1. COSC 1301 Introduction Plan for Today:
Review course policies and coverage
Homework, Projects and Exams
Class Communication
Computers and the Internet: In Our Lives
Brief Introduction to Chapter 1: Computers then and now

2. Homework and Projects
Electronically submitted assignments – text file, word document
via Canvas
Python Programs
We will use Python 3.4
Optional reference: Python Programming for the Absolute Beginner (3rd edition) by Dawson
Webpages (using HTML and CSS)

3. Exams Three in-class midterm exams Final exam
Cover material from lecture, homework and projects
Final exam
During final exam period – date and time assigned by university

4. Communication
Office hours: Thursday after class 11:00am to 12:00pm
JBWS 290

5. Ancient History: Computers: Then…
The IBM 360:
1960s and 1970s
Photograph from Computer History Museum
Approximately 2 MB (1/500 GB) of memory

6. Computers: Then and Now
Circa 1970: 1/500 GB
What’s next? 2050?
2017: 64 GB

7. Moore’s Law Not actually a law
Observation by Gordon E. Moore, Intel co-founder, that:
# of transistors on integrated circuit seems to double every two years
Corresponding exponential increase in processing speed and memory capacity

8. Moore’s Law

9. Computing Power: Now
Computing power and connections between computers growing very fast.
Cost: 1 grain of rice == 200k transistors
Transistor: electronic switch that’s either on or off
Many times more transistors produced each year than number of grains of rice consumed.
Plus: A transistor is cheaper than a grain of rice!

10. Your “Computers” What was your first computer?
Mine: Windows 95
What “computers” do you use regularly now?
via
Digital camera, DVD player, tablet, laptop, smart phone, GPS navigator, ATM, google glass, cars

11. Computer Programming: Then…
Through
1970s:
Programs on
Punch Cards
One card per program instruction.
Each character in the program statement encoded per column – the first character, Z, is encoded as

12. Computer Programming: Then…
Assembly Language Program: Prints the message “HELLO WORLD” to the console
HELLO CSECT The name of this program is 'HELLO'
* Register 15 points here on entry from OPSYS or caller.
USING *, Tell assembler which register we are using for pgm. base
STM 14,12,12(13) Save registers 14,15, and 0 thru 12 in caller's Save area
LR 12, Set up base register with program's entry point address
LA 15,SAVE Now Point at our own save area
ST 15,8(13) Set forward chain
ST 13,4(15) Set back chain
LR 13, Set R13 to address of new save area
* end of housekeeping (similar for most programs) -
WTO 'Hello World' Write To Operator (Operating System macro) *
L ,4(13) restore address to caller-provided save area
LM 14,12,12(13) Restore registers as on entry
SR 15, Set register 15 to 0 so that the return code (R15) is Zero
BR Return to caller
SAVE DS 18F Define 18 fullwords to save calling program registers
END HELLO This is the end of the program

13. Computer Programming: Now
We’ll write the “Hello World” program in Python:
def main():
print(“Hello World”)
main()

14. Why Not English? Why can’t we just write our programs in English?
English is ambiguous
What does “Feed the cat John” mean?
And: “We saw her duck”
Google “English structure”:
hierarchical structure of the government in Great Britain
structure of sentences in the English language
etc.

15. Where are the Computers?
1960s/ 1970s
Today
iphone photo courtesy of Brett Jordan:
IntelliSeat photo courtesy of Elaine Rich (programmable toilet) …

16. This Class
How do we store data (pictures, videos, text, etc) in a computer, what are the physical/electronic parts of a computer, how do we give instructions to a computer, etc.
Image from textbook slides

17. What can Computers do? Beat former champs at Jeopardy! Watson: 2011
Next for Watson: Helping make health care decisions for lung cancer patients
Image:

18. Dr. Watson
'A machine like that is like 500,000 of me sitting at Google and Pubmed.‘ -- Herbert Chase, M.D., Columbia University Wired magazine: medicines-most-complex-pro.aspx

19. What’s Next? Autonomous traffic management
Photo courtesy of Peter Stone:
Autonomous traffic management