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History of Computers Assignment

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Added on  2020-03-23

History of Computers Assignment

   Added on 2020-03-23

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Week 1The text discusses the elements of modern computing architecture however is largelysilent on the individuals who played a role in its development. Find and summarise aresource that describes ONE such individual. The individual should have had asignificant influence on the development of computers and/or components of moderncomputing architecture.Title: “History of Computers”Reference: Dalakov, G. (2017).History of Computers and Computing, Birth of themodern computer, The thinkers, John von Neumann. [online] History-computer.com.Available at: http://history-computer.com/ModernComputer/thinkers/Neumann.html[Accessed 23 Sep. 2017].Url: http://history-computer.com/ModernComputer/thinkers/Neumann.htmlSummary:The most notable contribution in the fields of modern computing came from JohnLouis von Neumann (1903-1957) who was a famous mathematician of his time.Considered to be a child prodigy by many, Neumann completed his Ph.D. inMathematics from the Pázmány Péter University in Budapest and simultaneouslyearned his diploma in chemical engineering from ETH Zurich in Switzerland. All thishe achieved just at the age of 22 years. Neumann was considered to be a pioneeringfigure in the field of modern computer science. The modern computer architecture islargely credited to Neumann. He was the first person who made use of memory indigital computers to store both data and instructions. During the year 1945, whileworking on the EDVAC project at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering, vonNeumann wrote a complete set of notes which was titled“First Draft of a Report onthe EDVAC”. In this draft report he laid the foundations for the modern computerarchitecture wherein both the data and the program are stored in the memory of acomputer which has the same address location. This was later termed as vonNeumann Architecture. Von Neumann is also credited with creating the field ofcellular automate without any help from computers. He created the world’s first self-replicating Automata by utilising only a pencil and graph paper. Von Neumann hasalso made significant contributions in the study of algorithms. The renownedcomputer scientist Donald Knuth credits von Neumann with the creation of the MergeSort algorithm.
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Week 2The text discusses the components and activities of operating systems however islargely silent on the individuals who played a role in their development. Find andsummarise a resource that describes ONE such individual. The individual shouldhave had a significant influence on the writing or development of operating systems.Title: “Development of Linux”Reference: Operating-system.org. (2017).History of the Linux Kernel. [online]Available at: http://www.operating-system.org/betriebssystem/_english/bs-linux.htm[Accessed 23 Sep. 2017].Url: http://www.operating-system.org/betriebssystem/_english/bs-linux.htmSummary:Linus (Benedict) Torvalds is credited with the development of the Linux OS. Havingan intensive knowledge and understanding about hardware and programming,Torvalds was able to program a dedicated driver for a floppy controller. He possessedan in-depth knowledge about Q-DOS and was able to provide his own computer tools.During the year 1991, when the 386-Intel PCbecame to most advanced computer ofits time, Torvalds utrilised a single PC to learn about the programming of the 386-Intel CPU. The Unix derivate Minix was the OS utilised during that time andTorvalds had already mastered Unix in 1990 and he was extremely upset about theterminal emulator program in Minix and found it to be inefficient. Thus, began hisquest for finding a better terminal emulator with would provide the users with morefunctionality on the hardware level. He began his project of coding his own terminalemulator which would help in addressing the drawbacks of the existing computer OS.In his project, Torvalds programmed his own drivers for the access to data mediumsand file systems. This provided his software the capacity to upload and download filesfrom the internet. While Torvalds was busy in the development of the terminalprogram, he incorporated more functions within the program which ultimatelyconvinced him to design and develop nit into a full-fledged and functioning OS whichwould better performance and capabilities as compared to the Minix. The new OSwas termed as Linus and it was derived from the concept of Unix but the Kernal wascompletely written from scratch. Week 3The Internet didn’t just appear – it was an evolution from earlier networks. Find andsummarise a resource that describes ONEof the networks that led to the development
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of the modern Internet. Title: ARPANETReference: Rouse, M. (2017).What is ARPANET? - Definition from WhatIs.com.[online]SearchNetworking.Availableat:http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/definition/ARPANET [Accessed 23 Sep.2017].Url: http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/definition/ARPANETSummary:The Internet draws its origins from the ARPANET. ARPANET is an acronym for theAdvanced Research Projects AgencyNetwork of the US military and it is consideredto be a precursor to the modern internet which we are using in the present times. Theconcept of ARPANET was only an idea which was first published in 1967 but thisidea later transformed into reality in 1969 with the simultaneous interconnection offour university computers. The main objective and purpose of this initiative was tocommunicate and share resources with different computers mainly among thescientific community who are working in connected institutions. With ARPANETcame the idea of sending information in small units known as data packets whichcould be routed and sent to different locations based on the destination address. Withthe development and integration of the TCP/IP protocols, the size of the network waseasily expanded and it truly became a network of networks. TCP/IP protocols playeda very essential role in the making ARPANET more scalable and in the 1980’s theARPANET was handed over to a completely new military network which was knownas the Defense Data Network and the NSFNet (a network of academic and scientificcomputers which was funded by the National Science Foundation. Because of thischange ARPA’s name was changed to DARPA (Defense Advanced Research ProjectsAgency). The network was also referred to by many as DARPANET. Week 4Ethernet is an example of a Layer Two (L2) data link protocol that is discussed in thetext. Find and summarise a resource that describes the features and uses of ONEother L2 protocol that is not discussed in the text (i.e. NOT Ethernet).Title: ARP - Address Resolution Protocol
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