Logic of Analog and Digital Machines

246 Pages·2010·3.66 MB·English

by  Paolo Rocchi

COMPUTER SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND APPLICATIONS

L A D
OGIC OF NALOG AND IGITAL
M
ACHINES
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COMPUTER SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY
AND APPLICATIONS

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COMPUTER SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND APPLICATIONS

L A D
OGIC OF NALOG AND IGITAL
MACHINES

PAOLO ROCCHI

Nova Science Publishers, Inc.
New York
Copyright © 2010 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Rocchi, Paolo.
Logic of analog and digital machines / author, Paolo Rocchi.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-61668-815-8 (eBook)
1. Computer logic--Popular works. 2. Logic design--Popular works. I.
Title.
QA76.9.L63R63 2009
005.101'5113--dc22
2010012213

Published by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. New York
CONTENTS

Foreword ix
Peter J. Denning
Introduction xiii

Symbols and Acronyms xv
Part 1
Chapter 1 A Rock Amid the Route 1
1. A Chameleon 2
2. Practical Perspective 8
3. Sharpness 14
4. Information Relativism 22
5. Anarchic Issue 30
6. Instrumental Acquisition of Information 37
7. Complete Catalogue 40
8. Concluding Remarks 40
Bibliography 42
Chapter 2 Two Courses of Action 47
1. Natural and Artificial 47
2. Analog is Close to Nature 48
3. Sharpness First 54
4. After fhe First Stage 57
5. Encoding 64
6. Concluding Remarks 72
Bibliography 73
Chapter 3 The Extravagant Realm 75
1. Eclectic Profile 75
2. Various Mathematical Theories 85
3. Meticulous Designers 90
4. Paradigms and Technologies 93
5. Concluding Remarks 100
vi Contents
Bibliography 103
Part 2 105
Chapter 4 System Architecture 107
1. From Information to Units 108
2. Two Models for a Digital System 116
3. Concluding Remarks 118
Bibliography 121
Chapter 5 Nets and Spots 123
1. Analog Components 123
2. Channels 124
3. Systems for Transmission 128
4. Control of Computer Nets 132
5. Concluding remarks 135
Bibliography 137
Chapter 6 Storage 139
1. Efficient Logistics 139
2. Digital Memories 140
3. Files 141
4. Databases 144
5. Design of Data Organizations 146
6. Concluding Remarks 149
Bibliography 151
Chapter 7 Efficient Strategy 153
1. Compression 154
2. Encryption 155
3. Redundancy 157
4. Concluding Remarks 163
Bibliography 164
Chapter 8 Adapt for Survival 167
1. Software Programming 167
2. Adaptation 169
3. Work Organizations 176
4. Programmable Systems 181
4. Concluding Remarks 184
Bibliography 186
Chapter 9 The Galaxy of Programs 189
1. Variable Influence of the Context 189
2. Spectrum of Possibilities 192
3. Concluding remarks 195
Bibliography 202
Contents vii
Part 3 205
Chapter 10 People Like to Communicate 207
1. Human Work 207
2. Poor and Rich Languages 208
3. No Worry for Information Techniques 211
4. One Sign One Sound 213
5. Hybrid Appliances 220
6. Concluding remarks 221
Bibliography 222
Index 225
FOREWORD

By Peter J. Denning

Computer Science is a very young discipline compared to most others. Alan Turing
published the seminal paper of the field in 1936. Around the same time, the militaries in
Germany, UK, and US commissioned the first digital electronic computer projects. One of
these, the Colossus at Bletchley Park in the UK, was used to break the German Enigma code
and help turn the tide of World War II; its existence was not made public until the 1970s. The
other projects reached completion after the war: the ENIAC at University of Pennsylvania in
1946 and EDSAC at University of Cambridge in 1949 are prominent examples. The first
academic degree in computing was University of Pennsylvania‘s program in computing in
1959. The first academic computer science departments were Purdue and Stanford in 1962.
For many years, people in the other fields were not sure what to make of computer
science. Depending on their background, they saw computer science as an outgrowth of
mathematics, science, or electrical engineering. Although many people were delighted with
the advances enabled in many fields by computing technologies, they did not see anything
fundamental about computing to warrant a permanent seat at the table of science. It became a
standing joke that any field using the name ―science‖ in its title could not be a real science
based on deep, universal principles. In reaction, many people in the field today called it the
―computing field‖, a shorthand for ―computer and information science and engineering‖.
Through the mid 1980s, when most computer scientists were focused on building
computer systems and networks, an engineering perspective dominated the field. Many
observers believed that in due course, once the infatuation with the newness of computing
wore off, computer science would be absorbed back into electrical engineering. Other
observers believed that the only part of computer science that worked with fundamental
principles was the mathematics part; they believed that in due course, computer science
would be absorbed back into mathematics.
In the mid 1980s, a new development threw a wrench into these beliefs. A growing
number of scientists declared that computational science was a new paradigm of science, a
new way to approach scientific discovery, experiment, and validation. The computational
science movement gained momentum when physicist Ken Wilson was awarded a Nobel Prize
for his discovery of fundamental principles for phase changes in materials, using
computational methods with renormalization groups. Under pressure from Wilson and other