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Computers Before The PC Trivia Quiz

Believe it or not, computers existed before the IBM PC and the Internet. This quiz is about some of those "dinosaurs" that used to inhabit the world's data centers and the people who created them.

A multiple-choice quiz by ertrum. Estimated time: 5 mins.

Author
ertrum

Time
5 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
180,235

Updated
Dec 03 21

# Qns
10

Difficulty
Difficult

Avg Score
5 / 10

Plays
5656

Awards
Top 20% Quiz

One at a Time - Single Page - Timed Game

Question 1 of 10

1. Which of these were NOT used to input data into computers? Hint

telegraph keys

reel-to-reel tapes

paper tapes with holes punched in them

telephones

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Question 2 of 10

2. Tracy Kidder's 1981 Pulitzer Prize winning book "The Soul of a New Machine" was written about the development of which Massachusetts company's "super minicomputer" system? Hint

Bell Labs' Unix

DEC's VAX

Data General's MV/8000

IBM's S/360

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Question 3 of 10

3. Who was Grace Hopper? Hint

The designer of the ENIAC computer.

The person who gave IBM the nickname "Big Blue".

The inventor of COBOL.

Bill Gates's first secretary.

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Question 4 of 10

4. What is "core"? Hint

memory

the building the computer was housed in

power transformers

the center of the computer

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Question 5 of 10

5. Which of these programming languages was invented at Bell Labs? Hint

FORTRAN

COBOL

BASIC

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Question 6 of 10

6. Which company's computers ran the Multics operating system? Hint

IBM

Honeywell

Compaq

Digital Equipment

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Question 7 of 10

7. Xerox founded the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), but which company is best known for introducing their ideas of the graphical user interface? Hint

IBM

Prime Computer

Apple Computer

Sun Microsystems

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Question 8 of 10

8. Who manufactured the pdp series of processors? Hint

Digital Equipment Co.

Data General

IBM

Sun Microsystems

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Question 9 of 10

9. For what machines were punch cards originally designed? Hint

weaving looms

printing presses

computers

cash registers

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Question 10 of 10

10. No electronic computer has been built which does not use transistors or integrated circuits.

True

False

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Which of these were NOT used to input data into computers?

Answer: telegraph keys

Digital Equipment, among others, used paper tapes for their programs. Special teletypes were created with paper tape punchers attached to make the tapes. Telephones were used, though the connector between the phone and the computer looked like it really belonged on the set of "Get Smart". I don't know of any computers which understood Morse code.

2. Tracy Kidder's 1981 Pulitzer Prize winning book "The Soul of a New Machine" was written about the development of which Massachusetts company's "super minicomputer" system?

Answer: Data General's MV/8000

Tracy Kidder wrote this book about the team at Data General who designed the MV/8000, one of the first super-minicomputers.

3. Who was Grace Hopper?

Answer: The inventor of COBOL.

Admiral Hopper wrote COBOL to be a programming language for general business use. It was supposed to be easier to understand than either Fortran or assembly language.

4. What is "core"?

Answer: memory

Core memory was so called because each bit was stored in a doughnut-shaped piece of iron, with three wires running through its center, or core. Even the largest systems had very little memory when 2 Mb of core would fill a space the size of a refrigerator!

5. Which of these programming languages was invented at Bell Labs?

Answer: C

C was written by Dennis Ritchey, who also helped design the Unix operating system. Grace Hopper was working at Rand when she designed COBOL. BASIC was invented at Dartmouth College. FORTRAN was invented by IBM.

6. Which company's computers ran the Multics operating system?

Answer: Honeywell

Multics incorporated many ideas which would be used by later operating systems, such as tree-structured directories. Unix was designed to be a simple Multics.

7. Xerox founded the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), but which company is best known for introducing their ideas of the graphical user interface?

Answer: Apple Computer

Apple based their Lisa (later Macintosh) operating system on work done on graphical user interfaces at PARC.

8. Who manufactured the pdp series of processors?

Answer: Digital Equipment Co.

Digital Equipment (DEC) made the pdp and later the VAX series of computers. Your Palm Pilot, cell phone, or digital camera probably has more memory and a faster processor than their minicomputer, the pdp-8, did!

9. For what machines were punch cards originally designed?

Answer: weaving looms

The Jacquard Loom used the holes punched in cards to create intricate patterns in woven fabrics. Punch cards were also used in player pianos and music boxes.

10. No electronic computer has been built which does not use transistors or integrated circuits.

Answer: False

Some of the first computers were built solely with vacuum tubes and mechanical relays. Transistors and integrated circuits have allowed computers to be smaller and faster.

Source: Author ertrum

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor crisw before going online.
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