The History of Computing
By Henry Wilkinson
Alan Turing and the first "thinking machine"
Way back in 1936, Alan Turing dreamt of a "thinking machine" or as he called it, an imagination machine. He dreamt it could process symbols and then put out different symbols. He spent a few years creating machines and helped AI (Artificial Intelligence) crack the enigma code with the computer colossus. He believed that one day machines would be able to complete tasks humans couldn't. If only he could see where we are today.
The World Wide Web
The World Wide Web (WWW) was invented by Sir Tim Berners-Lee in the 1980's. He suffered information overload working for a nuclear research company and he needed a way to link all this information He invented the internet which could link hypertext documents across linked computers. This was free as he believed everyone should be using his organised system, The first website was put up on 6th August 1991.
Computer components
CPU
This is a Central Processing Unit. This is where most of the calculations in the computer take place.
RAM
This is an acronym for Random Access Memory , where the memory is stored temporarily, and takes up a Byte of memory.
Motherboard
All of these components are in the motherboard. It is also known as a logic board. It is the main board and controls the inputs an the outputs.
Hard drive
This stores all your data. It can hold over 100GB of information.
Inputs - A Keyboard
This provides the letters you want to see on the screen. You put them into the keyboard and they are processed to show the required letters.
Outputs - Speakers
If you want to play music through the speakers, you put the information in through your mouse or keyboard and music will be played as an output.