IBook How Computers Work

--D. Thiebaut 16:05, 18 January 2013 (EST)

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iBook reference

• http://cs.smith.edu/dftwiki/index.php/CSC103:_DT%27s_Notes_1

Table of Contents

• Preface
  • Why
  • Target
• Introduction
  • Steam Boy
  • Mechanical calculators
    • Addition, subtraction, multiplication, divisions...
• Several factors: electrical energy, switches, ON/OFF, binary, number systems, math, boolean logic, Shannon ==> Computer
  • Electricity
    • properties: easy storage, easy distribution, easy generation, fast, easy control
    • ON/OFF
  • Binary system versus decimal system.
  • Boolean Logic, George Boole.
  • Logic with electricity and switches
  • Shannon: Combining Logic and arithmetic
  • From the transistor to logic gates
• Logic Design
  • Logic gate simulator
• Assembly Language
  • Simulator
  • Performance
  • Bottleneck
• Von Neumann Architecture
  • The architecture
  • Computer Architecture: how to bypass the bottleneck
• Example of a High Level Language: Processing
• From Moore's Law to the Singularity.

Style

Use Python for Everyone by Cay Horstmann as a good example of clear style. Full chapter is available here.

Images

	Antikythera Mechanism, photo taken by Tilemahos Efthimiadis, National Archaeological Museum, Athens, Greece., taken from commons.wikimedia.org, July 28 2014. Released under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
	Steamboy. D. Thiebaut, 2014, Released under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
	Ice Cream. D. Thiebaut, 2014, Released under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
	AND OR gates with switches. D. Thiebaut, 2014, Released under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
	Inverter, And, and Or gates. D. Thiebaut, 2014, Released under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
	Integrated Circuit, AND gate. D. Thiebaut, 2014, Released under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
	Daniel Coy, "Conversation", online image, https://flic.kr/p/7mWZpb, Captured July 2014.
	2-Bit Adder, D. Thiebaut, 2014, Released under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
File.scale.gif	Animated Scale, D. Thiebaut, 2014, Released under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.