Section 4.5: History of Calculating Devices

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4.5 Outline

  1. First calculating tool
  2. Early calculating devices
    1. abacus
    2. Napier’s rods
    3. slide rule
  3. Mechanical calculators
    1. Pascal’s calculator
    2. Babbage’s calculating machine
  4. Hand-held calculators
  5. First computers
    1. ENIAC
    2. UNIVAC I
  6. Present-day computers
    1. Cray supercomputer
    2. Tianhe-2 supercomputer
    3. minicomputers
    4. history of the internet
    5. personal computers
      1. mouse
      2. laptop
      3. networks
      4. Internet
      5. World Wide Web (www)
  7. Computer hardware
    1. definition
    2. peripherals
    3. ROM/RAM
    4. hard drive
    5. microcomputers
    6. input/output
    7. keyboard/monitor/printer
    8. resolution
  8. Computer software
    1. definition
    2. packages
    3. word processing
    4. database management
    5. spreadsheets
  9. Uses of computers
    1. data processing
    2. information retrieval
    3. pattern recognition
    4. modem
    5. communications package
    6. upload/download
    7. e-mail
    8. Facebook/Twitter
    9. bulletin boards/chat rooms
  10. Misuses of computers
    1. password
    2. computer abuse
      1. illegal use
      2. pirating
      3. ignorance
  11. Look forward
    1. CAD
    2. artificial intelligence

4.5 Essential Ideas

This section is primarily exposition, so just read the section carefully and slowly.