Transcript No Slide Title - Computer Engineering

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Coen 001
Understanding Digital Technologies
Ron Danielson
Fall 2000
Introductions
 Professor
– Ron Danielson
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computer engineering faculty member
chief information officer
24 years at SCU
8 years managing university computing and
communication services
– office Orradre 129, phone 554-6813, email
[email protected]
– office hours
» M 12:00 - 1:00, F 2:15 - 3:00
» by appointment
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 Students
Administrative Stuff
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 Text
– Danielson, Understanding Digital Technologies,
draft manuscript, 1999
 Objectives
– learn about significant concepts of digital
computers
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semiconductor devices and processing
computer hardware
software development and systems
computer networks
Administrative Stuff (continued)
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 Objectives (continued)
– gain
» understanding of workings of digital technology
» appreciation for relationships between
components of digital systems
» apply that knowledge to new instances of
digital technologies
» understanding of positive and negative
impacts on individuals and society
Administrative Stuff (continued)
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 Core curriculum technology requirement
learning outcomes: demonstrate an
understanding of
– the nature of technology
– technology’s social context
– the ways computer networks are structured
– how to use networks as sources of information
– some discipline-specific tools
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Administrative Stuff (continued)
 Web site
– http://www.cse.scu.edu/~rdaniels/
 Web board
– http://wb.scu.edu/~rdanielson
 Grading
– 2 midterms
– homeworks
– Web board participation
– student presentation
– final
35%
7.5%
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25%
25%
Historical Trends
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 Amazing price-performance improvement of
digital computers
– over history
» ENIAC, 1947
•1,600 square feet; many tons; 5,000 adds per
second
» modern PC
•2 square feet; 20 pounds; 100,000,000 adds per
second; 1,000 times lower cost!
– over shorter periods of time
» Cray Y-MP (1988 - fastest supercomputer) vs.
IBM Power-2 (1993 - fastest workstation)
» equal or better performance for 1/10 of price
Historical Trends (continued)
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 Price-performance (continued)
– for individual people
» IBM 360/75 at U of I for academic computing
needs of 35,000 students (1975)
» Intel 486 PC in my office at home (1993)
» faster, more memory, more storage, graphics
for 1/1000 of price
Computing Paradigms
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 Computing approaches that were commonly
available
– single user
(1950s)
» “company brew”
– batch
(1960s)
» IBM 360
– time sharing (1970s)
» DecSystem 10, VAX
– desktop
(1980s)
» “home brew”
» IBM PC, Macintosh
– networked
(1990s)
» workstations
– mobile
(2000s)
Computing Paradigms (continued)
 History repeats itself
– network computers
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Historical Trends (continued)
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 Component trends
– number of transistors per chip increases 60% to
80% per year
» transistor density 50% per year
» chip size 10% - 25% per year
speed increases
proportional
– main memory capacity increases 60% per
year
– disk storage capacity increases 50% per year
– cost decreases accordingly, particularly at
lowest end of performance scale
» factor of 5 - 10 over lifetime of technology (4
years)
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Historical Trends (continued)
 What does this mean for people who use
computers?
– dedicated computing capacity
– software with more functionality
– penetration of computer use into daily
activities
– willingness to let the computer be idle
changes
in
behavior
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Why Bother?
 Ubiquitous computers
– apparent (PCs, mainframes)
– hidden (thermostats and dishwashers)
– tremendous change of
» speed
» cost
» size
no sign of slowdown
 Personal impact
– work
» productivity tools
» accelerated communication
» shift of jobs
•content and location
» learning
– play
» games and Internet
Why Bother (continued)?
 Societal impact
– access
» haves and have-nots
» content related to personal and community
standards
– education
– reliability
– privacy
– medical
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What’s Understanding?
 Coverage
– major areas of digital technologies
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semiconductors
hardware
software and systems
networks
– concepts
– current capabilities
– future directions
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What’s Understanding (continued)?
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 Scientific understanding
– physical and logical principles
 Engineering understanding
– organization
– analysis
– improvement
 Society
– what are the impacts of a technology?
– what impacts are inherent to the technology?
– what impacts are due to misapplication?