General "rules"

0. This is a fun quiz....

1. This thread is similar to all the other Cumulative quizzes, except all questions need to be related to computers.

2. The first person to answer the current question correctly, when confimed by the question's author may post the next question.

3. If you're the current questioner, try and visit daily to check replies; you can give hints if necessary.

4. The basic idea is that you ask and reply based on what you know and have learned... it's not a battle of databases and reference books ;).

5. Some examples of questions topics might be hardware, software, internet, prgramming, computer history...

6. Be considerate and merciful.... if no one gets the answer after about 5 days max, let us in on the answer and ask a new question :).

7. If the question ages about 5 days with no reply from the author, then the 1st one who posted the "right" answer can post the next question; if that is ambigious, then the person who replied immediately after the author's original question can go next & get the quiz back on track. :)

8. Extra info: After people give their answer and a topic is disposed of, people may feel free to consult search engines & reference material to clarify & post minor details, since very few people including me can remember everything 100%.... Hopefully, we'll all learn tidbits as we go along, and post-question references can help make sure final answers are complete... so no one get annoyed if someone else adds some more details or makes minor corrections after the fact ;). Naturally, question makers should know the main details (correct answers) to their question before hand, LOL....



rev 1.00, 15Jun02... the 1st day of the Forum, and the 3rd thread :)

rev 1.01 15Jun02, added #8.

I'll go first....

What was the name of the first Electronic computer?

Bonus: What was the fate of this first machine?

Bonus #2: In what nation was it built it and why?

Hint: I'm not talking about the Abacus, or adding machines, etc... I'm talking about a massive electrical/electronic machine, LOL...

the etac or something?it was used in WW2 to crack the german code and its build in america

You're on the right track, Philippe! But the details are still not right ;)....

Very close Phillippe!
The first electronic computer was ENAIC(Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer)

Bonus#2:Built for the United States military to calculate the paths of artillery shells. It was later used to make calculations for nuclear weapons research, weather prediction, and wind tunnel design.

Source: Microsoft(I said the evil word, God have mercy!:lol:) Encarta

If you count this as right starlifter then you are wrong I hate to say.(I am guessing since you said phillippe was close) Exact quote from article:"Although it was the first large-scale machine to do routine calculations in a production environment, the ENIAC was not the first electronic computer. Between 1939 and 1942, John Atanasoff, a physics and mathematics professor at Iowa State University, and his graduate student Clifford Berry, assembled the Atanasoff-Berry Computer, which incorporated many digital circuit design innovations. Their system used the binary arithmetic system of 1s and 0s commonly used in today's computers as well as a memory drum that stored data in a method similar to the storage technique used in modern memory chips.

Good explanation, King of Camelot!

There is some debate as to the first useful electronic computer, but I would have taken Colossus as well. It was built no later than Dec 1943, and used by the British to decode German Enigma messages. Only a few photos still remain of the Colossus machines; the British destroyed the machines and plans, and to this day, have never released the algorithms it employed. Its computation speed was set by the speed of the sprocket drive of the long paper code containing a message to be decrypted... the paper wizzed at 30 miles per hour. The Colossus actually figured, by brute force, the correct wheel settings for the British cypher machines to use to actually decrypt an entire German message. It did not translate the code itself.... the Colossus was kept in such secrecy that it did not really influence modern computer design, like ENIAC did....

The Atanasoff machine was a special purpose electromechanical machine for solving simultaneous equations... it could not be altered, and most people classify it into the other similar machines developed in several places in the 1930's... the basis for the claim some make for the first modern electronic computer is on the fact that some of the ENIAC patents were reversed in US court in the early 1970's because the ENIAC's inventor (can't recall his name) had briefly seen the Atanasoff device before the ENIAC was operational.

But the ENIAC is the most widely acknowledged 1st modern electronic computer, barring further revelations from the British gov't about Colossus. Colossus was, BTW, the first Turing machine... the logic basis for digital computers of today.

PS, Philippe had a mix of the ENIAC and the Colossus description, which is why I said he was on the right track...

Nice job... your question!

I will post my question tomorrow because right now I need some sleep. Got to think of a good one. And thanks starlifter for starting the tech forum off with a great thread. This is what the tech forum is made for, interesting threads that really teach you about computers and their history.

You stole my thread! :cry: well I'll forgive you, this time sl ;) that is if we can have some html questions instead of all this hardware junk ;)

Yeah, we should do like Pellaken, take CFC and SL to court! :lol:

Anyway, to KoC and SL, didn´t the rules state that this is a quiz of KNOWLEDGE, not of who can search the fastest on the web or in this case MS encarta??
:D

Hehe... HTML, DHTML, XML... bring it on!! Yeah, ask anything about computers you'd like when you get control of the question!! :D

didn´t the rules state that this is a quiz of KNOWLEDGE, not of who can search the fastest on the web or in this case MS encarta
Yes, people should answer as best they can from knowledge & school & experience. Questions should come from knowledge & experience, too.

BTW, once a question is asked, answered (and the questioner provides a final statement), then anyone (including the questioner) may feel free to look it up and make a new post wth minor detail corrections, add useful info, etc. (I'm going to search my question later today to fill in the gaps [dates, names, etc.], if I get the time).

PS, I'm looking over your shoulder again, Lucky, but I had some coffee in my hand and you beat me to the message this time.... hehe... and you thought I was only kidding about the camera I have that is watching you :).

Also, Lucky, you might have some ideas about general "HOWTOs" that could help, e.g, similar to the HOWTOs that I've been writing & putting up this morning (feel free to write/contribute any new HOWTOs you think can help with "typical" problems of CFC-ers!).

I told you I am only feeding you what I want you to see! :p

But I´m nowhere as good as you in writting neverending essays with so much information. ;)
But you shouldn´t forget your quiz question at GC, just like you stated in the rules here, check in often.
:D

LOL, I was there 6 hours ago... you've got the big Q now, dude! ;)

My question is about the aquiring of MS-DOS by Microsoft. Just thought it would be interesting to see if any one knows that much about it.:D And it is computer history.

1.When did Bill Gates buy MS-DOS?(year)
BonusA.What month?
BonusB.What day?

2.Where did he buy it?(State and City)

3.What was the name of the company he bought it from?

Good luck! Sorry to the people who hate microsoft but its a interresting question.

P.S. Didn't see rule 4 there...:D

1. 1981
2. no idea
3. IBM

Close but needs some refining. Also num 3 is bought from not sold to.

I'll wait on that one to give someone else a chance. Bill Gates and M$ are my specialty. More bonus if you know who the original author of the OS that Bill Gates and Paul Allen bought, and what happened to the real author of that OS.... e.g., how much money did he get and how rich did he get. Hint. Bill Gates has not changed in 28 years, going back to pre-Altair days.

was the year right?? as a guess for the month...wasn't it something like september or october??

The year was right..or was it a year off? AHHH! Senior moment! Can't remeber!

Ok, I remember it was right.

I would like to ask for a change of rules. I don't like the no researching rule. I think that having people research the answer is a good way to get people to learn new things since it gets them involved versus testing other's knowledge and maybe picking up on something from what the knowlwdgable ones know. Besides all of this KoC broke it already and got to continue with the questioning....

However, the quiz would then come down to "who gets to read the question first", which would be no fun (pointing to disclaimer in signature).

My idea would be to keep a pool of unanswered questions in the first post, and everyone who answers one of those questions gets to ask another one (that will take its place in the first post). This sounds good in theory, but would be limited by the spare time and will of the author of the first post...

Well about the rules, remember you can research to clarify or add good stuff later (after the question is answered)....

But it really seems less fun if people just go find stuff on CDs, ref books, online, etc. even to come up with the questions.

Of course, we all must learn what we know from somewhere, but should keep pretty much to what we know (or don't) for thinking of questions and writing answers. Everyone should knock themselfs out to check the replies & feel free to post more, after the questioner feels his/her question is answered right!

I think the old Star Trek quizzes and the History Quiz are pretty much the same rules, right?

PS, No one should feel intimidated not to tak a stab, esp. the new people and visitors.... jump on in & no one will hack on you if your answer is not correct!

Have fun, too :D...

:)

1.When did Bill Gates buy MS-DOS?(year)
BonusA.What month?
BonusB.What day?

2.Where did he buy it?(State and City)

3.What was the name of the company he bought it from?


Well, since no one has answered in over 2 days, I'll go ahead, since I just happen to know this stuff pretty well due to the legal issues.

1.When did Bill Gates buy MS-DOS?(year)
BonusA.What month?
BonusB.What day?

Trick Question.... he did not buy "MSDOS", but he did rip off a guy who wrote a CP/M clone called QDOS, and wound up paying $75,000 for something MS did not write, but they licensed it to IBM!! And while IBM was in stalled negotiations with DRI (Digital Research Incorporated)!!

Patterson (first name = ??) got ripped off, and it reminds me of the "purchase of Manhatan Island for $16" type of deal, esp. in retrospect!! IBM & MS came to tems in mid 1981 (shortly before the PC launch in Nov 1981) when IBM & DRI did not agree on a price for CP/M, and MS marketed "MS-DOS" to OEMs (people making BM PC clones), while IBM marketed "PC-DOS" with its PCs.

Kildall (DRI founder) was hacked at Gates to his dying day, and years later, when MS illegally put the DR-DOS OS out of business (I still have DR & all its upgrades to fix the MS sabotages of it, on original 5.25" floppy), DRI filed a lawsuit (circa 1994 I think). The DR-DOS case is still in Utah Federal Court.


2.Where did he buy it?(State and City)

Gate, Allen, and Patteson were from Seattle, and I'm sure it was Seattle, WA (where I live ;) ).


3.What was the name of the company he bought it from?

Well, if you're referring to Patterson's company, it was something like "Seattle Software".

But the "real" owners of it, as Patterson was demonstrating in Byte Magazine when I was in college, were DRI.... it was a clone of CP/M. The case is still cited in most MS antitrust documents, and in most Pending Lawsuits against MS (including the DR case for DR-DOS of the early 90's in Utah). But the $50,000 (plus $25,000 for the original licensing fee) was paid to Patterson's company.

So I say "Seattle Software".


IMHO, MS should be ripped apart and restitution paid going all the way back... but some might just call it capitalist hardball, LOL... :)

This should be close....

PS, I don't know the day of month, and will guess August as the month, based on milestone timing (November minus 4 = August).


:)

:eek: YOU are correct! I see you are keeping the lets get those dirty bastards at MS alive! I hate MS too!:mad: Only prob is now almost all the games are made espically for Windoze! Oh... yeah your turn. Also where was DRI based? I think I heard of the name before but can't remember.

Originally posted by PaleHorse76
Besides all of this KoC broke it already and got to continue with the questioning....

Hey! Stop accusing me! It was a honest mistake and now it is over!:D

I've looked some stuff up to check my details, and here are some corections:

1. Kildall was Gary Kildall, founder of DRI in 1976. Gates visited Kildall in November of 1977, and licenced the use of CP/M for $50,000 as the underlying OS for his BASIC, FORTRAN, and other languages development for the PC. This was all 8-bit CPU stuff.

2. In July, 1980, IBM asked MS to develop BASIC, FORTRAN, COBOL for its upcoming 16-bit PC.

3. IBM still needed an operating system. DRI was already planning a 16-bit version of CP/M, called CP/M-86. Microsoft had obtained a preliminary version, but had no right to sub-license.

4. From one court document,

Microsoft moved quickly to "design" an operating system for IBM. Tim Paterson, a small Seattle-based OEM named Seattle Computer Products, had already designed in April 1980 his own 16-bit CP/M "clone," i.e., it mirrored CP/M's function calls. He dubbed it QDOS -- Quick and Dirty Operating System. On January 6, 1981, Microsoft licensed QDOS (subsequently dubbed "86-DOS") for $25,000 -- while obtaining a right to sub-license, and without disclosure of IBM's interest. Exhibit 6 (License Agreement). Just prior to launch of the IBM PC in August 1981, Microsoft decided to buy the product outright. On July 27, 1981, Microsoft paid an additional $50,000 to Seattle Computer. Exhibit 7. Microsoft had its DOS, without any original work of its own, for a total price of $75,000.

5. So the actual company name was "Seattle Computer Products", not my guess of "Seattle Software" :).

6. Also, the PC was launched in August of 1981 :eek: .

7. I guess On July 27, 1981 is as good a date as any for Gates' "acquisition" of the OS that would be renamed "MS-DOS" when the PC came out.

8. BTW, another tidbit from court docuemtns: Microsoft's own programmers have readily acknowledged what was done in cloning CP/M. Only two people at Microsoft worked on MS-DOS 1.0. One of them, Chris Peters, later testified when Seattle Computer Products sued Microsoft concerning the purchase of QDOS: "Again, from the programmer's point of view, MS-DOS 1.0 was a clone of CP/M."



Well, time for a new question.

Here is an easy one:

What do the following computer-related acronyms stand for:

software
BASIC
APL
COBOL
FORTRAN
PCDOS
CP/M
BIOS

hardware
CPU
CDROM
RAM


You need to get 9 of 10 correct (Cutting some slack)... from memory :).

hmmm i will try.....
1)basic:kind of computer language i think
2)apl:hmm a clone of aol?
3)cobol:the thing that starts your computer that the command
4)fortran:never heard of it
5)pcdos:uhm later version of dos?
6)cp/m:in the early computer age that was the command to start computer
7)bios:kind of dos
8)cpu:the computer
9)the cd rom drive.to put cd roms in it.(like the cd for civ3:D)
10)ram(thats the memory)
i dont know about stuff like that but i gave it a shot.plz dont hack me!;)

Nice try Philippe! I must say I really enjoyed reading your reply, but alas you get an "E" for Effort, but 0 for 10.

BTW, an "acronym" means what is the abbgeviation. Examples:

BTW = By The Way
USA = United States of America
MS = MicroSoft
ROTFL = Rolling On The Floor Laughing

....
and so on :)

EDIT: Spelling

BASIC: Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code
APL: this one actually has two, one being simply A Programming Language and two being Apple Public License
COBOL: I know this is a programming language, but I can't think of what it means.
FORTRAN: FORmula TRANslation (used exculsively for mathematics applications)
PCDOS: Personal Computer Disk Operating System
CP/M: Cycles Per Minute
BIOS: Basic Input/Output System (or Basic Input/Output Operating System
CPU: Central Processing Unit
CDROM: Compact Disc Read Only Memory
RAM: Random Access Memory

looks like 9 out of 10 to me...

COBOL - COmmon Business-Oriented Language

BASIC: Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code (my 3rd
programming language)

APL: A Programming Language (my 2nd programming language)

COBOL: Common Business-Oriented Language (never learned it!)

FORTRAN: FORmula TRANslation (my first programming language; used mostly for mathematics applications, but even word processing programs have ben written with it! ;) )

PCDOS: Personal Computer Disk Operating System

CP/M: Control Program/ Microprocessors or "Control Program for Microprocessors" (Digital Research Inc.... all MSDOS/PCDOS and most Windows is based on it)

BIOS: Basic Input/Output System

CPU: Central Processing Unit

CDROM: Compact Disc Read Only Memory

RAM: Random Access Memory



Score was 8/10 + 1 bonus (for the Apple reply to APL that I had not though of)....

great job!
:goodjob:

Your turn, Blue Monday!

EDIT: Added bonus.

Originally posted by starlifter

Your turn, Blue Monday!

Ok...um...Where's the ANY key? :D








No seriously, where the hell is it? I can't find the damn thing.

Where's the ANY key?

That's easy !!!

I have nooo idea what you're talking about! :lol:

Are you looking at an English keyboard? A PC keyboard that is?

In a broad context, I have an ANY key on one of my aircraft system computers. It's bottom row, 2nd from the left, as I recall.

?

I think hes refering to those messages that say 'Press Any Key'.:D:crazy:

I saw that one somewhere (on a hacked screenshot, though). ;)

Come on guys! I really need to know where the ANY key is. I have this window that keeps telling me to "press any key" but I can't find the damn thing! :D

OK OK, I'll give you guys a real computer question. What is the largest Hard Drive yet created? this was in the teck news a month or so ago

Hmmm, 150 GB?

Originally posted by King of Camelot
Hmmm, 150 GB?

You're gonna have to think a lot bigger than that...a lot bigger. Hint: It's an IBM prototype.

Hmmm... I have not read what IBM has been up to for 6 months. I normally am right on top of Hard Drive development. A working PC HD, I'd say 320 GB. Bu tknowing IBM, they have probably got a lab model working at 1.2TB (1,200 GB).

?

You said largest hard drive yet created (I'm assuming that refers to memory, not physical space it takes up), so is this hard drive meant for a PC or is it something to be used in a supercomputer?

1terrabyte!

If you're talking about that one made using nanotechnology, I think it said something like 10GB per 7 square milimetres... Not sure about that actual size, though.

Well, Phillipe was closest so I might as well give it to him. Late in April IBM sent out a press release saying that they had just manufactured a working 700 Gigabyte HD. If anyone knows of a larger one, please correct me, but this is the largest one I remember hearing of. I'm sure there are larger ones on the drawing boards as we speak.

ok thanks.i heard somewhere of a 1terrabyte harddrive:cool:
here is my question:who is the inventor of the mouse and on what is he now working on?
this should be a easy one

Doug Englebart, but I have no clue what he is working now.
Perhaps a cat ? :D

name right but other part not.he is not a cat maker.I MAKE CATS!;)

An implant to allow you to control your computer via your mind.

ok ainwood i think its right but my memory is a bit misted.i ate too much so i will give you the next question:D

:lol: - It was just a random guess!

My question: Who first developed Visual Basic, when was it first released, and what was the MS internal "code name" (which is still represented in some class names!)

1)Dunno
2)1987?
3)Dunno

1 out of 3 maybe?:D

Nope, not 1987. :D

I just saw this question a few days ago soemwhere... maybe at Gamecatcher or something. I'll hold off on an answer so others can have a chance :). Give some hints to people, to keep it going each day :).

Hint:

1.) Not a MS employee (AFAIK). Initials AC
2.) Later than 1987.
3.) The code name is the first-part of the (internal :D) class-name given to MS Office userforms.


Note: I am away for the next 10 days. I'll leave it to Starlifter or PH to come to a consensus on who is "right" with this question.

1)Dunno
2)1989?
3)Dunno(I a dumb****, I know, don't have MS Office):D

Visual Basic was first released in 1991. I dont' know who made it, but John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz made BASIC in 1964.

Good thing my mom's Visual Basic book was on my book shelf:D

The developer of VB was Alan Cooper IIRC.
The very first prototype of VB that was called project 'Ruby' was released and bought by microsoft in 1988, but VB1 was only released in 1991.
No idea about the internal code name - ruby? :confused:

Jefei05 was teh first to get the year right, but IceBlaZe had all 3 parts right!


Since ainwood had to leave, I'll pass the next question of to IceBlaZe for getting 3/3 :)

Okay.
My question is: What is the theoretical max size of an HardDisk we can achieve today, what technology will it use, and who discovered that technology?

about 3 terrabute and its with polymeren and the company is a German company but i forgot the name:(

Actually I thought it was a one terrabyet japanese one: http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/01/04/25/010425hncube.xml?0425wepm

Maybe I missed some news, can you find that news story philippe? :)

well that was a answer from from the highest hd that exist but the theoratical is 3 terrabyte gonna give you the source

BUT its now already a 10 terrabyte!http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/q22000/gee20001012002609.htm

You guys are coming up with the questions and answers without the "battle of the databases", right ;)....

About hard drives, this is my theory.... If IBM ain't doing it, then it ain't a usable Hard Drive, LOL...

IBM = :king: of HDs.

:)

hey i knew there was a new hardrive i read somewhere a few days ago and now i give proof

So is it Philippe's question, IceBlaZe?

The "acronym" BASIC wasn't really an acronym at all; rather it is a "bacronym". That is, it was written in all-capitals, so people assumed it was an acronym, even though it wasn't, and tried working out what it stood for. Several variants emerged, the most popular being "Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code".

Similiarly, apparently IBM once tried to tell people that the term BYTE stood for "Binary-Yoked Table Entity" or some such nonsense, presumably because they couldn't handle the idea of such a serious term having sprung from humour. Thankfully such nonsense never caught on.

Sirp is correct. And yeah it's the young Belgian's turn ;)

ok thanks iceblaze:)
here is my question: ok once in a university they tested the father of the internet:they sended for the first time a message from 1 computer to another computer.
when did this happen and in wich university?

From memory there were 3 universities involved in the states.
ARPA net which started as a research project about 1967?
And from there DARPA net about 1969? Which lead the specifications and development of TCP/IP protocol for NORAD.

At a guess

Michigan
MIT

Without looking it up I just don't know?

well this is a kind of broad question. You could give it to somewhere in west London for inventing packet swtiching or to MIT for email.

edit: bah beaten to it...

ok sorry guys but i forgot the answer.who will take the next question?

WHAT? MIT didn't have a damn thing to do with the creation of the internet/ARPAnet. It was three Universities in the western states: Stanford, UCLA, and the University of Utah (my school).

Excerpt from: http://webopedia.internet.com/TERM/A/ARPANET.html

The precursor to the Internet, ARPANET was a large wide-area network created by the United States Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA). Established in 1969, ARPANET served as a testbed for new networking technologies, linking many universities and research centers. The first two nodes that formed the ARPANET were UCLA and the Stanford Research Institute, followed shortly thereafter by the University of Utah.

MIT is known for making the @ symbol IIRC...actually I doubt most of the places who are rumoured to have 'invented' the internet actually did - I expect it's some guy in a small uni somewhere who no one's ever heard of who got all the credit taken away from him but ho hum.

ok bluemonday gets the question.

This poster has already been warned for his behavoir in this post. Please do not report this post anymore. Thanks for your help in this matter.
-PaleHorse76

While I have not provided anything of value as yet to establish my standing in this 'community', I cannot stand silent any longer in the face of the personal affont against me by "Filleep".
. I have held back til now out of respect for the friendship that Pesoloco has shown to him.
. He has wasted that 'community value' by repeatedly proving himself to be an Arrogant Moron.
. No one believes he is really only fourteen or fifteen years old, yet anyone can be convinced that he is limited by a sophmoric mental developement. That, coupled with the audacity to presume that His Word is sufficient to quiet any voice he deems "Annoying" puts him right on the line for the definition of Psycopathy.
Point One: "Filleep" does not know the proper use of simple common terms such as "Spam", as used on the Internet. Conclusion: He is a Moron.
Point Two: "Filleep" can't provide anything of more value to the community than the seeping pustulant excreta from his oral sphincter. Raise your hand, please if your life was enhanced by the knowledge of which mayonnaise he preferred, or any of the other 1853 drool samples he has graced us with. Hmmm, no hands? why not? Which brings up:
Point Three: Diety? Now, ~that~ is hubris! Does voluminous output = Godliness? Then there is a bull I'd like to show you, because his pen is hip-deep with 'Output'.

Conclusion? The Voice of the community is the one that matters most here. Is "Filleep" an Arrogant Moron, or is "Sooky" a (oh! the shame!) "Spammer"?
.
Or, (C), Does anyone care?
.
That is the major issue, and related to general good behavior on the Internet. 'Netiquette' has long ago established that 'Flaming' is not much fun for any but those engaged in it, thus, generally bad behavior.
Do Not Insult Others. No one wants to hear that they are 'annoying', or a 'poopiehead'.
Know Your Limits. If you are a child or a Newbie, don't go to the deep end of the pool. There is always another Netizen who is more easily insulted than you, and they may also be more vicious in their retribution, with DoS, backdoor entry, 'social engineering' and other techniques that will leave the young newbie wondering why he can't boot his 'puter anymore.
There is also always someone more stoopider, but if they approach with a reasonable measure of humilty, they may be able to get good advice and encouragement from those more experienced.

This has been a very fine Quiz. I am sorry to ruin the fun for others here.
My point has been that some children need to learn that their actions will have repercusions that will follow them to where they do not want.
Often, bad consequence will end when appropriate humility is displayed.

Helpful advice to suchomimus:

Delete the current content of your three attacks (above this post) on Philippe before a Mod finds them. You are way out of line posting that stuff, particularly in this forum. If you have a problem with Philippe, simply contact a Mod.

:hammer:

Yep, I agree with SL, you should do something about it or expect proper mod action.

1st rule break: Attack against another poster, even if it´s not in a flaming way, it is one.

2nd rule break: SPAM, consequitive posting is considered as such.

3rd rule break: SPAM again, going off-topic in a thread is also considered as such. :p


Could someone please repost the question or post the new one to get this back on-topic?!
:D

Just finished reading the other thread where suchomimus was posting and I would advice suchomimus to delete his posts there as well.

philippe may have a high postcount and sometimes is very enthousiastic in replying but what suchomimus is posting is violating at least half of the rules.

:nono:

All right, here's a question for you guys that might need a little research (I know I had to research it before I found an answer):

How many transistors are on the Intel Pentium 4 CPU? Several answers are acceptable depending on which model you specify.

For a bonus qusetion, How many transistors were on Intel's first chip, the 4004, introduced in 1971?

With research allowed. Number of transistors for the Pentium 4 ranges from 42 million to 55 million. The 4004 had "just" 2300 transistors.

Close enough?

These are must-research questions :p

Originally posted by IceBlaZe
These are must-research questions :p

Since Blue Monday indicated that research was allowed I did. Like the memory questions much more though.

You got it all, beammeuppy. The first P4s manufactured using the .18 micron technology fitted 42 million transistors onto the chip, whilst the latest P4s (2.2 and 2.4 GHz) using the new Northwood core and the .13 micron manufacture can fit 55 million transistors.

I made this a research allowable question because I felt that this was a thing only hardcore hardware know-it-alls would know off the top of their head.

http://www.hothardware.com/reviews/images/p424g/mooreslawgraph2.gif
http://www.hothardware.com/reviews/images/p424g/transistors.gif

Hmm, we actually learned that at university, in several lectures.
And when visiting Infineon last week, we learned about it again.
So there is no real need to research such a thing, at least for some of us.
:D

Guess it is my turn now!

Years ago when computing was primarely about hardware and the rest came next IBM was by far the biggest. One company was not only 2nd largest but also anti-IBM to the level where its products were intentionally designed so that it was very hard / impossible to interface IBM with their own products.

Name company, it's founder and year of foundation.

From memory of course!

puh, no idea, maybe DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation, or something like that)?

apple
1976
but its founder:confused:

Steve Jobs and Stephen Wozniak are the founders of Apple Computer Co. in the garage of Job´s family in 1976.
At the awesome age of 21 and 26 respectively. :eek:
:D

It is not Apple, they probably qualify for most but they were never 2nd after IBM. This one is not just about home computing to give a hint.

Wild stab in the dark here: Compaq

I'm gonna give it a shot. Dell.

One more hint: 5 responses, one is in the right direction. And I recommend to read my other hint as well.;)

Complete, COMPLETE stab in the dark but is it xerox?

I know they developed the GUI first and apple and MS stole it but I am not sure about anything else.

Didn't expect this one to be so hard to guess! Probably I am getting to old.

Some more hints, the company was eventually bought by one of the current industry giants, I remember it so well because I got an invitation years ago for their 30 year celebration. Also, one the answers already contains the correct company name.

Just give us the answer!:D Or what the name rhymes with?:)

Ok, well if the 'previously-named' company is Compaq, then it's Rod Canion in 1982 - I know this because I was once an employee of said corporation - but if it's Dell then it's Micheal Dell but I have no idea of the year.

Originally posted by King of Camelot
Just give us the answer!:D Or what the name rhymes with?:)

What the heck... (The name rhymes on that).

COMPAC!

Ok Beammeuppy, Its been more than 5 days and no one has met all the requirements. So tell us the answer, please.:D

It actually surprised me that this question would stand for 5 days.

The company is DEC or Digital Equipment Corporation, as guessed by KaeptnOvi, its founder and one of the greatest IBM haters ever is Ken Olsen who founded DEC in 1957.

It was the first computer company big in size that wasn't an IBM look-alike. Best known products are the PDP and Vax series which were used mainly in non-admin environments. I made my first CAD drawing on a PDP-8 in 1985 or so (64k memory).

DEC was eventually crushed between Intel-based servers and Sun / HP servers and was acquired by Compaq.

Since KaeptnOvi got the name right next question is for him.

Oh now I have to think of something intelligent, hmmm, ok here it comes:

What is the Tri-State, explain:

Hey C'mon guys it's not that hard, or is it?

Ok, here's a hint: it has something to do with bus architecture...

Bus architecture...computers...Tri-State? How are these all connected?:confused:

Well with "bus" I didn't mean the big yellow things that drive children to school :D, more like data-bus, adress-bus, etc..

Oh, wasn't sure there for a minute!;) You, could have been a little....woozy...
As for the question, hmmm.........dunno.

Well, since I study IT, and that is a combination of EE and CS here, I found the question too easy! :p
That´s why I didn´t want to answer yesterday (and it was also more like today 3am when I read it first ;)).

Here goes:

A tristate gate is a logical unit which has an output line that can achieve 3 different states. High, low (binary 1 and 0) and the tristate itself, which switched the gate to a high-impedance state, therefore disabling it.
This third state is achieved by another input line, the CE (chip enable) line. If this line is set to low, then the chip is disabled, therefore not fulfilling it´s logical operations.
In a bus system this is used to enable access for one client only, since the bus can only transmit data from 1 point to another. :yeah:

That should be enough for the basics.
:D

Yeah, judged by the sheer mass of replies this question was really way too easy :D

wow, that was much more detailed than I was looking for. All I wanted was that it is for example used for DMA (Direct Memory Access) bypass the CPU. But you want to do it perfect, ok, fine by me :D

Your turn

By the way what is CS (I imagine you're not referring to counter-strike here, and I think EE stands for Electo Engineering (sp?), but I can't find an explanation for CS other than Chip Select which seems not to be applicable here)

Computer Science????

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science! ;)

Now for my question:

CPU work can be divided into 3 basic steps/cycles. Name them!
:D

Originally posted by Lucky
Now for my question:

CPU work can be divided into 3 basic steps/cycles. Name them!:D

1. Fetch instruction from memory

2. Load into ALU

3. Execute.

{Repeat}

Not sure if the nomenclature is right...

Not bad, but not what I wanted. :p

You have described a complete cycle, without naming it, but each step here is a seperate cycle in itself, with another global name. And those are still made up of even smaller steps, the last name I want.
So Name those 3 divisions/subdivisions that make up one CPU instruction!

Try again.
:D

1 terabyte?

Originally posted by watto
1 terabyte?

emm, spam? :D

on topic: I'm not sure what you mean but I'll give it a shot:

Do you mean:

M1 - OP Code Fetch
M2 - Memory Read/Write
M3 - Memory Read/Write

Originally posted by KaeptnOvi


on topic: I'm not sure what you mean but I'll give it a shot:



I think he means things like; even though you have an OP code it needs to be decoded before the correct action can proceed. Different generations of processors have different considerations when executing code so you can get into wait states and UV pipes depending on even how the code was originally compiled.

CB

All micro processors use the same division of steps and cycles that make up one complete instruction. An example of one instruction would be "Write data to memory".

There are 3 divisions of every instruction in every processor that I want! :yeah:

The smallest division of all cycles is the clock of the CPU.
Now I want the name of:

1. The smallest step (equal to one or two clock steps in most CPUs)
2. The smallest cycle (made up of the steps above, describes a subinstruction, complete in itself, one example would be "Get OP-code from memory")
3. The complete cycle of one CPU command (should be obvious)!

After easing this up a little, I also have a bonus question:
What is the cycle "Get OP-code from memory!" called?

As a cycle of the 2nd type, it´s name will also most likely reveal the name of that type.
:D

OK

Hmm, another 24h gone with the wind and without an answer! :eek:

Are there no hardware cracks here? This is the basic of every machine code programming. Not always known by high-level programmers, but everyone ever having to do assembler programming should know this.
Come on!
:D

Hey Lucky, looks like you have us all stumped here, sorry I must surrender to this question :D

You are just too smart.Please another question, a easier one.

Well, ok. :yeah:

Here is the answer:
1. T-state - smallest step of CPU work, 1 or 2 clock steps, depending on CPU type

2. machine cycle (M-cycle) - describes a complete sub-instruction, e.g. "set interrupt", made up of several T-states

3. instruction cycle - a complete CPU instruction, includes several machine cycles

Now as an amendment to this question, I´ll ask the next one.

Name at least 5 examples of basic machine cycles (excluding the one above)!
EVERY CPU instruction starts with the same machine cycle. Name it!

HINT: The answer for the second question was already mentioned!
:D

Hmm, I tried to remember my Technical Computer Science I course (for the original question), but I had severe translation problems I guess.
Could you (Lucky) answer two questions, please?
1. Translate the three terms into German. :D
2. Are you talking about RISC, CISC or both architectures?

I know the following levels:
- Machine code
- Pseudo-commands (like "add")
- Instructions (like "add $t1, $t2, $t1)

Maybe I should add that I learned that on the examle of a MIPS R2000 simulator. And maybe I should also add that I forgot most of that course. :lol:

The translation was the bigger problem for me, too, but I compared with some native English introductions to CPU architecture and it was similar or even equally explained there. :yeah:

to 1.
1. T-Zustand - kleinster Operationsschritt der CPU
2. M-Zyklus, Maschinenzyklus, Operationszyklus - eine Teiloperation eines Befehls
3. Befehlszyklus - Zeitspanne für die Abarbeitung eines kompletten Befehls

to 2.
Well, RISC architecture is more or less a downgrade from the CISC (hence "reduced instruction set computer"). But the basic division would stay the same, RISC computers also work an the basis of a clock, have partial operations (sub-instructions), etc. But the RISC architecture allows more than that.
BUT I was talking generally about a CPU, as used in PCs and other computer, therefore about CISC architecture. Microprocessors using RISC architecture are not generally referred to as CPUs, this name was "invented" for PCs and workstations.
So the answer would be BOTH, but specifically for CISC architecture.


The levels you mention are programming levels, I wanted the actual hardware levels (cycles) of the CPU. The steps it goes through when processing one instruction, which can be written in machine code, pseudo code or any higher programming language.
:D

Thats it, I've had enough of this sh!t. We haven't had an answerable question in almost two weeks.

Why, thanks for being so polite and subtle! :rolleyes:

I already posted a new one! And the old one was only 4 days old, with several answers posted.
I´m sorry if that´s too hard for you, but only software questions all the time are boring. :p

Here is the current question again:
Name at least 5 examples of basic machine cycles (e.g. "set interrupt")!
EVERY CPU instruction starts with the same machine cycle. Name it!

Several machine cycles have been named already, especially the one that´s always the first.
:D

Five bucks says this one goes unanswered too.

Well the first is the "Get OP-code from memory" that you already mentioned.
Others are (I think) "Get value from register in memory", "add", "break if equal", "jump register", or "load byte"

But I'm still not sure what you mean. Do you mean things like above or the actual procession cycle in the CPU? Like "the program counter does..." or "then the MBR..."?

For the new question I just want the names of an actual machine cycle.

"Get OP-code from memory" is always the first cycle, the M1-cycle. Correct!

"Read from memory" would be another machine cycle.

ADD would be an instruction, as it is composed of several machine cycles. Break... too, jump also and load too.

Those you mentioned last are assembler commands or machine code commands. The resemble a complete instruction. But they all need several basic steps to achieve their goal.

In a CPU you have several command lines, write (WR), read (RD), interrupt (INT), memoryrequest (MREQ), I/O-request (IORQ), wait, the data bus, the address bus and a few others.
They are set to low or high to show what the CPU is currently doing. For example, let´s say the value '5' lies at the data bus and a certain memory adress at the address bus. And we want to write the '5' to memory, so we have to set MREQ to high (we want access to the memory and when we set WR to high, too, the data is written to the memory, at the address specified.
Such a cycle would be 1 machine cycle. I want the name for this (easy) and others.

We need to remember that all memory and all IO-units are on the same bus. Interrupts are needed to coordinate the communication.

Now let´s just say we want the CPU to read a value from memory and print that value to an I/O-device.
For such an instruction, we need
1. OP-code fetch cycle (M1-cycle) (already mentioned)
2. "Read value from memory" cycle (mentioned)
3. ...
4. ...

Now what could be 3. and 4.? First we need to tell the I/O-device that we have data for it and then we have to send it. What would be the machine cycles needed?
And what would be other ones?
:D

Ah thanks, now I at least know what you are talking about. :)

And the example you gave (of reading and printing) was actually a question on a worksheet I had to do once. But unfortunately I had already decided to switch to math at that point and therefore only learned for the oral exam, passed it and forgot most. :D
I remember though, that we didn't use the cycles but had to give every single action, like "setting high the data bus", "setting low the address bus". In other words: a communication protocol.

I could easily look it up but that wouldn't be in the spirit of the game.

Well, the cycle names are rather descriptive, and the ones missing also rather easy to derive. I already more or less wrote what those machine cycles would have to do, all you need is a descriptive name for it. :yeah:

A sidenote: There are much more than 4 steps required for the actual instruction. Those are only the 4 basic steps. For example before the interrupt can be processed, you have to load the number of the specific interrupt routine into a certain register in memory. Then, during the interrupt, several other machine cycles are used, for example to save the state before the interrupt into memory.


So now everything is more or less said, only someone to write down a name for step 3 and 4 and maybe derive others from that is needed.
:D

However, don't you think BlueMonday is quite right about his remark (though it was a little - well - direct)?
After all you need very extensive knowledge of the topic, and not many people have either an interest in this specific, for most rather academical, aspects of the hardware, or are studying computer science.

Okay, I admit a whole lot of people is studying computer science... :lol:

I have stopped watching this thread because it requires too much on hand knowledge which makes some of these questions impossible to answer. As I stated earlier in the thread I thought it would be a good idea to allow researching...but I was overruled by every one else participating. I am really suprised that Hitro was able to answer this question without looking it up. Good job Hitro! :goodjob:

I'm almost too ashamed to post here anymore, I won't tell you what I am studying, but somehow I'm just not able to recall these things from memory.

I'll try another stab in the dark though for no. 3: could that be IO-Request (IORQ, Ok, it's not really a cycle just a signal...)

"Set the INT-request" could be a name for the 3rd cycle, yes! :yeah:

And for the 4th a name would be "Write to I/O".
As I said, rather descriptive.
The main machine cycles are:

M1-cycle - fetch OP-code from memory
Memory write cycle
Memory read cycle
I/O write cycle
I/O read cycle
WAIT-cycle
maskable interrupt (INT) cycle
not-maskable (NMI) cycle

and others.
So, for example, the instruction "Write data to memory" would require a M1-cycle and a memory write cycle.
That´s all, nothing really difficult. :eek:

Now here is something really easy:
Which part of the CPU does the actual calculations?

Also already mentioned in this thread.
:D

That would be the Arithmetic-Logical Unit (ALU).

Correct! :yeah:

Go on.
:D

Ok, this shouldn't be horrible, 3 parter.

1. Who came up with the first design for what we would call
a computer?

2. Who built the first working computer?

3. When was it built?

Originally posted by starlifter

BTW, an "acronym" means what is the abbgeviation. Examples:

BTW = By The Way
USA = United States of America
MS = MicroSoft
ROTFL = Rolling On The Floor Laughing



startlifter, you are very knowledgeable about computers. But actually an "acronym" is a special kind of abbreviation. RADAR is an acronym because you pronounce it like it looks. IBM is an abbreviation, not an acronym. (Although there is a kind of IBM acronym used in a joke I heard in Spanish in Mexico. In Spanish the letters IBM sound like "Y ve me" as in "Y ve me a traer una cerveza...").

I have heard the word "acronym" used very often in the way you do. Maybe that will become a meaning of the word if enough people use it that way...

;) ;) ;)

Originally posted by Lucky

"Get OP-code from memory" is always the first cycle, the M1-cycle. Correct!


I don't think it's quite that simple any more. Modern cpus prefetch chunks of memory containing instructions and try to decode some things in advance, and can decode multiple possible instruction paths in parallel.

Of course, you do have to get the instructions from memory, but they don't always process instructions sequentially. That is, they might be processing the opcode on one instruction, fetching a memory operand for another, and performing an immediate operation like shifting on another, all simultaneously.

Originally posted by Serutan
Ok, this shouldn't be horrible, 3 parter.

1. Who came up with the first design for what we would call
a computer?

2. Who built the first working computer?

3. When was it built?

1. I guess the conventional answer would be Babbage. But I could throw out names like Jaquard, Von Neumann too.

2. The government

3. early 1940s

Originally posted by sumthinelse


startlifter, you are very knowledgeable about computers. But actually an "acronym" is a special kind of abbreviation. RADAR is an acronym because you pronounce it like it looks. IBM is an abbreviation, not an acronym. (Although there is a kind of IBM acronym used in a joke I heard in Spanish in Mexico. In Spanish the letters IBM sound like "Y ve me" as in "Y ve me a traer una cerveza...").

I have heard the word "acronym" used very often in the way you do. Maybe that will become a meaning of the word if enough people use it that way...

;) ;) ;)

This is a bit OT ;)

But I must disagree - somewhat! IBM is an acronym! An abbreviation is a word that has been shortened, by removing letters. Eg. Doesn't is an abbreviated version of does not. An acronynm is where the first (usually) letters of several words are used to represent the other words. IBM is an acronym for International Business Machines. Because letters have been removed from the whole, it is an abbreviation, but it is still and acronym as well. :)

ainwood, I looked in Webster's dictionary and it agrees with you about "acronym." My Oxford dictionary agrees with me, so I'll say we are both right. And starlifter too. You are probably more right than I am, though. Oxford is for British english. I'll shut up about this now. :)

1. Who came up with the first design for what we would call
a computer?

2. Who built the first working computer?

3. When was it built?
1. A dude named Babbage. he developed an idea of the Difference Engine, but it was his Analytical Engine (general-purpose steam powered computer)that is actually the first design of what most would call a modern computer.

2. The first actual working "computer" is much debated, but most people settle on ENIAC, though the case can be made for the Harvard Mark I or the English Colossus as well. I don't remember who the actual designer of ENIAC was, but a dude named Ekhart was part of the effort.

3. ENIAC came online in about 1944, but the Brits started using Colossus in 1943 to help crack the German Enigma messages, as part of the ULTRA effort. The world did not know about Colossus until decades later, and in fact the British used the Colossus until about 1964 or so against the Soviets, then destroyed the last machine and most records of it.

Personally, I give the nod to the Brits. But 60 years later, the computer seems to have a hundred fathers, LOL.

Just for completeness about "acronym"....

From the American Heritage Dictionary:

ac·ro·nym
n.

A word formed from the initial letters of a name, such as WAC for Women's Army Corps, or by combining initial letters or parts of a series of words, such as radar for radio detecting and ranging.

Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.


from Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary:

Main Entry: ac·ro·nym <http://www.webster.com/images/audio.gif>
Pronunciation: 'a-kr&-"nim
Function: noun
Etymology: acr- + -onym
Date: 1943
: a word (as NATO, radar, or snafu) formed from the initial letter or letters of each of the successive parts or major parts of a compound term

© 2002 by Merriam-Webster, Incorporated
Merriam-Webster Privacy Policy


Abilty to "pronounce" the acronym is not a requirement.... Sidenote: the US navy likes to pronounce them by taking more than just the 1st lettter (e.g., COMSUBPAC), the US Air Forces does not care (e.g., ACM).


;)

starlifter, I aplogize for the digession. All the examples you have given agree with my initial premise (wac and snafu are pronounceable, IBM isn't, at least in English) but more than one definition refutes it. I thought I was right but admit I am wrong.

Your answers about the first computer are better than mine too, but I hope the author accepts mine anyway, because I have a good question to pose. :) ;) ;)

Your answers about the first computer are better than mine too, but I hope the author accepts mine anyway, because I have a good question to pose.
His question was kindof too general, as there is a great deal of "debate" about what is the best/first/actual etc. computer. Depending on how one "defines" computer (e.g., electical, electronic, mechanical, programmable, electrically programmable, etc. etc. we can both easily be way off of what he's looking for. But if he takes my answer, I'll pass it on to you, and you can ask your question. The real fun for me is reading the questions and answers you guys come up with!! :)

Originally posted by starlifter

1. A dude named Babbage. he developed an idea of the Difference Engine, but it was his Analytical Engine (general-purpose steam powered computer)that is actually the first design of what most would call a modern computer.


Yep. I noticed a mention of the Jacquard loom; but while I think it should be
considered part of the evolutionary tree that lead to computers, I don't think it
should be considered a computer itself.

Originally posted by starlifter


2. The first actual working "computer" is much debated, but most people settle on ENIAC, though the case can be made for the Harvard Mark I or the English Colossus as well. I don't remember who the actual designer of ENIAC was, but a dude named Ekhart was part of the effort.

3. ENIAC came online in about 1944, but the Brits started using Colossus in 1943 to help crack the German Enigma messages, as part of the ULTRA effort. The world did not know about Colossus until decades later, and in fact the British used the Colossus until about 1964 or so against the Soviets, then destroyed the last machine and most records of it.

Personally, I give the nod to the Brits. But 60 years later, the computer seems to have a hundred fathers, LOL.

Not what I had in mind. The one I have in
mind wasn't really practical becuase it was too slow. But IIRC it was
quite reliable, and did see service during WWII.

I guess there's no satisfying some people. Lucky was
crucified for being too esoteric, and I get hammered for being too vague. :D

There's nothing wrong with yours or Lucky's questions :).... we all learn something new from them, heheh...

But you'll have to give us a hint, narrowing down what you're looking for. As I recall, the Harvard Mark I was about 500 times slower that ENIAC. But many people consider the Mark I a calculator, and not a computer, and I'm in league with them.

I personally consider Babbage's Analytical Engine the first true computer ever designed, though obviously it is neither electronic nor electromechanical. In fact, it was never fully built.
As far as I'm personally concerned, even though it was very specialized, I consider the Brit's electro-mechanical marvel of Colossus to be the 1st modern working computer, despite the storage and transport medium.

Sooo...... maybe you can describe what you view as the definition of computer, e.g., mechanical, electronic, electro-mechanical, programmable, etc.

:)

OK, in addition to the hint already given, the computer was electromechanical in nature. The person whose name I seek
tried to get funding for a fully electronic computer, but was turned down.

As to Babbage, that's why I said "designed" rather than "built" in my question, as the Analytical Engine never left paper. Also the reason I didn't use words like "electronic", etc. You did note that I said Babbage was correct, yes?

If there's no answer by lunch tomorrow (in the GMT-7 zone), I'll post the answer, and turn it over to Sumthinelse, since he got Babbage first.

starlifter, I sent you email (I am peebles@texas.net) with important info about the next question! Please check your email if you can!

starlifter, I sent you email (I am peebles@texas.net) with important info about the next question! Please check your email if you can!

I didn't get an e-mail yet. Maybe CFC is messed up with the e-mail part. No PM from you, either. But the BBS has been cantankerous for over 7 hours now. I think I'm almost the only one who can post at the moment, albiet with mucho difficulty.

:)

If there's no answer by lunch tomorrow (in the GMT-7 zone), I'll post the answer, and turn it over to Sumthinelse, since he got Babbage first.
No worries :) :)

:goodjob:

Originally posted by starlifter


I didn't get an e-mail yet. Maybe CFC is messed up with the e-mail part. No PM from you, either. But the BBS has been cantankerous for over 7 hours now. I think I'm almost the only one who can post at the moment, albiet with mucho difficulty.



Yup. I think you were. The quoted post appeared about half
an hour after my dismal failure to get in.

Anyway...

The name I was looking for was Karl Zuse. In 1939, he built
a computer using binary arithmetic. But instead of vacuum tubes,
he used telephone switches for bits. The switches were, as
stated previously, reliable, but slow (~3 sec. for multiplications).
He and a friend attempted to get funding from the German government for a fully electronic computer, but were turned down
on the grounds that the war wasn't going to last long enough to justify such a long term investment (IIRC late 1940).

Sumthinelse is up.

The name I was looking for was Karl Zuse. In 1939, he built
a computer using binary arithmetic.
I would not have gotten that one :). The Colossus was largely built with telephone exchange parts, too.

Spycatcher34 was also able to post, as were a couple others during the morning, until about 2pm PST, when the whole BBS went kaput, LOL.

Greetings from the Mekong River! Since this connection is so awful here, I will just make it brief.

COBOL, PASCAL, C, JAVA, etc. are called computer "languages" even though they just tell the computer what to do.

NETBIOS, IPX, AppleTalk, TCP/IP, and SMB are examples of something that is more like a human "language" but we use a different term for these things.

>>> Question: What term do we use instead of "language" for these things?

I'll be back early Monday. Sorry but I can't connect sooner. If you answer this correctly before then and you are sure of your answer, go ahead and post the next question.

Protocols?

Originally posted by starlifter
Protocols?

Correct. This was my intended post but the connection on the Mekong was slow and I didn't have my computer there:

There are 3 questions here. The first should be the easiest, the second a little harder, and the 3rd very difficult. In fact, you can ignore the third question entirely, and answer/not answer any of the questions. The 2nd and third questions are tie breakers.

[list]

1. To ease the effort to program computers, what we call computer "languages" appeared. Examples are Intel, 68000, etc. assembler language, C, FORTRAN, JAVA, etc. But these are not analogous to human languages. Whaat we call a computer "language" is a collection of mnemonics (words) used to control a computer. Human languages, on the other hand, are 2-way and have many more uses than just telling a person what to do.

There are "languages" by which computers can "talk" to each other. Examples are TCP/IP, NETBIOS, Appletalk, IPX, and Bill G's favorite, SMB/CIFS.

Question: What is the common term for all these "languages"?

2. What is a "Sniffer"?

3. (Warning, this is a tough one and it's not related to the first 2!) The Intel 386 (80386) processor had a bug in one of its instructions. The "pop flags" instruction (popf) sometimes allowed interrupts to be enabled during the execution of itself, even if interrupts were disabled before and after the instruction executed. This was a very nasty bug which caused "protected" blocks of code to be non-atomic. I don't know who it was, but somebody found a way to restore flags without enabling interrupts. This instruction sequence replaced only the popf instruction.

Question: What was the instruction sequence used as a workaround instead of the popf instruction?

starlifter, have already answered #1 correctly. You can either post a new question or try to answer #2 and/or #3. Up to you.

2. What is a "Sniffer"?
A sniffer is a software that monitor network packets, and identifies certain patterns, typically addresses, that pass.

Question: What was the instruction sequence used as a workaround instead of the popf instruction?
Don't know, but a guess would be a NOP. I still have an original 486 that was defective. I never had it replaced following the 486 defect mess.



My question:

You've heard of an atomic clock, but what is a dot clock? That is, what does the term mean, and what affects it? And what 2 pieces of hardware are most affected by the dot clock? Why is it important to your eyes?

Originally posted by starlifter

A sniffer is a software that monitor network packets, and identifies certain patterns, typically addresses, that pass.


Don't know, but a guess would be a NOP. I still have an original 486 that was defective. I never had it replaced following the 486 defect mess.



Thanks starlifter. A Sniffer is one example of a protocol analyzer. Also called network monitor, as you said. Suppose you have a problem between client and a server but you don't know which machine the problem occurs on. By using a protocol analyzer you can often see which machine has the problem and thereby cut your debug time dramatically.

This is the answer for question #3.

the cli (clear interrupts) flag protects a critical code section, for example, inside a semaphore. You have a routine that has such a critical section, but you don't know if the routine that called your routine already disabled interrupts. On the 286, people used to do this

pushf (push the flags register, including the interrupt flag)

cli (disable interrupts)

.... (critical section)

popf (pop the flags register. now I have restored the interrupt state that was in effect before the pushf.

However, the 386 had a bug in the popf that allowed an interrupt to occur, and this caused much wailing and gnashing of teeth.

solution - replace popf with:

push cs

push ip

iret (interrupt return - pops ip, cs, and flags in one instruction)



OK, now back to your question....

Dot clock -- here is one definition:

dot clock (DCF)
More formally, `driving clock frequency'; The frequency of the crystal or VCO on your adaptor --- the maximum dots-per-second it can emit.

I believe that "Dot clock" could also refer to the little processor that clocks your display (there exist more than one on the market). Some have tried to replace a chip and gotten into trouble.

dot clock (DCF)
More formally, `driving clock frequency'; The frequency of the crystal or VCO on your adaptor --- the maximum dots-per-second it can emit.

I believe that "Dot clock" could also refer to the little processor that clocks your display (there exist more than one on the market). Some have tried to replace a chip and gotten into trouble.

Outstanding definition!! That is indeed the formal definition, and I myself would probably not have been able to phrase it that well.

What I'm looking for is

2. Some plain words for the other parts, the intent being to explain the use of this in the real world, e.g., with respect to the "bandwidth" rating on your monitor (people probably notice that in general, monitor with higher Bandwidth cost more... until recent years, mucho mucho more dinero).

3. How is the dot clock related mathematically to things like vertical refresh, resolution, etc. (the usual "hype" among comteting monitors!)...

4. What are the names of the 2 pieces of hardware affected/related with the dot clock?

5. Also, how can dot clock relate to your eyesight when using a CRT, in particular.


None of the above are trick questions (don't try to outthink them).... I just like to make sure non-techies can gain something "real world" out of my questions (at least most of them ;) )

Somebody else should finish this answer. I am going to have very limited connect time in the next 2 weeks. Thanks. I don't want to stop progress.

The dot clock stuff is actually just a couple three sentences, nothing cosmic (really). I'll give the hint about the math part:

# of dots: (vertical * horizontal) visible pixels (dots)

Required dot clock is actual Vertical * Horizontal pixes (this includes the unseen, off screen dot scanning).


Dot Clock = (actual V) * (actual H) * (refresh rate)

e.g., for 800 resolution @ 100Hz:

(600+unseen) * (800+unseen) * 100 = over 48,000,000, or over 48MHz bandwidth.

So you probably need a monitor with excess of 50 MHz bandwidth to display 800x600 at 100Hz. The more bandwidth, the higher combos of resolution and refresh you can do.

There is always an unseen part of the scan, BTW....


OK, so that's pretty much parts 2 & 3, leaving the easy parts of 4 & 5 . :)

OK, since no one replied 4 & 5, I'll pass the question to sumthinelse....


4.: The two main peices of hardware are the Video Card and the Monitor.

5. : At higher Dot Clock rates, you can have finer resolutions and higher refresh rates, both of which are easier on your eyes, esp. with CRTs (tubes, as opposed to flat screen LCD/TFTs).



So sumthinelse, you question. If you're on vacation & don't aske for the next day or so, I'll ask another question instead :).

Starlifter, I can't be sure I will have time, so I pass but I will be back in a few days!

OK, here is an easy one:

What is DRM, RIA, and Palladium, in reference to computers and copyright? When is Microsoft on record for deploying hardware and software to take control of your computer from you (e.g., the final say of using software, playing MP3s, etc. is theirs, not yours)?

:eek:

DRM would be "Digital Rights Management" which is a way of making sure (through hard- or softwaresolutions) that only legal software/files can be played on your computer. It would then refuse to playany illegaly acquired files (or any files it "thinks" were illegaly acquired, or files that are not DRM-enabled (don't know the prober word for this mechanism)

Good enough. RIA is Recording Industry Association, and they are pushing for DRM and want MS to do the Palladium thing, supposedly to "protect" their intellectual property, but in reality this is a vast left-wing conspiracy to take freedom away from average computer users and control what you can and cannot do with yout machine.

MS is on record for saying that they want to control your machine by mid 2004. However, knowing a bit about the industry from "inside", I can say that date will slip to the right (e.g., be delayed). The original target was 2002, but they are having lots of problems with scaling up their database to control the entire world's computers. Everyone that is part of the MSN is part of the MS effort to work out those technical problems (whether MSN users are aware of it or not). :(

You question, KaeptnOvi

Uh, I didn't think I'd get the question since I only answered one out of three question and now I have to think of something.....

Ok, since I couldn't think of anything better I'll ask you some acronyms (again) of course all related to computers:

What are:
HAL
RIMM
GPU
ADSL
API
ALU
CMOS
DAC
SMTP
SNMP

Ok, that's enough for now.

ADSL - asymetric digital subscriber line
SMTP - simple mail transfer protocol
GPU - general public license spelt wrong
SNMP - simple network management protocol

API = Application Programming Interface.
CMOS = Something like "Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor"
HAL = evil computer from 1999: a Space oddesy :D

HAL - main comp in the SS in the book 2001 - A space odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
RIMM - Rambus Inline Memory Module (for RDRAM)
GPU - Graphics Processing Unit ("CPU" of the graphics card")
ADSL - Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (new encoding algorithm to increase the data rate possible on old cables)
API - Application Program Interface
ALU - Arithmetic Logic Unit
CMOS - Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor
DAC - Digital Analogue Converter (as opposed to the ADU(ADC))
SMTP - Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (today, POP3 mail servers are more common)
SNMP - Simple Network Management Protocol (set of protocols to manage complex networks, like TCP/IP)

"Ok, that's enough for now. "

I agree!
:D

PS,

HAL is the Hardware Abstraction Layer. NTx uses the HAL to communicate with the specific hardware on your machine.

Excellent, Lucky got it all, except the HAL which starlifter supplied. But your answer is correct also, just not the one I was thinking of.
;)
SMTP-servers are still used for outbound mail, whereas pop3 usually takes care of inbound mail.

Your question, hopefully a little more creative than mine :)

PS#2... The HAL 9000 (2001: A Space Odessey) had a meaning of the acronym HAL... anyone remember what it was? :)

There was a theory that it was a parody of IBM - a word made out of the letter preceding each of the lettes in IBM.

Other than that, I'm not sure.

Heuristic Artificial L-something?

Heres a question for ya'll (its not a very hard one):
What is the true bus speed of the 533MHz Intel MoBo chipset.

66 MHz. I don't know about the particular CPU, but the Bus will be 66.7 with an 8x CPU multiplier for the 533 CPU speed. in most Motherboards, this can be set by jumper; but some, use BIOS settings to make it even easier.

The PCI bus speed (if you meant this bus) is 33 MHz.

I just noticed your HAL reply, ainwood... I'm not sure that there is 100% consensus on what HAL really stood for, but many say it meant "one step above the IBM, because I-->H B-->A M-->L (the next letter "up" in the alphabet). I've never seen it definitively printed as an actual acronym, and my gut feel is that they wanted something pronounceable in the film. But the makers used so much deliberate symbology, that I'm surprised no one has ferreted out the root of the name 100%....

Well the HAL 9000 computer was built in the H.A.L. Laboratories in January 1992. That's when he learned his first song. :)

Hmm, who is going to do the new question now?
Me?? :eek:

Well, I´ll just do that now. :p

Where was IRC first used? What was the first IRC network? What happened to that more or less only IRC network in the early ´90s? And what are the 4 main IRC networks today? And which is the leading one in number of users?

Lot´s of question, but they are one topic, so I asked them together.
Let´s see if someone knows this all from memory, shouldn´t be too hard.
:D

hmmm.... I've used a program called mIRC a long time ago, briefly. I recall EFnet, DALnet, IRCnet and something else. I have no idea about the development of IRC. My guess is the IRCnet is the biggest, as it makes sense from the name. When I logged on, it was to connect to a gamesnet server. I was never an IRC person, so someone else can fill in the details :).

Hmm, you mentioned 3 of the 4 biggest networks, but all other assumptions are wrong.

Anyone else?
:D

Originally posted by starlifter
I just noticed your HAL reply, ainwood... I'm not sure that there is 100% consensus on what HAL really stood for {snip}

Arthur C. Clarke, who wrote the novel version of 2001,
has always been adamant that HAL stood for
"Heuristic ALgorithmic".

Arthur C. Clarke, who wrote the novel version of 2001,
has always been adamant that HAL stood for "Heuristic ALgorithmic".

I guess Arthur C. Clark is good enough for me! I'll remember that :).

Come on people, this isn´t so hard!
There must be IRC chatters among us.
:D

Ok, here are the answers:

Where was IRC first used? - Developed and first used at the Finish university of Oulu by Jarkko Oikarinen.

What was the first IRC network? - IRC (;)), later called EFnet

What happened to that more or less only IRC network in the early ´90s? - In 1995/6 the original IRC network split up into EFnet and IRCnet. A bit later, Undernet and DALnet were also founded.

And what are the 4 main IRC networks today? And which is the leading one in number of users? -
EFnet, IRCnet, DALnet, Undernet -- DALnet is the current leader in number of users, with over 100,000 users online at the same time.

That´s it. :yeah:

Ok, new question, some acronyms for you to decipher. They are of a somewhat more technical nature, though. All play a major part in a fully functioning PC of today.

DRAM
EEPROM
INT
IRQ
NMI
PPI (*)
PIC (*)
PIT (*)
SRAM
UART (*)
USART (*)Decipher and try to give a few words of explanation!
For those marked with a (*), try to name the chip (usually Intel) used in the standard IBM PC! (bonus)

All acronyms are hardware related, nothing about software (so INT is not integer).
:D

I guess we didn't have any IRC people, Lucky! It's probably just not too popular these days. I hardly ever used it even in the "old days". I'm guessing from people's posts that they like ICQ, AOL, Trillian, etc.

Hmmm.... Well, I'll wait a day or so to see if anyone gets them; I'll then answer whatever is leftover, since I should know them ;).

Can I just copy / paste from GC ;)

I was ruined on this question yesterday when I went to GC, since I saw this list there too. I would have missed the PIT, however (I was going to say the I stood for Interrupt), and would not have listed the Chip types that Lucky did at GC. So I'll now recuse myself and not answer these...

Well, no! :p

Sorry, last time I took away the answers at GC. But nobody had all correct answers there, so I thought it would be better to list them, maybe someone learns something. ;)
Anyway, only a small few of you go to GC, but there are many others. So start trying!
:D

Hmm, didn´t think this to be too hard, probably no one is interested, though. :p
Anyway:

DRAM - Dynamic Random Access Memory (standard RAM chip, needs to be refreshed)
EEPROM - Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (program memory, often used for storing the BIOS, also referred to as flash memory)
INT - hardware INTerrupt (from interrupt controller to CPU)
IRQ - Interrupt ReQuest (peripheral interrupt line to interrupt controller, maskable (gives different priorities))
NMI - Non Maskable Interrupt (interrupt which immediatly stops the CPU process, e.g. power OFF)
PPI - Programmable Peripheral Interface (parallel port of the comp (LPT), e.g. PPI 8255)
PIC - Programmable Interrupt Controller (stores the vectors that point to the specific interrupt service routine of the periphery and gives different priorities to the different IRQs, e.g. PIC 8259)
PIT - Programmable Interval Timer (for setting different clock speeds, e.g. setting a baud rate for the mouse or other serial periphery, e.g. PIT 8253)
SRAM - Static RAM (no refresh -> faster access times, but less capacity and much more expensive, e.g. CACHE memory)
UART - Universal Asynchronous Receiver / Transmitter (serial port (COM), e.g. UART 8250 (not Intel))
USART - Universal Synchronous/Asynchronous Receiver / Transmitter (also a serial port but with extra clock for synchronous mode, e.g. USART 8251)

Much more info than I wanted, so the answers weren´t really that hard for anyone who ever took a closer look at a computer mainboard!
:D

So, before I leave, here´s the next question.

Name at least 5 different object oriented languages and sort by year of creation!

An easy one.
:D

C++
Java
Visual Basic
Foxpro
Visual Basic for Applications

(not completely sure about the chronollogy though).

Just in case:

1. Ada
2. C++
3. Eiffel
4. Java.
5. C#

Off topic: Lucky, I saw Deutsche Welle's latest report
on their English TV service about the flooding last night. Hope those levees hold up in Madgeburg.

They did! We are one of the few cities to have "survived". :yeah:

Both answers are right, as far as I know, but I´m not completely sure about Ada. At least it wasn´t OO from the beginning.
The first OO language was Smalltalk, btw.

Anyone of both may continue, it should be ainwoods, since he was first.
:D

Since it looks like Ainwood is either unavailable or drawing
a blank:

What is the accuracy (in bits) of

IEEE-754 single precision floating point?

IEEE-754 double precision floating point?

I might be mis-interpreting the question, but a single precision floating point takes 4 bytes of memory, and the double takes 8 bytes.

The "accuracy" actually depends on whether the number is negative or positive. A single is approximately ±1e-46, and a double is approximately ±1e-300-ish.

Originally posted by ainwood
I might be mis-interpreting the question, but a single precision floating point takes 4 bytes of memory, and the double takes 8 bytes.


I probably *did* phrase things too vaguely... What I want
to know is the number of bits of precision for both
mantissa and exponent in single and double precision floating point numbers which use the IEEE-754 floating point format.
For purposes of the question, the sign bit does not count as one bit of precision.

Hope that helps

Please start a Cumulative computer quiz #2. I am limiting threads in this forum to 200 posts because this forum is often used for references and threads need to remain small and easy to navigate.

I am re-opening this thread now since it appears starlifter is not here to open a new one. If one of you opens a new one please pm me. This thread will be unstickied in 5 days if there are no new posts.

Answers: 7 bits exponent, 23 bits mantissa for single precision.
15 bits exponent, 47 bits manissa for double precision.

Anyone feel free to toss in a new question.