The First Computer Program

In 1837, the first computer program in history was sketched by the renowned mathematician and inventor Charles Babbage. It was a program for the Analytical Engine. The program consists of a sequence of arithmetical operations and the necessary variable addresses (memory locations) of the arguments and the result, displayed in tabular fashion, like a program trace. The program computes the solutions for a system of two linear equations in two unknowns.Comment: 8 pages, 4 table

The first business computer: a case study in user-driven innovation

In 1949, the world's first business computer application was rolled out. The host for the application was a British catering and food-manufacturing company, which had developed and built its own computer, designed for business data processing. The author traces the endeavour's history and presents an analysis of how and why the company-J. Lyons & Co.-was in a natural position to take on the challenge, the precursor of the information revolution we see toda

Distributed computing system with dual independent communications paths between computers and employing split tokens

This is a distributed computing system providing flexible fault tolerance; ease of software design and concurrency specification; and dynamic balance of the loads. The system comprises a plurality of computers each having a first input/output interface and a second input/output interface for interfacing to communications networks each second input/output interface including a bypass for bypassing the associated computer. A global communications network interconnects the first input/output interfaces for providing each computer the ability to broadcast messages simultaneously to the remainder of the computers. A meshwork communications network interconnects the second input/output interfaces providing each computer with the ability to establish a communications link with another of the computers bypassing the remainder of computers. Each computer is controlled by a resident copy of a common operating system. Communications between respective ones of computers is by means of split tokens each having a moving first portion which is sent from computer to computer and a resident second portion which is disposed in the memory of at least one of computer and wherein the location of the second portion is part of the first portion. The split tokens represent both functions to be executed by the computers and data to be employed in the execution of the functions. The first input/output interfaces each include logic for detecting a collision between messages and for terminating the broadcasting of a message whereby collisions between messages are detected and avoided

Is comprehension or application the more important skill for first-year computer science students?

Time and performance data was collected on a class of 147 Computer Science 1B students, where students carried out a design and programming task based on one that had been seen in a previous examination. Given that students had previously worked through the task, we assessed their comprehension of that material in this assignment. We were then able to collect the performance data and correlate this with the examination marks for the student to determine if there was a relationship between performance in the examination and performance in this practical. We were also able to correlate the performance in this practical with the time taken to complete the practical, and with the student’s statement as to whether they remembered how they had solved it in their previous attempt. By doing this, we discovered that the students who remembered having solved it previously had a significantly higher mean examination mark than those students who claimed not to remember it. Unsurprisingly, students also performed better in this assignment if they had performed better in the examination. The mean time to complete the task was significantly less for those students who claimed to remember the task. In this task, the comprehension of the original material and the ability to recall it was of more importance than the ability to apply knowledge to an unseen problem.Nickolas J. G. Falkne

A First Practical Fully Homomorphic Crypto-Processor Design: The Secret Computer is Nearly Here

Following a sequence of hardware designs for a fully homomorphic crypto-processor - a general purpose processor that natively runs encrypted machine code on encrypted data in registers and memory, resulting in encrypted machine states - proposed by the authors in 2014, we discuss a working prototype of the first of those, a so-called `pseudo-homomorphic' design. This processor is in principle safe against physical or software-based attacks by the owner/operator of the processor on user processes running in it. The processor is intended as a more secure option for those emerging computing paradigms that require trust to be placed in computations carried out in remote locations or overseen by untrusted operators. The prototype has a single-pipeline superscalar architecture that runs OpenRISC standard machine code in two distinct modes. The processor runs in the encrypted mode (the unprivileged, `user' mode, with a long pipeline) at 60-70% of the speed in the unencrypted mode (the privileged, `supervisor' mode, with a short pipeline), emitting a completed encrypted instruction every 1.67-1.8 cycles on average in real trials.Comment: 6 pages, draf

Are object detection assessment criteria ready for maritime computer vision?

Maritime vessels equipped with visible and infrared cameras can complement other conventional sensors for object detection. However, application of computer vision techniques in maritime domain received attention only recently. The maritime environment offers its own unique requirements and challenges. Assessment of the quality of detections is a fundamental need in computer vision. However, the conventional assessment metrics suitable for usual object detection are deficient in the maritime setting. Thus, a large body of related work in computer vision appears inapplicable to the maritime setting at the first sight. We discuss the problem of defining assessment metrics suitable for maritime computer vision. We consider new bottom edge proximity metrics as assessment metrics for maritime computer vision. These metrics indicate that existing computer vision approaches are indeed promising for maritime computer vision and can play a foundational role in the emerging field of maritime computer vision

The Effect of Using Computer Technology Tools to Enhance the Teaching-Learning Process in CAD-CAM-CNC Module in Mechanical Engineering Subject Area

This study presents the evaluation of Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) package included in the teaching and learning methodology of computer aided design- computer aided design - computer numerical control (CAD-CAM-CNC) module. Three groups of students with similar pre-abilities were exposed to three different teaching learning methodologies.The effectiveness of these three methods was determined by questionnaires completed by the students and collected by first author. Their answers were analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. The various categories used in the questionnaire was student’s attitudes towards learning CAD-CAM-CNC subjects, students’ opinions about their lecturers approaches to teaching process, students’ opinions and views about various aspects the CAD-CAM-CNC. The study concludes that the students taught with a combination of CAL package and traditional methods were more effective, efficient and satisfied with their learning experiences. So the proposed hybrid learning method (CAI plus traditional teaching method) is most suited for CAD-CAM-CNC teaching. Computer Technology; Computer-Assisted Instruction (CAI); Computer Assisted Learning (CAL); Computer Aided Design (CAD); Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM); Computer Numerical Control (CNC)