What's In A Computer? (Week 2)

Question 1

What are the 3 Fundamental Ideas of Digital Information Processing?

Answer 1

1) Universal digital representation of information: e.g., documents, pictures, video, music, etc.

2) Universal digital processor: All digital computers are equally capable in what they can compute; they replaced/replace a variety of complex mechanical machines

3) Universal digital network: all information systems may connect using a universal network - the Internet; e.g., for banking, utilities, retail, health care, government, etc.

Question 2

What is a Digital Disruption?

Answer 2

A digital disruption is the change that occurs when new digital technologies and business models affect the value proposition of existing goods and services. It is not the technology itself.

A value proposition an innovation, service, or feature intended to make a company or product attractive to customers.

Question 3

What is the 4th Industrial Revolution?

Answer 3

The 4th Industrial Revolution is driven by cyber-physical systems, in which physical and software components work together and are deeply intertwined.

It is marked by emerging technology breakthroughs in several fields like artificial intelligence, fifth-generation wireless technologies (5G), fully autonomous vehicles, robotics, etc.

Question 4

What does the Hype Cycle describe?

Answer 4

Framework to describe 5 distinct phases of maturity for new technologies.

One interpretation: we tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run.

Question 5

What are the 5 phases of the Hype Cycle?

Answer 5

1) Technology Trigger

2) Peak of Inflated Expectations

3) Trough of Disillusionment

4) Slope of Enlightenment

5) Plateau of Productivity

Question 6

Definition : Technology Trigger

Answer 6

New technology is introduced, often with a breakthrough innovation or a significant advancement. Attracts early adopters and innovators.

Question 7

Definition : Peak of Inflated Expectations

Answer 7

This is when the hype surrounding it is at its highest. Expectations and optimism about the technology’s transformative potential are often unrealistic and exaggerated.

Question 8

Definition : Trough of Disillusionment

Answer 8

The technology faces challenges, setbacks, and limitations that were not initially apparent during the hype phase. This phase is marked by disappointment and a sense of disillusionment as the technology fails to deliver on the exaggerated promises. Some start ups and projects fails. Investor $$ may drop.

Question 9

Definition : Slope of Enlightenment

Answer 9

During this phase, organizations and innovators work to address the issues and challenges identified during the trough of disillusionment. Lessons learned from initial experiments and failures contribute to more successful implementations.

Question 10

Definition : Plateau of Productivity

Answer 10

Technology reaches a stable state where it finds its practical and sustainable application. It become widely adopted by organizations and industry.

Question 11

What are some Important Memory/Storage Properties and
Performance Indicators of Electronic Storage?

Answer 11

Technology: electronic, magnetic, optical

Price: $ per MB/GB/TB

Transfer speed: how much data can be read/written per second (Bytes or I/O operations per second)

Access time: how much time is needed to access (read/write) a specific data element (in seconds)

Power consumption: important for mobile devices

Reliability and durability: all moving parts (e.g., in hard disks) are subject to wear and this leads to failures eventually

Question 12

Definition : Universal

Answer 12

For all kinds of devices

Question 13

What are electronic circuits in CPUs made of?

Answer 13

Transistors

Question 14

Definition : Transistor

Answer 14

An electronic switch that can turn a signal on and off. Information in a computer is represented as these two states (on/off).

Question 15

What is a Logic Gate?

Answer 15

• Are (typically) built using a couple of transistors
• Compute a single output value (off/on, 0/1, true/false, yes/no) based on one or more input values (voltage signals)
• Are building blocks of more sophisticated structures that can perform more complex operations, e.g.
• Arithmetic: add or multiply
• Logic operations: e.g., signal true (on) as a result if every one of multiple input values is true (on) => this is called “logical AND” operation

Question 16

What is Moore’s Law?

Answer 16

Moore’s law is the observation that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit (IC) doubles about every two years.

Question 17

Definition : Microchip

Answer 17

A chip (microchip) is a small piece of semiconductor bearing numerous circuits (millions or billions of transistors) => is not necessarily a CPU

Question 18

How have Microchips been improved?

Answer 18

Number of transistors in a chip roughly corresponds with it ́s computing power => we have seen exponential growth of computing power for the last 5 decades

Feature size (size of a single transistor) of circuits in chips continuously decreased – current size (in 2021) is 5 nanometers

Clock speed of processors continuously increased in the past, but slowed down a few years ago => clock speeds over 4.5 GHz cause very high energy consumption

Question 19

What are some major differences between Programmable Mechanical Machines and Digital Computers?

Answer 19

Programmable Mechanical Machines are analog (gradual values) and are built to serve one specific purpose.

Digital Computers work in binary (0 or 1) and are usually general purpose.

Question 20

What is the difference between the logical/functional organization of something and its physical structure?

Answer 20

Functional => “what are the pieces and what do they do”
Functional design of typical computers was quite stable over the last 60 years. This applies also to tablets and smartphones.

Physical => “how the object and its pieces are built”
Physical construction was and constantly is subject to huge and rapid changes (technological improvements / materials improvements)

Question 21

Definition : Architecture

Answer 21

defines how the function runs

Question 22

Definition : Bus

Answer 22

set of wires that connects the processor, primary memory, secondary storage, variety of components. The bus carries information between these components.

Question 23

What is the CPU and what does it do?

Answer 23

Central Processing Unit (aka: Processor)

“Brains” of the computer, also called “processor”

Does calculations, moves data around, controls other input/output devices, etc.

Performs billions of operations per second
One operation per clock tick
Up to 5 GHz internal clock speed

Question 24

What is RAM and what does it do?

Answer 24

Random Access Memory

Primary/main memory: very fast; stores information that is in active use by the CPU (e.g. currently active programs)

Allows random access (contrary to sequential access, e.g. VCR tape)

Is volatile – looses all information when power is turned off (contrary to permanent memory)

RAM typically contains program code (instructions) and data of all currently running programs

Question 25

What is Secondary Memory/Storage?

Answer 25

Permanent (non-volatile) memory is called storage – for long term storage of programs and data

Keeps its information when power is turned off

Hard disks (HD) are very common storage devices