Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Hand-held Computing

Using the sites below answer the following questions:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/10/intel-explains-mid-vs-umpc/
http://www.umpcportal.com/products/

1. What are MID & UMPC devices? How do they differ. List atleast three examples of both types of devices & include images.
An MID is a mobile internet device and a UMPC is the ultra mobile portable computer. The difference between both devices is that the UMPC is a business-class device thats for enterprise users and the MID is a consumer-class lifestyle device. The UMPC runs a "heavy" OS (Operating System) like Vista and the MID runs a "lightweight" OS with a fast startup such as Linux. The UMPC is optimized for office-use things like Excel or Word, whereas the MID is for media playback and websurfing.
Examples of MID: Dell Streak, Archos 5 Internet Table & Huawei Smakit S7
Examples of UMPC: Viliv N5, Archos 9 & Sony Vaio

Watch this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQgiZd0-DxI&feature=related
and answer the following question:


2. What are the differences between a Notebook handheld computing device and a Netbook handheld computing device?
The screen size of a Netbook would usually be around 7", 9" & 10" but a Notebook's size would be 12.1", 13.1", 13.3", 14.1", 15.4" & 17". The size difference is obvious so the Netbook would be much smaller. But you still get some tradeoff's. Power, Memory and Storage.
The Notebook is running with Vista and it can run XP it has a dual core processor with a large regular hardrive and it can have up to 80 to 320 GB worth of storgae space onboard. The Netbooks usually have very a small storage space, usually 4 to 80 GB sometimes even bigger. The Netbook wouldn't be a place to store a lot of movies or videos maybe only a few pictures, songs because you can play music on it. It wouldn't be a place to put on games or applications, there won't be Photoshop or Word or Excel. The whole point of it is the Net-Centric Computing. For example, sufing the web, checking your email and running web applications. You shouldn't run complex programs on this because it wil run very slowly because of the processor, it has an Intel Atom 1.6GHz (very small and does the basic stuff).
A notebook can do everything a normal computer would do and includes a DVD disk drive. The netbook battery life lasts about 3 to 4 hours and the Notebooks waste their power much more quickly and will only go for about 2 to 4 hours. With Netbooks you can ungrade the batteries which give you 6 to 10 hours of battery life.

3. Using the following sites, describe the design & features of the Apple Ipad then discuss how it compares with a Netbook.
http://www.apple.com/ipad/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoMo4BcvPbA
With the Ipad there are no usb ports so you can't plug in usb's or other things with a usb cord. However the Ipad has many other features that a Netbook won't have such as applications and very small weight. It also has more storage space included in it.
The ipad has no webcam, no multitasking and no HDMI port and no flash. It is called a purpose filled device, it can watch videos very well and web browsing. The internet speed is much faster and is there to surprise you.

4. Of the three handheld devices - Notebook, netbook & Ipad – which one would suit your needs and why?


5. If I was looking for a UMPC device with a screen size of 10 in or less, which would you recommend? Justify your choice.


6. View some of the videos at this link http://www.umpcportal.com/
How would you envisage students five years from now using one of these devices at school. Select any UMPC / MID device that you have researched that would meet a students needs, justify your choice.

Bits & Bytes

1. What is a digit?

A digit is the 1 or 0 in a bit.

2. “normal” counting numbers used in everyday life a based on what sequence of numbers?


0 to 9 ten does not count since its made up of two existent numbers

3. Where does the word bit originate from?

4. Binary numbers don’t use base 10. What base do they use? What digits are available in base 2?

They all count in two's

5. If 6,357 can be written as;
(6 * 1000) + (3 * 100) + (5 * 10) + (7 * 1) = 6000 + 300 + 50 + 7

 How would you write 4,321
(4*1000) + (3*100) + (2*10) + (1*1) = 4000 +300+20+1

6.Write the following numbers in binary (base 2)

21 = 101000

24 = 101000
30= 1010000

7. What is a byte?


8. How many bytes in a kilo, mega, giga and tera bytes.


9. Complete the following conversions;

1000 Mb = 1Gb
500 Gb = 5000Mb
5000 Kb = 5 Mb

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

The CPU

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/microprocessor.htm
http://www.intel.com/technology/atom/index.htm

1. What is the function of the CPU?
This is where all computations are carried out before being transferred to memory storage. The CPU accepts input data, processes the information and sends it to the component that is in charge of executing the action.
The CPU, or Central Processing Unit, is the brains of the computer. This is where all the processing of data, computations, and operations are done. The CPU contains the memory, the hard drives, and ports as well that connect all the computer parts and allow each one to function. Without the CPU, one would not be able to do anything with the computer.
2. What was the name of the first CPU?

The first microprocessor to make it into a home computer was the Intel 8080, a complete 8-bit computer on one chip, introduced in 1974.
 3. Referring to the graph on page 2 of the article, describe how the speed of CPU’s has changed.
From the table you can see that the speeds of the CPU's have increased everytime a new CPU has been created. From the first CPU called the 8080 it had a clock speed of 2 MHz and the number of MIPS was only 0.64, to the most recent CPU it's called Pentium 4 "Prescott" it has a clock speed of 3.6 GHz and the number of MIPS is more than 7000. From these results you can see that there has been a large change from the first one ever to the most recent.

4. What does MIPS measure?
MIPS stands for "millions of instructions per second" and is a rough measure of the performance of a CPU. Modern CPUs can do so many different things that MIPS ratings lose a lot of their meaning, but you can get a general sense of the relative power of the CPUs from this column. Modern processors can often execute at a rate of two instructions per clock cycle. That improvement is directly related to the number of transistors on the chip and will make more sense in the next section.
5. Research (Google it) what is a dual core processor, what is multitasking and how do the two work together.
A Dual Core Processor is a multi-core processor is a processing system composed of two or more independent cores. It can be described as an integrated circuit to which two or more individual processors have been attached.
Multitasking is the simultaneous execution of multiple tasks (programs) under the control of an interrupt-driven operating system.
Dual-core processors contain two processing cores, residing on one chip, that perform calculations on two streams of data to increase efficiency and speed while running multiple programs and the new generation of multi-threaded software. For end-users this means a significant increase in response and performance when running multiple applications simultaneously. True multitasking allows users to switch from one program to another without always pausing for the computer to catch up and reducing annoying processing pauses.


CPU QUIZ - http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=p5W5_hA1fzBBssbjctBFoBA&hl=en_GB


The World of Multimedia task :)

CLIPS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUdDhWfpqxg
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/618226/microsoft_surface_computing_the_possibilities/
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/555998/another_version_of_the_intel_umpc_vision_video/
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9vti5_google-voice-for-mobile_tech
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS9AbePnE08

QUESTIONS:

1. Where do you commonly use multimedia in your daily life, list as many examples as you can.
Home, School, Businesses and Public Places.

2. What multimedia device or service would you find it hardest to be without? Discuss.
The Internet and Computers/ Laptops.

3. The video on future directions (third video) has already to some extent come true. What multimedia technologies displayed in this video are already commonly used?

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

MULTIMEDIA

The World of Multimedia presentation :)