Circuits Project

Logic Gates

On Monday we learned about simple electric currents and created
Logic Gates on Cedar Logic.

Examples

Counting in Binary

We also learned how to communicate different numbers using Binary, a system
that uses "on" and "off"over a patterned order to create numbers we recognize
today (example: 101 = 5)

Creating Adder Circuits

Adder Circuits use gates and connections in order to allow the computer to do addition.
The computer does not use regular 0-9 numbers, but instead uses 0's and 1's for off and on.

Here is a "half adder" circuit can add up to two. The ones digit is on the bottom right,
and when both inputs are on,the ones digit is off (0) and the "carry" digit is on.

Full Adder Circuit

This is an expanded adder circuit that is made through combining five full adder
circuits. Each lane in the adder circuit counts by powers of 2 (2^1, 2^2, etc).

Flip-flop Circuit

The Flip-flop circuit can only switch which of the two lights are on by having the
middle light on. If the middle light is off, changing the pattern of the left
and right switches will not change which light is on/off.

Soldering

On Tuesday we learned how to solder by using circuit boards in the shape of a small
robotic figure called a "Blinkie".

We also watched a video of a 15-year-old inventor from Sierra Leone named Kelvin Doe that also did some soldering work.

Operating Systems

Operating Systems interact with the user of the computer, and allows them to use hardware and different
programs available. The most popular operating systems include Windows, Mac OS, Google OS, and Linux.

Linux Operating System

Linux is a free, open-source operating system. It is the leading operating system for servers and supercomputers.
"As of June 2013, more than 95% of the world's 500 fastest supercomputers run some variant of Linux"
(Wikipedia). Linux also runs on a variety of different systems, such as phones, televisions, and video
game consoles. Unix, the operating system that Linux was modeled after, was first released in 1971.
Unix was created in an assembly language, which was what was used at the time for programming. It later
evolved to use the C language. Unix eventually evolved into MINIX, which was an educational operating
system released in 1987. A man by the name of Linus Torvalds did not care for MINIX, and his interest
in operating systems led him to create his own, which he named Linux. This operating system took off,
and is now used throughout the world in many different commercial devices.

Programming Languages

Programming languages are what a computer uses to communicate different sets of information throughout the
system in order to accomplish tasks. Computers do not understand human languages, and relies on programming
languages as an alternative. Such programming languages include Python, Java Script, C++, and many more.

Python

Python is a programming language that needs to be compiled and interpreted first for the computer to understand it.
It is not as fast as programming languages that do not need to be interpreted, such as C++, but it is still
reliable and resourceful.

Transistors

A transistor is "a semiconductor device used to amplify and switch electronic signals and electrical power"
(Wikipedia). A transistor has three prongs that come out of the middle: one for base, one for positive,
and one for negative. It was developed in 1947 by physicists John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William
Shockley. Transistors led to much smaller and cheaper computers that evolved to the computers we know
we use today, such as smart phones, laptops, tablets and desktops. Computers are able to get more powerful
while also getting smaller through integrated circuits. Integrated circuits are small chips that have
many gates crafted with transistors, resistors, and other electronic components. As of 2009, microprocessors,
or these integrated circuits, were able to use up to 3 billion transistors (while when we worked with breadboards,
we only used one transistor). Transistors are cheap and flexible to use throughout computer processors, and are
very reliable in collecting, saving, and processing data at remarkably fast rates.

Moore's Law

Moore's Law is a computing term created by Gordon E. Moore that began in the 1970's that states that the processing power of
affordable computers wil double every two years. Some would say this is inaccurate, since the average speed of computers between
2000 and 2009 went from 1.3 GHz to 2.8 GHz, and the more accurate form of the law is that the number of transistors in a computer
doubles every two years. This is much more supportable, since the average number of transistors for computers in 2000
was 37.5 million, which rose to 904 million in 2009. The current largest number of transistors on a commercially available
computer is 4.3 billion transistors, which is considerably larger than that of previous years. Another thing to keep in mind is
that while the clock number from1.3 GHz to 2.8 GHz does not seem significant, the number of cores in computers has also been
rising significantly. For example, in 2000 computers were running on 1 core, while in 2009 most computers were running on four
cores. So, if the clock speed of computers in 2009 were also 1.3 GHz, in theory they would still be 4 times faster. Once
transistors reach a size as small as atoms, the growth of computers will reach it's peek, and Moore's Law will no longer apply.
Until then, computers continue to increase by large amounts as time passes.

Breadboarding

On Thursday of week 2, we created an AND circuit on a breadboard that lit up an LED in the middle of the board. Using a
battery, a resistor and conducting wires, we were able to make the LED work and have electricity flow through the project.

However, we were not able to create the OR circuit. For some reason the second light would not turn on after connecting
all the components (user error most likely since the first light proved that the circuit would work if done correctly).

Troubleshooting Story

The last time I had to troubleshoot my computer was actually quite recently. Over the summer when I was upgrading my computer,
I spent five days trying to figure out why my PC was blue screening after putting in all the new components. After spending
hours looking through different forums online on what the cause of this might have been, I narrowed it down to being an issue
with the graphics card. At first I assumed that it was a virus due to one of the threads that I saw. Sure enough there was a virus
on my computer due to the operating system I had torrented onto the PC (Don't try to torrent operating systems. It's not a good
idea, just don't do it). In my defense, I got a new motherboard and processor, and they did not support the current operating
system that I had, so I had to get Windows 7 onto my PC. I did not have enough money to cover that, so I just went the free and
risky route and torrented it. Anyway, I found the virus on Malwarebytes, and was able to get it off the PC, but the computer was
continuing to blue screen. It took me another couple days to rule out any other conclusions other than the GPU came in DoA (dead
on arrival). So, I had to return the graphics card and trade it in for a new one. Lucky for me, I returned it on day 30 of the
30-day return policy. So, at the end of it all, I was able to get the virus off the PC and get a graphics card that worked. It
was a very frustrating but interesting process to spend 8 hours a day for 5 days straight learning more about how computers act
and different ways to fix certain situations.

In class we also went through troubleshooting a PC. What we found wrong with the PC was that there was no operating system loaded
onto the hard drive. This did not allow the computer to get past the BIOS screen. On top of that, the fan on the power supply was not
functioning. This did not stop the power supply as a whole from working, but it did heat up the power supply a lot without the computer
getting past an idle state. Overall, the PC needed a new power supply, a new hard drive, and an operating system just to begin functioning.