Computer Fundamentals - Computers and Computational Thinking

Computers and Computer Basics

Computer Development and Application

• Basic computer concepts

  • An electronic computer is an electronic device that can process information automatically, at high speed, and accurately.

• development of computers

  • Vacuum tube computer (1946-1959)

  • Transistor Computer (1960-1964)

  • Integrated Circuit Computer (1965-1969)

  • Large-scale and VLSI computers (1970 to present)

• computer applications

  • scientific computing

  • information processing

  • real-time process control

  • Computer Aided Engineering

  • Office automation

  • data communication

  • AI

expression of information

• Why computers use binary

  • Physically easy to implement

  • Simple operation rules

  • Convenient to represent logical values

• Western character encoding

  • ASCII code (American Standard Code for Information Interchange)

    • 128 characters, including Arabic numerals, 52 English uppercase and lowercase letters, 34 control symbols, 32 punctuation and arithmetic symbols

    • There are 7 digits in total, three digits high and four digits low.

• Chinese character encoding

  • Chinese character input code

    • Pinyin

    • glyph

  • Chinese character exchange code

    • Basic set (GB2312-80)

    • Extension set (GBK)

  • Chinese character internal code

    • On-board storage

  • Chinese character output code

    • Output display

computer system components

• Von Neumann architecture (how computers work)

  • Use binary representation of programs and data

  • Can store programs and data and automatically control program execution

  • It has 5 basic parts: arithmetic unit, controller, memory, input device and output device.

• Computer system composition

  • Hardware system

    • Central processing unit (CPU)

      • It is the core component of the computer hardware system, responsible for reading instructions, decoding and executing instructions, and providing computing and control functions.

      • composition

        • Operator (ALU)

          • Arithmetic operations

          • Logical operations

        • Controller (CU)

          • command and coordination

        • register set

        • Cache

    • memory

      • Memory (main memory)

        • Random Access Memory (RAM)

          • Read and write; change frequently; lost when power is off

        • Read Only Memory (ROM)

          • Read-only; fixed, such as BIOS; not lost when power is off

      • External memory (auxiliary memory)

        • Disk, CD, tape

      • Units and conversions

        • bit(b)

        • Byte(B)

        • 1B=8b

        • 1KB=1024B

        • 1MB=1024KB

    • Input and output devices (I/O devices)

      • input device

        • Mouse, keyboard, scanner

      • output device

        • Monitors, printers, plotters

  • software system

    • System software

      • A collection of programs compiled to facilitate users to use, maintain, and manage computers

      • Classification

        • Operating System (OS)

        • programming language

          • machine language

          • assembly language

          • high level language

        • language processing system

        • database management system

    • application software

      • Programs developed to solve practical problems in professional fields

computational thinking

• Three major scientific thinking

  • theoretical thinking

    • feature

      • reasoning, deduction

    • Representative disciplines

      • math

  • experimental thinking

    • feature

      • Observe and summarize

    • Representative disciplines

      • physics

  • computational thinking

    • feature

      • design, construction

    • Representative disciplines

      • computer Science

• concept

  • Professor Zhou Yizhen from Carnegie Mellon University in the United States proposed

  • Computational thinking is a series of thinking activities that use basic concepts of computer science to solve problems, design systems, and understand human behavior, covering the breadth of computer science.

• fundamental purpose

  • solve problems

    • Solving process

      • Problem abstraction, model building, algorithm design, and implementation

• nature

  • abstract

    • Manually process things, extract attributes that are of concern, common, and essential characteristics, and accurately describe these things and characteristics.

  • automation

    • It reflects the characteristics of computer automatically running when solving problems.

    • Its basis and premise is abstraction.

refer to:
1. Basics of University Computers/Compiled by Gan Yong et al.—Beijing: Higher Education Press, 2018.8
2.https:///learn/XXMU-1462125170?tid=1473195500#/learn/announce