Background Information
The age of digital electronics has come to be one of the most significant developments in the history of society. What were once manual time-consuming tasks and processes have now become programmed to the point where multi-tasking is an expected part of our lifestyles. So what is considered to be a digital electronic? They are sophisticated devices capable of sending information through electronic signals from point A to point B. The information is transmitted from one circuit to another by using electronic currents. However, the logic sequences that have been incorporated into the electrical circuit is what distinguishes digital electronics from the electronic devices from the past. Binary logic, also known as Boolean theory, implements a base two-value logic system of “true” and “false” to transport information through electric signals.
The electronic gate (circuit) is the source of what makes the electronics work. The electronic gate is where and how an electric current is sent. The first gate was a relay device invented by Joseph Henry in 1835, the next was a vacuum tube invented in 1904 by Sir John Ambrose. Soon after, transistors were developed leading to the construction of integrated circuits and microprocessors, which the digital electronics of today are made out of.
A digital circuit is typically constructed from small electronic circuits called logic gates that can be used to create combinatorial logic. These gates are the building blocks of all digital devices. Each logic gate represents a function of Boolean logic. The logic gates is the arrangement of switches, better known as transistors. The output of logic gates is electrical flow or voltage, which can control more logic gates. To re...
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...circuits doubles approximately every two years. This means that every two years circuitry will become more complex. Thus, creating more complex circuit boards that can perform more functions and end up taking the same amount of space as its predecessor.
Recently researchers have experimented on a new concept called “nano-electron-fluid logic (NFL).” It is predicted that logic gates with NFL offer the potential for a much higher switching speed. NFL work by using surface plasma waves that collide and repel each other. Depending on the direction the wave goes, it can be interpreted to have a 1 or 0. Using NFL in logic gates, the switching frequencies will increase and ultimately created fast signals. If it happens that NFL does not become viable, Moore’s law will still stay in effect. And so digital electronics will continue to become better and more complex.
8. Computers are said to process data digitally because the data is processed in binary bits.
For over thirty years, since the beginning of the computing age, the Gordon Moore's equation for the number of chip transistors doubling every eighteen months has been true (Leyden). However, this equation by its very nature cannot continue on infinitely. Although the size of the transistor has drastically decreased in the past fifty years, it cannot get too much smaller, therefore a computer cannot get much faster. The limits of transistor are becoming more and more apparent within the processor speed of Intel and AMD silicon chips (Moore's Law). One reason that chip speeds now are slower than possible is because of the internal-clock of the computer. The clock organizes all of the operation processing and the memory speeds so the information ends at the same time or the processor completes its task uniformly. The faster a chip can go (Mhz) requires that this clock tick ever and ever faster. With a 1.0 Ghz chip, the clock ticks a billion times a second (Ball). This becomes wasted energy and the internal clock limits the processor. These two problems in modern computing will lead to the eventual disproving of Moore's Law. But are there any new areas of chip design engineering beside the normal silicon chip. In fact, two such designs that could revolutionize the computer industry are multi-threading (Copeland) and asynchronous chip design (Old Tricks). The modern silicon processor cannot keep up with the demands that are placed on it today. With the limit of transistor size approaching as well the clock speed bottleneck increasing, these two new chip designs could completely scrap the old computer industry and recreate it completely new.
There are many different beginnings to the origins of computers. Their origins could be dated back more than two thousand years ago, depending on what a person means when they ask where the first computer came from. Most primitive computers were created for the purpose of running simple programs at best. (Daves Old Computers) However, the first ‘digital’ computer was created for the purposes of binary arithmetic, otherwise known as simple math. It was also created for regenerative memory, parallel processing, and separation of memory and computing functions. Built by John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry during 1937-1942, it was dubbed the Atanasoff Berry Computer (ABC).
Computer engineering started about 5,000 years ago in China when they invented the abacus. The abacus is a manual calculator in which you move beads back and forth on rods to add or subtract. Other inventors of simple computers include Blaise Pascal who came up with the arithmetic machine for his father’s work. Also Charles Babbage produced the Analytical Engine, which combined math calculations from one problem and applied it to solve other complex problems. The Analytical Engine is similar to today’s computers.
Moor’s Law: The number of transistors incorporated in a chip will approximately double every 24 months. (Moore, 1965)
the size of the computer by nearly 200% and every year the keep getting smaller
In the past few decades, one field of engineering in particular has stood out in terms of development and commercialisation; and that is electronics and computation. In 1965, when Moore’s Law was first established (Gordon E. Moore, 1965: "Cramming more components onto integrated circuits"), it was stated that the number of transistors (an electronic component according to which the processing and memory capabilities of a microchip is measured) would double every 2 years. This prediction held true even when man ushered in the new millennium. We have gone from computers that could perform one calculation in one second to a super-computer (the one at Oak Ridge National Lab) that can perform 1 quadrillion (1015) mathematical calculations per second. Thus, it is only obvious that this field would also have s...
computer now has transistors the size of eleven atoms. Because of such minuscule scales that
The fist computer, known as the abacus, was made of wood and parallel wires on which beads were strung. Arithmetic operations were performed when the beads were moved along the wire according to “programming” rules that had to be memorized by the user (Soma, 14). The second earliest computer, invented by Blaise Pascal in 1694, was a “digital calculating machine.” Pascal designed this first known digital computer to help his father, who was a tax collector. Pascal’s computer could only add numbers, and they had to be entered by turning dials (Soma, 32). It required a manual process like its ancestor, the abacus. Automation was introduced in the early 1800’s by a mathematics professor named Charles Babbage. He created an automatic calculation machine that was steam powered and stored up to 1000 50-digit numbers. Unlike its two earliest ancestors, Babbage’s invention was able to perform various operations. It relied on cards with holes punched in them, which are called “punch cards.” These cards carried out the programming and storing operations for the machine. Unluckily, Babbage’s creation flopped due to the lack of mechanical precision and the lack of demand for the product (Soma, 46). The machine could not operate efficiently because technology was t adequate to make the machine operate efficiently Computer interest dwindled for many years, and it wasn’t until the mid-1800’s that people became interested in them once again.
The history of engineering goes back into the 19th century when Alexander Volta (1745-1827) made a remarkable discover regarding the nature of electricity (Cosgrove 749). He discovered that electrical current could be controlled and could flow from one point to another. By the time the mid-19th century came about the rules for electricity were being established. During this time electromagnetic induction was discovered by Michael Faraday who lived from 1791 to 1867 (749). Also during this time Samuel Morris invented the telegraph in 1837 which relies on the principles of electromagnetic induction (749). Alexander Graham Bell, who lived from 1847 to 1922, created the telephone which also uses electricity in order to operate (749). Through the success of the telephone, Bell Telephone Company was established. In 1878, the light bulb was finally invented by Thomas Edison who lived from 1847 to 1931 (749). Off the principles of Faraday’s electric motor from 1821, Nicholas Tesla invented a more efficient and powerful electric motor in 1888 (749). To make these inventions be more significant, effort was expended to make better motors and transformers and to enhance the power needed to make them function. Through these inventions during the middle 19th century, it led to the capability of lighting homes and cities through the use of electricity, and it also led to the creation of the telephone communication system (750).
Now I will give you some brief history of the evolution of electronics which will help you understand more about semiconductors and the silicon chip. In the early 1900’s before integrated circuits and silicon chips were invented, computers and radios were made with vacuum tubes. The vacuum tube was invented in 1906 by Dr.Lee DeForest.
The transistor was invented by a man by the name of John Bardeen. He invented it because the vacuum tubes that, at the time, were in use and were quite bulky and would burn out quickly (Ward). The telephone company AT&T hired Bardeen and a team of scientists to solve this problem. Thusly, the transistor was born. The common position is that the transistor provided a perfect solution to the problem. They were composed of germanium instead of glass which could perform the same task without being so large or destructible (Ward). They can do this because the germanium is able to either be a conductor or not a conductor dependent on the temperature and also because it is a metalloid so it is not as easy to break (Computerhistory.org).
In order to understand the benefits and challenges one must understand what a quantum computer is; and the difference between classical and quantum computers. Classical computers use bits; a bit can be represented as either 0 or 1. Vedral states that the value of a bit in computing is determined by the electrical charge being passed through the bit; 0 being the absence and 1 being the presence. The bits are physically represented each by their own transistor; when used in combined computation, logical statements can be used. The rate at which bits are switched in a cycle per second is the clock rate; the faster the clock rate the more computations that can be done per second. According to Hagar, Quantum computing is based on the ideas and practices of physics, quantum mechanics, computer science, and mathematics. A quantum bit commonly referred to as a qubit can not only be in the classical states of 0 or 1, but can also observe what is known in quantum physics and mechanics is known as superposition; the state of being both 0 and 1 at the exact same time (Deutsch, David, and Ekert). A qubit’s super positioned state is usually set by manipulating and utilizing the properties of atomic and subatomic particles (O’Carroll). Skylar Frink states that this super positioned state will allow for faster computations compared to classical computers because but is also much harder to keep a qubit that is in a super positioned state stable (20-21).
It was pure joy to learn how the Boolean logic makes computers work. In my undergraduate study I had taken up courses on Software Engineering, Computer Networks, Data Structures, JAVA, Operating Systems, Computer Graphics, Design and Analysis of Algorithms, Database Management, Web Technology and Mobile Application Development. Practical application aspects were introduced to me through laboratories correspond...
The very earliest existence of the modern day computer’s ancestor is the abacus. These date back to almost 2000 years ago. It is simply a wooden rack holding parallel wires on which beads are strung. When these beads are moved along the wire according to