Computer History

• The first digital computer that used vacuum tubes was the ABC, completed in 1942 by Dr. John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry in Ames, IA.
• An early analog computer that used vacuum tubes was the Differential Analyzer, completed in 1929 by Vannevar Bush and a large team at MIT. (there probably were other smaller analog computers of this type that used vacuum tubes before this, so it probably isn't the first but its the earliest where I can find it clearly documented).

The word "computer" originally referred to a person who could do advanced math very quickly.

Later, the term was attached to the ENIAC (the first computer) which could do very advanced calculations in a short amount of time, but unfortunately occupied an entire gym-sized room.

The ENIAC led to the development of the Kenbak-1 (the first personal computer/calculator) and eventually to modern computers. Hence, the name was permanently attached to any device that could do advanced functions.

As this development took place, more tasks could be accomplished by computers including --but not limited to-- the storage, transfer, and viewing of information, playing games, and communication.

Computers are now used in many locations for specific purposes:

* On your desktop or lap * In planes, cars, trains, and other methods of transportation * In our home and cell phones

* In anything that has a screen * In satellites and other space craft (manned and unmanned)

The main limitation of the von Neumann architecture is known as the "von Neumann bottleneck". This is due to the fact that all instructions and all data must pass through the same shared common multiplexed bus to get in or out of the processor, sooner or later things have to wait for other things to get access to this multiplexed bus and the processor gets starved for instructions and/or data. The result is the processor is unable to maintain its designed performance but waits idle instead of doing work.

There is no complete solution to the "von Neumann bottleneck" with the von Neumann architecture, but many things have been tried over the years. The most effective one so far has been the use of independent instruction and data L1 caches. This at least allows blocks of frequently needed instructions and data to be held in 2 separate very high speed memories and made available to the processor on 2 independent busses, so that instructions won't have to wait for data and data won't have to wait for instructions. But even with this, the bottleneck still occurs on the main bus when less frequently needed instructions and/or data must be accessed.

As most of us know, the technology that is in computers has change dramatically in the last 60 or so years. Computer technology was big, amazing and rather slow... But with the years of investments and testing we have noticed a very simple pattern occur and that is pretty much smaller and faster. Take Apollo-11, your smartphone today has a faster processor than that big rocket that travelled out of the earth's atmosphere. So that shows something, the size of the processor is smaller, and faster. The first computer, the processor and other componenet's were massive, but now a £50 Netbook or small computer is 100x faster than the first computer, it's also a lot smaller. In terms of technology there's not much else of a difference. I mena you have things like hyper-threading, but that falls under the classification of faster. You have software that motherboard manufactureres put in their packages that have settings prebuilt into it for overclocking your Processor, before that was something that would just never happen. So you see, the main aim of computer technology is to be faster and more portable. There are other fancy things such as fingerprint technology to login and such, but that can also be classed as a faster way to get onto your computer system!

No I don't think that there were computers in the 1940's TV's just started in the 50's if there were computers (which I highly doubt) thaey wouldn't be anything like today's computers. A little bit of searching will show that there were primitive computers. They were mostly mechanical analog computers rather than electronic digital devices like we have today. They were mostly used for computing bomb and rocket trajectories. Some very early electronic computers were built in England and the U.S. to help decode encrypted Axis messages.

The Curta calculator was the first handheld calculator. It was invented during WW2 by a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp named Curta. The first model was intended as a gift for Hitler, but the war ended too soon

Curta's were produced from about 1947 to 1976, when electronic handheld calculators killed Curta's market.

IBM, changed its name in 1924.

input- we ask the computer what to do ( with the help of input devices)

output- computer shows the result for what we have asked him (by screen)

in a computer basic part is CPU

in a CPU basic parts are

BIOS which start the computer

harddisk which store data

process which process the data

people had an easier way to live in a better society way to do their work and people were able to comunicate by internet. Many people were able to do a lot of things much easier such as mail, bills, talk, advertise,and sell thing ,etc....

Peripheral

Wrong dumbo, it is a SERIAL BUS

Apple Inc., co founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, in 1976. Their first official company was Apple Computer, Inc., now known simply as Apple, Inc.

it is concern that booting in computer signifies when the computer's power is switched on control is transferred by hardware to the bootstrap procedure of BIOS in ROM. The bootstrap procedure carries out some hardware tests to check whether the memory and other hardware devices are functioning properly.

Yes there really good there better than all the computers for example apple is better than HP DELL and all those computers apple computers NEVER get a virus instead you doing something bad and it gets a virus and apple computer have 1 year warranty for free unless you want to buy more years and a apple computer will at least last you 10 years.

Mail Merge Step by Step Instructions for the PC

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1. Open Microsoft Word 2003.

2. Go to Tools > Letters and Mailings > Mail Merge... If the task pane was closed, it will open the

Mail Merge task pane.

Step 1: Select Document Type

1. Under Select document type, choose Letters.

2. Click on Next: Starting document at the bottom of the task pane

Step 2: Starting document

1. Selecting Use the current document will allow you to start from the current document shown

on the screen.

2. Click Next: Select recipients. Note that you can always go between steps by clicking on the

Next and Previous links at the bottom of the task pane.

Step 3: Select Recipients

1. Select Use an existing list.

2. To find an already existing file, click Browse... and navigate your way to the file.

3. If your data source is an Excel worksheet that has data on multiple tabs, you need to select the

tab containing the data you want. Click OK.

4. All the entries in the data source will now appear in the Mail Merge Recipients window,

where you can edit the list of recipients.

Mail Merge Step by Step Instructions for the PC

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5. In the Mail Merge Recipients window, select the recipients you want by checking the boxes

next to the recipients. To sort the list, click the column heading of the item you want to sort by.

To filter items in the list click the arrow next to the column heading of the item you want to

filter by and select any of the following:

1. Blanks display all the records in which the corresponding field is blank.

2. Nonblanks display all the records in which the corresponding field contains

information. If your data source contains records that share the same information, and

there are ten or fewer unique values in the column, you can filter by specific

information.

6. If the arrow next to any column heading is blue, that category is screening out names. To

display all the recipients again, click and blue arrows and select All.

7. To check all names in your recipients list, click Select All. To uncheck all names, click Clear

All.

8. Click OK to return to the Mail Merge Wizard.

9. To change the file click Select a different list...

10. To edit the list click on Edit recipient list... (data source)

11. Click on Next:Write your letter.

Step 4: Write Your Letter

1. If you are creating a form letter, type the text that you want to appear in every form letter.

Insert merge fields where you want to merge names, addresses, and other data from the data

source (i.e. recipient list) by clicking anywhere you want in the main document to insert the

field. Then click on More Items and insert individual field

Click More items...

Mail Merge Step by Step Instructions for the PC

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1. Select one of the following:

(a) Address Fields will allow you to select from address fields that will automatically map to

corresponding fields in your data source, even if the data source's fields don't have the same

name as your fields.

(b) Database Fields will allow you to select from fields that always take data directly from a

column in a database.

2. In the Fields window, click the field you want.

3. Click Insert, and then click Close.

4. If the Match Fields window appears, Microsoft Word may have been unable to find some of

the information it needs to insert the field. Click the arrow next to not matched, and then select

the field from your data source that corresponds to the field required for the mail merge.

If you are creating a form letter, click Next: Preview your letters.

Step 5: Preview your letters

1. To preview the items in order, click the arrows under the Preview your letters heading.

Mail Merge Step by Step Instructions for the PC

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2. To locate a specific item, click Find a recipient..., and then enter the criteria in the Find field.

3. To change the list of recipients, click Edit recipient list..., and make your changes in the Mail

Merge Recipients window.

4. Click on Next: Complete the Merge at the bottom of the task pane

Step 6: Complete the Merge

1. Click Edit individual letters...

2. In the Merge to New Document window, select the records you want to merge.

3. Click OK.

4. Microsoft Word will create new merged document.

5. To personalize individual documents, scroll to the information you want to edit, and make your

changes.

6. Print or save the document just as you would any regular document.

Step 7: Save the Merged Letters

Under most circumstances, you do not need to save the merged document. It is simpler and more

useful to save the main document and merge it again if you need another copy. Below are examples of

times when you might wish to save the merged document:

• You wish to keep an archived copy of mailings, including to whom they were sent.

• You have personalized individual letters or labels within the merge, and want to save those

changes.

If you do wish to save the merged document, collect the merged files into a single document by

clicking Edit individual letters. In the Merge to New Document window, select one of the

following:

• To merge all the documents, click All.

• To merge only the document that you see in the document window, click Current record.

• To merge a range of documents, click From, and then type the record numbers in the From

and To boxes.

Click OK.

Microsoft Word will open one new document that contains all the individual letters. Save the

document just as you would any regular document.

In several different ways. The most notable improvement on using computers over not is in writing. Before computers, you would need to physically type a rough draft, make changes, rewrite the whole paper, make changes, rewrite, so on and so forth. With computers, you can make minor &/or significant changes with rarely a need to rewrite the whole document. Also, email has helped make communications easier. No longer does an actual mailman have to take your handwritten letter, give it to the post office who has to process it, transport the letter to a different city (if applicable), and give it to another mailman to give to the recipient. Now you can just type it up, click send, and it's there (assuming no server problems, etc). The whole idea of shopping on the web has made communications easier. One can type in almost any item they wish to buy, get several price quotes, and actually go through the transaction to purchase the item without need to go to the store or pick up the phone. Computers have also led up to many other communications tools like cell phones, VoIP, encryption, etc.

The first microprocessors emerged in the early 1970s and were used for electronic calculators, using binary-coded decimal (BCD) arithmetic on 4-bit words. Other embedded uses of 4-bit and 8-bit microprocessors, such as terminals, printers, various kinds of automation etc., followed soon after. Affordable 8-bit microprocessors with 16-bit addressing also led to the first general-purpose microcomputers from the mid-1970s on.

1__theres a crater on the moon named after him

2__hes caled "the father of computing"

3__as a 'wittle kid', wenever he got a toy, he took it apart and figured out how it worked

4__he taught himself algebra

......................

5__he was smarter at math then his teachers

from...____Riley <3

The first laptop concept that can be found was the "Dynabook" concept (not to be confused with Toshiba's Dynabook laptop line) developed by Alan Kay in 1968. No actual laptop was ever created however, it was simply the laptop concept that was thought up and described.

The first mass-produced portable computer was the "Osborne 1" which became available in 1981. This was a large and heavy machine about the size of a sewing machine, and had a 5" text only monitor. It used the CP/M operating system. It was not sold in large numbers at all.

Arguably the first true laptop made it's appearance in 1982. This was the GRiD Compass 1101. It introduced the familiar clamshell design with it's closing top, and it ran on batteries. It was not an IBM compatible computer, however, and its initial price was between $8 - 10k. Because of it's high price, it was not really a consumer product, but was used by the military and NASA on their work on the space shuttle during the 1980's. GRiD Systems was later bought by Tandy corporation (Radioshack).

Also released in 1982 another contender for the title of the first true laptop was the Dulmont Magnum, which made its appearance in Australia. This was the only laptop ever to be produced in Australia. It also had a clamshell design, and although it had a MS DOS 2.1 operating system, it wasn't really IBM compatible.

By 1983, many other manufacturers such as HP, Sharp, Sanyo, etc. began producing laptops and making them available on the consumer market.

The first IBM PC-compatable laptop made its appearance in 1983, as well. This was the Compaq Portable. It was still rather large and was not battery powered, but required AC power to run.

The function of a mainframe computer is usually as a large database of all sorts of data. An example would be a large credit card company would have a computer that would hold every bit of data that company needed including customers and their info. So in short a computer with large amounts of data, and in most cases, backups of that data too.

Knowledge work systems and office automation systems serve the information needs at the knowledge level of the organization. , where as office automation systems primary aid data workers (although they are also used extensively by knowledge workers)