Brief history of Computer Science

In this "virtual laboratory" you will research a bit of the history of computer science.

Please submit all answers (tgether with the questions) via an email with the subject line *** CISC 1110 *** History Lab

If you are interested in learning more about the topics touched on in this lab/homework, you should look at this short book

A helpful tip: if you're using a PC, your mouse probably has (at least) 2 buttons on it. When you click on a link using the left button, the new page opens up, and the page you were looking at before disappears. If you use the right button, though, a menu appears. Choose "open page in a new window" and the new page will open up in its own "window", so you can view the new page and the old page simultaneously. If you're using a Mac, you can do the same thing -- your mouse only has one button, though, so what you have to do is instead of just clicking, hold the button down for a second; a short menu should pop up and you can select "Open in New Window" (or something like that).

Here is another document that may help you with some of the questions below.

I. Pre-World War I

  1. Blaise Pascal is considered one of the forerunners of computer science because of his invention of a machine called the Pascaline. (see picture).
    1. When did Pascal live?
    2. What was the purpose of the Pascaline?
  2. In the early nineteenth century, Jacquard invented a special type of loom. What was special about Jacquard's loom?
  3. Charles Babbage is known as the "Father of the Computer" for his development of the Difference Engine (see picture) and his ideas for creating an Analytical Engine. How did Babbage envision the Analytical Engine?
  4. Lady Ada Lovelace is known as the "first computer programmer".
    1. What type of programs did Lady Lovelace write?
    2. What was named after Lady Lovelace?
  5. In 1884, Hollerith developed a punched card reader. For what purpose did Hollerith design his punched cards?

    6. II. Towards Computers as we Know Them

  6. 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.
    1. Explain what a Turing Machine is.
    2. What did both Turing and Church show in papers published in 1936?
    3. What computer did Turing helped design?
    4. What field of science did he pioneer?
  7. Here is a description of the ENIAC, one of the earliest modern computers.
    1. What motivated work on the ENIAC?
    2. How many vacuum tubes did the ENIAC contain?
    3. What numerical calculations could the ENIAC perform?

    Use the Computer Society timeline to answer the following questions.

  8. In 1945, the term "debugging" was first used. By whom? What did it mean?
  9. Who developed the first compiler in the years 1951-1952?
  10. In 1954, John Backus began to develop a programming language that would allow users to express the problems they were interested in solving in terms of commonly understood mathematical formulae. What was the name of this programming language?
  11. In the early 1960's, the COBOL programming language was developed. What was the purpose of this language?
  12. In the late 1960's Ritchie and Thompson of Bell Laboratories developed an operating system. What was it called?
  13. The first commercially available microprocessor was developed in 1971 by which company?
  14. The first mass produced personal computer became available in 1975. What was it named?
  15. What two companies that are major players in the personal computer market were incorporated in 1977?
  16. What new personal computer was introduced in 1984?

    III. "The Modern Era"

    The Intel Corporation, has been crucially involved in the development of modern high-speed computing. Go to their on-line Museum site and follow some of the links to answer these questions.


  17. What was the first microprocessor produced by Intel and when was it introduced?
  18. How many transistors were in the first Intel microprocessor?
  19. How many in the transistors are in the 2010 Intel® Core processor?
  20. What is Moore's Law?

    21. 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.


  21. How many sites were on the original ARPAnet in 1969?
  22. How many sites were connected to the ARPAnet in 1971?
  23. When was email invented?
  24. In what year was the Domain Name System launched?
  25. When was the World Wide Web released?
  26. 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.
    1. Who wrote the first RFC?
    2. When was it written?
    3. What is the most recent RFC you can find?
    4. When was it written?
  27. You can read about the Internet 2 in the Internet 2 FAQ.
    1. What is Internet 2?
    2. Who is funding Internet 2?
    3. How might Internet 2 (eventually) affect your life?