MIXED BAG

 By  Pragyansharma  Polavarapu (1)  Decades back I often  felt  perplexed  to understand  how the simple commands  typed on the key board of a computer , a silent machine here on earth  , can  initiate  truly big actions in  faraway orbiting satellites. The computer is  not a big roaring   machine  like a tractor or bulldozer but can  in fraction of a second  make  faraway  giant machines , through a coded  wireless signal, to  start some big actions . The  little computer on the table in front of  the engineer  has connection to  the computerized sensors of the faraway giant machines.  It is perhaps a  yes/no type technical session that goes on between them checking many  aspects of the faraway machine. The  silent computer here before the engineer  can  give commands for  launch...

  By pragyansharma polavarapu After a few months of trial and error and own “research”  I could create my own “Blog”. Earlier I created only “files” and “folders”  and kept them locked in the D and E drives---like locking good book manuscripts  in a cabinet without publishing!   The  "Memory Estates" , the D  drive  and E drive, are  like well protected  rock forts  in side  computer for storing  both unpublished manuscript files  and copies of even bulky printed books( of the famed authors we liked)   in electronic form .  For example the great Tolstoy novel WAR AND PEACE  may just occupy space of a small shirt button in the computer’s memory chip ! The DRIVES  are   like huge libraries of  books well indexed.  A “FOLDER” is like a labeled partition in a cabinet or a labeled   box   to keep a particular c...

  By pragyansharma polavarapu As in algebra the most important things  in computer programming are“CONSTANTS” and   “VARIABLES”. They are the foundation bricks in computer programming. All computer programming is based on selecting names for CONSTANTS and   VARIABLES   and declaring the information at start of every software program .   Let us take example of a big busy hotel of  100 rooms. The ten  floors have ten   rooms each .the rooms are neatly numbered AI to A10, B1 TO B10,C1 TO C10 and so on for all ten floors. Daily guests come and rent rooms for a day or two . Some new persons come and some of the earlier occupants  leave every day. For the hotel workers the names of the persons occupying the rooms  or even their faces are not important. They are guided only by the room number . The manager simply  tells a  worker to take coffee to room A -9,  attend a  call from room F-4 etc. I...

  By  pragyansharma polavarapu  Let us explain in a very simple way the basic idea. Each “software instruction”  consists of  two  well defined  parts. The two parts are  the OPCODE and the OPERAND.   (1)  The   OPCODE  means   the particular arithmetic operation . It is the electronic circuit in the ALU   for operations like   (+,  - ,  X  , / ,square,square root etc). (2) The OPERAND . It is the arithmetic expression /numbers on which the mathematical operation  (add/subtract/multiply/divide etc  )  is to be done.  A “software instruction” involving   mathematical work looks  as shown below(in an extremely simple example). The first item in the   “software instruction” is OPCODE . The second item is  OPERAND. Only after   they get translated into 01010101 code (in a million...

By pragyansharma polavarapu   The  “Main Memory”  is like the blackboard in a class room used by  a teacher  to write the working steps for solving an algebra problem. To maintain its comparison with class room black board let us call the “MAIN MEMORY” as  “MAIN MEMORY BOARD ”. On to this Main Memory board the following items get loaded (A) SOFTWARE PROGRAM It is  a carefully prepared set of  “software instructions” written in strict code of  software language. The software instruction are  part of a software program created  to solve a particular type of problem.  The software instructions are  typed by the outside human engineer  through the key board .Please note that software language is a most accurate brief mathematical code with its own set of  code words called “Reserved Words”. These Reserved Words ,though they  are just  ordin...

  By pragyansharma polavarapu   The  IAS computer -- ( a  model plan for creation of standard working parts inside computer and related software organization inside computer)--was developed in 1952 by the engineers at the Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS) ,Princeton, USA  under supervision of famed mathematics professor Dr Jan von Neumann. This technologically  sophisticated  model  had a  revolutionary impact on the  computer industry and computer researchers and engineers . The IAS  design can be  treated as  one of the greatest advances in computer science that helped create the modern wonder called computer.  The engineering plan (“the software   and corresponding hadware architecture”) of the  IAS  machine greatly helped in the  development of modern  desktop personal computers(the micros) which are now  sold in hundreds of millions  .This  ...