James Tam Introduction to CPSC 203 James Tam

Administrative Contact Information Office: ICT 707 Phone: Office hours Office hours: MW 12: :00 (any Appointment: phone or call Drop by for urgent requests (but no guarantee that I will be in!)

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James Tam Organization of this course Lectures Theory, concepts (how do things work)? Exam-related material (some assignment stuff) Labs Practical (e.g., How do I do I use a computer to do something?) Assignment-related material

James Tam How you will be evaluated Assignments (30%) (1%) Word Processing (4%) Spreadsheet (4%) Database (6%) Internet (5%) Project (7%) PowerPoint (3%) Exams (70%) Midterm exam (30%) Final exam (40%)

James Tam Course resources Course website: Course textbooks: Computer Confluence, 4th Edition, George Beekman, Prentice Hall Projects for Microsoft Office, Toliver, Johnson and Koneman, Addison Wesley

James Tam Course outline 1) Introduction to computers Today’s material and much more! 2) Number systems More than just decimal 3) History of computers

James Tam Course outline (continued) 4) Networking and telecommunications 5) Introduction to Computer Science Simulations Graphics Databases Artificial Intelligence Computer vision Human-Computer Interaction

James Tam Course outline (continued) 6) Computer programming What’s involved in the creation of a computer program. 7) Issues in computing

James Tam What is a computer?

James Tam High-level view of a computer

James Tam Why use a computer? Calculations Fast, accurate Repetition Don’t get bored Storage and retrieval of information

James Tam Categories of computers Supercomputers Mainframes Personal computers Portable computers

James Tam Supercomputers What are they? What are they used for? Example applications Medical research Science Government Telecommunications

James Tam Mainframes One main computer with many secondary computers attached.

James Tam Mainframes (continued) Expensive and big Need special environments Used when reliability is important Banks Airline reservations Web servers The U of C!

James Tam Personal computers (desktops) The most commonly found type of computer Windows, Apple, Sun, Amiga… For one person at a time Inexpensive (but quite powerful)

James Tam Portable computers Notebooks (laptops) Portable form of a desktop Pay more, get less Battery powered Hand helds (palmtops, PDAs) More portable, less powerful