HISTORY OF COMPUTERS

1. Manual Computational Devices

a. Abacus – (Chinese) first mechanical device to help man compute. Used by Babylonians (500
BC) Soroban – Japanese term for abacus
b. Logarithm – John Napier (1614)
Computational device that used bones (11 ivory rods) known as Napier’s bones.
c. Slide rule– William Oughtred (1632) Circular in shape
Victor Mayer Amedee Mannheim (1859)- present model of slide rule
2. Manual Mechanical Calculators:
a. Calculating machine operated by series of wheels – Blaise Pascal (1642)
Used for addition and subtraction
b. Step wheel machine– Gottfried Wilhelm Von Leibniz (1674)
Can perform addition, subtraction, multiplication and extracting square root
c. Punched-card– “Jacquards Weaving Loom” (1801)
IBM 010 punch - one of the first devices designed to perforate cards. A hole or the lack of
a hole in a card represented information that could be read by early computers.
d. Difference Engine (1822)– developed by Charles Babbage
e. Analytical Engine (1833)– developed by Charles Babbage (Father of computers) which became
the prototype of modern computers.
3. Electro Mechanical Computer
a. Tabulating Machine and Coding System – Herman Hollerith (1884)

ELECTRONIC COMPUTERS:
1. ABC – Atanasoff Berry Computer (1939) Dr. John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry
World’s First Automatic Electronic Digital Computer
Atanasoff and Berry developed a computer with separated data processing and memory. It is not
clear if a functional version was built. They only receive credit for their contributions when a
lawsuit regarding the patent on ENIAC was settled in 1973.
2. Mark 1 – Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator - Howard Hathaway Aiken (1944)
- 50 feet by 8 feet.
3. ENIAC – Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer
John Presper Eckert Jr. and John W. Mauchly – (1943 – 1946)
- First fully operational electronic digital computer (used 18,000 vacuum tubes)
4. EDVAC – Electronic Discreet Variable Automatic Computer
- Princeton University (Dr. John Von Neumann – 1946)
Binary Arithmetic and Stored Program Concept
5. EDSAC – Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Computer- Cambridge University, England
First Commercial Digital Computer
6. UNIVAC Computer (1951) - made by the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation. The first computer
capable of handling both numeric and textual information. Used by the United States Census Bureau.
Eckert-Mauchly was acquired by companies that eventually became part of Unisys Corporation.

EVOLUTION OF ELECTRONIC COMPUTERS:

1. First Generation Computers- Wired circuits, vacuum tubes and needs cool environment (1951-58)
2. Second Generation Computers-Use transistors ( 1959 -64)
3. Third Generation Computers-Use integrated circuits (IC) or chips. “mini computers” (1964 – 70)
4. Fourth Generation Computers-Use microprocessor or “computer-in-a-chip”. “Microcomputers” (1971 –
present) Microprocessors, called silicon chips, are embedded in a protective casing. The wires radiating
from the silicon chip connect to short metal legs that are soldered into integrated circuit boards.

TYPES OF COMPUTERS:
1. According to Purpose
a. General purpose – programmed to perform many functions.
b. Special purpose – performs only a specific set of operation
2. According to Data Handled:
a. Analog computer
– used for scientific and engineering applications for precise measurements to the smallest unit
b. Digital Computer
– provide reading numbers more accurately than analog computers because they measure and
represent quantities in distinct variables.
3. According to Capacity (Volume of Task)
a. Super computer
– largest and fastest machines with a capacity of 50 million operations / second
b. Large Scale Computer
– have 1.5 million bytes or more of main memory and operating speed in the low nano second
range. (1 billionth of a second)
Used by large firms with thousands of employees and customers.
c. Medium Sized Computers
– have 32 bit word length and 524,000 bytes memory size

COMPONENTS OF THE CPU

1. Control Unit – supervises or monitors the activities performed by the entire computer system. It
decodes and interprets the instructions and releases out signals that act as commands for circuits to
execute the instruction.
2. Arithmetic Logic Unit -Performs arithmetical and logical operations. It is where data is manipulated.
3. Primary Storage – “memory or main storage”
Holds instructions and data before processing starts.
a. RAM – Random Access Memory
b. ROM – Read Only Memory

STRUCTURES OF DATA:
1. BIT – Smallest unit through which data are represented, which is 0 or 1
2. Byte – a group of bits, usually 8 bits long, smallest unit that a computer can process and basic unit held
in storage
3. Field – a combination of bytes, a single information about something such as name, age, or sex
4. Record – collection of fields that relate to a single entity like students record on name, age, etc.
5. File – collection of related records Ex. Record of all students in a class
6. Database or Databank – collection of logically related files composed of all data which a computer has
for a particular manipulation.
COMPUTER KEYBOARD LESSONS
Computer– a programmable electronic device designed to accept data, perform operations, and provide
output.
Limitations:
1. Dependent on programs
2. Cannot generate its own data
3. Prone to viruses

COMPOSITION
1. Hardware
a. Input devices – keyboard, mouse, scanner, joystick, camera
b. Central Processing Unit
c. Output Device – monitor, printer
d. Secondary Storage Device – disks and tapes
2. Software
a. Operating System
b. General Purpose Software
c. Application Software

MAJOR PARTS OF THE COMPUTER

1. System Unit – contains central processing unit (CPU), memory, etc.
a. motherboard
b. power supply
c. expansion slots
d. disk drives
2. Monitor – displays results
3. keyboard- used to type and input data
a. Letter keys – asdf left, jkl right
b. Number keys – 0-9
c. Function keys – F1 –F12
d. Special keys
- Cursor movement keys (arrow keys)
- Page up/down – moves to several lines up/down the document
- Home / end key
- Enter key – moves cursor to next line and indicates end of command
- Esc (escape) – stops, cancels task
- Delete / backspace – erases character
- Other keys - + - _ * / \ “ ” ‘ ’; @ # % etc.
- Status light
4. Mouse – handheld device aiding in program use.
Forbidden File name characters: / \ : ; * < > ?
MICROSOFT WORD
PARTS:
1. Title Bar– program name and name of document that appears in top of screen
2. Menu Bar– displays menus from which you can select options (file, edit, view, insert, format, tools,
table, window, help)
3. Tool Bar / Standard Toolbar– row of buttons that are used for commands
4. Ribbon / Formatting Toolbar– boxes / buttons used to convert the format and appearance of text
5. Ruler– indicates size of texting area
6. Scroll Bars– moves document window to right, left, up and down
7. Text area / document window– where a document is viewed
8. Status Bar– at bottom of screen, display location and indicates mode

Words default setting: – 8.5 x 11 inches with 1.25 “ margin for left and right and 1 “ top and bottom
margins

Keys Used for Editing

1. Delete key – erases character to the right
2. Backspace key – erases character to the left
3. Insert key – used to toggle between insert and overtype mode

Editing Text in Microsoft Word

A. To insert text in document
1. Look at the status bar to make sure “OVR” MODE is not turned on
2. Position insertion point to where you want to insert and click
3. Key in the word to insert
B. To Revise Text Using overtype mode.
(number of characters keyed in is similar to number of characters changed)
1. Move insertion point to position
2. Press insert key
3. Key in the word
C. To Edit Text Using Bold, Italic, and Underlined
1. Select word to change
2. Click “B” for bold, “I” for italic and “U” for underlined
3. Deselect highlighted word
D. To Change Font Size
1. Select word to change
2. Click font size box
3. Click font size needed
4. Deselect highlighted word
E. To Change Font Style
1. Select word to change
2. Click font style box
3. Click font style needed
4. Deselect highlighted word
F. To Change Font Color
1. Select word to change
2. Click font color icon
3. Click font color needed
4. Deselect highlighted word
G. To Change Alignment of Keyed Texts
1. Select texts to be aligned
2. Click icon of alignment needed
3. Deselect highlighted word
H. To Increase or Decrease Indent
1. Select text to indent
2. Click increase/decrease indent icon
3. Deselect text
or
1. Insert cursor before text to indent
2. Click tab key / space bar to increase or click backspace key to decrease