Overview:
I have opened this page to discuss Computing Technology. Computing and
Information Technology is most certainly an extension of modular engineering,
mathematics, language, organization, and more, including electrical
engineering and hardware engineering at microscopic levels. Modern computing allows
us to manage and process huge amounts of data very quicly. Navigation
systems could be a beneficiary of fast computing. Quick storage and
retrievel of information is another asset of modern computer technology.
In the following sections, I explain some of the new technologies that
accomplish higher processing, strorage, and retrievel speeds. Of course,
in aerospace, the speeds, distances, and communications may require
quick calculations.
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Timestamping:There are many ways of timestamping. You can make several phone calls over broad areas, ask the person what time it is, and average these times. This can be tedious. Another possibility would be to link or sync your time with an institution such as the Naval Observatory or other institutions that carry atomic time. The way that I will attempt a time stamp will be captured with a written program. |
Programmed Timestamping:Since common computing technology can operate on at least 200 bytes of data in the billions of cycles a second, this is a good start for quantum timestamping. With just a few lines of code, I can measure time several times, average it, and repeat the process if necessary. I would then check the results a day later to see if my time syncs up with certain clocks of the institutions that I have previously pointed out. This program could be written elegantly with just a few lines of code and synced in less than 1/2 hour. So if I can sync time in 1/2 hour, then I know what the time will be in 1 hour, 1 day, 365 days, 5 years, and 950 years with an accuracy measured in seconds. |
Architecture:
Computer architecture can be an entire branch of study in manufacturing,
programming, and theory. One of the great beauties of computing technology,
is that you are required to understand a plethora of applications including
modeling, engineering, math, statistics, data, physics, banking, etc.
In the next section, I will further explore computing technology and
theory - this section is concerned with architecture. Many of you use
it everyday - a computer. Government, Doctors, Engineers, and Consumers
use the PC. Describing the architecture is a difficult task, but I will
give some fundamentals. IO, or input/output is the first step. You enter
text or data, and your computer processes it and outputs text or data.
Quite simply, your computer is a series of organized circuits, in several
stages, along with the ability to load instructions. Folks, processing
is done in billions of bits per second these days. What can one bit
do? It can turn your monitor on or off. It can turn your computer on
or off - and then a few more things. Folks, I have read dozens of books,
taken dozens of classes, and have written thousands of programs - and
this stuff does not get any easier! Ok then, you have lots of circuits.
They process IO, and instructions. You push a key on your keyboard,
and whala! - a circuit is completed! Your screen spits back your input,
or it is saved, or whatever! And, other programs may now use your input!
So you have basic IO in computer architecture. IO is a fundamental function
of computer technology. IO does not have to depend on human operators.
A program may execute and offer input to the the processor, or other
programs for processing. So, you have hardware IO (human interface),
and you have software IO (program interface). And, your CPU processes
the information. In addition to basic IO, hardware, and system programs,
you have extended memories. A first tier of extended memory is RAM,
or Random Access Memory. This circuitry is designed in such a way, that
it loops the most current information. Looping information is another
fundamental concept to Computing Theory. RAM will essentially loop instructions
and processes that are the most frequent in time, and perhaps, with
programs, the most frequent in accessing. So theoretically, RAM of 500
MB, will loop the last 500 MB of processing that has occurred for quick
recurrent accessing. I say theoretically for a few reasons, which I
will not cover too extensively here. I do suspect that modern computing
would take into account the frequency of instructions processed, more
so than the last 500 MB, from my example. Furthermore, it would not
surprise me if system programs are loaded into primary memory, or RAM,
to audit the frequency of some instructions and calculations, and make
"decisions" based on this. But I draw no conclusions, and
this will probably be further explored under computing theory. OK, so
you have human IO, software IO, processing, and high memory. The processor
and high memory are super fast, because they are electrically driven.
Your storage devices are mechanically driven (disks that turn). It would
not surprise me however, if this also has recent innovations. Can you
etch large amounts of information and retrieve it without spinning disks?
If we can't right now, we probably will soon. Ok then, if any of you
have looked at a hard-drive, you will understand why this is a device
that is much slower for information reading and writing. It is like
a fancy record player. But I will give you another little tease for
the next section, which is computing theory. There are buffering programs
that can maximize the abilities of storage memory, to achieve "ok
speeds" that supplement RAM. But this memory resource should generally
be unneeded and avoided in my opinion. You have accelerator cards for
specific functions if you need the enhanced memory. Accelerator cards
are similar to RAM, but are tailored more specifically to your needs.
So you may have graphics and video accelerators, while RAM is much broader
and may be reserved for CPU and systems utilities. Ok folks, there you
have it, that is your modern computer!
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Computing Theory:
Arguably we use the decimal system because we have 10 fingers to count
with. Early mechanisms or calculators included the abacus, which had
beads on strings and used the decimal system, or base 10 system. Modern
computing logic is achieved with a binary system, or base 2. So 1001
= 9 in decimal. It can also be true,false,false,true - or on,off,off,on.
Computer logic is constructed this way because a computer is electrically
driven, and logic can be deciphered from circuits that are on or off,
either singularly, or in infinite arrangements. A series of bits can
turn on or off equipment, can be used to count, can be used as instructions,
and much more. Surprisingly, I believe our minds are basically a computer
comprised essentially of a CPU and RAM memory. Our brains fire electrical
impulses. An understanding of our own short and long term memory can
aid in an understanding of how a computer functions. So the CPU of your
computer is essentially the core processor and is able to perform calculations
measured sometimes in billions of cycles a second. It is able to do
high performance calculations for programs that request the service.
In the previous section, we promised to visit RAM or higher memory and
storage, which theoretically may not require spinning disks, such as
your hard-drive. This may be how some current "memory sticks"
operate, but I am uncertain of this. Theoretically though, you could
store information just like you would print a screen on your TV, or
take a photo snapshot. You would simply get an overall snapshot of what
you are storing or backing up - then "instantaneously" etch
this to some sort of memory reservoir. If we do not have this technology,
then we should - and I bet R&D centers have developed this, are
developing this, or will develop this! In the last section, I mentioned
a couple of theories on RAM, or "higher memory". I mentioned
IO as a fundamental in computing theory, and I mentioned looping as
a fundamental in modern computing theory. This is a critical engineering
and programming concept! You use RAM everyday - no, wait - your computer
uses RAM everyday - no, wait - systems programs use RAM everyday. You
will soon begin to understand why I have placed RAM under computing
theory, if you already haven't. RAM is very special memory. It exists
only as long the processors of RAM are electrically charged and active.
RAM loops information infinitely, so long as it is supplied electricity.
RAM is a complex infrastructure of circuits, that continuously recycles
recent data. How recent? Theoretically, as large as your RAM is. In
a 500 MB RAM chip, theoretically, the last 500 MB of computations are
looped. Why do I say theoretically? Folks, I have dabbled with this
stuff for years. How is your CPU designed. Is it for PC, or a dedicated
super computer. Should RAM be allocated the most "important"
processes, or the last processes, or the most frequent processes? Is
a graphics or video accelerator a dedicated chip? What CPUs are dedicated
chips? Is a super computer that aids weather forecasters an array of
chips, or a dedicated chip, or a series of chips, or a series of dedicated
chips? I would argue that the most frequent processes should be looped
through RAM. Why? Frequent processes could sap too much energy from
the CPU. Folks, I could go on for another 2 pages. I will just say one
thing at this point - read this web site without drawing conclusions.
Read all the sections and you will begin to understand why so many theories
are tied up in so many concepts, and why I can not simply offer a simple
summary on any subject. We need to have a rudimentary understanding
of 1001 concepts. We can not simply purchase our way to space!
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IO:
I have touched on IO throughout this page and preceeding sections. IO
is one of several fundamentals to Computing Technology. Since it has
been somewhat covered so far, I will quickly revisit it for the sake
of this sub-section. IO, or input/output is essential to human interfacing,
as well as software interfacing. In a nutshell, you input data, or a
program inputs data, and it expects a result or a return. That's it!
That is IO.
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Memory:
Refer to to Architecture and Computing Theory for a comprehensive understanding
of computer memory.
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Semiconduction:
This subject is no doubt crucial to so many topics on this site. The
control of energy goes far beyond this webpage and computing technology.
Throughout this website, I cover various states of matter and energy,
materials, physics, chemistry, super-conduction, information, and then
some! I have branched these subjects, into possibly thousands of others.
But, as far as computing is concerned, I will put forward a couple of
thoughts. Semi-conduction is what it says. It is a material that can
transmit energy and is slightly conductive. Semi-conducting material
can transfer unique and discrete bits, at low energy levels! How is
this accomplished? Folks, it may be as simple as a microscopic etched
"valley" or circuit through a semi-conducting medium! This
is the idea of electrons choosing the path of least resistance in a
material. I believe silicone wafers behave this way. Valleys are etched
microscopically using various techniques, possibly even lasers. You
design a chip and its circuitry with something similar to a CAD program.
The robotics then execute the instructions to etch the circuitry into
semi-conducting material. You then can pass electric current through
various entry points into the chip. The points of entry and the combinations
depend on IO which I have covered previously. Depending on the complexity
of the chip, you may be able to do millions or billions of cycles per
second in processing power. Materials engineering and semi-conduction
are another modern miracle of science and technology. The ability to
manipulate matter and energy is what a big portion of what this website
is about, and have no doubt - the mastery of these abilities is what
space endeavors are about.
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General Programming:
You can't do computer engineering without understanding the concepts
of programming. Programming is engineered into the hardware. Engineering
is utilized in the programming. You can not have great programming without
understanding the engineering, and you can not understand the engineering
without understanding the programming logic. In fact, some software
programmers may be thought of as software engineers. Additionally, hardware
is created, debugged, and refined in programmed simulations. There is
plenty of programming theory, and a program may look like this (100100101010),
or close to the text you are now reading. In a high level language,
you use words, variables, functions, constants, arrays, control structures,
and more. Lower level and assembly programs may look more like machine
code, and may have more of a top-down design or structure. The rules
may seem a little more rigid. Lower level programming tends to be geared
toward high memory executions and are often quick and compact in compilation
and execution. Low-level languages may be unique to your operating system
and your machine. A lot of how your code looks may depend on your interpreter,
language construct, machine, personal style, application, development
environment, and comprehensiveness - to name a few. So if you are programming
for systems, systems functions, or systems utilities, you will likely
use an assembly language development environment. What is a development
environment? It is an an environment that allows you to write, debug,
and test programming logic and programming syntax. An IDE can be very
complex and comprehensive, or you can create your own IDE. You then
have higher level languages. These languages are very complex. With
these languages, you can create spreadsheets, graphics programs, websites,
data processing, data bases, do modeling, animations - whatever! Most
high level languages start our pretty basic in concept, but ultimately
expand into very comprehensive structures that include huge assortments
of libraries for functions, methods, and utilities. These libraries
include code and functions that have been added because of their need
and usefulness to help streamline development. One example might be
a function called nl2br which stands for newline to break. In HTML,
the break tag is the equivalent to a newline character in the ASCII
set, or a newline character in regular text such as your notepad on
Windows. This is a frequently used function that has been added to the
core of the PHP language as of probably version 4.0. If I did not have
this function at my disposal, I would have to write a program to check
for all the characters or use regex pattern matching - and regex is
a pain in the ass, but I divert. So I will give you a simple example
of programming in english in the following, and then high level programming.
I want to know the possibilities of 128 bit encryption. So I want to
multiply base 2 times itself 128 times. I create a variable called X.
I set X to equal 1. I then multiply X=itself times 2 - 128 time. The
following block is sample code:var X=1; for(i=0,i<128;i++) X=X times 2; This is a simple for loop where i is incremented 128 times. You can accomplish 128 instructions in this block, and in this case, we raise 2 to the power of 128. This number by the way is ridiculously large and needs to be put into scientific notation for readability. So with programming, you can do all kinds of math and most high level languages have a math library or native code for simple instructions such as the above. There may be constants included in your language such as PI, which is approximately equal to 3.14. So code may look like PI * x, where x is a variable holding a value such as 2 or 2.2. So the possibilities in high level programming are endless. I programmed the search engine on this website so that you can look things up. It is no GOOGLE engine, but it is OK and will give you some results. The search program simply opens each page on this website, looks through it for matches, stores the information, closes the pages, and reports back to you the results. It does the processing in the background so you never see it, and it does so pretty quickly. Also, when you mouse over the arrows on this page, you will get a menu. I programmed this. Although there are HTML menus that I could have used, I needed to program these using another language for reasons I do not want to go into. There is additional administrative programs and utility programs that I have written to aid me in the design and organization of this site. The email this page to a friend button at the top of this page is another program that I wrote so that you do not have to open your mail client and copy this webpage to send. You just fill in the info, and I have programmed the rest. My program sends the content of this webpage in nicely formatted text. Your name, email, date, time, and the content is sent to the receiver, straight from this page! So programming is a pretty powerful tool and is pretty cool stuff. |
Super Computers:
Super computers do a lot of number crunching, data manipulation, data
control, simulations, aid weather forecasters, and more. The architecture
of these machines may be quite different than what you are used to.
They may have a dedicated architecture that is designed for specific
tasks. Computing Technology, Theory, and the fundamentals are the same
however! So I will not entertain the concept of super computers too
much. Arrayed technologies are more likely utilized in super computers.
You may have arrays of processors as an example. Arrayed technology
and modular engineering are big concepts in overall technology, engineering,
and architecture, and I visit it many times throughout this website
(type "arrays" in the search). Some PCs for example may come
with multiple processors, each either dedicated to specific programs
or tasks independently, or sharing in tasks as needed. Super Computers
no doubt take advantage of some of the best engineering and programming
to work with a lot of data. They usually require special cooling systems
and they may aid in such things as weather prediction.
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Artificial Intelligence:
The programming and implementation of AI is a real subject of study.
And to my knowledge, we have made great strides and achievements in
AI. I believe a lot of the fundamentals for AI may be in place. In all
of my reading, programming, and studies, I have only visited AI a couple
of times. I did take a full course. Computers are stubborn when trying
to teach them to think critically. For the most part, computers do exactly
what you tell them to do, or do what your system programs tell them
to do. I think one of the benchmarks we have accomplished, is in computing
power, which may be one of the most crucial links for AI. Using arrayed
and other technologies, we are able to expand primary and "high
memory". This may be the capabilities that AI programmers need,
more than the logic of AI programming. Though the logic may be there,
I suspect the code could stretch miles. I also suspect that object oriented
programming is one of the keys to AI. This is the ability to abstractly
and concretely define objects, any object. If it can be defined, and
can be deciphered. An AI program needs to be able to "judge"
objects, instructions, etc. An AI program then needs to learn. It needs
to cross-reference it's judgments continuously, and continuously learn.
This is tricky stuff. Sometimes simple ideas are the best, and maybe,
AI has a simple solution such as incorporating neuro technologies. That's
right - the study of our brains may offer clues to AI programming. And
perhaps, one day, neuro transmissions can be fed to AI programs and
you could have a mini-you without getting married, christenings, courting,
mating rituals, consorting, and reproductive practice.
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Information Technology:
This entire page thus far, is in part general computing technology and
theory. Up to this point, we have dabbled in architecture, engineering,
and theory. Information Technology has a distinction. IT is the application
of computing technology and is big business. IT helps run our institutions
of today. IT is also a driving force of the internet. The ability to
process and organize information using the tools we have discussed,
then present it to the consumer, is what IT is about. Databanks, archives,
retrieval, storage, and manipulation of information is IT. Of course
the more you know about Computing Technology and Theory, the better
you can be in IT, because these are the tools of IT. In learning IT,
you may deal with scientific data, engineering, financing, banking,
rocket telemetry, programming, and more. The ability to process, interpret,
and present information using Computing Technologies and IT is truly
a modern marvel.
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Robotics:
Robotics today have become very sophisticated. Similar to a PC, the
ability to turn on and off switches, work with IO, operate solenoids,
and execute instructions, may be just a sample of what is required to
run robotics. You may have hydraulics, pumps, solenoids, IO, programs,
mechanical tools, and more. If your PC can execute a binary instruction
to turn on or off a piece of hardware, similar computing technology
can operate robotic hardware and tools. One of the reasons I covered
computing theory so extensively, is because of it's applicability to
so many areas. So whether it be a word processor, IO, IT, data, forecasts,
super computing, math, robotics, or space travel, computing technology
aids the user and consumer by helping to automate tasks and systems.
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Solid State:
In the course of my studies which I outline throughout this site, I imagined
a personal computer based on current technologies that would be fully
solid-state including read memory and ram memory. The read storage memory
would be similar to a magnetic flash drive which I suspect operates similar
to CMOS or a quantum tunnel could be established in the circuitry to flip
the magnetic dipoles. It may not be magnetic and instead incorporate chemical
emulsion technologies or some form of lithographic emulsion technology,
perhaps - or it might change the crystaline pattern of a memory cube.
If you add my clyclosynchronous cell technology to the unit, you could
power led laser scan read write systems. And, just like binary processors,
we could array the new chips as scheduled decicated processors as well.
The new chips are already in design and will exceed the moore's laws of
limitations. The new chips may utilize trinary logic and ion trap addressing
which I discuss throughout this site. Trinary logic could probably be
translated from binary logic using a table. Flash chips will likely carry
movies, music, and software. So a small PC would have the capability of
supercomputing and possibly run holographic screen technology. You might
even be able to run your PC with thoughts. You might be able to think
your internet searches someday. |
Summary:
Humanity has gone through distinct ages. We have been through the Bronze
Age. We have had Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions. We have had
renaissances. We have had other periods, some dark. Arguably, we are
in the Space and Information Age. Satellites are just one example of
our current age. Satellites for example are able to map huge areas.
I believe satellites can also map the ocean floors. If they can't, then
we need to further develop radio technology. We are aware of satellite
technology in weather forecasting and in maritime navigation. This is
just the tip of Space Technologies. To a high degree, this entire website
helps explain the myriad of technologies that are related to ideas in
space travel, satellites, science, materials, engineering, computing,
etc., all of which are tested in any space program. Folks, if you can
get it to space successfully, you have put all these concepts to the
test successfully, and you have put these concepts to the test under
extreme and harsh conditions. What is learned in such endeavors offers
direct human and consumer benefits.
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Pic Group:FOLDER: computing
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