and FORTRAN were high-level programming languages available for use on second-generation computers and remain in use today. [acronym]
- A computer called the ______ is considered by most historians to be the first commercially successful digital computer. [acronym]
- a manual calculator that consists of beads mounted on sticks inside a frame with each bead representing a specific quantity
- A ______ calculator is a machine capable of implementing algorithms used to solve mathematical calculations.
- How many generations do most computer historians believe computers have evolved through?
- The ______ ______ computer popularized graphical user interfaces.
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