Jan 27.docx

*Read up to and including dot something? in syllabus on page 4 First Lecture: Information ?A computer is a device that takes some information from an input and outputs it Hardware Types of Computers First came in the 19402 and 50s ?main frame computers? Now a days very fast and sophisticated- to be used by lots of people Probably a million dollars today 1970s minicomputers May now cost like 100 thousand dollars Can be used by maybe a dozen people at a time Late 1970s to today Microcomputers! Gen design is to allow one person to do computing Same time as Microcomputers are supercomputers Can be up to 10 million dollars Usually do a lot of mathematical activity Used to predict the weather Used to design aircraft Can be used to see how an aircraft would fly All these things have to do with a lot of equations May be 100 times faster than our computers WOW Microcomputer simple cheap one person computers which often depend on one main microprocessor Known as Personal computer (pc) Desktop computer Home computer Laptops Came machines (playstation, wii) PDAs and smart phones (blackberry, palm, iphone) Workstation Usually used in a network setting Network- a series of computers set up to communicate with each other Servers Machines on a network More memory and faster than normal microcomputers Providing different types of information to other computers in the network Ex. Of the print server when you are in the labs and you go to print something the server computer holds everyone?s print requests in there until the print action is executed I/O Devices Connecting them to the main unit of the computer: Internal External Ports ? where things are plugged into your computer Cables Wireless-infrared or radio ?the presenter? sends wireless information to a unit that is plugged into a port on the computer Bus Electronic onnections between devices (cables and protocols) Protocols- are the rules that the devices follow across wires or wirelessly System bus (between devices on motherboard) I/O bus Scsi Older system for computers to connect Usb (universal serial bus) ? [USBII] 480 Mbits/sex Advantages Hot swappable,- if comp is turned on and you plug something in the computer can just recognize it (Previously if your mouse stopped working and you wanted to plug in a back up one the computer wouldn?t recognize it unless you turned off the computer first and then plugged it in!) plug-n-play- no matter what you plug in, the computer will not only recognize something as being plugged in but will know how to use the device instantly as well (WASN?T TRUE IN THE PAST) Many devices such as mice, keyboards, digital cameras, external disk drives, opods, flash drives, digital recorders, wireless adapters, flash memory readers etc. Firewire ? 800Mbits/sex (800 million bits per second)- video cameras A technology that exists Basic input devies Keyboard (ASCII) Texts and commands A keyboard transforms a binary language into the computer that is converted into the language you actually want A keyboard does more than just send information- TRIGGERS COMMANDS I?m telling you to do something computer, that is a demand Ex. You hit backspace key- that?s a command to the computer to get rid of what you just typed Pointing Devices: Graphics and commands (using GUI- GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE) Allows you to interact with computers Mouse (optical) Optimal way to do GUI Can sense how fast rollers are moving to see which way you are moving An optical mouse- shoots a beam of light at the table and based on how the light is returned to the mouse- the computer know how you are desiring to move the mouse Can help you do graphics 1984- mouse came along You are able to draw pictures Magic mouse (apple)- whole top of it is touch sensitive now- which means you can touch anywhere to indicate a move Also has the pinch to zoom feature Light pen Use a lighted pen to point Mouse pad, graphics Tablet Mouse pad- thing on my laptop to guide where you want to go Tablet-is actually using a flat sensitive pat to do better quality drawings on Touch screen (kiosks, multi-touch) Allows you to do clever gestures on the computer Probably not good for very serious graphics Smart board EX. ALCOVE! There is a large board on the wall and you can interact with the computer by touching the board on the wall A large version of touch screens Can work with any computer- its just a device you connect Joystick, track ball Have been around on game computers for a long time Really just pointing devices Allow you to move something up and down on a screen Other input devices Scanners (flatbed, sheetfed) Scans the image that it sees there and determines what light is bouncing off the page Can scan 300 dots per inch to 1200 dots per inch OCR0 optical camera recognition Technology that works with the hardware that gets an image into the computer Figures out how to take the image and convert it into a bunch of characters But its not there as words its there as a bunch of dots that make up the letter A for example. Not intentionally putting the dots together to be a letter- because it doesn?t know it?s a letter So it may convert it into ASKE Now there is even technology that can convert handwriting Digital cameras (megapixels) The image that?s coming thru the lens is turned into zeros and ones and digitized as its coming in Best quality it can get is 5million dots Microphone Voice recognition, voice typing Converts a sound wave into an electric signal Have been around for over 100 years They are an input device for sound Any sound that is made can be recorded on a comp and played back later What if it?s a human voice? A computer can now recognize human voices Some set of information is triggering an action It?s a lot harder to do voice recognition than written language Digital recorders Video cameras (webcams) Are now commonly connected to the computer Are currently connected to the input of a computer MIDI devices (music keyboards) Other sensors- motion smell temperature etc