3.2 Developments in Information Technology

Question	Answer
What did weapons systems and space exploration depend on?	Powerful computers
Where were the first computers built and why?	England to help break secret German codes
Who produced the first general computer in 1946?	The American military
How much did it weigh?	19 tonnes
What appeared in 1951?	The first commercial computer Universal Automatic Computer (UNIVAC)
How much did it cost?	Over $1m
How many words could it hold?	1,000
What was the transistor?	A gate for electronic signals
Why were several transistors combined on a piece of silicon?	For complex calculations
What was developed in the 1970's?	Micro-processors
What did they allow?	Computers with a small screen
Who developed the first personal computer and when?	Apple in 1976
What did personal computers lead to?	Computer games (Nintendo/Game Boy)
What did the US military worry about?	What would happen if Soviet bomb blew up central control
What did they create to avoid this?	Network of computers (ARPANET)
What did this form the basis of?	The internet
What allowed vast quantities of information to be carried along a phone line to a computer with a modem in the 1990's?	Fibre optics

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	Created by samstevenson2014 about 9 years ago