1. Week 6 – Computer Hardware Basics
Why binary representation matters and what a kilo, mega, giga means.
How it all fits together at the office.

2. The start of it all - Hollerith

3. Hollerith and punched cards
1880 census – 8 years to pull information from notebooks
1890 census – Hollerith takes over census using punched cards. Results are tabulated in 1 year

4. Cards are cute, but so what?
Information is punched/not punched – 2 states
We now refer to this as “binary notation”
Bi = 2 – bi cycle, bi focal
Current versions – magnetized/not magnetized
Logic gate open/not open
Frequency shift – high or low
Voltage shift – negative to positive

5. Binary digits (bits) Binary numbers – 6 decimal = 110 binary
Ascii Code –
a =
b =
c =
d =
e =
f =
g =
We can also encode video signals (digital tv) and audio signals – (digital phones)
Why move everything to binary representation? Hardware is cheap and fast
Q – Create a binary representation of these words - “bad” “bed” “age” “fad”

6. (Business history digression)
Hollerith has no income after 1891 – goes to Europe to sell tabulators does the census again. Begins to sell tabulators to the rail roads Census Bureau starts working around his patents. He uses income to diversify, buying time clock and coffee grinder companies. Calls his new company International Business Machines.

7. The Future
Moore’s Law
Chips will have double the transistors every two years
This has been true for 40 years
BUT – it will stop being true in about 10 years
The impact of Moore’s Law – faster and cheaper computers, chips in more places

8. Measuring performance
Byte – measure of storage (“I have 10 gigabytes of memory”)
Hertz- measure of speed (“My CPU has a clockspeed of 5 gigahertz”)
Kilo = 1000
Mega
Giga
Tera
Peta
Exa

9. Making sense of big numbers
Example – you type at 60 words per minute. Assume 5 characters per word average, and you have 300 characters per minute – 300 bytes per minute. Or 5 bytes per second.
How long will it take to fill up a 5 gig harddrive?
How busy is your CPU running at 1 gigahertz?
So – why do you really need a fast computer?

10. Putting it together at the office
Input devices – keyboard, Point of Sale terminals, Smart phones, etc.
Transitional devices – desktop computers, Smart phones, iPads, etc
Routing devices – routers, networks
Storage devices – databases, the cloud
Output devices – screens, Point of Sale terminals, smart phones, etc

11. Emerging Developments
1. Speed – assumed access to remote devices in real time
Real-time v “batch” – business impacts? What can you connect to now that you could not connect to 5 years ago? What business opportunities does that create?
Remote storage (“the cloud”)
Storage is now essentially limitless and very cheap. So what? What business opportunities have you already seen from this?

12. Emerging Developments(2)
Wireless – 4G LTE provides 1 gigahertz speeds for downloads. Full motion video can be done at 30 megahertz. So, you can watch movies on your smartphone. You can also record video on your phone and send it to friends.
Social impact?

13. Business Opportunities
1. Assume you own a hotel
Let’s list emerging opportunities for
Storage – what can you now save?
Transmission – what can you now move?
Manipulation – what can you now calculate?

14. Business Opportunities
2. Assume you head the tourism ministry
Let’s list emerging opportunities for
Storage – what can you now save?
Transmission – what can you now move?
Manipulation – what can you now calculate?

15. Business Opportunities
3. Assume you head the Education ministry
4. Assume you head the Social Services ministry
List emerging opportunities for
Storage – what can you now save?
Transmission – what can you now move?
Manipulation – what can you now calculate?

16. Review What is Moore’s law? What does binary mean?
Who was Herman Hollerith?
Define –
Kilobyte
Megahertz
Gigahertz
Terabyte