Difference between revisions of "CSC103: DT's Notes 1"

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===Current Computer Design is the Result of an Evolutionary Process===
 
===Current Computer Design is the Result of an Evolutionary Process===
 
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[[File:SteamBoyDT.png|right|800px]] In this course we are going to look at the computer as a tool, as the result of technological experiments that have crystalized currently on a particular design, the von Neumann architecture, on a particular source of energy, electricity, on a particular fabrication technology, silicon transistors, and a particular information representation, the binary system, but any of these could have been different, depending on many factors.  In fact, in the next ten or twenty years, one of more of these fundamental parts that make today's computers could change.
 
 
[[Image:SteamboyTheMovie.png|right|200px]] In this course we are going to look at the computer as a tool, as the result of technological experiments that have crystalized currently on a particular design, the von Neumann architecture, on a particular source of energy, electricity, on a particular fabrication technology, silicon transistors, and a particular information representation, the binary system, but any of these could have been different, depending on many factors.  In fact, in the next ten or twenty years, one of more of these fundamental parts that make today's computers could change.
 
  
 
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0348121/ '''Steamboy'''], a Japanese anim&eacute; by director Katsuhiro Ohtomo (who also directed ''Akira'') is interesting in more than the story of a little boy who is searching for his father, a scientist who has discovered a secret method for controlling high pressured steam.  What is interesting is that the movie is science fiction taking place not in the future, but in middle of the 19th century, in a world where steam progress and steam machines are much more advanced than they actually were at that time.  One can imagine that some events, and some discoveries where made in the world portrayed in the animated film, and that technology evolved in quite a different direction, bringing with it new machines, either steam-controlled tank-like vehicles, or ships, or flying machines.
 
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0348121/ '''Steamboy'''], a Japanese anim&eacute; by director Katsuhiro Ohtomo (who also directed ''Akira'') is interesting in more than the story of a little boy who is searching for his father, a scientist who has discovered a secret method for controlling high pressured steam.  What is interesting is that the movie is science fiction taking place not in the future, but in middle of the 19th century, in a world where steam progress and steam machines are much more advanced than they actually were at that time.  One can imagine that some events, and some discoveries where made in the world portrayed in the animated film, and that technology evolved in quite a different direction, bringing with it new machines, either steam-controlled tank-like vehicles, or ships, or flying machines.

Revision as of 10:44, 30 July 2014

--© D. Thiebaut 08:10, 30 January 2012 (EST)
Last revised --D. Thiebaut (talk) 08:05, 9 October 2013 (EDT)




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