Touchpad iPrime Ver. 2.1 Class 5: Windows 10 & MS Office 2016

By Team Orange

Touchpad iPRIME (Ver 2.1) series based on Windows 10 and Office 2016 is comprehensively designed as per the new ICSE syllabus. Learning is done best when it’s fun-filled and activity based. To ensure that the content intrigues the students at all times and keeps them interested throughout the course of the book, we have
included interesting key fe

• Language: English
• Publisher: Orange Education Pvt Ltd.
• Release date: Jun 12, 2024
• ISBN: 9789390475254

Book preview

1 EVOLUTION OF COMPUTERS

Dear Students! You have learnt about computers in your previous class.

It is a familiar word for you today. But have you ever thought ‘Who invented the computer?’ This machine is an outcome of labour of a number of minds. No particular person can be credited with the invention of computers, but several names stand out in the crowd.

History of Computers

So far, you have learnt the various uses of the computer. You have also learnt that the computer is a powerful device and can be used to accomplish a variety of tasks. In the past, a lot of research was done in order to develop a powerful machine. In this chapter, you will learn about the scientists who were responsible for creating a perfect device that you use in your everyday life.

Early Counting Tools

Since ancient times, people have invented tools for calculations. Early men tied knots in a rope and carved marks on clay in order to keep the records. They also used to count with the help of fingers, toes, pebbles, stones, sticks, bones, etc.

Abacus—First Calculating Device

Abacus

The first step towards computing was the invention of the Abacus around 3000 years ago, in China. It is a wooden frame with beads on parallel wires that can do simple calculations like addition and subtraction. This device is used to calculate numbers at a fast speed.

Pascaline Adding Machine

Pascaline

Blaise Pascal

In 1642, a mathematician, Blaise Pascal invented the calculating machine called the Pascaline adding machine. The numbers were fed into the machine by dialling them on the wheels. This device is believed to be the first mechanical calculator in the world. This machine was capable of performing only addition and subtraction.

Leibniz Step Reckoner

Leibniz Step Reckoner

In 1672, a mathematician, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz invented the digital mechanical calculator called ‘Step Reckoner’. It was the first calculator that could perform all four arithmetic operations i.e., addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

Difference Engine and Analytical Engine

Charles Babbage

In 1822, a mathematician, Charles Babbage developed a steam-driven calculating machine, that was the size of a room which he called the Difference Engine. But even after working on this project for 10 years, this machine never became a reality.

In 1833, he invented a machine called the Analytical Engine, the first-ever working model of a mechanical computer, a fully program-controlled machine. This is why Charles Babbage is known as the ‘Father of computers’.

Lady Ada Lovelace’s Programs

Lady Ada Lovelace

The instructions given to Babbage’s Analytical Engine were in the form of 0’s and 1’s and the first person to introduce this concept was Lady Ada Lovelace. Since she was the first to introduce the concept of programming, she is known as the First Computer Programmer.

Herman Hollerith’s Tabulating Machine

Herman Hollerith

Herman Hollerith, an army engineer, built a machine called the Tabulating Machine in 1890. The machine read and stored data from punched cards.

After the success of this machine, Hollerith formed a Computing Tabulating Recording Company to sell his machine. Later in 1924, his company became a part of International Business Machines Corporation, today popularly known as IBM.

Hollerith’s Tabulating Machine

Computer Generations

After these early calculating machines, the present computer took its shape in five generations.

First Generation (1940s)

There were many computers that were a part of the first generation computers.

MARK-I

In 1944, Prof. Howard Aikens built the first electro-mechanical powered computer named Mark-I. It used punched cards and a typewriter for input and output. Mark-I was much more reliable than early electronic computers.

Mark-I

ENIAC

Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, was the first electronic general-purpose digital computer, built in 1946 by John Mauchly and Presper Eckert. It contained over 18,000 vacuum tubes and was 1000 times faster than Mark-I. ENIAC consumed almost 200 kW of power.

ENIAC

UNIVAC

UNIVAC or Universal Automatic Computer, was another successful invention of John Mauchly and Presper Eckert in 1951, which could handle both numeric and textual information. The UNIVAC had 5200 vacuum tubes.