Unit 6 Lab 1 - Computer Abstraction Hierarchy

The abstraction of software...

is what makes a computer usable for more than one purpose.

special-purpose languages

languages designed for specific tasks (HTML, Word macros)

kernel

low level language that manages when computer processes run (scheduling, security, input/output)

machine language

low level language understood by computer hardware

bits

number of wires

width

number of wires that connect the processor and the memory

circuit gate

performs boolean function

library

a piece of code written by another person that you can import into your code without needing to know the specifics of how it works

Software is...

an abstraction

Architecture

an abstraction, a specification of the machine language. It also tells how the processor connects to the memory. It doesn't specify the circuitry; the same architecture can be built as circuitry in many different ways.

flip-flop

circuit that has two stable states, on and off (changed by input signal, output reflects it's state)

data mining

combining info from different sources

Uses of software

communication, audio, pictures, video, etc.

machine learning

computers being taught to generalize the info they find to find patterns and predict the future

The software domain is made of...

different softwares - programming languages used to write them, libraries of useful functions that hide details, operating systems that interface with hardware

The digital domain is made of...

different things that make up the same object - architecture is the instructions that software can send that the hardware will understand, components like memory implement architecture, integrated circuits that make up components, and logic gates, which are what circuits are designed around that implement boolean functions

transistor

fundamental building block of electronic circuits that are used as on/off switches

general-purpose languages

have basically the same arithmetic operators and boolean operators

high-level language

have lots of built in abstraction to focus on the problem instead of the computer hardware (reduce bugs)

software domain

programs you write and use and levels included within them

operating system (OS)

programs your apps interact with to communicate with your computer (Windows/iOS for computers/tablets), mostly based off of Unix

garbage collection

puts computer in charge of knowing when a block of memory is no longer in use

fanout

the output voltage is reduced to the point that those inputs might not be sure whether they're getting a zero or a one

application program interface (API)

the record of what the user of a library needs to know about it: describes the library's purpose and its inputs and outputs, but not its algorithms

The analog domain is made of...

transistors, which make up logic gates and have in-between values

compilers and interpreters

translate human programming languages in to machine language to be run by the computer

OS handles...

window system, file manager, communications, utilities