Computer Programmings &

Algorithms
 Coming Up ….
• Recent Roles
• History
• Bad forecasting
• How it works
– Hardware
– Software
• The language
• Algorithms
Computer – recent development
• Deep blue  defeated Garry Kasparov
• Analysing & recognizing  faces of
terorist suspects
• Weather forecasts
– Butterfly in China  Storms in the U.S.

and so on …
 Bad forecasting about computers
• "Computers in the future may weigh no
more than 1.5 tons."
--Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of
science, 1949

• "But what ... is it good for?"

--Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division
of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip
 Bad forecasting about computers
• "There is no reason anyone would want
a computer in their home."
--President, Chairman and founder of
Digital Equipment Corp., 1977

"640K ought to be enough for anybody."

-- Bill Gates, 1981
The History of ‘computer’
How it works – hardware
 Digital Computer Hardware
Input
Devices 0 ­ 3 instr1
Control
 4 ­ 7 instr2 Unit (CU)
.. ..
. .
Auxiliary Arithmetic
Storage 100 ­107   101.101 -Logic Unit
108 ­109 ­75 (ALU)

Output 110 -121 label CPU

Devices
Main
Addresses

Memory(RAM)
Memory

System Unit
 Digital Computer Hardware (2)

Mai n (Internal ) Memor y:

• All data and instructions are stored in main
memory as a sequence of 0’s and 1’s called Bits
(Binary Digits)
• Byte (smallest addressable element of memory)
Storage size for one character of information
(ASCII-8 8 bits). Every (single) address refers to
a byte in memory.
• 210 bytes is defined as 1 kilo-byte (1KB)
220 bytes is defined as 1 mega-byte (1MB)
230 bytes is defined as 1 giga-byte (1GB)
 Digital Computer Hardware (3)

Central Processing Uni t (CP U) :

• Transfers information into, out of, and between
memory locations.
• Executes instructions stored in memory.
• Set of instructions for a CPU is known as a
machine language.
• Each CPU (Pentium III, Power PC, ...) has its own
specific machine language.
 Machine Cycle
Instruction 
Main Memory Cycle

Control Unit
1
Fetch 2 Decode

Execution
CPU Cycle
RAM

3 Execute
4 Store

Arithmetic/Logic Unit
Includes Cache
(very fast memory)
Open architecture
on computer design
How it works – software
 Programming Languages

Classified as
Low L evel
• Machine Language
(binary-based code; machine dependent)
• Assembly Language
(mnemonic form of machine language)
 High Level

 High Level
• Closer to natural languages.
• Generally, machine independent
• Usually, several machine instructions are
combined into one high-level instruction.
• Examples:
FORTRAN COBOL BASIC Java
Pascal Ada PL/I Lisp
C GPSS C++ Matlab
Processing a High-Level Language
Program
Programs written in high-level languages
must be converted to machine language.

Two approaches:
(1) Compilation (see p. 28 FER Figure 2.4)
Used with C, C++, Fortran,...

(2) Interpretation
Used with Matlab, Visual Basic,...
 Compilation
Step 1) Use Xemacs to create a “source” file.
We will name source files with a suffix “.c”

Step 2) Run the gcc compiler on the source file to create an

executable or object file with the default name a.out .
For CS101 we will only create executable files.

Step 3) Check to see if gcc caught any syntax errors ,

if so go back to step 1)

Step 4) Run the program by typing

> a.out
at the Unix prompt
 Problem Solving and C
Computer programming is the art/science of
transforming a “real world” problem into a finite
sequence of instructions(statements) in a
computer language.
The method stated in the following slide will be
used throughout the rest of the semester.
Follow this method in your Labs and for any Machine
Problem.
Software Development Method
1. Requir emen ts S pecification (Problem
Def inition)
2. Analysis---Refine, Ge neraliz e, Decom pos e t he
pr oblem d efinition
(i.e., identify sub-problems, I/O, etc.)
3. Design---Develop Algor ithm
(processing steps to solve problem)
Use one of the following:
Natural-Language Algorithm
Flowchart Algorithm
Pseudo-code Algorithm
4. Implementat ion --- W rite t he " Progr am" (C ode )
5. Ver ification and T est ing --- Tes t and Debug the
Code
 C Program Example

1. Requir em ents S pecification (Problem

Def ini tion)
Given a light-bulb with a pre-measured power
consumption(in watts), compute the
resistance (in ohms) of the bulb.

2. Analysis---Refine, Gene raliz e, D ecom pose t he

pro ble m def ini tion
(i.e., identify sub-problems, I/O, etc.)
Input = real number representing power
Output=real number representing resistance
 C Program Example (2)
3. Design---Develop Algor ithm
Natural-Language Algorithm

Prompt user for the power dissipation

Read power
Store value in storage location called power.
Compute the resistance solving the formula
“power = (voltage*voltage)/resistance” in terms of
resistance.
resistance = (voltage * voltage)/ power
Print out the value stored in location resistance.
 C Program Example (3)
3. Design---Develop Algor ithm
Pseudo-code Algorithm

print “enter power in watts”

read power
resistance = (117.0 * 117.0)/power
print resistance
 start
. Design---Develop Algorit hm
lowchart Algorithm
Output : “enter power in watts”
Flow is assumed down
unless otherwise
specified with an
arrow.
Input : power
Trapezoid used to
designate I/O.

Rectangle used to Compute: resistance=(117*117)/power

designate one or more
statements in a block.

Output::resistance
Circle used as
continuation symbol
for transfer to another
stop
page.
 C Program Example
4. Implementat ion -- - W rite t he "P rogr am " (Code)
(see the next s lid e)
C Code Implementation of the Algorithm
/* C Program to compute the resistance */
/* of a light-bulb.*/
#include <stdio.h>
#define VAC 117.0

void main(void)
{
/* Declare variables. */
float power, resistance;
/* request user input power of */
/* light-bulb in watts. */
printf(”Please enter power(watts) :”);
/* read value power */
scanf("%f", &power);
/* Compute resistance assuming VAC = 117. */
resistance = (VAC * VAC) /power;
/* Output the calculated resistance. */
printf(”Resistance is %f (ohms)\n", resistance);
}
(Note indentation scheme in above code.)
 Open Xemacs and enter
C pr ogram compi lati on
your code..
C program compilation
C pr ogram compi lati on
Click the “Save” button in Xemacs to save your code but
don’t close the Xemacs window.
Click the xterm button to open another window.
C pr ogram compi lati on

Use the “gcc” program to compile your C source code in

the file “resistance.c”.

> ls

resistance.c resistance.c~

Note: backup files begin and/or end with a ~ or a # symbol.

Do not edit or compile these files!

> gcc resistance.c

The “gcc” program will not alter the file “resistance.c”.

The output of “gcc” is by default contained in the file
“a.out”. The file “a.out” is called an executable file.
(continued on next slide)
C pr ogram compi lati on

Note that the “gcc” program noted an error on line 16 in

the program and “gcc” generated a warning for line 7.
Also, note that there is no a.out file listed. Errors cause
gcc to abort and you will not get an a.out file.

Go back to Xemacs line 16 and fix the syntax error.

(continued on next slide)
The error on line 16 was actually caused by a missing
semicolon on line 14.
In C a semicolon means “end of statement”. This differs
from Matlab where a semicolon means suppress output
and is optional. Since there was no semicolon after line
14, C assumed that lines 14 - 16 represented one C
statement. That is incorrect syntactically, so gcc (the
compiler program or compiler for short) generated an
error message and terminated before producing an a.out
file.
C pr ogram compi lati on

After adding a semicolon to the end of line 14, Click “Save”

in Xemacs and go back to the xterm and type again...

Note: The dot-slash in “ ./a.out ” means “ in this working

directory”. If you type “ a.out ” at the Unix prompt Unix will
first search your home directory for a file “ a.out ”. Of course
this would not be the same “ a.out ” file you created in
another directory.