A brief history of a brief history

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A brief history of a brief history

• Mark Neal

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Agenda

• Computer science as an area of knowledge
• The computer science department at Aberystwyth
  research interests
• The research groups
• Computational biology
• Robotics
• Vision, visualization and graphics
• Qualitative reasoning
• Computer education

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Introduction

• A version of the bigger picture
• How the bits of this picture developed
• Timescale
• Relationship to other areas of science and
  technology
• A reminder of why we bother

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Overview of uses

• Communication tools
• Information resources
• Problem-solvers
• Control mechanisms
• Entertainment devices
• Pervasive devices
• All have different requirements and use different
  basic technologies

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Some basic technologies (1)

• Storing information
• Data structures
• File systems
• Databases
• Processing data
• Searching and sorting
• Correcting and identifying
• Pattern recognition
• Optimization

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Some basic technologies (2)

• Communication
• Standardization
• Cable networks
• Wireless networks
• Protocol development
• Control
• System characterization
• Input and output
• Real-time systems
• Hardware integration

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Some (not so) basic technologies (3)

• Entertainment devices
• Good old-fashioned space invaders
• Games consoles
• PC games
• Multiplayer systems
• Pervasive devices
• RFID tags
• PDAs, mobile phones
• Laptops
• MP3 players, heart-rate monitors

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Some History (hardware)

• Human computers (up to 1600s)
• Napiers bones
• Big fat computers (1930s 1980s)
• ENIAC etc
• The personal computer (1960s now)
• PDP1 (1960)
• Personal Computer (ALTAIR etc) (1976)
• IBM PC 1981

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What computers really are

• Logic gates and circuits
• Binary representation
• Arithmetic logic units
• Inside a central processing unit
• Main memory structure
• Secondary storage devices (disk, tape)
• I/O devices
• Parallel processing
• DEFINITELY NO MAGIC

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Relationships

• Mathematics
• Physics
• Biology
• Geography
• Sport
• Government
• Engineering

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Why are we doing it?

• Almost exclusively to solve problems
• Even theoretical work is mostly focussed on this
• To improve lives of people
• To improve performance of existing systems
• To improve, enhance or unleash other technologies

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Next time

• Start to talk about some of my own research
• Biologically inspired computing
• Brains, hormones and antibodies
• Searching for homeostasis
• Take a look at the website