CIS 1.0/Biomedical Computing
Fall 2006
HW Unit G
INFORMATION
- This is the assignment related to unit G in our syllabus.
- This assignment is worth 10 points, or 10% of your term grade.
INSTRUCTIONS
- For this assignment, you will answer the questions below, both Part I
and Part II. Type in the answers using Notepad. Remember to add
your name at the top of the file
- Save the file and name it with your last name followed by the
.txt extension. For example, my file would be called
parsons.txt.
The assignment is due on Wednesday December 13, 2006.
THERE WILL BE NO EXTENSIONS AND LATE ASSIGNMENTS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED!
BE SURE TO ASK IN THE LAB IF YOU NEED HELP WITH ANY STEPS!!!!
Part I. History of Computing
Write the answer to all these questions in your Notepad file.
I. Pre World War I
-
Blaise
Pascal is considered one of the forerunners of computer
science because of his invention of a machine called the
Pascaline.
(see picture).
-
When did Pascal live?
-
What was the purpose of the Pascaline?
-
In the early nineteenth century, Jacquard invented a special type of
loom. What was special about Jacquard's loom?
-
Charles Babbage
is considered to be a pioneer of computing for his development of the
Difference Engine
(see picture)
and his ideas for creating an Analytical Engine.
How did Babbage envision the Analytical Engine?
-
Lady Ada Lovelace
is known as the "first computer programmer".
-
What type of programs did Lady Lovelace write?
-
What was named after Lady Lovelace?
-
In 1884, Hollerith developed a
punched
card reader.
For what purpose did Hollerith design his punched cards?
II. Towards Computers as we Know Them
-
Here
you will find a very brief synopsis of Alan Turing's contributions. And
at this site you will be able
to read a short biography of him.
-
Who introduced the idea of a stored-program
digital computer (like the ones we use today?
-
Who built the first operational computer?
-
Who founded the field of Artificial Intellgience?
-
How did Turing die?
-
Here is a
"virtual exhibit" on the ENIAC, one of the earliest modern computers.
- What motivated work on the ENIAC?
- How many vacuum tubes did the ENIAC contain?
- How much faster was the ENIAC than other devices that existed then?
-
At the
Institute
of Electrical and Electronics Engineers timeline you will find answers
to all these questions.
-
In 1945, the term "debugging" was first used.
By whom? What did it mean?
-
In 1969, Ritchie and Thompson of Bell
Laboratories developed an operating system. What was it called?
-
In 1971, IBM developed the first "floppy"
diskettes. How large were they?
-
1975 saw the introduction of the first mass produced
personal computer, the MITS Altair 8800. How much did it cost? How much
memory did it have?
III. The "Modern" Era
The Intel Corporation has been crucially involved in the development
of modern high-speed computing.
Go to their
Intel
Hall of Fame site and follow some of the links to answer these
questions.
-
When was the first microprocessor produced by Intel?
-
What is the basic building block of a microprocessor?
(Hint)
-
How many of these basic components were in Intel's
first microprocessor?
-
How many times faster, in terms of "clock speed," is the Pentium 4
than the first microprocessor?
-
What does "Moore's Law" say?
(To find the answer to this question, type "Moore's Law"
into the search box in the blue area on the
upper right of the page.) In what sense
is it a "Law"?
IV. The Internet
Today, we tend to think of the Internet and the World Wide Web as
being synonymous. In fact, the World Wide Web is a relative newcomer
to the Internet, and the original ARPAnet network was hardly "world
wide". Find the answers to the questions below in Hobbe's
Internet Timeline:
-
How many sites were on the original ARPAnet
in 1969?
-
When did research on internetworking begin at ARPA?
- When was email invented?
- How many years later was the World Wide Web released?
-
One of the factors that contributed to the growth of the Internet was
the open quality of the research on internetworking. All of the
original Internet research reports, called RFCs, were made publicly
available. You can access most of them through the RFC Hypertext Archive.
-
Who wrote RFC #1?
-
When was it written?
-
What was it about?
-
What is the most recent RFC you can find? (Note that they're are not
numbered exactly chronologically! But you don't have to find the
most recent one, just one that's close.)
-
When was it written?
- You can read about the Internet 2 in the
Internet 2 FAQ.
- What is Internet 2?
- How might Internet 2 (eventually) affect your life?
(6 points in total)
PART II. Plagiarism and balance
- Plagiarism
(2 points)
- Balance on the Internet
Find an article on the Internet that you think presents a valid point
of view. Put the URL in your Notepad file, and describe why you
think that what this article says is valid.
As with the article we discussed in class, I don't want you to
concentrate on so much on the subject matter, but on the features of
the article that make us think it should be taken seriously.
Now repeat the exercise for an article that you think does not present
a valid point of view, this time describing the features that mean it
should not be taken seriously.
(2 points)