HST250 (section 740) Exam #1 Wednesday, February 10, 2010 NAME: PID: Instructions Make sure you enter your name & PID on the exam sheet Select the best answer from those provided You may not leave the class until you have completed and turned in your exam Cheating of any kind is absolutely unacceptable, and will be dealt with harshly. Good Luck! Mid Semester Survey Question At specific points during the semester, I try to get feedback from students on the structure of this class - this is one of those points. So far we ve been following a meet infrequently, and do most of the class work online kind of model. Here is your chance to offer some feedback on how you want things to progress. After this first exam, do you want to: a. Continue doing things the way we ve been doing them (meet for exams and an occasional pre-exam Q&A session) b. Meet every week for a discussion based on that week s materials (you need to come prepared - at least having watched the lecture video) c. Meet every week for a formal lecture (which will supplement the online lecture material) d. Something else? (put your suggestion below) 1
1 Su Sung s Cosmic Engine was used to calculate annual crop yield Astronomical clock - used to calculate and predict the movement of the sun, moon, and stars 2 The Antikythera Mechanism is the earliest known analog mechanical computer dates to ca. 100 BC 3 An astrolabe is an astronomical instrument used to: a. locate and predict the positions of the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars b. determine local time given local latitude c. survey and triangulate d. all of the above 4 Which of the following is considered to be the first programmable analog computer? a. Castle Clock b. Cosmic Engine c. Speeding Clock d. The Planisphere Reprogram the length of day and night everyday in order to account for the changing lengths of day and night throughout the year. 5 Which of the following documents (originally published in 1766) dramatically improved navigational accuracy? a. Nautical Almanac b. Sailor s Tables c. National Oceanic Navigation Aid (NONA) d. None of the above 2
6 The Jacquard Loom used punched tape to control the pattern of the textiles created. 7 The Difference Engine was conceived by J. H. Müller, an engineer in the Hessian army, in 1786 Proposed by Babbage in 1822 as a way of computing astronomical and mathematical tables 8 Charles Babbage s Analytical Engine used which of the following methods of input a. punched tape b. punch card c. key storage d. piano roll 9 Who is widely considered to be the first programmer a. Charles Babbage b. Su Sung c. Ada Lovelace d. Grace Hopper 10 Which of the following devices was used during the 1890 U.S. census a. Hollerith Desk b. Speeding Clock c. Analytical Engine d. Differential Analyzer 3
11 In 1896, Herman Hollerith founded which of the following companies a. Newcastle Telegraph Company b. Differential Machine, Inc c. Banker s Clearing House d. Tabulating Machine Company 12 The Arithmometer was the first commercially produced adding machines Patented in France by Thomas de Colmar in 1820 13 Thomas J Watson was responsible for founding which of the following companies? a. International Business Machine b. Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation c. NCR Corporation d. Remington Rand 14 Conrad Zuse s Z1 read instructions via punch card Punched tape 15 Which of the following is the first electronic digital computer? a. Z1 b. Atanasoff Berry Computer c. Z3 d. ENIAC World's first electronic digital computer - not programmable. Conceived in 1937/tested in 1942 (Iowa State College) 4
16 ENIAC was originally designed for what purpose? a. Federal tax calculation b. Calculating artillery firing tables c. Calculating electoral results d. Solving differential equations 17 The Bombe was an electro mechanical device designed to calculate german U-boat movements during WWII designed by Alan Turing - electro/mechanical device used to crack the Enigma cypher 18 Developed by Alan Turing, the Turing Test was intended to determine the computational speed of a digital computer The Turing test is a proposal for a test of a machine's ability to demonstrate intelligence. 19 Which of the following was the first programmable digital computer? a. Enigma b. Colossus c. EDVAC d. ABC World's first programmable, digital, electronic, computer. Designed by Thomas Flowers at Bletchley Park 5
20 In early computer design, vacuum tubes were used for which of the following? a. store data b. amplify weak signals c. protect against electric surges d. none of the above Without any moving parts, vacuum tubes could take very weak signals and make the signal stronger (amplify it). Vacuum tubes could also stop and start the flow of electricity instantly (switch) 21 The Harvard Mark 1 was employed by which of the following organizations? a. U.S. Census Office b. U.S. Navy Bureau of Ships c. U.S. Internal Revenue Service d. U.S. Army Signal Corps Carried out computations for the U.S. Navy Bureau of Ships 22 The Lyons Electronic Office was the first computer used exclusively for commercial business applications Lyons Electronic Office (LEO) - J. Lyons & Co (1951). Based on EDSAC 23 Which of the following computers is famous for predicting the results of the 1952 U.S. presidential election? a. Harvard Mark 1 b. EDVAC c. UNIVAC d. LEO With a 1% sample of the voting population, the UNIVAC I correctly predicted that Dwight Eisenhower would win 6
24 Who is responsible for proposing the concept for the Memex a. J. Presper Eckert b. Grace Hopper c. Vannevar Bush d. John von Neumann 25 The MITS Altair 8800 is important because it was the first commercially available personal computer that came pre-assembled Sold as a kit - intended for hobbyists 26 Which of the following personal computers released in 1977 was extremely popular in schools - primarily because of its all-in-one, sturdy construction. a. TRS-80 b. Commodore PET c. Apple II d. None of the above 27 Originally developed by Daniel Bricklin, VisiCalc was a programming language for the Apple II First spreadsheet program 28 What was the name of the programming language that Bill Gates and Paul Allen developed for MITS a. FORTRAN b. COBOL c. BASIC d. Ada 7
29 Which of the following was the first commercially successful time sharing system a. Compatible Time Sharing System b. Dartmouth Time Sharing System c. MIT Time Sharing System d. General Electric Time Sharing System First commercially successful time-sharing system (1964) - Dartmouth Time-Sharing System (DTSS) - became the basis for General Electric s commercial time sharing system 30 The integrated circuit was independently developed by both Robert Noyce Jack Kilby 8
31 Briefly describe and discuss the basic architecture of Charles Babbage s Engines. (5 points) Listing and discussion of these topics: The data and program memory were separated Operation was instruction based (punchcards) Control unit could make conditional jumps (IF/THEN) The machine had a separate I/O unit. 9
32 Briefly discuss the concept of time-sharing, and the impact it had on the transition from institutional computers ( big computing ) to personal computers (5 points) What? Multiple terminals (people) accessing the resources of a single large mainframe asynchronously. Mainframe does the computation, dumb terminals are for access and data entry. Impact: time-sharing dramatically lowered the cost of providing computing created a model for personal computer use 10