WEEK+1

** Von Neumann Model: **

 * [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Von_Neumann_Architecture.svg width="350"]] [[image:https://21cif.com/images/dif-new.jpg width="318" height="326"]]

**Keywords**

 * **Bus**: A conductor connecting peripherals both inside and outside the computer. The width of the bus determines speed of transmission. http://www.techdictionary.com


 * **CPU**: Central Processing Unit; the functional chip inside the computer that is responsible for number crunching. http://www.techdictionary.com


 * **URL**: Uniform Resource Locator; a standard for dictating the location of files on the Internet. @http://www.w3.org/Addressing/


 * **GPU**: Graphics Processing Unit; a chip located either on the main board, or on a dedicated card, used to crunch numbers required for graphics.@http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_processing_unit
 * **Parallel**: Interface that transmits many bits at a time over multiple parallel channels. @http://www.techdictionary.com/


 * **Serial**: Interface that transmits bits one at a time. @http://www.techdictionary.com/


 * **Quad-Core**: A processor with four separate processors, usually to reduce power usage, space usage, and heat exhaust. @http://www.techdictionary.com/


 * **RS232**: Historically, the main "standard for serial binary data signals." @http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RS-232


 * **SCSI**: Small Computer Systems Interface; an interface with 8 bit transfer over parallel. Used for external peripherals. @http://www.techdictionary.com/


 * **USB**: Universal Serial Bus; has generally replaced RS232 and other serial/parallel connections. @http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Serial_Bus


 * **Firewire** (also known as IEEE 1394): Similar to USB and comparable in speed. Replaced Parallel SCSI for many connections. @http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firewire


 * **Hard Drive** (HDD or Hard Disk Drive): Non-volatile storage device that uses magnetic platters. @http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harddisk


 * **Floppy Drive**: Drive used to read "floppy" disks, which are magnetic storage media. @http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floppy_drive


 * **Solid State Drive**: Drive that uses integrated circuits to store data – no moving parts @http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_drive


 * **CD-ROM/R/RW**: Compact Disc – Read-Only Memory / Recordable / Rewritable; optical storage medium. Some are read-only (CD-ROM, CD-Rs once written to once), and some are capable of being 'burned' (i.e., having data written onto the surface; CD-Rs can be burned once, CD-RWs multiple times). CD-RW discs are also erasable.@http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDROM


 * **Desktop**: A virtual desktop, often part of a "**Graphical User Interface**" (GUI) that simulates a table or a stack of papers. @http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_environment

@http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphical_user_interface


 * **Laptop**: A personal computer for mobile use (sometimes called a **notebook**) @http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laptop


 * **Tablet**: A one piece mobile computer primarily operated by a touchscreen @http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tablet_computer


 * **SIMM** (Single Inline Memory Module): An older, deprecated style of RAM with only redundant sides. @http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIMM


 * **DIMM** (Dual Inline Memory Module): A memory module that has two unique sides on it. @http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIMM


 * **RAM** (Random Access Memory): Volatile (requiring constant electric charge to maintain its contents) form of memory storage. @http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAM


 * **COM1**: The name for the first serial port on a computer. COM2 is the second, etc. @http://www.answers.com/topic/com1


 * **ROM** (Read-Only Memory): Any form of memory, chip- or disk-based, that is not meant to be written over or erased. @http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ROM


 * **Binary Code**: Used for encoding digits and letter characters in computing. @http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_code


 * **Hexadecimal**: Used primarily as a human-friendly representation of values coded in binary. @http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexadecimal


 * **ASCII**: The American Standard Code for Information Interchange. Consisting of printable and control characters, ASCII is historically the standard for translating plain text from the human interface to digital, but is limited to 128 unique characters (albeit commonly extended to 256), primarily those used in English and Western European languages. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%41%53%43%49%49


 * **Unicode**: A newer standard that allows for consistent encoding, representation, and handling of digital text expressed in most of the world's languages and writing systems. Unlike ASCII, Unicode has over 110,000 unique characters in 100 scripts, and is now in widespread use in operating systems, software, programming, and for data storage, information systems, and the Web. @http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicode


 * **Bluetooth**: A wireless protocol for exchanging data over short distances from both fixed and mobile devices, thereby creating personal area networks (PANs).@http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth


 * **GPS**: Refers to the Global Positioning System (developed by the United States Department of Defense, although Russia, the European Union, China, and India have planned or implemented similar systems) that uses a constellation of 24 to 32 Medium Earth Orbit satellites that transmit precise microwave signals, which enables GPS receivers to determine their current location, the time, and their velocity. @http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Positioning_System

HISTORY OF COMPUTING > ' Microsoft Corp. released Windows 3.1, an operating system that made IBM and IBM-compatible PCs more user-friendly by integrating a graphical user interface into the software. In replacing the old Windows command-line system, however, Microsoft created a program similar to the Macintosh operating system. Apple sued for copyright infringement, but Microsoft prevailed. Windows 3.1 went to Win 95, then Win 98, now Windows XP .... (There are other OSs, of course, but Windows is the dominant OS today. MACs, by Apple, still have a faithful following. Linux has a faithful following. > (such as the Palm Pilot became available to consumers. They can do numeric calculations, play games and music and download information from the Internet. See How Stuff Works for a history and details.
 * History of the Computer: Link
 * 1946 - ENIAC - World's first electronic, large scale, general-purpose computer, built by Mauchly and Eckert, and activated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1946. ENIAC recreated on a modern computer chip. See an explanation of ENIAC on a Chip by the Moore School of Electrical Engineering, University of Pennsylvania. The ENIAC is a 30 ton machine that measured 50 x 30 feet. It contained 19,000 vacuum tubes, 6000 switches, and could add 5,000 numbers in a second, a remarkable accomplishment at the time. A reprogrammable machine, the ENIAC performed initial calculations for the H-bomb. It was also used to prepare artillery shell trajectory tables and perform other military and scientific calculations. Since there was no software to reprogram the computer, people had to rewire it to get it to perform different functions. The human programmers had to read wiring diagrams and know what each switch did. J. Presper Eckert, Jr. and John W. Mauchly drew on Alansoff's work to create the ENIAC, the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer.
 * 1951-1959 - vacuum tube based technology. Vacuum Tubes are electronic devices, consisting of a glass or steel vacuum envelope and two or more electrodes between which electrons can move freely. First commercial computers used vacuum tubes: Univac, IBM 701.
 * 1950s -1960s - UNIVAC - "punch card technology" The first commercially successful computer, introduced in 1951 by Remington Rand. Over 40 systems were sold. Its memory was made of mercury filled acoustic delay lines that held 1,000 12 digit numbers. It used magnetic tapes that stored 1MB of data at a density of 128 cpi. UNIVAC became synonymous with computer (for a while). See UNIVAC photo . See UNIVAC flow chart
 * 1960 IBM 1620 - See photos at The Computer History Museum.
 * 1960-1968 - transistor based technology. The transistor, invented in 1948, by Dr. John Bardeen, Dr. Walter Brattain, and Dr. William Shockley . It almost completely replaced the vacuum tube because of its reduced cost, weight, and power consumption and its higher reliability. Seeexplanation and diagram of a transistor and what the [|first transistor] looked like. The transistor is made to alter its state from a starting condition of conductivity (switched 'on', full current flow) to a final condition of insulation (switched 'off', no current flow).
 * 1969 - The Internet, originally the ARPAnet (Advanced Research Projects Agency network), began as a military computer network.
 * 1969-1977 - integrated circuits (IC) based technology. The first integrated circuit was demonstrated by Texas Instruments inventor, Jack Kilby, in 1958. It was 7/16" wide and contained two transistors. Examples of early integrated circuit technology: Intel 4004, Dec pdp 8, CRAY 1 (1976) - a 75MHz, 64-bit machine with a peak speed of 160 megaflops, (One million floating point operations per second) the world's fastest processor at that time. Now circuits may contain hundreds of thousands of transistors on a small piece of material, which revolutionized computing. Here is a diagram of a modern integrated circuit, known as a chip.
 * 1976 - CRAY 1 - The world's first electronic digital computer, developed in 1946. A 75MHz, 64-bit machine with a peak speed of 160 megaflops, (one million floating point operations per second) the world's fastest processor at that time.
 * 1976 - Apples/MACs - The Apple was designed by Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs. Apple was the first to have a "windows" type graphical interface and the computer mouse. Like modern computers, early Apples had a peripheral keyboard and mouse, and had a floppy drive that held 3.5" disks.The Macintosh replaced the Apple. See a picture of the The Apple III (1980 - 1985).
 * 1978 to 1986 - large scale integration (LSI); Alto - early workstation with mouse; Apple, designed by Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs. Apple was the first to have a "windows" type graphical interface and the computer mouse. See Apple/MACs evolution over time. The PC and clone market begins to expand. This begins first mass market of desktop computers.
 * 1986 to today - the age of the networked computing, the Internet, and the WWW.
 * 1990 - Tim Berners-Lee invented the networked hypertext system called the World Wide Web.
 * 1992 - Bill Gates [[image:http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/media/ALeqM5jKe3GEM7knr_9fyVKGe88ITBAifw?size=s3]]
 * 1995 - large commercial Internet service providers (ISPs), such as MCI, Sprint, AOL and UUNET, began offering service to large number of customers.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica; font-size: medium;">1996 - Personal Digital Assistants [[image:https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR9gCm1TenP__a1tQTZr6JH1adUCCPD7YPoO5G-M3roX403_fMArg]]