EECS 1520 EXAM QUESTIONS AND
ANSWERS GRADED A+ 2025/2026
What was the first simple arithmetic computer - ANS Abacus in 3000 BC in Babylonia
- known as finger powered calculator
- transferred information into a device
What is the Jacquard Loom - ANS Punch cards for complex patterns woven into textiles
discovered in 1801
- digital data was entered in the computer represented by the presence of holes
What is an algorithm - ANS Finite set of unambiguous instructions to solve a problem
- named after Muhammad Ibn Musa in the 9th century
Who is George Boole - ANS Discovered Boolean algebra who laid the logical foundations of
digital computing circuitry
Who is Claude Shannon - ANS 1937: Introduced application of Boolean logic in creating
digital computing machines
1948: published math theory of communication which established encoding to transmit
electronically
1 @COPYRIGHT 2025/2026 ALLRIGHTS RESERVED.
, Who is Alan Turing - ANS Proposed simple abstract universal machine model called the
TURNING MACHINE
- led the WWII research group that broke encrypted messages from the German Enigma
machine
What was the first electronic general purpose computer? - ANS ENIAC which was developed
to compute ballistic firing tables
- used vacuum tubes to control electrical signals, decimal internal coding (vacuum tubes were
large which generated lots of heat making it prone to fail)
- operated in 1946
Who is John Von Neumann - ANS Discovered the earlier computers that were hard wired to
do one task but required for another task (stored program)
- binary internal coding
Stored programs: can run different programs
What is the Von Neumann Architecture - ANS Stored program central processing unit,
memory, mass storage and IO
- uses CPU memory IO organization: fetch-decode-execute instruction cycle
- basis for modern computers
What are programs - ANS Series of instructions that are executed by the computer originally
math problems but developed to solve scientific problems
- instructions of the machine code were binary numbers
- hard to write and easy to make mistakes
Who is Grace Murray Hopper - ANS 1906-1992: Created the first complier to help write the
machine code
- improved programming speed and efficiency
2 @COPYRIGHT 2025/2026 ALLRIGHTS RESERVED.
ANSWERS GRADED A+ 2025/2026
What was the first simple arithmetic computer - ANS Abacus in 3000 BC in Babylonia
- known as finger powered calculator
- transferred information into a device
What is the Jacquard Loom - ANS Punch cards for complex patterns woven into textiles
discovered in 1801
- digital data was entered in the computer represented by the presence of holes
What is an algorithm - ANS Finite set of unambiguous instructions to solve a problem
- named after Muhammad Ibn Musa in the 9th century
Who is George Boole - ANS Discovered Boolean algebra who laid the logical foundations of
digital computing circuitry
Who is Claude Shannon - ANS 1937: Introduced application of Boolean logic in creating
digital computing machines
1948: published math theory of communication which established encoding to transmit
electronically
1 @COPYRIGHT 2025/2026 ALLRIGHTS RESERVED.
, Who is Alan Turing - ANS Proposed simple abstract universal machine model called the
TURNING MACHINE
- led the WWII research group that broke encrypted messages from the German Enigma
machine
What was the first electronic general purpose computer? - ANS ENIAC which was developed
to compute ballistic firing tables
- used vacuum tubes to control electrical signals, decimal internal coding (vacuum tubes were
large which generated lots of heat making it prone to fail)
- operated in 1946
Who is John Von Neumann - ANS Discovered the earlier computers that were hard wired to
do one task but required for another task (stored program)
- binary internal coding
Stored programs: can run different programs
What is the Von Neumann Architecture - ANS Stored program central processing unit,
memory, mass storage and IO
- uses CPU memory IO organization: fetch-decode-execute instruction cycle
- basis for modern computers
What are programs - ANS Series of instructions that are executed by the computer originally
math problems but developed to solve scientific problems
- instructions of the machine code were binary numbers
- hard to write and easy to make mistakes
Who is Grace Murray Hopper - ANS 1906-1992: Created the first complier to help write the
machine code
- improved programming speed and efficiency
2 @COPYRIGHT 2025/2026 ALLRIGHTS RESERVED.
