Examining The Computer History Of Microsoft Information Technology Essay

Bill Gates is one of the richest people in the world. The way he made his money is by developing technology. He and Paul Allen were the two people who founded Microsoft. But before they founded Microsoft, they worked on the IBM-PC model 5150 and gave IBM a one the PC-DOS operating system for a onetime fee of 50,000 dollars. But they had to make a deal with Seattle Computer Products in order to get this operating system. Then in 1985, with the help of IBM, Gates produced the first retail version on Windows, which was called OS/2. After in 1991 Gates said that the OS/2 partnership was over and he would start working on Windows NT. Windows NT was released in 1993, this version was the first 32-bit version on Windows. From that point on, he helped create multiple other operating systems like windows 95 which introduced the first novel start menu and the included the Internet Explorer internet browser. Later in 2000 Gates stepped down as C.E.O of Microsoft and remained as chairman of the board and chief software architect. In 2006, Gates openly stated that he had many a decision to devote his time more towards his charitable foundation. Gates is still the company’s chairman. That is how Bill Gates has made of a contribution to technology.

Who is this man? This man was the co-founder and current CEO of Apple Inc. Apple is the innovator of iPods, iPads, iPhones and Mac computers. Apple had other projects like the Apple I and Apple Lisa but they weren’t as successful. The Macintosh was introduced in 1984. This model included a mouse and a graphical user interface rather than the command-line interface. Apple also created the iPod which allowed people to listen to all their favourite music, and view all their favourite movies and pictures. When the iPod-touch was released it allowed people to do all that and surf the internet with a Wi-Fi connection and download tonnes of apps from the app store on the iPod-touch. The iPhone is the same thing as an iPod-touch but you can text and call people. The iPad is like the iPod-touch but it is larger and you can get 3G service on it. Therefore, I think Steve Jobs has made a significant contribution towards technology.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPod

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphical_user_interface

http://www.woopidoo.com/biography/steve-jobs/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc.

Magnetic Tape

Magnetic Tape is something people use to record music or videos on. This tape was developed in Germany. Separately bought devices can play their music or videos on the Magnetic Tape. Examples of these devices would be VCRs and audio cassette players. The Magnetic Tape was intended to record music at first. This tape was original made by Valdemar Poulsen in 1898. He used iron oxide powder, coating a long strip of paper. But was it was further devolved by a German electronic company called AGE (Allgemeine Elektricitata-Gesellschaft) in 1933. AEG also manufactured the recording machines as well. Later on, people wanted to record video on the magnetic tape, so Ampex made a breakthrough innovation. They “used a spinning recording head and a normal tape speeds to achieve a very high head to tape speed that could record and reproduce the high bandwidth”. Later on, Sony devolved a helical scan and put it in the tape reels. Finally, these tapes are used for data storage. Some good examples would be Computers in 1951. Therefore I think the invention of magnetic tape has contributed to the development of technology greatly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_tape

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-magnetic-tape.htm

http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Magnetic_tape

Howard Aiken

Howard Akien is the original conceptual designer of the Harvard Mark I computer made by IBM. This computer was built using 765,000 components and a lot of wiring. It was 16m in length and 2.4m in height. Also, it weighed over 4500 kg. This computer was made for calculations. It had 60 sets of 24 switches for entering numbers manually. Also, each number only could be 23 digits long. This machine could calculate 3 additions or subtractions in a second, while a multiplication took 6 seconds, a division taking 15.3. But trigonometric function took over a minute. The way that this computer got its information was from punched paper tape. Therefore, I believe that this computer made a great contribution to technology, as the base of our modern day calculator and computer languages were founded from this innovation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_H._Aiken

http://www.thocp.net/biographies/aiken_howard.html

http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa052198.htm

Freddy” Williams

Freddy Williams is an English engineer. He and Tom Kilburn created the Williams or Williams-Kilburn tube, in 1947. This tube was made to store binary data. Each one of these tubes could hold around 512-1024 bits of data. The way this machine stored data was quite fascinating. There would be a cathode ray tube and dots would be drawn on it. The dot becomes positively charged and the area around became negatively charged for a brief moment. This energy could not be transferred and the energy would remain on the surface of the tube for a fraction of a second. This let the device act as the computer memory. The only way to erase a dot is by drawing another dot beside it. Once the memory is safe is when the computer reads the information. Therefore, I believe that this device made a significant contribution to technology because this device laid down the foundation of current day RAM to be developed.

http://www.computer50.org/kgill/williams/williams.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederic_Calland_Williams

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williams_tube

EDSAC

An EDSAC or an Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator was a British computer. The EDSAC was made by Maurice Wilkes and his team at the University of Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory. This was the first practical stored-program computer. This computer uses mercury delay lines for memory. The memory has 1024 locations, while each location has 18 bits. The CPU can hold 71 bits. The only commands that this computer had were: to add, subtract, multiply, collate, shit left, shift right, load multiplier register, store, accumulator, condition skip, read input tape, print character, round accumulator, no-op and stop. The initial orders were hand written on a set of uniselector switches and from there they were loaded into the low words memory at start up. This was the world’s assembler. People say at that moment the global software industry started, people would prepare their programs by punching them on a paper tape. Soon after, the program will be able to be used at this time the paper was hung on length of line strung up near the paper tape reader. Therefore, I believe that the EDSAC made an important contribution to programming.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Delay_Storage_Automatic_Calculator

http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mr10/Edsac/edsacposter.pdf

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_the_uses_of_edsac

Jacquard loom

The Jacquard loom was invented by Joseph Marie Jacquard in 1801. This loom is controlled by punched cards. There are multiple holes punched in each card that make a design of the textile. The way that a hole is punched into the card is by the Bolus hook. Each hook is connected by a harness. These days Jacquards looms are controlled by computers and these computers can have thousands of hooks. The Jacquard loom was the first machine that had the ability to punch cards to control a sequence of operations. This helped the development of computer programming because now programmers didn’t have to make their own holes; they could make holes using this loom. Also they could make the holes faster. In conclusion, the Jacquards loom helped the development of programming.

http://www.thetapestryhouse.com/aboutproducts/jacquard-loom.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacquard_loom

http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/jacquard.htm

The Machine That Changed the World” Scavenger Hunt

Using an internet search engine, find a WWW sites that contains the following statements:

1. Daughter of Lord Byron, mentored by Babbage, called by some the first programmer.

Answer: Augusta Ada Lovelace

URL: http://wiki.answers.com/

2. Had a job to speed up the 1890 census and devised a punched-card machine.

Answer: Herman Hollerith

URL: http://wiki.answers.com/

3. In 1924 Thomas J. Watson changed the company’s name to this name.

Answer: International Business Machines.

URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_J._Watson

4. A 1973 Federal Court ruling officially credited Dr. John V. Atanasoff with this invention.

Answer: first automatic electronic digital computer

URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Vincent_Atanasoff

5. Probably the original mechanical counting device – traced back 5,000 years.

Answer: The abacus

URL: http://www.kraza.itgo.com/html/computer_history.htm

6. This inventor, painter, and sculptor sketched ideas for a mechanical adding machine.

Answer: Leonardo da Vinci. 

URL: http://wiki.answers.com

7. Created a punched-card system to direct movements of needles, thread, and fabric.

Answer: Joseph Jacquard

URL: http://wiki.answers.com

8. Howard Aiken completed this electromechanical computer.

Answer: The Mark I later making the Mark II & Mark III

URL: http://wiki.answers.com

9. Dr. John W. ? and Presper ? created the first fully operational electronic computer called ? (3 answers!)

Answers: Mauchly and J presper Eckert created the ENIAC (electrical numerical integrator and calculator)

URLs: http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bleniac.htm

10. IBM introduced the IBM Personal computer or PC in what year.

Answer: August 1981

URL: http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/pc25/pc25_intro.html

11. Graphic images where each pixel is bit-mapped and take up more memory.

Answer: Bitmap Graphic

URL: http://wiki.answers.com

12. Graphic images defined by geometric shapes each of which can define the attributes of many pixels. These use less memory.

Answer: Vector Graphics

URL: http://wiki.answers.com

13. This professor of mathematics joined the Navy in 1943. She led a distinguished career which included developing software for the UNIVAC1. She led the effort to develop the a business language that eventually became COBOL.

Answer: Grace Hopper

URL: http://www.thocp.net/biographies/hopper_grace.html

14. This object-oriented version of C programming language is used to develop software for PC’s such as Fractal Design Painter, Lotus 123, and games.

Answer: C++

URL: http://wiki.answers.com

15. The term for communications between remote devices.

Answer: Networking

URL: http://wiki.answers.com