Handle (hardware)

“ With these tiny components and new circuit modes a supercomputer could be built, stored with information, and programmed to solve what one of the participants called the most difficult problem the human being faces today—that of bargaining.
This computer has not yet been built; it won’t be for some time. But design and fabrication are moving in that direction on a number of fronts. One of these fronts is that of hardware, the components used in building up the computer circuitry. In a decade we moved from vacuum tubes to transistors to thin-film 252devices. ”

“ Many computer experts strongly recommend against buying a computer first and then shopping for the software packages. So identify your needs and select the software packages or materials that will help you do what you want to with your computer. Then find the hardware to run the programs. ”

“ A hacker's personal machine, especially one he or she owns. "Yeah? Well, *my* home box runs a full 4.2 BSD, so there!"
:hook: n. A software or hardware feature included in order to simplify later additions or changes by a user. For example, a simple program that prints numbers might always print them in base 10, but a more flexible version would let a variable determine what base to use; setting the variable to 5 would make the program print numbers in base 5. ”

“ Application of Hardware.—Owing to the fact that hardware has become more intricate in its manufacture and therefore more complicated in its construction, it is found that the proper amount of intelligence is not always exercised in its application. Frequently it is applied so carelessly that the hardware practically loses its most essential features. In the case of mortise-lock sets, all of the better grades are made with easy springs, so that the door will close gently and surely. ”

“ The system consists of an LSI-11, 28K of memory, 2 Diablo disks, an LA30 DECWRITER, a Diablo HYTYPE-I printer, a VDM-1 display, and dual floppy disk drives. Obtaining an operating system which would effectively utilize all of this hardware initially appeared to be much too expensive for an individual to buy, and far too complex to write from scratch. ”

“ Thus it is common to hear hardware or software talked about as though it has homunculi talking to each other inside it, with intentions and desires. Thus, one hears "The protocol handler got confused", or that programs "are trying" to do things, or one may say of a routine that "its goal in life is to X". ”

“ A recipe for inducing hardware damage on a machine via insertion of invalid values (see poke) into a memory-mapped control register; used esp. of various fairly well-known tricks on bitty boxes without hardware memory management (such as the IBM PC and Commodore PET) that can overload and trash analog electronics in the monitor. See also HCF.
Node:
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kilo- pref. ”

“ However, significant advances in computer hardware and software have been made since that time. In particular, dramatic advances in large-scale integrated circuitry and microprocessor technology have permitted fabrication of mini-computers, micro-computers, and other special purpose devices, which are capable of duplicating many of the data-manipulative capabilities which were previously available only at centralized locations housing large scale general-purpose computers. ”

“ Such specifications must include the object machine model, the operating system if present, peripheral equipment, and the device configuration, and may include special hardware options and memory size. The translator will use such specifications when generating object code. [Note that programs that depend on the specific characteristics of the object machine, may be made more portable by enclosing those portions in branches of conditionals on the object machine configuration.] ”

“ When you prefer an extra-large, extra-sharp screen and giant memory and when you can’t easily find micros of comparable quality. Here, too, I’m skeptical. The gap between micro hardware and the dedicateds is narrowing.
5. When you’re looking for a machine that will run special software that the micros won’t. Fondly, a Hollywood writer-director tells of a script-formating program “dreamed up by some lunatic in northern California.” Nowadays, however, moremore programmers are writing for micros than for dedicated word processors. ”

“ High-speed analog storage permits the machine to make sequential calculations, a job once reserved for the digital computer. But even these advances cannot offset the basic limitations the analog computer is heir to.
84Fewer analog machines are being built now, and many in existence do not enjoy the busy schedule of the digital machines. As the mountains of data pile up, created incidentally by computers in the first place, more computers are needed to handle and make sense of them. It is easier to interpret, store, and transmit digital information than analog ”

“ Your storage devices—tape cassettes, floppy disks, or hard disks—that store computer programs and data, are sometimes called external memory.
The computer system also needs input devices and output devices. Your keyboard is an input device; disk drives and tape drives are also input devices. ”

“ Hardware security relates to those protective features implemented through the architectural characteristics of the data-processing equipment, as well as the support and control procedures necessary to maintain the operational integrity of those features. ”

“ Software that has some important functionality deliberately removed, so as to entice potential users to pay for a working version. 2. [Cambridge] Variety of {guiltware} that exhorts you to donate to some charity (compare {careware}, {nagware}) . 3. Hardware deliberately crippled, which can be upgraded to a more expensive model by a trivial change (e.g., cutting a jumper) .
An excellent example of crippleware (sense 3) is Intel's 486SX chip, which is a standard 486DX chip with the co-processor dyked out (in some early versions it was present but disabled) . ”

“ If you attempt to take a picture of what is on the screen, the screen should turn itself off. If you attempt to use an ordinary hard drive to store forbidden bits, the hard drive should refuse to work. ”

“ Parts forming at work stations, each controlled by a Small computer able to load and unload workpieces, make parts and employ adaptive control (in-process operation sensing and corrective feedback) , and incorporate diagnostic devices such as tool-wear and tool-breakage sensors. Materials handling by different computer-controlled devices such as lifts, warehouse stacking cranes, carts, conveyors, and industrial robots with or without sensors that handle (store, retrieve, find, acquire, transport, load, unload) parts, tools, fixtures, and other materials throughout the factory. ”

“ There should be no source language distinction between true hardware interrupts and those synthesized by an operating system, language extensions, or the user program.
B.8 PARAMETERS B.8.a
There should be a consistent set of rules applicable to all parameters, whether they be for procedures, for types, for exception handling, for parallel processes, for declarations, or for built-in operators. There should be special operations (e.g., array substructuring) applicable only to parameters.
Uniformity and consistency contributes to ease of learning. implementing and using a language ”

“ As a novice, you may not be putting the machine through all its paces. So why not invite a more advanced computer owner or a consultant—someone you trust—to tinker around with the computer in ways that you’ll eventually be doing? The sooner the “test drive,” the better. Your tester should do basics like copying disks, transferring electronic files from one disk to another, erasing files, and renaming files. See if there’s a program available to test the disk drives and related circuitry. ”

“ Through a cable called a null modem, you can pipe valuable reports from your portable to a larger computer a few feet away. You may want to do this, anyhow. Your lap-sized computer simply may run out of storage room much more quickly than a bigger machine and may lack floppy disks to spread those bits and bytes around. So make sure your portable software lets you zip material back and forth between machines. ”

“ Serial Operation—Digital computer operation in which all digits are handled serially.
Storage—Use of drums, tapes, cards, and so on to store data outside the computer proper.
The Computer’s Parts Looking at computers from a distance, we are vaguely aware that they are given problems in the form of coded instructions and that through some electronic metamorphosis this problem turns into an answer that is produced at the readout end of the machine. There is an engineering technique called the “black box” concept, in which we are concerned only with input to this box and its output. ”

“ There are five components that make up a computer: input, control, arithmetic (or logic) unit, memory, and output. As machine intelligence expert, Dr. W. Ross Ashby, points out, we can get no more out of a brain—mechanical or human—than we put into it. So we must have an input. The kind of input depends largely on the degree of sophistication of the machine we are considering.
With the abacus we set in the problem mechanically, with our fingers. Using a desk calculator we punch buttons: a more refined mechanical input. Punched cards or perforated tapes are much used input methods. ”

“ On left is an array of 16 analog computers; at right is a large digital data-processing system.
The facility can perform scientific and business tasks simultaneously.
The dictionary also gives us a good clue to the digital computer: “Digital.—Of the fingers or digits.” A digital machine deals in digits, or discrete units, in its calculations. For instance, if we ask it to multiply 2 times 2, it answers that the product is exactly 4. A slide rule, which we have said is an analog device, might yield an answer of 3.98 or 4.02, depending on the quality of its workmanship and our eyesight. ”

“ A coded tape, generated by a computer, controls the milling machine, drill press, or shaper more accurately than the human machinist could. In effect, the computer studies a blueprint and punches out instructions on tape that tell the machine what it is to do, how much of it, and for how long. Huge shaping and contouring machines munch chunks of metal from blanks to form them into complex three-dimensional shapes. Remington Rand UNIVAC and IBM are among the companies producing computers for this purpose. ”

“ A fertile field for the analog computer from the start was that of industrial process control. Chemical plants, petroleum refineries, power generating stations, and some manufacturing processes lend themselves to control by analog computers. ”

“ When you were working on a machine like the TX-0, which came with almost no software, everyone would furiously write systems programs to make programming easier—Tools to Make Tools, kept in the drawer by the console for easy access by anyone using the machine. ”

“ But that's not what we do when we turn a computer into an appliance. We're not making a computer that runs only the "appliance" app; we're making a computer that can run every program, but which uses some combination of rootkits, spyware, and code-signing to prevent the user from knowing which processes are running, from installing her own software, and from terminating processes that she doesn't want. In other words, an appliance is not a stripped-down computer -- it is a fully functional computer with spyware on it out of the box. ”

“ It can also “learn” to play a mediocre game of chess.
If we investigate the workings of a digital computer, we find much to remind us of the human brain. First is the obvious similarity of on-off, yes-no operation. This implies a power source, usually electrical, and a number of two-position switches. The over-all configuration of the classic computer resembles, in principal if not physical appearance, that of the human brain and its accessories.
As we have learned, the electronic computer has an input section, a control, an arithmetic (or logic) section, a memory, and an output. ”

“ Computer control is nominally located at the hub of the expanding LMF disk, and commands in hierarchical fashion a distributed information processing system with sector computers at each node and sector subsystems at the next hierarchical level of control. ”

“ CD-ROM players. Stereo speakers. Enhanced network peripherals. And most any other peripheral device available for ordinary personal computers.
But the machine had its faults. Though it was technically superior to ICP's portable computers, software developers hesitated to invest the costly technical and human resources required to create new programs for it. ”

“ Others furnish information in typed or printed form, punched cards, or a display on a tube or screen.
Like us, the computer can be frustrated by a task beyond its capabilities. A wrong command can set its parts clicking rapidly but in futile circles. Early computers, for example, could be panicked by the order to divide a number by zero. The 10solution to that problem of course is infinity, and the poor machine had a hard time trying to make such an answer good. ”

“ We now understand that machine tools cannot utterly displace the human hand and eye. The fitters, with touches of the file, remove matter in such minute quantities that its removal might seem of no consequence. ”