DANKBAAR COLLEGE OF APPLIED SCIENCE AND

TECHNOLOGY

NAME ……………………………………………………

NRC NUMBER ……………………………………

ASSIGNMENT…………………………………………..
Question 1

Secondary memory is computer memory that is non-volatile and persistent in nature and is not
directly accessed by a computer/processor. It allows a user to store data that may be instantly and
easily retrieved, transported and used by applications and services.Secondary memory is also
known as secondary storage

Secondary memory or auxiliary memory consists of slower and less expensive device that
communicates indirectly with CPU via main memory. The secondary memory stores the data and
keeps it even when the power fails. It is used to store or save large data or programs or other
information. The secondary storage devices are explained below:
 Magnetic disks
 Magnetic tape
 Optical disk
 USB flash drive
 Mass storage devices
1.Magnetic disks: Magnetic disks are made of rigid metals or synthetic plastic material. The disk
platter is coated on both the surfaces with magnetic material and both the surfaces can be used
for storage. The magnetic disk furnishes direct access and is for both small and large computer
systems. The magnetic disk comes in two forms:
 Floppy disks
 Hard disks
2. Magnetic tape: magnetic tape is serial access storage medium and it can store a large volume
of data at low costs. The conventional magnetic tape is in reels of up to 3600 feet made of Mylar
plastic tape. The tape is one-half inch in width and is coated with magnetic material on one side.
The reel of tape is loaded on a magnetic tape drive unit. During any read/write operation, the
tape is moved from one spool to another in the same way as in the audiocassette tape recorder.
The magnetic tape is densely packed with magnetic spots in frames across its width.
3. Optical drives: optical drives are a storage medium from which data is read and to which it is
written by lasers. Optical disks can store much more data up to 6GB. Optical store devices are
the most widely used and reliable storage devices. The most widely used type of optical storage
devices are explained below:
  CD – ROM
 DVD – ROM
 CD – RECORDABLE
 CD – REWRITABLE
 PHOTO – CD
4. USB flash drives: USB flash drives are removable, rewritable and are physically much smaller
drives, which have the weight of less than 30g. In the year of 2010, the storage capacity of the
USB flash drives was as large as 256GB. Such devices are a good substitute for floppy disks and
CD – ROMs as they are smaller, faster, have thousands of times more capacity, and are more
durable and reliable. Until 2005, most desktop and laptop computers had floppy disk drives, but
nowadays floppy disk drives have been abandoned in favor of USB ports. The USB connector is
often protected inside a removable cap, although it is not likely to be damaged if unprotected.
USB flash drives draw power from the computer through external USB connection. The most
widely used USB flash drives are the memory cards.
5. Mass storage devices: Mass storage devices refer to the saving of huge data in a persistent
manner. Mass storage machines can store up to several trillion bytes of data and hence are used
to store or save large databases, such as the information of customers of a big retail chain and
library transactions of students in a college. Some of the commonly used mass storage devices
are explained below:
 Disk array
 Automated tape
 CD – ROM jukebox

Question 2

MB is a megabyte (1 million bytes)

GB is a gigabyte (1 billion bytes)
There are 1000 megabytes in one gigabyte so a gigabyte is larger than a megabyte
So if I had 1GB I also have 1000 MB. To go from megabytes (smaller) to gigabytes (larger) you
divde by 1000. (move the decimal three places to the left).
1000.0 MB = 1 GB
100.0 MB = 0.100 GB
10.0 MB = 0.01 GB
1.0 MB = 0.001 Gb
Question 3

The British scientist Charles Babbage, the father of computers, thought too. Babbage wanted to
build a machine that could perform accurate calculations quickly to avoid errors in navigation
and engineering. This is when he came up with the design for the first computer called the
Difference Engine in 1822.
Question 4

The computer is undoubtedly among mankind’s most important inventions. The ability to
compute and store data provides us with the ability to tackle problems that would likely be
impossible to handle otherwise. It’s hard to imagine scientists looking for the Higgs-Boson with
nothing more than typewriters and legal pads.
The electronic data processing does not go back more than just half a century i.e.; they are in
existence merely from early 1940’s. In early days when our ancestor used to reside in cave the
counting was a problem. Still, it is stated becoming difficult. When they started using stone to
count their animals or the possession, they never knew that this day will lead to a computer of
today. People today started following a set of procedure to perform calculation with these stones,
which later led to creation of a digital counting device, which was the predecessor the first
calculating device invented, was known as ABACUS.
Abacus is known to be the first mechanical calculating device. Which was used to be performed
addition and subtraction easily. This device was a first develop Ed by the Egyptians in the 10th
century B.C, but it was given it final shape in the 12th century A.D. by the Chinese educationists.
Abacus is made of a wooden frame, metal rods, and wooden beads in which rod where fitted
across with rounds
beads sliding on the rod. It id dividing into two parts called ‘Heaven’ and ‘Earth’. Heaven was
the upper part and Earth was the lower one. Thus any number can be represented by placing the
beads at proper place.

The Universal Automatic Computer or UNIVAC was a computer milestone achieved by Dr.
Presper Eckert and Dr. John Mauchly, the team that invented the ENIAC computer.
John Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, after leaving the academic environment of The Moore
School of Engineering to start their own computer business, found their first client was the
United States Census Bureau. The Bureau needed a new computer to deal with the exploding
U.S. population (the beginning of the famous baby boom). In April 1946, a $300,000 deposit was
given to Eckert and Mauchly for the research into a new computer called the UNIVAC.

The research for the project proceeded badly, and it was not until 1948 that the actual design and
contract was finalized. The Census Bureau's ceiling for the project was $400,000. J Presper
Eckert and John Mauchly were prepared to absorb any overrun in costs in hopes of recouping
from future service contracts, but the economics of the situation brought the inventors to the edge
of bankruptcy.

In 1950, Eckert and Mauchly were bailed out of financial trouble by Remington Rand Inc.
(manufacturers of electric razors), and the "Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation" became the
"Univac Division of Remington Rand." Remington Rand's lawyers unsuccessfully tried to re-
negotiate the government contract for additional money. Under threat of legal action, however,
Remington Rand had no choice but to complete the UNIVAC at the original price.

On March 31, 1951, the Census Bureau accepted delivery of the first UNIVAC computer. The
final cost of constructing the first UNIVAC was close to $1 million. Forty-six UNIVAC
computers were built for both government and business uses. Remington Rand became the first
American manufacturers of a commercial computer system. Their first non-government contract
was for General Electric's Appliance Park facility in Louisville, Kentucky, who used the
UNIVAC computer for a payroll application.

The Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer (EDVAC) was one of the earliest large
mainframe computers to be built in the 1940s. It was the first mainframe computer that
represented binary systems rather than decimal systems. EDVAC was designed in 1944 and built
in the 1940s, before being installed in the U.S. Army’s Ballistics Research Laboratory in
Maryland in August of 1940.
As a binary serial computer, EDVAC processed mathematical operations with a serial memory
capacity of roughly 5.5 kB. EDVAC used magnetic tape as a data media and could run over 20
hours a day.

Question 5

A computer’s size, speed, processing power, and price determine the category it best fits. Due to
rapidly changing technology, however, the distinction among categories is not always clear-cut.
This trend of computers and devices with technologies that overlap, called convergence, leads to
computer manufacturers continually releasing newer models that include similar functionality
and features. For example, newer cell phones often include media player, camera, and Web
browsing capabilities. As devices converge, users need fewer devices for the functionality that
they require. When consumers replace outdated computers and devices.

However the history of the computer goes back several decades however and there are five
definable generations of computers. Each generation is defined by a significant technological
development that changes fundamentally how computers operate leading to more compact, less
expensive, but more powerful, efficient and robust machines. Computer generations are based on
when major technological changes in computers occurred, like the use of vacuum tubes,
transistors, and the microprocessor. As of 2018, there are five generations of the computer.

Types of Computer Generation and examples 1940– 1956: First Generation–Vacuum Tubes

The first generation of computers used vacuum tubes as a major piece of technology. Vacuum
tubes were widely used in computers from 1940 through 1956. Vacuum tubes were larger
components and resulted in first generation computers being quite large, taking up a lot of space
in a room. Some of the first generation computers took up an entire room. These early computers
used vacuum tubes as circuitry and magnetic drums for memory. As a result, they were
enormous, literally taking up entire rooms and costing a fortune to run. These were inefficient
materials, which generated a lot of heat, sucked huge electricity and subsequently generated a lot
of heat, which caused ongoing breakdowns.

These first generation computers relied on ‘machine language, (which is the most basic
Programming language that can be understood by computers). These computers were limited to
solving one problem at a time. Input was based on punched cards and paper tape. Output came
out on printouts. The ENIAC is a great example of a first generation computer. It consisted of
nearly 20,000 vacuum tubes, as well as 10,000 capacitors and 70,000 resistors. It weighed over
30 tons and took up a lot of space, requiring a large room to house it. Other examples of first
generation computers include the EDSAC, IBM-650, IBM 701, and Manchester Mark 1.

The two notable machines of this era were the UNIVAC and ENIAC machines the UNIVAC is
the first ever-commercial computer, which was purchased in 1951 by a business the US Census
Bureau.

1956–1963: Second Generation– Transistors, The second generation of computers saw the use
of transistors instead of vacuum tubes. Transistors were widely used in computers from 1956 to
1963. Transistors were smaller than vacuum tubes and allowed computers to be smaller in size,
faster in speed, and cheaper to build. The replacement of vacuum tubes by transistors saw the
advent of the second generation of computing. Although first invented in 1947, transistors were
not used significantly in computers until the end of the 1950s. They were a big improvement
over the vacuum tube, despite still subjecting computers to damaging levels of heat. However,
they were hugely superior to the vacuum tubes, making computers smaller, faster, cheaper and
less heavy on electricity use. They still relied on punched card for input/printouts.

The language evolved from cryptic binary language to symbolic (‘assembly’) languages. This

Meant programmers could create instructions in words. About the same time high level
programming languages were being developed (early versions of COBOL and
FORTRAN).Transistor-driven machines were the first computers to store instructions into their
memories moving from magnetic drum to magnetic core ‘technology’ The early versions of
these machines were developed for the atomic energy industry. The first computer to use
transistors was the TX-0 and was introduced in 1956. Other computers that used transistors
include the IBM 7070, Philco Transac S-1000, Honeywell 400, IBM 7094, CDC1604 and RCA
501.

1964–1971: Third Generation –Integrated Circuits

The third generation of computers introduced the use of IC (integrated circuits) in computers.
Using IC's in computers helped reduce the size of computers even more compared to second-
generation computers, as well as make them faster. By this phase, transistors were now being
miniaturized (reduced) and put on silicon chips (called semiconductors). This led to a massive
increase in speed and efficiency of these machines. These were the first computers where users
interacted using keyboards and monitors which interfaced with an operating system, a significant
leap up(rise) from the punch cards and printouts. This enabled these machines to run several
applications at once using a central program, which functioned to monitor memory. Nearly all
computers since the mid to late 1960s have utilized IC's. While the third generation is considered
by many people to have spanned from 1964 to 1971, ICs are still used in computers today. Over
45 years later, today's computers have deep roots going back to the third generation. As a result
of these advances, which again made machines cheaper and smaller, a new mass market of users
emerged during the ‘60s. Some examples are PDP-8, PDP-11, ICL 2900, and IBM 360and IBM
370.EDVAC was replaced in 1961 by the Ballistic Research Laboratories Electronic Scientific
Computer (BRLESC) which had a larger memory and faster response times.
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