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ENIAC was the first programmable general purpose electronic computer. It was
digital and capable of being reprogrammed to solve a large number of numerical
problems. Its speed was 1000 times greater than that of electro-mechanical
machines before it. ENIAC was enormous and occupied an area of 50x30 feet.
Very different to a modern tablet or smartphone, which is more powerful still!
But how did this happen?
The first digital computers were developed in 1940s. The first personal computers
were sold in 1970s, and laptops in the mid 1990s. Today, computers are
everywhere.
A general purpose computer, such as a desktop PC, can perform many functions.
An embedded system is a computer built for a particular function, and is found in
cars, washing machines, air conditioners, and many other places. An embedded
system usually does not look like a computer, and often there is no keyboard
monitor or mouse. However, like any computer, it has a processor, software and
other peripherals.
Real time computing must guarantee a response within a specific time, or
deadline. These may be used in a chemical plant, for example. Failure to meet the
deadline may result in undesired consequences.
Consider the above questions within your own context. Think about different
types of computers you have used and what you used them for. There are general
purpose and dedicated applications. Can you think of some applications of
dedicated computers? There are many: Banking, washing machines, GPS and
microwave ovens. Modern cars have antilock braking systems and stability
controls.
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This picture illustrates the five major functional blocks in a computer given in the
previous slide. Each block performs specific functions to carry out the
instructions given in the program.
Input unitProcesses instructions and data into the memory.
Memory unitStores data and instructions received from the input unit.
Control unitInterprets instructions and sends appropriate signals to
other units as instructed.
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Removing some components shows the motherboard. This is the main circuit
board of the computer. RAM and other devices can be plugged into the slots on
the board. A tablet battery keeps a small part of the motherboard running even
when the computer is off. This circuitry is responsible for keeping track of the
time and date, and storing some settings in the memory that the PC needs when it
is first turned on.
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Computers understand nothing but digital 1s and 0s. So, every program and all
data has to be converted to a stream of 1s and 0s before the computer can execute
it.
Every instruction of a program is translated into a series of low level instructions
consisting of high and low states. A high state is logic 1 and is normally
represented by a positive voltage - for example, 5V, 3.3 V or 2.4V. A low state is
logic 0 and is normally represented by 0 Volt.
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Timing diagrams are used to describe how digital signals change with time. The
horizontal axis is time, and the vertical axis shows the state of the signal (1 or 0).
In this diagram, the signal changes between a digital 1 (battery voltage) and
digital 0 (no voltage).
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In 1875, Alexander Graham Bell figured out how to change his voice into a
continuously variable electrical signal, send it through a wire, and change it back
to sound energy at the other end.
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Everything around us is analogue in nature, that is, varies continuously with time,
not in discrete steps. To get information into a computer system, it must be
converted from analogue to digital. Conversion to digital representation
introduces some inaccuracy depending on the size of the discrete steps used in
digitisation.
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The mobile phone is a mixed signal system. Voice, an analogue signal, is picked
up by an analogue microphone, then converted to a digital signal (a stream of 0s
and 1s). This is processed by a computer in the phone, and eventually the digital
audio signal is converted back to analogue form and is fed to a speaker to
generate sound.
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In this temperature regulation system, we can set the desired temperature in 0.1
degree increments.
A temperature sensor takes the room temperature and converts it to a proportional
voltage. This analogue voltage is converted to a digital quantity by an electronic
circuit known as an analogue-to-digital converter (ADC).
The digital processor then compares this digital voltage with a pre-set digital
value for the desired room temperature and produces a digital output depending
on whether the heater needs to be turned on or not.
The digital value is then converted to an analogue quantity (voltage) by an
electronic circuit known as a digital-to-analogue converter (DAC).
The voltage is then applied to a heating element, which will produce a heat that is
proportional to the voltage. This will control the room temperature.
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The decimal system is a positional value system in which the value of a digit
depends on its position.
The decimal point separates the positive powers of 10 from the negative powers.
The number 2745.21410 is
(2 x 103 )+ ( 7 x 102 ) + ( 4 x 101 ) + ( 5 x 100 ) + (2 x 10-1 ) ( 1 x 10-2 ) + ( 4 x
10-3 )
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When counting in the decimal system, we start with 0 in the unit position and
take each digit in progression until we reach 9. Then we add a 1 to the next higher
position and start over with 0 in the first position and so on.
With 2 decimal places we can count through 102 = 100 different numbers ( 0 to
99).
With 3 decimal places we can count through 103 = 1000 different numbers ( 0 to
999).
With N decimal places we can count through 10N different numbers :
(10N -1).
0 to
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The world around us is analogue in nature. This graph shows how an analogue
signals that varies continuously with time can be converted into digital form
using the binary system.
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Here the analogue temperature signal is shown in red. The dots in the picture
show the temperature values at regular intervals. To record the temperature in
digital form, the values at the intervals will be converted to their binary
equivalents.
To represent 50 in digital form, we need 6 bits, because 6-bits gives us 26 or 64
possible values. Using only 5 bits would give us 25 or that is 32 values, which is
less than 50. If we have to sample higher analogue temperature, more bits are
required.
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In digital systems, the range of the current or voltage is more important than the
exact value.
Digital circuits represent two states, 1 and 0. We never get a perfect voltage to
represent them because of the operational limitations of the actual circuits. So,
the designers specify the voltage ranges to be considered as logic HIGH and logic
LOW.
There is a range of voltages in the middle that are considered invalid. They are
neither 1s nor 0s and must be avoided.
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Some examples of electrical devices that have two states include - Light
bulb (off or on), Diode (conducting or not conducting), Relay (energized
or not energized), Transistor (cutoff or saturation) and Photocell
(illuminated or dark).
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How do we represent binary quantities? The oscilloscope and logic analyzer are
used to produce timing diagrams.
Logic LOW is represented by 0 volt and logic HIGH by 4V.
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Digital circuits take and produce predefined voltage range, which correspond to
binary 1 or 0.
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In both cases, an input logic LOW to this circuit produces an output logic HIGH
and vice versa. The circuit thus acts as an inverter.
In Case I, the output voltage of 4V is considered logic HIGH which is a slightly
less than the input voltage of 5V due to the operational limitations of the circuit.
Although the exact voltage levels differ, they both represent the same logic level.
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Computers can communicate with other devices using either parallel or serial
communication.
Here is a depiction of parallel transmission, where the computer is connected to
the printer. We are trying to print the word Hi.
Both H and i have eight bits. All eight bits are sent simultaneously over eight
wires for parallel transmission.
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One must trade off between transmission speed and cost when choosing between
parallel and serial transmission.
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