computer science
Computer science, the study of computers and computing, including their theoretical and algorithmic foundations, hardware and software, and their uses for processing information. The discipline of computer science includes the study of algorithms and data structures, computer and network design, modeling data and information processes, and artificial intelligence. Computer science draws some of its foundations from mathematics and engineering and therefore incorporates techniques from areas such as queueing theory, probability and statistics, and electronic circuit design. Computer science also makes heavy use of hypothesis testing and experimentation during the conceptualization, design, measurement, and refinement of new algorithms, information structures, and computer architectures.
Computer science is considered as part of a family of five separate yet interrelated disciplines: computer engineering, computer science, information systems, information technology, and software engineering. This family has come to be known collectively as the discipline of computing. These five disciplines are interrelated in the sense that computing is their object of study, but they are separate since each has its own research perspective and curricular focus. (Since 1991 the Association for Computing Machinery [ACM], the IEEE Computer Society [IEEE-CS], and the Association for Information Systems [AIS] have collaborated to develop and update the taxonomy of these five interrelated disciplines and the guidelines that educational institutions worldwide use for their undergraduate, graduate, and research programs.)
The major subfields of computer science include the traditional study of computer architecture, programming languages, and software development. However, they also include computational science (the use of algorithmic techniques for modeling scientific data), graphics and visualization, human-computer interaction, databases and information systems, networks, and the social and professional issues that are unique to the practice of computer science. As may be evident, some of these subfields overlap in their activities with other modern fields, such as bioinformatics and computational chemistry. These overlaps are the consequence of a tendency among computer scientists to recognize and act upon their field’s many interdisciplinary connections.
Development of computer science
Computer science emerged as an independent discipline in the early 1960s, although the electronic digital computer that is the object of its study was invented some two decades earlier. The roots of computer science lie primarily in the related fields of mathematics, electrical engineering, physics, and management information systems.
Mathematics is the source of two key concepts in the development of the computer—the idea that all information can be represented as sequences of zeros and ones and the abstract notion of a “stored program.” In the binary number system, numbers are represented by a sequence of the binary digits 0 and 1 in the same way that numbers in the familiar decimal system are represented using the digits 0 through 9. The relative ease with which two states (e.g., high and low voltage) can be realized in electrical and electronic devices led naturally to the binary digit, or bit, becoming the basic unit of data storage and transmission in a computer system.
Electrical engineering provides the basics of circuit design—namely, the idea that electrical impulses input to a circuit can be combined using Boolean algebra to produce arbitrary outputs. (The Boolean algebra developed in the 19th century supplied a formalism for designing a circuit with binary input values of zeros and ones [false or true, respectively, in the terminology of logic] to yield any desired combination of zeros and ones as output.) The invention of the transistor and the miniaturization of circuits, along with the invention of electronic, magnetic, and optical media for the storage and transmission of information, resulted from advances in electrical engineering and physics.
Management information systems, originally called data processing systems, provided early ideas from which various computer science concepts such as sorting, searching, databases, information retrieval, and graphical user interfaces evolved. Large corporations housed computers that stored information that was central to the activities of running a business—payroll, accounting, inventory management, production control, shipping, and receiving.
Theoretical work on computability, which began in the 1930s, provided the needed extension of these advances to the design of whole machines; a milestone was the 1936 specification of the Turing machine (a theoretical computational model that carries out instructions represented as a series of zeros and ones) by the British mathematician Alan Turing and his proof of the model’s computational power. Another breakthrough was the concept of the stored-program computer, usually credited to Hungarian American mathematician John von Neumann. These are the origins of the computer science field that later became known as architecture and organization.
In the 1950s, most computer users worked either in scientific research labs or in large corporations. The former group used computers to help them make complex mathematical calculations (e.g., missile trajectories), while the latter group used computers to manage large amounts of corporate data (e.g., payrolls and inventories). Both groups quickly learned that writing programs in the machine language of zeros and ones was not practical or reliable. This discovery led to the development of assembly language in the early 1950s, which allows programmers to use symbols for instructions (e.g., ADD for addition) and variables (e.g., X). Another program, known as an assembler, translated these symbolic programs into an equivalent binary program whose steps the computer could carry out, or “execute.”
Other system software elements known as linking loaders were developed to combine pieces of assembled code and load them into the computer’s memory, where they could be executed. The concept of linking separate pieces of code was important, since it allowed “libraries” of programs for carrying out common tasks to be reused. This was a first step in the development of the computer science field called software engineering.
Later in the 1950s, assembly language was found to be so cumbersome that the development of high-level languages (closer to natural languages) began to support easier, faster programming. FORTRAN emerged as the main high-level language for scientific programming, while COBOL became the main language for business programming. These languages carried with them the need for different software, called compilers, that translate high-level language programs into machine code. As programming languages became more powerful and abstract, building compilers that create high-quality machine code and that are efficient in terms of execution speed and storage consumption became a challenging computer science problem. The design and implementation of high-level languages is at the heart of the computer science field called programming languages.
Increasing use of computers in the early 1960s provided the impetus for the development of the first operating systems, which consisted of system-resident software that automatically handled input and output and the execution of programs called “jobs.” The demand for better computational techniques led to a resurgence of interest in numerical methods and their analysis, an activity that expanded so widely that it became known as computational science.
The 1970s and ’80s saw the emergence of powerful computer graphics devices, both for scientific modeling and other visual activities. (Computerized graphical devices were introduced in the early 1950s with the display of crude images on paper plots and cathode-ray tube [CRT] screens.) Expensive hardware and the limited availability of software kept the field from growing until the early 1980s, when the computer memory required for bitmap graphics (in which an image is made up of small rectangular pixels) became more affordable. Bitmap technology, together with high-resolution display screens and the development of graphics standards that make software less machine-dependent, has led to the explosive growth of the field. Support for all these activities evolved into the field of computer science known as graphics and visual computing.
Closely related to this field is the design and analysis of systems that interact directly with users who are carrying out various computational tasks. These systems came into wide use during the 1980s and ’90s, when line-edited interactions with users were replaced by graphical user interfaces (GUIs). GUI design, which was pioneered by Xerox and was later picked up by Apple (Macintosh) and finally by Microsoft (Windows), is important because it constitutes what people see and do when they interact with a computing device. The design of appropriate user interfaces for all types of users has evolved into the computer science field known as human-computer interaction (HCI).
The field of computer architecture and organization has also evolved dramatically since the first stored-program computers were developed in the 1950s. So called time-sharing systems emerged in the 1960s to allow several users to run programs at the same time from different terminals that were hard-wired to the computer. The 1970s saw the development of the first wide-area computer networks (WANs) and protocols for transferring information at high speeds between computers separated by large distances. As these activities evolved, they coalesced into the computer science field called networking and communications. A major accomplishment of this field was the development of the Internet.
The idea that instructions, as well as data, could be stored in a computer’s memory was critical to fundamental discoveries about the theoretical behaviour of algorithms. That is, questions such as, “What can/cannot be computed?” have been formally addressed using these abstract ideas. These discoveries were the origin of the computer science field known as algorithms and complexity. A key part of this field is the study and application of data structures that are appropriate to different applications. Data structures, along with the development of optimal algorithms for inserting, deleting, and locating data in such structures, are a major concern of computer scientists because they are so heavily used in computer software, most notably in compilers, operating systems, file systems, and search engines.
In the 1960s the invention of magnetic disk storage provided rapid access to data located at an arbitrary place on the disk. This invention led not only to more cleverly designed file systems but also to the development of database and information retrieval systems, which later became essential for storing, retrieving, and transmitting large amounts and wide varieties of data across the Internet. This field of computer science is known as information management.
Another long-term goal of computer science research is the creation of computing machines and robotic devices that can carry out tasks that are typically thought of as requiring human intelligence. Such tasks include moving, seeing, hearing, speaking, understanding natural language, thinking, and even exhibiting human emotions. The computer science field of intelligent systems, originally known as artificial intelligence (AI), actually predates the first electronic computers in the 1940s, although the term artificial intelligence was not coined until 1956.
Three developments in computing in the early part of the 21st century—mobile computing, client-server computing, and computer hacking—contributed to the emergence of three new fields in computer science: platform-based development, parallel and distributed computing, and security and information assurance. Platform-based development is the study of the special needs of mobile devices, their operating systems, and their applications. Parallel and distributed computing concerns the development of architectures and programming languages that support the development of algorithms whose components can run simultaneously and asynchronously (rather than sequentially), in order to make better use of time and space. Security and information assurance deals with the design of computing systems and software that protects the integrity and security of data, as well as the privacy of individuals who are characterized by that data.
Finally, a particular concern of computer science throughout its history is the unique societal impact that accompanies computer science research and technological advancements. With the emergence of the Internet in the 1980s, for example, software developers needed to address important issues related to information security, personal privacy, and system reliability. In addition, the question of whether computer software constitutes intellectual property and the related question “Who owns it?” gave rise to a whole new legal area of licensing and licensing standards that applied to software and related artifacts. These concerns and others form the basis of social and professional issues of computer science, and they appear in almost all the other fields identified above.
So, to summarize, the discipline of computer science has evolved into the following 15 distinct fields:
- Algorithms and complexity
- Architecture and organization
- Computational science
- Graphics and visual computing
- Human-computer interaction
- Information management
- Intelligent systems
- Networking and communication
- Operating systems
- Parallel and distributed computing
- Platform-based development
- Programming languages
- Security and information assurance
- Software engineering
- Social and professional issues
Computer science continues to have strong mathematical and engineering roots. Computer science bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degree programs are routinely offered by postsecondary academic institutions, and these programs require students to complete appropriate mathematics and engineering courses, depending on their area of focus. For example, all undergraduate computer science majors must study discrete mathematics (logic, combinatorics, and elementary graph theory). Many programs also require students to complete courses in calculus, statistics, numerical analysis, physics, and principles of engineering early in their studies.
Algorithms and complexity
An algorithm is a specific procedure for solving a well-defined computational problem. The development and analysis of algorithms is fundamental to all aspects of computer science: artificial intelligence, databases, graphics, networking, operating systems, security, and so on. Algorithm development is more than just programming. It requires an understanding of the alternatives available for solving a computational problem, including the hardware, networking, programming language, and performance constraints that accompany any particular solution. It also requires understanding what it means for an algorithm to be “correct” in the sense that it fully and efficiently solves the problem at hand.
An accompanying notion is the design of a particular data structure that enables an algorithm to run efficiently. The importance of data structures stems from the fact that the main memory of a computer (where the data is stored) is linear, consisting of a sequence of memory cells that are serially numbered 0, 1, 2,…. Thus, the simplest data structure is a linear array, in which adjacent elements are numbered with consecutive integer “indexes” and an element’s value is accessed by its unique index. An array can be used, for example, to store a list of names, and efficient methods are needed to efficiently search for and retrieve a particular name from the array. For example, sorting the list into alphabetical order permits a so-called binary search technique to be used, in which the remainder of the list to be searched at each step is cut in half. This search technique is similar to searching a telephone book for a particular name. Knowing that the book is in alphabetical order allows one to turn quickly to a page that is close to the page containing the desired name. Many algorithms have been developed for sorting and searching lists of data efficiently.
Although data items are stored consecutively in memory, they may be linked together by pointers (essentially, memory addresses stored with an item to indicate where the next item or items in the structure are found) so that the data can be organized in ways similar to those in which they will be accessed. The simplest such structure is called the linked list, in which noncontiguously stored items may be accessed in a pre-specified order by following the pointers from one item in the list to the next. The list may be circular, with the last item pointing to the first, or each element may have pointers in both directions to form a doubly linked list. Algorithms have been developed for efficiently manipulating such lists by searching for, inserting, and removing items.
Pointers also provide the ability to implement more complex data structures. A graph, for example, is a set of nodes (items) and links (known as edges) that connect pairs of items. Such a graph might represent a set of cities and the highways joining them, the layout of circuit elements and connecting wires on a memory chip, or the configuration of persons interacting via a social network. Typical graph algorithms include graph traversal strategies, such as how to follow the links from node to node (perhaps searching for a node with a particular property) in a way that each node is visited only once. A related problem is the determination of the shortest path between two given nodes on an arbitrary graph. (See graph theory.) A problem of practical interest in network algorithms, for instance, is to determine how many “broken” links can be tolerated before communications begin to fail. Similarly, in very-large-scale integration (VLSI) chip design it is important to know whether the graph representing a circuit is planar, that is, whether it can be drawn in two dimensions without any links crossing (wires touching).
The (computational) complexity of an algorithm is a measure of the amount of computing resources (time and space) that a particular algorithm consumes when it runs. Computer scientists use mathematical measures of complexity that allow them to predict, before writing the code, how fast an algorithm will run and how much memory it will require. Such predictions are important guides for programmers implementing and selecting algorithms for real-world applications.
Computational complexity is a continuum, in that some algorithms require linear time (that is, the time required increases directly with the number of items or nodes in the list, graph, or network being processed), whereas others require quadratic or even exponential time to complete (that is, the time required increases with the number of items squared or with the exponential of that number). At the far end of this continuum lie the murky seas of intractable problems—those whose solutions cannot be efficiently implemented. For these problems, computer scientists seek to find heuristic algorithms that can almost solve the problem and run in a reasonable amount of time.
Further away still are those algorithmic problems that can be stated but are not solvable; that is, one can prove that no program can be written to solve the problem. A classic example of an unsolvable algorithmic problem is the halting problem, which states that no program can be written that can predict whether or not any other program halts after a finite number of steps. The unsolvability of the halting problem has immediate practical bearing on software development. For instance, it would be frivolous to try to develop a software tool that predicts whether another program being developed has an infinite loop in it (although having such a tool would be immensely beneficial).
Architecture and organization
Computer architecture deals with the design of computers, data storage devices, and networking components that store and run programs, transmit data, and drive interactions between computers, across networks, and with users. Computer architects use parallelism and various strategies for memory organization to design computing systems with very high performance. Computer architecture requires strong communication between computer scientists and computer engineers, since they both focus fundamentally on hardware design.
At its most fundamental level, a computer consists of a control unit, an arithmetic logic unit (ALU), a memory unit, and input/output (I/O) controllers. The ALU performs simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and logic operations, such as OR and AND. The memory stores the program’s instructions and data. The control unit fetches data and instructions from memory and uses operations of the ALU to carry out those instructions using that data. (The control unit and ALU together are referred to as the central processing unit [CPU].) When an input or output instruction is encountered, the control unit transfers the data between the memory and the designated I/O controller. The operational speed of the CPU primarily determines the speed of the computer as a whole. All of these components—the control unit, the ALU, the memory, and the I/O controllers—are realized with transistor circuits.
Computers also have another level of memory called a cache, a small, extremely fast (compared with the main memory, or random access memory [RAM]) unit that can be used to store information that is urgently or frequently needed. Current research includes cache design and algorithms that can predict what data is likely to be needed next and preload it into the cache for improved performance.
I/O controllers connect the computer to specific input devices (such as keyboards and touch screen displays) for feeding information to the memory, and output devices (such as printers and displays) for transmitting information from the memory to users. Additional I/O controllers connect the computer to a network via ports that provide the conduit through which data flows when the computer is connected to the Internet.
Linked to the I/O controllers are secondary storage devices, such as a disk drive, that are slower and have a larger capacity than main or cache memory. Disk drives are used for maintaining permanent data. They can be either permanently or temporarily attached to the computer in the form of a compact disc (CD), a digital video disc (DVD), or a memory stick (also called a flash drive).
The operation of a computer, once a program and some data have been loaded into RAM, takes place as follows. The first instruction is transferred from RAM into the control unit and interpreted by the hardware circuitry. For instance, suppose that the instruction is a string of bits that is the code for LOAD 10. This instruction loads the contents of memory location 10 into the ALU. The next instruction, say ADD 15, is fetched. The control unit then loads the contents of memory location 15 into the ALU and adds it to the number already there. Finally, the instruction STORE 20 would store that sum into location 20. At this level, the operation of a computer is not much different from that of a pocket calculator.
In general, programs are not just lengthy sequences of LOAD, STORE, and arithmetic operations. Most importantly, computer languages include conditional instructions—essentially, rules that say, “If memory location n satisfies condition a, do instruction number x next, otherwise do instruction y.” This allows the course of a program to be determined by the results of previous operations—a critically important ability.
Finally, programs typically contain sequences of instructions that are repeated a number of times until a predetermined condition becomes true. Such a sequence is called a loop. For example, a loop would be needed to compute the sum of the first n integers, where n is a value stored in a separate memory location. Computer architectures that can execute sequences of instructions, conditional instructions, and loops are called “Turing complete,” which means that they can carry out the execution of any algorithm that can be defined. Turing completeness is a fundamental and essential characteristic of any computer organization.
Logic design is the area of computer science that deals with the design of electronic circuits using the fundamental principles and properties of logic (see Boolean algebra) to carry out the operations of the control unit, the ALU, the I/O controllers, and other hardware. Each logical function (AND, OR, and NOT) is realized by a particular type of device called a gate. For example, the addition circuit of the ALU has inputs corresponding to all the bits of the two numbers to be added and outputs corresponding to the bits of the sum. The arrangement of wires and gates that link inputs to outputs is determined by the mathematical definition of addition. The design of the control unit provides the circuits that interpret instructions. Due to the need for efficiency, logic design must also optimize the circuitry to function with maximum speed and has a minimum number of gates and circuits.
An important area related to architecture is the design of microprocessors, which are complete CPUs—control unit, ALU, and memory—on a single integrated circuit chip. Additional memory and I/O control circuitry are linked to this chip to form a complete computer. These thumbnail-sized devices contain millions of transistors that implement the processing and memory units of modern computers.
VLSI microprocessor design occurs in a number of stages, which include creating the initial functional or behavioral specification, encoding this specification into a hardware description language, and breaking down the design into modules and generating sizes and shapes for the eventual chip components. It also involves chip planning, which includes building a “floor plan” to indicate where on the chip each component should be placed and connected to other components. Computer scientists are also involved in creating the computer-aided design (CAD) tools that support engineers in the various stages of chip design and in developing the necessary theoretical results, such as how to efficiently design a floor plan with near-minimal area that satisfies the given constraints.
Advances in integrated circuit technology have been incredible. For example, in 1971 the first microprocessor chip (Intel Corporation’s 4004) had only 2,300 transistors, in 1993 Intel’s Pentium chip had more than 3 million transistors, and by 2000 the number of transistors on such a chip was about 50 million. The Power7 chip introduced in 2010 by IBM contained approximately 1 billion transistors. The phenomenon of the number of transistors in an integrated circuit doubling about every two years is widely known as Moore’s law.
Fault tolerance is the ability of a computer to continue operation when one or more of its components fails. To ensure fault tolerance, key components are often replicated so that the backup component can take over if needed. Such applications as aircraft control and manufacturing process control run on systems with backup processors ready to take over if the main processor fails, and the backup systems often run in parallel so the transition is smooth. If the systems are critical in that their failure would be potentially disastrous (as in aircraft control), incompatible outcomes collected from replicated processes running in parallel on separate machines are resolved by a voting mechanism. Computer scientists are involved in the analysis of such replicated systems, providing theoretical approaches to estimating the reliability achieved by a given configuration and processor parameters, such as average time between failures and average time required to repair the processor. Fault tolerance is also a desirable feature in distributed systems and networks. For example, an advantage of a distributed database is that data replicated on different network hosts can provide a natural backup mechanism when one host fails.
Computational science
Computational science applies computer simulation, scientific visualization, mathematical modeling, algorithms, data structures, networking, database design, symbolic computation, and high-performance computing to help advance the goals of various disciplines. These disciplines include biology, chemistry, fluid dynamics, archaeology, finance, sociology, and forensics. Computational science has evolved rapidly, especially because of the dramatic growth in the volume of data transmitted from scientific instruments. This phenomenon has been called the “big data” problem.
The mathematical methods needed for computational science require the transformation of equations and functions from the continuous to the discrete. For example, the computer integration of a function over an interval is accomplished not by applying integral calculus but rather by approximating the area under the function graph as a sum of the areas obtained from evaluating the function at discrete points. Similarly, the solution of a differential equation is obtained as a sequence of discrete points determined by approximating the true solution curve by a sequence of tangential line segments. When discretized in this way, many problems can be recast as an equation involving a matrix (a rectangular array of numbers) solvable using linear algebra. Numerical analysis is the study of such computational methods. Several factors must be considered when applying numerical methods: (1) the conditions under which the method yields a solution, (2) the accuracy of the solution, (3) whether the solution process is stable (i.e., does not exhibit error growth), and (4) the computational complexity (in the sense described above) of obtaining a solution of the desired accuracy.
The requirements of big-data scientific problems, including the solution of ever larger systems of equations, engage the use of large and powerful arrays of processors (called multiprocessors or supercomputers) that allow many calculations to proceed in parallel by assigning them to separate processing elements. These activities have sparked much interest in parallel computer architecture and algorithms that can be carried out efficiently on such machines.
Graphics and visual computing
Graphics and visual computing is the field that deals with the display and control of images on a computer screen. This field encompasses the efficient implementation of four interrelated computational tasks: rendering, modeling, animation, and visualization. Graphics techniques incorporate principles of linear algebra, numerical integration, computational geometry, special-purpose hardware, file formats, and graphical user interfaces (GUIs) to accomplish these complex tasks.
Applications of graphics include CAD, fine arts, medical imaging, scientific data visualization, and video games. CAD systems allow the computer to be used for designing objects ranging from automobile parts to bridges to computer chips by providing an interactive drawing tool and an engineering interface to simulation and analysis tools. Fine arts applications allow artists to use the computer screen as a medium to create images, cinematographic special effects, animated cartoons, and television commercials. Medical imaging applications involve the visualization of data obtained from technologies such as X-rays and magnetic resonance imaging (MRIs) to assist doctors in diagnosing medical conditions. Scientific visualization uses massive amounts of data to define simulations of scientific phenomena, such as ocean modeling, to produce pictures that provide more insight into the phenomena than would tables of numbers. Graphics also provide realistic visualizations for video gaming, flight simulation, and other representations of reality or fantasy. The term virtual reality has been coined to refer to any interaction with a computer-simulated virtual world.
A challenge for computer graphics is the development of efficient algorithms that manipulate the myriad of lines, triangles, and polygons that make up a computer image. In order for realistic on-screen images to be presented, each object must be rendered as a set of planar units. Edges must be smoothed and textured so that their underlying construction from polygons is not obvious to the naked eye. In many applications, still pictures are inadequate, and rapid display of real-time images is required. Both extremely efficient algorithms and state-of-the-art hardware are needed to accomplish real-time animation. (For more technical details of graphics displays, see computer graphics.)
Human-computer interaction
Human-computer interaction (HCI) is concerned with designing effective interaction between users and computers and the construction of interfaces that support this interaction. HCI occurs at an interface that includes both software and hardware. User interface design impacts the life cycle of software, so it should occur early in the design process. Because user interfaces must accommodate a variety of user styles and capabilities, HCI research draws on several disciplines including psychology, sociology, anthropology, and engineering. In the 1960s, user interfaces consisted of computer consoles that allowed an operator directly to type commands that could be executed immediately or at some future time. With the advent of more user-friendly personal computers in the 1980s, user interfaces became more sophisticated, so that the user could “point and click” to send a command to the operating system.
Thus, the field of HCI emerged to model, develop, and measure the effectiveness of various types of interfaces between a computer application and the person accessing its services. GUIs enable users to communicate with the computer by such simple means as pointing to an icon with a mouse or touching it with a stylus or forefinger. This technology also supports windowing environments on a computer screen, which allow users to work with different applications simultaneously, one in each window.
Information management
Information management (IM) is primarily concerned with the capture, digitization, representation, organization, transformation, and presentation of information. Because a computer’s main memory provides only temporary storage, computers are equipped with auxiliary disk storage devices that permanently store data. These devices are characterized by having much higher capacity than main memory but slower read/write (access) speed. Data stored on a disk must be read into main memory before it can be processed. A major goal of IM systems, therefore, is to develop efficient algorithms to store and retrieve specific data for processing.
IM systems comprise databases and algorithms for the efficient storage, retrieval, updating, and deleting of specific items in the database. The underlying structure of a database is a set of files residing permanently on a disk storage device. Each file can be further broken down into a series of records, which contains individual data items, or fields. Each field gives the value of some property (or attribute) of the entity represented by a record. For example, a personnel file may contain a series of records, one for each individual in the organization, and each record would contain fields that contain that person’s name, address, phone number, e-mail address, and so forth.
Many file systems are sequential, meaning that successive records are processed in the order in which they are stored, starting from the beginning and proceeding to the end. This file structure was particularly popular in the early days of computing, when files were stored on reels of magnetic tape and these reels could be processed only in a sequential manner. Sequential files are generally stored in some sorted order (e.g., alphabetic) for printing of reports (e.g., a telephone directory) and for efficient processing of batches of transactions. Banking transactions (deposits and withdrawals), for instance, might be sorted in the same order as the accounts file, so that as each transaction is read the system need only scan ahead to find the accounts record to which it applies.
With modern storage systems, it is possible to access any data record in a random fashion. To facilitate efficient random access, the data records in a file are stored with indexes called keys. An index of a file is much like an index of a book; it contains a key for each record in the file along with the location where the record is stored. Since indexes might be long, they are usually structured in some hierarchical fashion so that they can be navigated efficiently. The top level of an index, for example, might contain locations of (point to) indexes to items beginning with the letters A, B, etc. The A index itself may contain not locations of data items but pointers to indexes of items beginning with the letters Ab, Ac, and so on. Locating the index for the desired record by traversing a treelike structure is quite efficient.
Many applications require access to many independent files containing related and even overlapping data. Their information management activities frequently require data from several files to be linked, and hence the need for a database model emerges. Historically, three different types of database models have been developed to support the linkage of records of different types: (1) the hierarchical model, in which record types are linked in a treelike structure (e.g., employee records might be grouped under records describing the departments in which employees work), (2) the network model, in which arbitrary linkages of record types may be created (e.g., employee records might be linked on one hand to employees’ departments and on the other hand to their supervisors—that is, other employees), and (3) the relational model, in which all data are represented in simple tabular form.
In the relational model, each individual entry is described by the set of its attribute values (called a relation), stored in one row of the table. This linkage of n attribute values to provide a meaningful description of a real-world entity or a relationship among such entities forms a mathematical n-tuple. The relational model also supports queries (requests for information) that involve several tables by providing automatic linkage across tables by means of a “join” operation that combines records with identical values of common attributes. Payroll data, for example, can be stored in one table and personnel benefits data in another; complete information on an employee could be obtained by joining the two tables using the employee’s unique identification number as a common attribute.
To support database processing, a software artifact known as a database management system (DBMS) is required to manage the data and provide the user with commands to retrieve information from the database. For example, a widely used DBMS that supports the relational model is MySQL.
Another development in database technology is to incorporate the object concept. In object-oriented databases, all data are objects. Objects may be linked together by an “is-part-of” relationship to represent larger, composite objects. Data describing a truck, for instance, may be stored as a composite of a particular engine, chassis, drive train, and so forth. Classes of objects may form a hierarchy in which individual objects may inherit properties from objects farther up in the hierarchy. For example, objects of the class “motorized vehicle” all have an engine; members of the subclasses “truck” or “airplane” will then also have an engine.
NoSQL, or non-relational databases, have also emerged. These databases are different from the classic relational databases because they do not require fixed tables. Many of them are document-oriented databases, in which voice, music, images, and video clips are stored along with traditional textual information. An important subset of NoSQL are the XML databases, which are widely used in the development of Android smartphone and tablet applications.
Data integrity refers to designing a DBMS that ensures the correctness and stability of its data across all applications that access the system. When a database is designed, integrity checking is enabled by specifying the data type of each column in the table. For example, if an identification number is specified to be nine digits, the DBMS will reject an update attempting to assign a value with more or fewer digits or one including an alphabetic character. Another type of integrity, known as referential integrity, requires that each entity referenced by some other entity must itself exist in the database. For example, if an airline reservation is requested for a particular flight number, then the flight referenced by that number must actually exist.
Access to a database by multiple simultaneous users requires that the DBMS include a concurrency control mechanism (called locking) to maintain integrity whenever two different users attempt to access the same data at the same time. For example, two travel agents may try to book the last seat on a plane at more or less the same time. Without concurrency control, both may think they have succeeded, though only one booking is actually entered into the database.
A key concept in studying concurrency control and the maintenance of data integrity is the transaction, defined as an indivisible operation that transforms the database from one state into another. To illustrate, consider an electronic transfer of funds of $5 from bank account A to account B. The operation that deducts $5 from account A leaves the database without integrity since the total over all accounts is $5 short. Similarly, the operation that adds $5 to account B in itself makes the total $5 too much. Combining these two operations into a single transaction, however, maintains data integrity. The key here is to ensure that only complete transactions are applied to the data and that multiple concurrent transactions are executed using locking so that serializing them would produce the same result. A transaction-oriented control mechanism for database access becomes difficult in the case of a long transaction, for example, when several engineers are working, perhaps over the course of several days, on a product design that may not exhibit data integrity until the project is complete.
As mentioned previously, a database may be distributed in that its data can be spread among different host computers on a network. If the distributed data contains duplicates, the concurrency control problem is more complex. Distributed databases must have a distributed DBMS to provide overall control of queries and updates in a manner that does not require that the user know the location of the data. A closely related concept is interoperability, meaning the ability of the user of one member of a group of disparate systems (all having the same functionality) to work with any of the systems of the group with equal ease and via the same interface.
Intelligent systems
Artificial intelligence (AI) is an area of research that goes back to the very beginnings of computer science. The idea of building a machine that can perform tasks perceived as requiring human intelligence is an attractive one. The tasks that have been studied from this point of view include game playing, language translation, natural language understanding, fault diagnosis, robotics, and supplying expert advice. (For a more detailed discussion of the successes and failures of AI over the years, see artificial intelligence.)
Since the late 20th century, the field of intelligent systems has focused on the support of everyday applications—e-mail, word processing, and search—using nontraditional techniques. These techniques include the design and analysis of autonomous agents that perceive their environment and interact rationally with it. The solutions rely on a broad set of knowledge-representation schemes, problem-solving mechanisms, and learning strategies. They deal with sensing (e.g., speech recognition, natural language understanding, and computer vision), problem-solving (e.g., search and planning), acting (e.g., robotics), and the architectures needed to support them (e.g,. agents and multi-agents).
Networking and communication
The field of networking and communication includes the analysis, design, implementation, and use of local, wide-area, and mobile networks that link computers together. The Internet itself is a network that makes it feasible for nearly all computers in the world to communicate.
A computer network links computers together via a combination of infrared light signals, radio wave transmissions, telephone lines, television cables, and satellite links. The challenge for computer scientists has been to develop protocols (standardized rules for the format and exchange of messages) that allow processes running on host computers to interpret the signals they receive and to engage in meaningful “conversations” in order to accomplish tasks on behalf of users. Network protocols also include flow control, which keeps a data sender from swamping a receiver with messages that it has no time to process or space to store, and error control, which involves transmission error detection and automatic resending of messages to correct such errors. (For some of the technical details of error detection and correction, see information theory.)
The standardization of protocols is an international effort. Since it would otherwise be impossible for different kinds of machines and operating systems to communicate with one another, the key concern has been that system components (computers) be “open.” This terminology comes from the open systems interconnection (OSI) communication standards, established by the International Organization for Standardization. The OSI reference model specifies network protocol standards in seven layers. Each layer is defined by the functions it relies upon from the layer below it and by the services it provides to the layer above it.
At the bottom of the protocol lies the physical layer, containing rules for the transport of bits across a physical link. The data-link layer handles standard-sized “packets” of data and adds reliability in the form of error detection and flow control bits. The network and transport layers break messages into the standard-size packets and route them to their destinations. The session layer supports interactions between applications on two communicating machines. For example, it provides a mechanism with which to insert checkpoints (saving the current status of a task) into a long file transfer so that, in case of a failure, only the data after the last checkpoint need to be retransmitted. The presentation layer is concerned with functions that encode data, so that heterogeneous systems may engage in meaningful communication. At the highest level are protocols that support specific applications. An example of such an application is the file transfer protocol (FTP), which governs the transfer of files from one host to another.
The development of networks and communication protocols has also spawned distributed systems, in which computers linked in a network share data and processing tasks. A distributed database system, for example, has a database spread among (or replicated at) different network sites. Data are replicated at “mirror sites,” and replication can improve availability and reliability. A distributed DBMS manages a database whose components are distributed across several computers on a network.
A client-server network is a distributed system in which the database resides on one computer (the server) and the users connect to this computer over the network from their own computers (the clients). The server provides data and responds to requests from each client, while each client accesses the data on the server in a way that is independent and ignorant of the presence of other clients accessing the same database. Client-server systems require that individual actions from several clients to the same part of the server’s database be synchronized, so that conflicts are resolved in a reasonable way. For example, airline reservations are implemented using a client-server model. The server contains all the data about upcoming flights, such as current bookings and seat assignments. Each client wants to access this data for the purpose of booking a flight, obtaining a seat assignment, and paying for the flight. During this process, it is likely that two or more client requests want to access the same flight and that there is only one seat left to be assigned. The software must synchronize these two requests so that the remaining seat is assigned in a rational way (usually to the person who made the request first).
Another popular type of distributed system is the peer-to-peer network. Unlike client-server networks, a peer-to-peer network assumes that each computer (user) connected to it can act both as a client and as a server; thus, everyone on the network is a peer. This strategy makes sense for groups that share audio collections on the Internet and for organizing social networks such as LinkedIn and Facebook. Each person connected to such a network both receives information from others and shares his or her own information with others.
Operating systems
An operating system is a specialized collection of software that stands between a computer’s hardware architecture and its applications. It performs a number of fundamental activities such as file system management, process scheduling, memory allocation, network interfacing, and resource sharing among the computer’s users. Operating systems have evolved in their complexity over time, beginning with the earliest computers in the 1960s.
With early computers, the user typed programs onto punched tape or cards, which were read into the computer, assembled or compiled, and run. The results were then transmitted to a printer or a magnetic tape. These early operating systems engaged in batch processing; i.e., handling sequences of jobs that are compiled and executed one at a time without intervention by the user. Accompanying each job in a batch were instructions to the operating system (OS) detailing the resources needed by the job, such as the amount of CPU time required, the files needed, and the storage devices on which the files resided. From these beginnings came the key concept of an operating system as a resource allocator. This role became more important with the rise of multiprogramming, in which several jobs reside in the computer simultaneously and share resources, for example, by being allocated fixed amounts of CPU time in turn. More sophisticated hardware allowed one job to be reading data while another wrote to a printer and still another performed computations. The operating system thus managed these tasks in such a way that all the jobs were completed without interfering with one another.
The advent of time sharing, in which users enter commands and receive results directly at a terminal, added more tasks to the operating system. Processes known as terminal handlers were needed, along with mechanisms such as interrupts (to get the attention of the operating system to handle urgent tasks) and buffers (for temporary storage of data during input/output to make the transfer run more smoothly). Modern large computers interact with hundreds of users simultaneously, giving each one the perception of being the sole user.
Another area of operating system research is the design of virtual memory. Virtual memory is a scheme that gives users the illusion of working with a large block of contiguous memory space (perhaps even larger than real memory), when in actuality most of their work is on auxiliary storage (disk). Fixed-size blocks (pages) or variable-size blocks (segments) of the job are read into main memory as needed. Questions such as how much main memory space to allocate to users and which pages or segments should be returned to disk (“swapped out”) to make room for incoming pages or segments must be addressed in order for the system to execute jobs efficiently.
The first commercially viable operating systems were developed by IBM in the 1960s and were called OS/360 and DOS/360. Unix was developed at Bell Laboratories in the early 1970s and since has spawned many variants, including Linux, Berkeley Unix, GNU, and Apple’s iOS. Operating systems developed for the first personal computers in the 1980s included IBM’s (and later Microsoft’s) DOS, which evolved into various flavours of Windows. An important 21st-century development in operating systems was that they became increasingly machine-independent.
Parallel and distributed computing
The simultaneous growth in availability of big data and in the number of simultaneous users on the Internet places particular pressure on the need to carry out computing tasks “in parallel,” or simultaneously. Parallel and distributed computing occurs across many different topic areas in computer science, including algorithms, computer architecture, networks, operating systems, and software engineering. During the early 21st century there was explosive growth in multiprocessor design and other strategies for complex applications to run faster. Parallel and distributed computing builds on fundamental systems concepts, such as concurrency, mutual exclusion, consistency in state/memory manipulation, message-passing, and shared-memory models.
Creating a multiprocessor from a number of single CPUs requires physical links and a mechanism for communication among the processors so that they may operate in parallel. Tightly coupled multiprocessors share memory and hence may communicate by storing information in memory accessible by all processors. Loosely coupled multiprocessors, including computer networks, communicate by sending messages to each other across the physical links. Computer scientists have investigated various multiprocessor architectures. For example, the possible configurations in which hundreds or even thousands of processors may be linked together are examined to find the geometry that supports the most efficient system throughput. A much-studied topology is the hypercube, in which each processor is connected directly to some fixed number of neighbours: two for the two-dimensional square, three for the three-dimensional cube, and similarly for the higher-dimensional hypercubes. Computer scientists also investigate methods for carrying out computations on such multiprocessor machines (e.g., algorithms to make optimal use of the architecture and techniques to avoid conflicts in data transmission). The machine-resident software that makes possible the use of a particular machine, in particular its operating system, is an integral part of this investigation.
Concurrency refers to the execution of more than one procedure at the same time (perhaps with the access of shared data), either truly simultaneously (as on a multiprocessor) or in an unpredictably interleaved order. Modern programming languages such as Java include both encapsulation and features called “threads” that allow the programmer to define the synchronization that occurs among concurrent procedures or tasks.
Two important issues in concurrency control are known as deadlocks and race conditions. Deadlock occurs when a resource held indefinitely by one process is requested by two or more other processes simultaneously. As a result, none of the processes that call for the resource can continue; they are deadlocked, waiting for the resource to be freed. An operating system can handle this situation with various prevention or detection and recovery techniques. A race condition, on the other hand, occurs when two or more concurrent processes assign a different value to a variable, and the result depends on which process assigns the variable first (or last).
Preventing deadlocks and race conditions is fundamentally important, since it ensures the integrity of the underlying application. A general prevention strategy is called process synchronization. Synchronization requires that one process wait for another to complete some operation before proceeding. For example, one process (a writer) may be writing data to a certain main memory area, while another process (a reader) may want to read data from that area. The reader and writer must be synchronized so that the writer does not overwrite existing data until the reader has processed it. Similarly, the reader should not start to read until data has been written in the area.
With the advent of networks, distributed computing became feasible. A distributed computation is one that is carried out by a group of linked computers working cooperatively. Such computing usually requires a distributed operating system to manage the distributed resources. Important concerns are workload sharing, which attempts to take advantage of access to multiple computers to complete jobs faster; task migration, which supports workload sharing by efficiently distributing jobs among machines; and automatic task replication, which occurs at different sites for greater reliability.
Platform-based development
Platform-based development is concerned with the design and development of applications for specific types of computers and operating systems (“platforms”). Platform-based development takes into account system-specific characteristics, such as those found in Web programming, multimedia development, mobile application development, and robotics. Platforms such as the Internet or an Android tablet enable students to learn within and about environments constrained by specific hardware, application programming interfaces (APIs), and special services. These environments are sufficiently different from “general purpose” programming to warrant separate research and development efforts.
For example, consider the development of an application for an Android tablet. The Android programming platform is called the Dalvic Virtual Machine (DVM), and the language is a variant of Java. However, an Android application is defined not just as a collection of objects and methods but, moreover, as a collection of “intents” and “activities,” which correspond roughly to the GUI screens that the user sees when operating the application. XML programming is needed as well, since it is the language that defines the layout of the application’s user interface. Finally, I/O synchronization in Android application development is more demanding than that found on conventional platforms, though some principles of Java file management carry over.
Real-time systems provide a broader setting in which platform-based development takes place. The term real-time systems refers to computers embedded into cars, aircraft, manufacturing assembly lines, and other devices to control processes in real time. Frequently, real-time tasks repeat at fixed-time intervals. For example, sensor data are gathered every second, and a control signal is generated. In such cases, scheduling theory is used to determine how the tasks should be scheduled on a given processor. A good example of a system that requires real-time action is the antilock braking system (ABS) on an automobile; because it is critical that the ABS instantly reacts to brake-pedal pressure and begins a program of pumping the brakes, such an application is said to have a hard deadline. Other real-time systems are said to have soft deadlines, in that no disaster will happen if the system’s response is slightly delayed; an example is an order shipping and tracking system. The concept of “best effort” arises in real-time system design, because soft deadlines sometimes slip and hard deadlines are sometimes met by computing a less than optimal result. For example, most details on an air traffic controller’s screen are approximations (e.g., altitude) that need not be computed more precisely (e.g., to the nearest inch) in order to be effective.
Programming languages
Programming languages are the languages with which a programmer implements a piece of software to run on a computer. The earliest programming languages were assembly languages, not far removed from the binary-encoded instructions directly executed by the computer. By the mid-1950s, programmers began to use higher-level languages.
Two of the first higher-level languages were FORTRAN (Formula Translator) and ALGOL (Algorithmic Language), which allowed programmers to write algebraic expressions and solve scientific computing problems. As learning to program became increasingly important in the 1960s, a stripped-down version of FORTRAN called BASIC (Beginner’s All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) was developed at Dartmouth College. BASIC quickly spread to other academic institutions, and by 1980 versions of BASIC for personal computers allowed even students at elementary schools to learn the fundamentals of programming. Also, in the mid-1950s, COBOL (Common Business-Oriented Language) was developed to support business programming applications that involved managing information stored in records and files.
The trend since then has been toward developing increasingly abstract languages, allowing the programmer to communicate with the machine at a level ever more remote from machine code. COBOL, FORTRAN, and their descendants (Pascal and C, for example) are known as imperative languages, since they specify as a sequence of explicit commands how the machine is to go about solving the problem at hand. These languages were also known as procedural languages, since they allowed programmers to develop and reuse procedures, subroutines, and functions to avoid reinventing basic tasks for every new application.
Other high-level languages are called functional languages, in that a program is viewed as a collection of (mathematical) functions and its semantics are very precisely defined. The best-known functional language of this type is LISP (List Processing), which in the 1960s was the mainstay programming language for AI applications. Successors to LISP in the AI community include Scheme, Prolog, and C and C++ (see below). Scheme is similar to LISP except that it has a more formal mathematical definition. Prolog has been used largely for logic programming, and its applications include natural language understanding and expert systems such as MYCIN. Prolog is notably a so-called nonprocedural, or declarative, language in the sense that the programmer specifies what goals are to be accomplished but not how specific methods are to be applied to attain those goals. C and C++ have been used widely in robotics, an important application of AI research. An extension of logic programming is constraint logic programming, in which pattern matching is replaced by the more general operation of constraint satisfaction.
Another important development in programming languages through the 1980s was the addition of support for data encapsulation, which gave rise to object-oriented languages. The original object-oriented language was called Smalltalk, in which all programs were represented as collections of objects communicating with each other via message-passing. An object is a set of data together with the methods (functions) that can transform that data. Encapsulation refers to the fact that an object’s data can be accessed only through these methods. Object-oriented programming has been very influential in computing. Languages for object-oriented programming include C++, Visual BASIC, and Java.
Java is unusual because its applications are translated not into a particular machine language but into an intermediate language called Java Bytecode, which runs on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). Programs on the JVM can be executed on most contemporary computer platforms, including Intel-based systems, Apple Macintoshes, and various Android-based smartphones and tablets. Thus, Linux, iOS, Windows, and other operating systems can run Java programs, which makes Java ideal for creating distributed and Web-based applications. Residing on Web-based servers, Java programs may be downloaded and run in any standard Web browser to provide access to various services, such as a client interface to a game or entry to a database residing on a server.
At a still higher level of abstraction lie declarative and scripting languages, which are strictly interpreted languages and often drive applications running in Web browsers and mobile devices. Some declarative languages allow programmers to conveniently access and retrieve information from a database using “queries,” which are declarations of what to do (rather than how to do it). A widely used database query language is SQL (Structured Query Language) and its variants (e.g., MySQL and SQLite). Associated with these declarative languages are those that describe the layout of a Web page on the user’s screen. For example, HTML (HyperText Markup Language) supports the design of Web pages by specifying their structure and content. Gluing the Web page together with the database is the task of a scripting language (e.g., PHP), which is a vehicle for programmers to integrate declarative statements of HTML and MySQL with imperative actions that are required to effect an interaction between the user and the database. An example is an online book order with Amazon.com, where the user queries the database to find out what books are available and then initiates an order by pressing buttons and filling appropriate text areas with his or her ordering information. The software that underlies this activity includes HTML to describe the content of the Web page, MySQL to access the database according to the user’s requests, and PHP to control the overall flow of the transaction.
Computer programs written in any language other than machine language must be either interpreted or translated into machine language (“compiled”). As suggested above, an interpreter is software that examines a computer program one instruction at a time and calls on code to execute the machine operations required by that instruction.
A compiler is software that translates an entire computer program into machine code that is saved for subsequent execution whenever desired. Much work has been done on making both the compilation process and the compiled code as efficient as possible. When a new language is developed, it is usually interpreted at first. If it later becomes popular, a compiler is developed for it, since compilation is more efficient than interpretation.
There is an intermediate approach, which is to compile code not into machine language but into an intermediate language (called a virtual machine) that is close enough to machine language that it is efficient to interpret, though not so close that it is tied to the machine language of a particular computer. It is this approach that provides the Java language with its computer platform independence via the JVM.
Security and information assurance
Security and information assurance refers to policy and technical elements that protect information systems by ensuring their availability, integrity, authentication, and appropriate levels of confidentiality. Information security concepts occur in many areas of computer science, including operating systems, computer networks, databases, and software.
Operating system security involves protection from outside attacks by malicious software that interferes with the system’s completion of ordinary tasks. Network security provides protection of entire networks from attacks by outsiders. Information in databases is especially vulnerable to being stolen, destroyed, or modified maliciously when the database server is accessible to multiple users over a network. The first line of defense is to allow access to a computer only to authorized users by authenticating those users by a password or similar mechanism.
However, clever programmers (known as hackers) have learned how to evade such mechanisms by designing computer viruses, programs that replicate themselves, spread among the computers in a network, and “infect” systems by destroying resident files and applications. Data can be stolen by using devices such as “Trojan horses,” programs that carry out a useful task but also contain hidden malicious code, or simply by eavesdropping on network communications. The need to protect sensitive data (e.g., to protect national security or individual privacy) has led to advances in cryptography and the development of encryption standards that provide a high level of confidence that the data is safe from decoding by even the most clever attacks.
Software engineering
Software engineering is the discipline concerned with the application of theory, knowledge, and practice to building reliable software systems that satisfy the computing requirements of customers and users. It is applicable to small-, medium-, and large-scale computing systems and organizations. Software engineering uses engineering methods, processes, techniques, and measurements. Software development, whether done by an individual or a team, requires choosing the most appropriate tools, methods, and approaches for a given environment.
Software is becoming an ever larger part of the computer system and has become complicated to develop, often requiring teams of programmers and years of effort. Thus, the development of a large piece of software can be viewed as an engineering task to be approached with care and attention to cost, reliability, and maintainability of the final product. The software engineering process is usually described as consisting of several phases, called a life cycle, variously defined but generally consisting of requirements development, analysis and specification, design, construction, validation, deployment, operation, and maintenance.
Concern over the high failure rate of software projects has led to the development of nontraditional software development processes. Notable among these is the agile software process, which includes rapid development and involves the client as an active and critical member of the team. Agile development has been effectively used in the development of open-source software, which is different from proprietary software because users are free to download and modify it to fit their particular application needs. Particularly successful open-source software products include the Linux operating system, the Firefox Web browser, and the Apache OpenOffice word processing/spreadsheet/presentation suite.
Regardless of the development methodology chosen, the software development process is expensive and time-consuming. Since the early 1980s, increasingly sophisticated tools have been built to aid the software developer and to automate the development process as much as possible. Such computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools span a wide range of types, from those that carry out the task of routine coding when given an appropriately detailed design in some specified language to those that incorporate an expert system to enforce design rules and eliminate software defects prior to the coding phase.
As the size and complexity of software has grown, the concept of reuse has become increasingly important in software engineering, since it is clear that extensive new software cannot be created cheaply and rapidly without incorporating existing program modules (subroutines, or pieces of computer code). One of the attractive aspects of object-oriented programming is that code written in terms of objects is readily reused. As with other aspects of computer systems, reliability (usually rather vaguely defined as the likelihood of a system to operate correctly over a reasonably long period of time) is a key goal of the finished software product.
Sophisticated techniques for testing software have also been designed. For example, unit testing is a strategy for testing every individual module of a software product independently before the modules are combined into a whole and tested using “integration testing” techniques.
The need for better-trained software engineers has led to the development of educational programs in which software engineering is a separate major. The recommendation that software engineers, similar to other engineers, be licensed or certified has gained increasing support, as has the process of accreditation for software engineering degree programs.
Social and professional issues
Computer scientists must understand the relevant social, ethical, and professional issues that surround their activities. The ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct provides a basis for personal responsibility and professional conduct for computer scientists who are engaged in system development that directly affects the general public.
As the computer industry has developed increasingly powerful processors at lower costs, microprocessors have become ubiquitous. They are used to control automated assembly lines, traffic signal systems, and retail inventory systems and are embedded in consumer products such as automobile fuel-injection systems, kitchen appliances, audio systems, cell phones, and electronic games.
Computers and networks are everywhere in the workplace. Word and document processing, electronic mail, and office automation are integrated with desktop computers, printers, database systems, and other tools using wireless networks and widespread Internet access. Such changes ultimately make office work much more efficient, though not without cost for purchasing and frequently upgrading the necessary hardware and software as well as for training workers to use the new technology.
Computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) is a technology arising from the application of computer science to manufacturing. The technology of CIM emphasizes that all aspects of manufacturing should be not only computerized as much as possible but also linked together via a network. For example, the design engineer’s workstation should be linked into the overall system so that design specifications and manufacturing instructions may be sent automatically to the shop floor. The inventory databases should be connected as well, so product inventories may be incremented automatically and supply inventories decremented as manufacturing proceeds. An automated inspection system (or a manual inspection station supplied with online terminal entry) should be linked to a quality-control system that maintains a database of quality information and alerts the manager if quality is deteriorating and possibly even provides a diagnosis as to the source of any problems that arise. Automatically tracking the flow of products from station to station on the factory floor allows an analysis program to identify bottlenecks and recommend replacement of faulty equipment.
For example, computer technology has been incorporated into automobile design and manufacturing. Computers are involved (as CAD systems) not only in the design of cars but also in the manufacturing and testing process. Modern automobiles include numerous computer chips that analyze sensor data and alert the driver to actual and potential malfunctions. Although increased reliability has been achieved by implementing such computerization, a drawback is that only automotive repair shops with a large investment in high-tech diagnostic tools for these computerized systems can handle any but the simplest repairs.
The rapid growth of smartphones has revolutionized the telephone industry. Individuals often abandoned their landlines in favour of going completely mobile; the reluctance to pay twice for telephone service was the major driver in this decision. The telephone system itself is simply a multilevel computer network that includes radio wave links and satellite transmission, along with software switches to route calls to their destinations. If one node through which a cross-country call would normally be routed is very busy, an alternative routing can be substituted. A disadvantage is the potential for dramatic and widespread failures; for example, a poorly designed routing and flow-control protocol can cause calls to cycle indefinitely among nodes without reaching their destinations unless a system administrator intervenes.
Banking and commerce have been revolutionized by computer technology. Thanks to the Internet, individuals and organizations can interact with their bank accounts online, performing fund transfers and issuing checks from the comfort of their homes or offices. Deposits and withdrawals are instantly logged into a customer’s account, which is stored on a remote server. Computer-generated monthly statements are unlikely to contain errors. Credit and debit card purchases are also supported by computer networks, allowing the amount of a transaction to be immediately deducted from the customer’s account and transferred to the seller’s. Similarly, networks allows individuals to obtain cash instantly and almost worldwide by stepping up to an automated teller machine (ATM) and providing the proper card and personal identification number (PIN).
The security challenges associated with these technologies are significant. Intruders can intercept packets traveling on a network (e.g., being transported via a satellite link) and can decrypt them to obtain confidential information on financial transactions. Network access to personal accounts has the potential to let intruders not only see how much money an individual has but also transfer some of it elsewhere. Fortunately, increased software security measures have made such intrusions less likely.
Computer technology has had a significant impact on the retail industry. All but the smallest shops in places with Internet access have replaced the old-fashioned cash register with a terminal linked to a computer system. Some terminals require that the clerk type in the code for the item, but most checkout counters include a bar-code scanner, which reads into the computer the Universal Product Code (UPC) printed on each package. Cash register receipts then include brief descriptions of the items purchased (by fetching them from the computer database), and the purchase information is also relayed back to the computer to cause an immediate adjustment in the inventory data. The inventory system can easily alert the manager when the supply of an item drops below a specified threshold. In the case of retail chains linked by networks, the order for a new supply of an item may be automatically generated and sent electronically to the supply warehouse. In a less extensively automated arrangement, the manager can send in the order electronically by a direct link to the supplier’s computer. These developments have made shopping much more convenient. The checkout process is faster, checkout lines are shorter, and desired items are more likely to be in stock. In addition, cash register receipts contain more detailed information than a simple list of item prices; for example, many receipts include discount coupons based on the specific items purchased by the shopper.
Since the mid-1990s one of the most rapidly growing retail sectors has been electronic commerce, involving use of the Internet and proprietary networks to facilitate business-to-business, consumer, and auction sales of everything imaginable—from computers and electronics to books, recordings, automobiles, and real estate. Popular sites for electronic commerce include Amazon, eBay, and the Web sites for most large retail chain stores.