SUPERCOMPUTERS Processors control a computer The average laptop has one or two processors A supercomputer has millions of processors It is very powerful Many supercomputers are built for specific purposes IBM’s Watson is a supercomputer It was built to answer questions asked in human languages Watson practiced by playing the TV game show Jeopardy In 2011 Watson beat several human champions Today Watson is used in health care and many other areas and prints the report Emma checks the clock on the computer She has enough time to play a game before bedtime The laptop isn’t the only computer in Emma’s room Emma has a smartphone a tablet a fitness tracker watch and an e-reader They all use computer chips WHAT IS A COMPUTER A computer is a machine It does four basic things First it receives input Input is information that comes into a computer A keyboard mouse and touchscreen are some devices that create input Second the computer
Some computers such as laptops left can be picked up and taken other places Other computers called desktops stay in one place processes that input It can tell which key was pressed Third the computer stores this information Finally the computer outputs the result It shows a letter on the screen All of these steps happen in the blink of an eye The first functional modern computer was built in Germany between 1936 and 1938 It was called the Z1 It used electricity and mechanical parts to work The first fully electronic computers were built in the 1940s These computers were large Each computer only did one thing For example during World War II 1939 1945
the British built Colossus It was designed to break enemy codes Colossus was the first programmable STORED-PROGRAM COMPUTERS In the late 1940s mathematician John von Neumann said that computers should store programs in their memory This would help them do many things at the same time The first stored-program computer was the Manchester Mark 1 It was built in 1949 in Manchester England Most computers today store programs in their memory electronic computer People manually set switches and connections The computer read data from paper tapes Early computers had physical switches or bulky vacuum tubes This controlled the electricity Over time computers became smaller They also became more powerful The transistor made this possible A transistor is a tiny device It controls electrical signals It was invented in 1947
Texas Instruments introduced the integrated circuit in 1959 It is also called a microchip The microchip made transistors smaller They became more powerful This made computers faster and cheaper Emma’s laptop is 1,000 times faster than one made 20 years ago FURTHER EVIDENCE Chapter One introduced you to a brief history of computers What is the main point of the chapter What key evidence supports this point The website below also discusses computers Find a quote from the website that supports the main point you identified TIMELINE OF COMPUTER HISTORY abdocorelibrary com inside-computers
