1.1.WHAT THIS COURSE IS ABOUT 3 Personal:Wristwatch,electronic car keys,phone,radio,GPS device,calculator,lap- top… In the home:Stove,refrigerator,freezer,microwave oven,clocks and timers,toaster, coffee machines,thermostats,washer and dryer,TV's,VCR's,audio equipment... Automotive:fuel delivery,air/fuel mixture,spark advance,brakes(ABS),traction con- trol,suspension adjustment,climate control,navigation,computer-controlled driving (coming soon)... Mechanical analog computers:Wind-up clocks,toys,mechanical calculators... Electrical analog computers:Integrators,differentiators,differential equation solvers, Christmas light flashers (cheap ones!)... Digital computers:Calculators,PDAs,Palm computers,laptops,desktops,mini- computers,mainframe computers.... Digital computers? Digital computers are the simplest of all!They only understand two things,which we label“1”and0”,or“on”or“off',but more precisely,states of“high”or "low”voltage. Computers switch between these two states very,VERY quickly.Modern "run-of-the-mill" digital computers can throw about 100 billion switches per second!That's enough to write about 10 million pages of text in one second. The input is rarely a collection of Os and 1s,011110000110...It can be in the form of text that is converted to 0s and 1s or voltage that is "digitized"with an "analog-to- digital"converter.(Musical recording,for example.) The output is similarly rarely a collection of 0s and 1s.It can be 1D data (words, numbers),2D data(functions,charts,pictures,music),3D data(video,surfaces,time- evolving functions)... The processing or computing or programming part is what the bulk of the course is concerned with.The programming responds to the input in some pre-determined way.In some digital computers the programming is fixed,for example,a digital clock or a digital thermometer.In the most interesting cases,the program can be changed. In this course we will learn to program programmable digital computers.1.1. WHAT THIS COURSE IS ABOUT 3 • Personal: Wristwatch, electronic car keys, phone, radio, GPS device, calculator, lap￾top... • In the home: Stove, refrigerator, freezer, microwave oven, clocks andtimers, toaster, coffee machines, thermostats, washer and dryer, TV’s, VCR’s, audio equipment... • Automotive: fuel delivery, air/fuel mixture, spark advance, brakes (ABS), traction con￾trol, suspension adjustment, climate control, navigation, computer-controlled driving (coming soon)... • Mechanical analog computers: Wind-up clocks, toys, mechanical calculators... • Electrical analog computers: Integrators, differentiators, differential equation solvers, Christmas light flashers (cheap ones!)... • Digital computers: Calculators, PDAs, Palm computers, laptops, desktops, mini￾computers, mainframe computers.... Digital computers? Digital computers are the simplest of all! They only understand two things, which we label “1” and“0”, or “on” or “off”, but more precisely, states of “high” or “low” voltage. Computers switch between these two states very, VERY quickly. Modern “run-of-the-mill” digital computers can throw about 100 billion switches per second! That’s enough to write about 10 million pages of text in one second. • The input is rarely a collection of 0s and1s, 011110000110... It can be in the form of text that is converted to 0s and 1s or voltage that is “digitized” with an “analog-to￾digital” converter. (Musical recording, for example.) • The output is similarly rarely a collection of 0s and 1s. It can be 1D data (words, numbers), 2D data (functions, charts, pictures, music), 3D data (video, surfaces, time￾evolving functions)... • The processing or computing or programming part is what the bulk of the course is concerned with. The programming responds to the input in some pre-determined way. In some digital computers the programming is fixed, for example, a digital clock or a digital thermometer. In the most interesting cases, the program can be changed. In this course we will learn to program programmable digital computers