Real-Time Software Design : A Guide for Microprocessor Systems PDF
by HELLER
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Description
Computers these days spend a fairly low fraction of their time computing.
In fact, the very word "computer" has become something of a misnomer.
In the American History museum of the Smithsonian Institute in Wash- ington, D.C., there is an exhibit of early computers.
Three features of these machines are striking. First, they are enormous, especially in com- parison to their capabilities.
The museum visitor who has just come from the Natural History building next door may be reminded of fossilized di- nosaur bones.
Second, they don't look at all like modern computing ma- chines.
The cases are made of crude metal or beautifully worked wood, recalling an approach to the design of scientific apparatus which belongs to a previous generation.
Lastly, the function of these machines is mainly to compute-to perform rapid arithmetic.
The computer of today bears little resemblance in size, form, or function to its ancestors.
It is, most obviously, smaller by several orders of mag- nitude.
Its form has changed from the carefully crafted one-of-a-kind in- strument to the mass-produced microchip.
But the change in its function is perhaps the most dramatic of all.
Instead of being a computing engine, it is a machine for the processing of information.
The word "processor" has come into common usage. A processor used to be a central processing unit-a set of wires and vacuum tubes, or later a set of printed circuit boards-which was nestled deep within the computer.
Today a processor is an off-the-shelf component.
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- Format:PDF
- Publisher:Birkhauser Boston
- Publication Date:11/11/2013
- Category:
- ISBN:9781489904799
Information
-
Download Now
- Format:PDF
- Publisher:Birkhauser Boston
- Publication Date:11/11/2013
- Category:
- ISBN:9781489904799