PPT Slide
Computation: Abstract vs. Implementation
Up to now, computation has been a mental exercise (paper, programs)
This class is about physically implementing computation using physical devices that use voltages to represent logical values
Basic units of computation are:
- representation: "0", "1" on a wire set of wires (e.g., for binary integers)
- assignment: x = y
- data operations: x + y – 5
- control: sequential statements: A; B; C conditionals: if x == 1 then y loops: for ( i = 1 ; i == 10, i++) procedures: A; proc(...); B;
We will study how each of these are implemented in hardware and composed into computational structures