In the midst of the

1
Introduction

• In the midst of the Information Revolution
• Storage
• Retrieval Computers
• Processing
• Transmission and Dissemination
• Communication

Fiber Satellite ? ? ?
2
Introduction

• Have been will be more profound revolutions
• Agricultural millenia
• Industrial a few centuries
• Information 50 years old
• What is the next Revolution?
• What is the Computer

3
Computer

• Problem-solving device
• Manipulates information according to a set of
  prescribed instructions (a program)
• Early computers - mechanical
• Abacus
• Blaise Pascals calculator
• Charles Babbages devices

4
Computer

• Electro-mechanical
• Holleriths census machine
• Konrad Zuses Z1Z4 relay calculators
• Electronic - lamps
• ABC (Atanasoff-Berry Computer), first electronic
• Special-purpose, non-programmable
• ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and
  Calculator), first programmable
• 18000 vacuum tubes, difficult programming via
  plug-board

5
Computer

• 3 developments accelerated computer explosion
• Transistor
• Magnetic core memory
• The stored program concept (Von Neumann)
• Generations
• 1940-1950 Generation I
• 1950-1960 Generation II
• 1960-1970 Generation III
• 1970 onward Generation IV (VLSI)

6
Computer

• Personal Computer (PC)
• Generation V?
• Whole point of generation now moot
• Tremendous advances
• Hardware
• Software
• Communication bandwidth
• Mass storage
• All are fundamental changes

7
Computer

8
Digital System

• Stores and processes information in digital
  format
• Example Analog vs digital audio tape
• Nyquist sampling criteria

9
Digital System

• Other examples of digital systems
• Watches
• Traffic light controllers fixed function
• Pocket calculators
• Computers flexible/programmable
• Trend replace fixed function circuits with
  processors and program them

10
Digital System

• Digital versus Analog
• Akin to Wave-particle duality
• Nature (God)
• Discrete or continuous?
• Man or woman?
• Digital Revolution..

Advantages Disadvantages Reproducibility,
flexibility, speed, noise immunity.
11
Abstraction hierarchies

12
Electronic technologies

I2L BiCMOS
13
Technology families

14
Computer organization

15
Computer programming

• Information representation
• Binary
• Numeric and non-numeric (alphabets)
• ASCII 7 bits plus one parity bit 128 symbols