Introduction to Computing Nathan Friedman Fall, 2006 Winter, 2007

Introduction to Computing Nathan Friedman Fall, 2006 Winter, 2007 Computing for Engineers 1

Why Am I Taking This Course? Winter, 2007 Computing for Engineers 2

Why Am I Taking This Course? Reason #1: My faculty made me!! Winter, 2007 Computing for Engineers 3

Why Am I Taking This Course? Reason #1: My faculty made me!! Reason #2: I’m actually going to learn a lot of interesting new things Winter, 2007 Computing for Engineers 4

Why Am I Taking This Course? Reason #1: My faculty made me!! Reason #2: I’m actually going to learn a lot of interesting new things (Believe it or Not) Winter, 2007 Computing for Engineers 5

What Are We Going to Study? There are three components to this course Winter, 2007 Computing for Engineers 6

What Are We Going to Study? There are three components to this course 1. 2. 3. Winter, 2007 FORTRAN C Algorithms Computing for Engineers 7

FORTRAN Fortran was one of the first high level programming languages. It was designed to be used for scientific applications and has been updated several times. It remains an important language in the engineering community. We will spend about four weeks studying how to design and implement programs using Fortran Winter, 2007 Computing for Engineers 8

C We will spend four weeks studying a language called C. This language was developed in the 1970’s for systems programming applications. It is very powerful and efficient and very widely used in many applications areas including scientific and engineering computations. Many modern languages are based on C, making it a useful springboard to learning new languages Winter, 2007 Computing for Engineers 9

Algorithms There are many fundamental problems that arise in engineering and other areas of application. These include sorting data, searching for specific data values, numerical integration, finding roots of functions, solving ordinary differential equations and solving systems of linear equations We will spend about four weeks studying important algorithms for these problems. Winter, 2007 Computing for Engineers 10

Why Study This Stuff? Computers play a central role in almost every branch of engineering You will often have to put into practice the theoretical ideas you study in your courses. This may involve the use of software packages with limitations on their applicability. You may have to write programs during to modify or extend this software. Even using programs developed by others may require some knowledge of the programming process. Winter, 2007 Computing for Engineers 11

What if I never write a program again? Besides programming this course will give you: A basis for interpreting and appraising the results and limitations of software Tools for the analysis and design processes that underlie engineering practices Sharper logical thinking and problem solving skills Tools for scientific and mathematical applications Winter, 2007 Computing for Engineers 12

In short, this course will make you a better person Winter, 2007 Computing for Engineers 13

In short, this course will make you a better person Winter, 2007 Computing for Engineers 14

Course Staff This course is taught by a team that includes a course coordinator/lecturer, a lecturer for the second section and a number of teaching assistants. The lecturers will present the course material in the lectures and be available during office hours to assist you. The teaching assistants will run tutorials, assist you during their office hours and grade your assignments. Winter, 2007 Computing for Engineers 15

Instructors Nathan Friedman (course coordinator) [email protected] MC325, (514) 398-7076 Yi Lin [email protected] MC105, (514) 398-7071 ext 0664 http://www.cs.mcgill.ca/ ylin30/courses/ cs208/ Winter, 2007 Computing for Engineers 16

Teaching Assistants Nicolas Gervasi [email protected] Zouhair Mahboubi [email protected] Marina Malkova [email protected] Omar Skalli [email protected] Winter, 2007 Computing for Engineers 17

Timetable Lectures are Tuesday, Thursday 2:30-4:00 Tutorials Weekly tutorials will be held Time and place to be announced Attendance is not mandatory but highly recommended Winter, 2007 Computing for Engineers 18

Sections Assignments and tests will be the same for both sections of the course. You are free to attend whichever lecture you prefer Section 1 is taught by Nathan Friedman in ENGTR 0100 Section 2 is taught by Yi Lin in ENGTR 1080 Winter, 2007 Computing for Engineers 19

Computing Facilities The Faculty of Engineering computers have all the software required for the course The main facilities are in FDA 1 and MDHAR G15 Software used in the course can also be downloaded from the class web site on WebCT Winter, 2007 Computing for Engineers 20

Computers in Engineering Please see the course description and outline that is available (in pdf format) on WebCT (at www.mcgill.ca/webct/) That document was prepared by Jean Francois Bastien, a former TA for the course. It will be an invaluable tool for you to use throughout the course. Winter, 2007 Computing for Engineers 21

Resources Textbook FORTRAN, C and Algorithms by G. Ratzer and J. Vybihal WebCT resources include Lecture notes Code for algorithms studied in class Previous midterm and final examinations Winter, 2007 Computing for Engineers 22

Grading Assignments There will be 3 assignments in Fortran and 3 in C They will be worth 20% of the final grade Midterm A 90 minute midterm will be held during class time It will be worth 30% of the final grade Final Examination A 3 hour final exam will be held at the end of Computing for Engineers Winter, 2007 23

Academic Integrity You are encouraged to attend tutorials to get ideas for solving the assignments You can discuss approaches to solving the problems BUT: You must code the programs yourselves and not copy from anyone else Copying all or portions of a program can be detected by software If you copy an assignment, you will receive a zero on it Please read the McGIl Code of Student Conduct at www.mcgill.ca/integrity for the University policy on cheating and plagiarism andfordisciplinary Winter, 2007 Computing Engineers 24

How do I Ace this course? Prepare for lectures Slides for the lectures will be available on WebCT for you to read and download Ask questions about anything you find unclear Winter, 2007 Computing for Engineers 25

How do I Ace this course? Prepare for lectures Attend the tutorials We will try and set times to accommodate as many of you as possible This is an opportunity to see more examples, get pointers on how to approach assignments and benefit from the experience the TA’s have had with this course in the past Winter, 2007 Computing for Engineers 26

How do I Ace this course? Prepare for lectures Attend the tutorials See the TA’s during lab hours (in FDA 1) Winter, 2007 Computing for Engineers 27

How do I Ace this course? Prepare for lectures Attend the tutorials See the TA’s during lab hours See your instructor during office hours Don’t be afraid to ask questions I will also try to answer emails within 24 hours Winter, 2007 Computing for Engineers 28

How do I Ace this course? Prepare for lectures Attend the tutorials See the TA’s during lab hours See your instructor during office hours Do the assignments by yourself The only way to learn how to program is to program There is no substitute for practice Winter, 2007 Computing for Engineers 29

How do I Ace this course? Prepare for lectures Attend the tutorials See the TA’s during lab hours See your instructor during office hours Do the assignments by yourself Study using old midterms and finals as well as sample programs on WebCT Winter, 2007 Computing for Engineers 30

Let’s Get Started Winter, 2007 Computing for Engineers 31

A Brief History The Abacus is considered to be the first mechanical computing device Winter, 2007 Computing for Engineers 32

Mechanical Calculators 1612 – John Napier used floating point arithmetic and invented the logarithm 1622 – William Oughtred created the slide rule based on Napier’s logarithms. This was the primary calculator used by engineers until the 1960’s 1642 – Blaise Pascal created a machine that could add and subtract, automatically carrying numbers Winter, 2007 Computing for Engineers 33

The Pascaline -- 1642 Winter, 2007 Computing for Engineers 34

Mechanical Calculators 1612 – John Napier used floating point arithmetic and invented the logarithm 1622 – William Oughtred created the slide rule based on Napier’s logarithms. This was the primary calculator used by engineers until the 1960’s 1642 – Blaise Pascal created a machine that could add and subtract, automatically carrying numbers 1673 – Gottfried Leibnitz built a calculator that could multiply as well Winter, 2007 Computing for Engineers 35

The Industrial Age Joseph-Marie Jacquard invented an automatic loom using punched cards to control patterns in the fabrics. (Leading to riots against replacing people by machines.) Winter, 2007 Computing for Engineers 36

Charles Babbage 1822 – Charles Babbage designed the Difference Engine for comuputing navigational tables 1833 – Designed the Analytical Engine that had the basic components used in a modern computer 1847-1849 – Work on Difference Machine but technology too primitive to build it. In 1991 the Science Museum in London built it Winter, 2007 Computing for Engineers 37

Early Modern Machines 1935-38 Konrad Zuse developed Z1 and Z-2 computers using binary arithmetic 1936-39 John Vincent Atanasoff and John Berry built ABC computer for solving linear systems in Physics. Introduced ALU and rewriting memory. Winter, 2007 Computing for Engineers 38

ENIAC The First Electronic Computer 1943 Work started on ENIAC at University of Pennsylvania under John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert with Herman Goldstein A general purpose computer used for computing artillery tables Winter, 2007 Computing for Engineers 39

ENIAC Winter, 2007 Used 18,000 vacuum tubes U shaped, 25m long, 2.5m high, 1m wide Programmed by plugging cables and setting switches From 1 hour to 1 day to program Computing for Engineers 40

Von Neumann Computer 1944 – John von Neumann joined ENIAC team. Credited with the idea of storing programs as numbers 1945 – von Neumann proposed a stored program computer called EDVAC Winter, 2007 Computing for Engineers 41

The 1950’s IBM produces series of computers with Jean Amdahl as chief architect Memory upgraded to magnetic core memory, magnetic tapes and disks with movable read/write heads 1957 – Fortran introduced 1958 – Integrated Circuit invented Winter, 2007 Computing for Engineers 42

The 1960’s 1963 – ASCII code introduced 1965 – IBM/360 introduced using integrated circuits 1965 – DEC introduced PDP-8, first minicomputer 1969 – Work began on ARPAnet (the predecessor of the internet) Winter, 2007 Computing for Engineers 43

The Early 1970’s 1971 – Intel 4004 the first microprocessor and the first floppy disk introduced 1973 – Xerox invents Ethernet 1775 – First PC, MITS Altair 8800 (no keyboard, no display, no auxilliary storage) Bill Gates and Paul Allen wrote a BASIC compiler for the Altair, their first product Winter, 2007 Computing for Engineers 44

The Later 1970’s 1976 – Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak develop Apple I in their parent’s garage 1976 – Cray-1, first supercomputer announced Winter, 2007 Computing for Engineers 45

IBM PC 1981 – IBM enters market with IBM PC based on Intel 8088 chip Release of Microsoft DOS for the PC 1982 Computer chosen by Time Magazine as “Man of the Year” Winter, 2007 Computing for Engineers 46

Apple Macintosh Winter, 2007 1984 – Macintosh introduced, based on Xerox Alto. The icon and mouse became the main tools for interacting with computers Computing for Engineers 47

INTERNETS SUN THE NETWORK IS THE COMPUTER WHO NEXT? Winter, 2007 Computing for Engineers 48