Revise History of Computing: here is a selection of questions of every level, with the answer and an explanation. To test yourself without seeing the answers, play the quizzes.
Play the History of Computing quizzesAnswer : Ada Lovelace
Ada Lovelace (1815-1852) wrote notes in 1843 on Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine, including a program that computes Bernoulli numbers.
Answer : Alan Turing
In 1936, Alan Turing published a paper on computable numbers, which defines the Turing machine, an abstract model of computation.
Answer : ENIAC
ENIAC, built at the University of Pennsylvania, is a programmable electronic calculator that weighed several tens of tons and used vacuum tubes.
Answer : 1947
The transistor was developed at Bell Labs by Bardeen, Brattain and Shockley; it gradually replaced vacuum tubes.
Answer : Bill Gates and Paul Allen
Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft in 1975 to sell a BASIC interpreter for the Altair 8800.
Answer : Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded Apple in 1976 with Ronald Wayne, the third co-founder; Wozniak had designed the Apple I.
Answer : IBM
The IBM PC, launched in 1981, used an Intel processor and Microsoft's MS-DOS system; its open architecture fueled the rise of clones.
Answer : CERN
In March 1989, Tim Berners-Lee proposed a hypertext project at CERN; the World Wide Web was made public in 1991.
Answer : FORTRAN
FORTRAN (FORmula TRANslation) was developed by an IBM team led by John Backus to program scientific calculations.
Answer : COBOL
COBOL (COmmon Business Oriented Language), specified in 1959, was strongly influenced by Grace Hopper, a pioneer of programming.
Answer : 1969
Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie launched Unix at Bell Labs in 1969, a system that was later rewritten in a more portable language.
Answer : C
The C language, created at Bell Labs in the 1970s, made it possible to rewrite Unix in a more portable language.
Answer : ARPANET
ARPANET connected its first nodes in 1969, including the one at the University of California, Los Angeles; it is the direct ancestor of the Internet.
Answer : TCP/IP
Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn described TCP/IP in the 1970s; its adoption on 1 January 1983 is often seen as the moment the Internet was born.
Answer : Mosaic
Mosaic, developed at the NCSA of the University of Illinois, was one of the first browsers to display images inline with text.
Answer : Doubling of the number of transistors per chip at regular intervals
Moore's law describes an observed trend, not a physical law: the number of transistors per chip doubled at regular intervals for decades.
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