A Brief History of Computing
Gerard O Regan
Language: English
Pages: 264
ISBN: 1447123581
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
This lively and fascinating text traces the key developments in computation – from 3000 B.C. to the present day – in an easy-to-follow and concise manner. Topics and features: ideal for self-study, offering many pedagogical features such as chapter-opening key topics, chapter introductions and summaries, exercises, and a glossary; presents detailed information on major figures in computing, such as Boole, Babbage, Shannon, Turing, Zuse and Von Neumann; reviews the history of software engineering and of programming languages, including syntax and semantics; discusses the progress of artificial intelligence, with extension to such key disciplines as philosophy, psychology, linguistics, neural networks and cybernetics; examines the impact on society of the introduction of the personal computer, the World Wide Web, and the development of mobile phone technology; follows the evolution of a number of major technology companies, including IBM, Microsoft and Apple.
List A is a prime number and this prime number is added to List B. 6. Strike off (or remove) this number and all multiples of this number from List A. 7. Repeat steps 5 through 7 until no more numbers are left in List A. Comment 1.2 The Sieve of Eratosthenes method is a well-known algorithm for determining prime numbers. Computing students often implement this algorithm as an early computer assignment. Archimedes was a mathematician, astronomer and philosopher who lived in Syracuse. He is famous
Performing independent audits There has been a growth of popularity among software developers in light-weight methodologies such as XP [Bec:00]. These methodologies view documentation with distaste, and often software development commences prior to the full specification of the requirements. Classical engineering places emphasis on detailed planning and design and includes appropriate documentation. The design documents are analyzed and reviewed and used as a reference during the construction.
work. For example, bridge designers will develop a mathematical model of a bridge prior to its construction. The model is a simplification of the reality, and an exploration of the model enables a deeper understanding of the proposed bridge to be gained. Engineers will model the various stresses on the bridge to ensure that the bridge design can deal with the projected traffic flow. The ability to use mathematics to solve practical problems is part of the engineer’s education, and is part of the
safety-critical and thereby require the use of formal methods. This proposed system is subject to an initial hazard analysis to determine whether there are safety-critical parts. The reaction to these defence standards 00-55 and 00-5621 was quite hostile initially, as most suppliers were unlikely to meet the technical and organization requirements of the standard. This is described in [Tie:91] and Brown in [Bro:90] argues that Comment 4.1 (Missile Safety) Missile systems must be presumed
the system are stated in mathematical notation. The difference between the axiomatic specification and a model-based approach is illustrated by the example of a stack. The stack includes operators for pushing an element onto the stack and popping an element from the stack. The properties of pop and push are explicitly defined in the axiomatic approach. The model-oriented 4.5 Formal Methods 127 approach constructs an explicit model of the stack and the operations are defined in terms of the