A counting device with sliding beads, used from ancient times to the present; useful mainly for addition and subtraction.
What is an abacus?
100
The numeric language of the computer based on the binary number system of 1s and 0s.
What is Binary code?
100
A collection of transistors on a single piece of hardware (called a “chip”) that reduces the circuit’s size and physical complexity.
What is an integrated circuit?
100
The central controlling device inside a computer that makes decisions at a very low level, such as what math functions or computer resources are to be used and when.
What is the central processing unit?
100
The use of multiple computers or CPUs to process a single task simultaneously.
What is parallel computing?
200
A device that can perform complicated math by using sliding guides on a rulerlike device; popular with engineers until the advent of the cheap electronic calculator.
What is a slide rule?
200
A human-readable language used to represent numeric computer instructions (binary code).
What is Assembly language?
200
A piece of encased silicon, usually somewhere between the size of your fingernail and the palm of your hand, that holds ICs.
What is a chip?
200
A CPU on a single chip used in microcomputers.
What is a microprocessor?
200
The fastest and usually most expensive computer available; often used in scientific and engineering research
What is the supercomputer?
300
The capability of a program to repeat commands.
What is a program loop?
300
A large, expensive computer, often serving many terminals and used by large organizations; all first-generation computers were mainframes.
What is a Mainframe?
300
Software that allows applications to access hardware resources, such as printers or hard drives, and provides tools for managing and administering system resources and security
What is an operating system?
300
Computer hardware that is accessible for modification and sometimes even documented.
What is open architecture?
300
Different sorts of information (text, sound, pictures, video) that are linked in such a way that a user can move and see content easily from one link to another.
What is hypermedia?
400
A logical system developed by that uses truth tables to indicate true/false output based on all possible true/false inputs; the computer owes a lot to this concept because at its most basic level, the computer is manipulating 1s and 0s—in other words, true or false
What is Boolean logic?
400
A signal amplifier much smaller than a vacuum tube used to represent a 1 (on) or a 0 (off), which are the rudiments of computer calculation; often used as part of an integrated circuit (IC).
What is a transistor?
400
A computer’s capability to share its computing time with many users at the same time.
What is time sharing?
400
A desktop-sized computer with a microprocessor CPU designed to be used by one person at a time.
What is a microcomputer?
400
Hypermedia that is specifically text.
What is hyptertext?
500
A signal amplifier that preceded the transistor. Like a transistor, it can be integrated into a circuit, but it takes more power, is larger, and burns out more quickly.
What is a vacuum tube?
500
The first commercially viable computer built by Mauchly Eckert.
What is the UNIVAC?
500
Mid-sized computer introduced in the mid to late ’60s; it typically cost tens of thousands of dollars versus hundreds of thousands of dollars for a mainframe.
What is a minicomputer?
500
A software program that becomes so popular that it drives the popularity of the hardware it runs on
What is a Killer app?
500
A program that accesses and displays files and other information or hypermedia available on a network or on the Internet