Start learning →

Olympiad (Class 6) Computer fundamentals, history and generations — practice questions — page 2

Explore 51 free Computer fundamentals, history and generations questions in Olympiad (Class 6) Computer Science. Open each question or exercise to read its content, reference answers and available explanation.

Practise Computer fundamentals, history and generations with Quill →

Computer fundamentals, history and generations questions and exercises with answers

Showing questions 31–51 of 51.

Which idea of Alan Turing's 1936 paper lets a computer change tasks without rewiring?Read the answer and worked solution →Before stored programs, what was needed to change what a machine did?Read the answer and worked solution →The Manchester Baby, the first stored-program computer, ran its first program in which year?Read the answer and worked solution →The Manchester Baby was built to test which storage device?Read the answer and worked solution →Which part replaced vacuum tubes from 1955, starting the second generation?Read the answer and worked solution →Why did transistor computers run cooler than vacuum tube computers?Read the answer and worked solution →Where did Bardeen and Brattain build the first working transistor in 1947?Read the answer and worked solution →Which advance came after the transistor and led to the third generation?Read the answer and worked solution →Jack Kilby's first working integrated circuit used which material?Read the answer and worked solution →Whose chip was the first true monolithic integrated circuit?Read the answer and worked solution →Which is the first single-chip microprocessor?Read the answer and worked solution →What do we call a CPU built on a single MOS integrated circuit chip?Read the answer and worked solution →A complete computer on one coin-sized chip is called what?Read the answer and worked solution →Which order shows when these arrived, earliest first?Read the answer and worked solution →Which machine below is a digital computer, not an analog one?Read the answer and worked solution →In the 1770s Pierre Jaquet-Droz built a doll that could do what?Read the answer and worked solution →Claude Shannon's 1937 thesis applied which branch of maths to switching circuits?Read the answer and worked solution →The program counter in a CPU keeps track of what?Read the answer and worked solution →Instructions that change the program counter, allowing loops, are called what?Read the answer and worked solution →After the control unit reads an instruction, what is the next step?Read the answer and worked solution →Which early device was mostly used for arithmetic and grew from Babylonian tools?Read the answer and worked solution →

Worked practice questions

Which idea of Alan Turing's 1936 paper lets a computer change tasks without rewiring?

  1. Patch cables
  2. Punched film
  3. Hand cranking
  4. Stored program
Show answer and solution

Correct answer: D. Stored program

Keeping instructions in memory lets the machine be reprogrammed without changing its wiring.

Open this question →

Before stored programs, what was needed to change what a machine did?

  1. Re-wiring the machine
  2. Pressing one key
  3. Changing the monitor
  4. Adding more RAM
Show answer and solution

Correct answer: A. Re-wiring the machine

Early machines had fixed programs, so a new function meant re-wiring and re-structuring them.

Open this question →

The Manchester Baby, the first stored-program computer, ran its first program in which year?

  1. 1938
  2. 1948
  3. 1958
  4. 1968
Show answer and solution

Correct answer: B. 1948

The Baby ran its first program on 21 June 1948.

Open this question →

How to practise

  1. Choose a Computer fundamentals, history and generations question and try to work out your answer.
  2. Open the question to check the correct answer and read its worked solution.
  3. Continue in the app for bite-sized lessons, explanations and review with Quill. You can start without creating an account.

Put it into practice

Continue with Computer fundamentals, history and generations practice for Olympiad (Class 6). Read explanations as you go. No signup form needed to start.

Practise Computer fundamentals, history and generations →

More Computer Science topics

HTML, CSS and ScratchNetworking and cyber safetyWindows 11, MS Word and MS PowerPointMemory and Storage