Lab 1-4

1. IBM produced the first hard disk drive. Find a page on an official IBM web site
describing this disk. When was it made, what was it called, and how much
storage space did it offer?
the first hard disk drive was made September 13 1956.  It was called the IBM 305 RAMAC and stored five megabytes with is 5 million characters.
(1) query “IBM” to figure out IBM’s domain name, which is ibm.com
(2) query “site:ibm.com "hard disk"” for pages on IBM’s web site(s) with phrase
“hard disk” in them
(3) query “site:ibm.com "hard disk" first” with additional keyword “first” to
narrow searchanswer (“1956, 305 RAMAC, 5 MB”) found on second hit:
http://www.storage.ibm.com/hdd/firsts/n1956.htm

2. Who is often called the “Father of Computing” and when did he live?
   The farther of computing was Charles Babbage.  Babbage died in 1871

3. What was the “Analytical Engine”?
   The analytical engine was a mechanical digital computer which, viewed with the benefit of a century and a half's hindsight, anticipated virtually every aspect of present-day computers

4. Was the Analytical Engine designed to run on electricity?
   Electricity was irrelevant to the analytical engine.

5. Who was Ada Lovelace, and how is she related to the “Father of Computing”?
   Ada Lovelace was a woman in the 19th century.  She was a student of Charles Babbage and wrote a paper about his work.

6. Who was Ada Lovelace’s father?
   Ada Lovelace was orignally Ada Byron, daughter of Lord Byron

7. What computing “first” is Ada Lovelace known for?
   Ada Lovelace is known to have written the first computer program.

8. The ENIAC is often called the first general-purpose computer, though some
question this distinction. In kilograms, how much did ENIAC weigh?
   27215.542

9. What was ENIAC designed to be used for?
   Eniac was designed and built to calculate artillery firing tables for the U.S. Army's Ballistics Research Lab


10. In what year was the construction of the ENIAC completed?
    1946

11. Some claim that other fully programmable, electronic computers were produced
before ENIAC. Find at least one example, the year of its production, and who
was responsible for its production.
    Collossus Computer built in 1943 was designed by Tommy Flowers and British government.