DECISION-MAKING

• Computers can make decisions, and computers can

do things very very fast. Right now, a computer is
deciding what the solution to a mathematical
equation is. Somewhere else, a computer is deciding
whether to suspend someone's credit card to protect
them from fraud, and another computer is deciding
whether an image represents a stop sign or a bird.
• An important part of computer science is
understanding how computers can make the right
decisions, or at least pretty good ones.
• One of the ways computers (and sometimes humans)
make decisions is with a structure called a decision
tree. Decision trees encode a series of simple
yes-or-no questions that you can follow in order to
answer a more complex question. Here is a silly
decision tree that helps you decide which of eight
different creatures you're dealing with:
INTERFACES
• In computer science, we call the menu that an abstraction
offers its interface.
• In computer science, the interface is often called an API. That
officially stands for Application Programming Interface.
However, the only important letter to remember is the "I,"
standing for "interface."
• What is interface in computer science?
• Interfaces are points of communication
between different components of an
application or system.
 CHAPTER 1
Data Storage (& Representation)
 Bits and Bit Patterns
• Bit: Binary Digit (0 or 1)
• Bit Patterns are used to represent information
– Numbers
– Text characters
– Images
– Sound
– And others

1-9
 Boolean Operations
• Boolean Operation: An operation that
manipulates one or more true/false values
• Specific operations
– AND
– OR
– XOR (exclusive or)
– NOT

1-10
 Figure 1.1 The possible input and output values of
Boolean operations AND, OR, and XOR (exclusive or)

1-11
 Gates
• Gate: A device that computes a Boolean
operation
– Often implemented as (small) electronic circuits
– Provide the building blocks from which computers
are constructed
– VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration)

1-12
 Figure 1.2 A pictorial representation of AND, OR, XOR,
and NOT gates as well as their input and output values

1-13
 Flip-flops
• Flip-flop: A circuit built from gates that can
store one bit.
– One input line is used to set its stored value to 1
– One input line is used to set its stored value to 0
– While both input lines are 0, the most recently
stored value is preserved

1-14
 Figure 1.3 A simple flip-flop circuit

1-15
 Figure 1.4 Setting the output of a
flip-flop to 1

1-16
 Figure 1.4 Setting the output of a
flip-flop to 1 (continued)

1-17
 Figure 1.4 Setting the output of a
flip-flop to 1 (continued)

1-18
Figure 1.5 Another way of constructing
a flip-flop

1-19
 Hexadecimal Notation
• Hexadecimal notation: A shorthand notation
for long bit patterns
– Divides a pattern into groups of four bits each
– Represents each group by a single symbol
• Example: 10100011 becomes A3

1-20
 Figure 1.6 The hexadecimal coding
system

1-21
 Main Memory Cells
• Cell: A unit of main memory (typically 8 bits which is
one byte)
– Most significant bit: the bit at the left (high-order)
end of the conceptual row of bits in a memory cell
– Least significant bit: the bit at the right
(low-order) end of the conceptual row of bits in a
memory cell

1-24
 Figure 1.7 The organization of a
byte-size memory cell

1-25
 Main Memory Addresses
• Address: A “name” that uniquely identifies one cell
in the computer’s main memory
– The names are actually numbers.
– These numbers are assigned consecutively
starting at zero.
– Numbering the cells in this manner associates an
order with the memory cells.

1-26
 Figure 1.8 Memory cells arranged by
address

1-27
 Memory Terminology
• Random Access Memory (RAM): Memory in
which individual cells can be easily accessed in
any order
• Dynamic Memory (DRAM): RAM composed of
volatile memory

1-28
 Measuring Memory Capacity
• Kilobyte: 210 bytes = 1024 bytes
– Example: 3 KB = 3 times1024 bytes

• Megabyte: 220 bytes = 1,048,576 bytes

– Example: 3 MB = 3 times 1,048,576 bytes

• Gigabyte: 230 bytes = 1,073,741,824 bytes

– Example: 3 GB = 3 times 1,073,741,824 bytes

1-29
 Mass Storage
• Additional devices:
– Magnetic disks – Magnetic tape
– CDs – Flash drives
– DVDs
– Solid-state disks
• Advantages over main memory
– Less volatility
– Larger storage capacities
– Low cost
– In many cases can be removed

1-31
 Figure 1.9 A magnetic disk storage
system

1-32
 Figure 1.10 CD storage

1-33
 Flash Drives
• Flash Memory – circuits that traps electrons in
tiny silicon dioxide chambers
• Repeated erasing slowly damages the media
• Mass storage of choice for:
– Digital cameras
• SD Cards provide GBs of storage
– Smartphones

1-34
 Representing Text
• Each character (letter, punctuation, etc.) is assigned
a unique bit pattern.
– ASCII: Uses patterns of 7-bits to represent most
symbols used in written English text
– ISO developed a number of 8 bit extensions to
ASCII, each designed to accommodate a major
language group
– Unicode: Uses patterns up to 21-bits to represent
the symbols used in languages world wide, 16-bits
for world’s commonly used languages

1-35
 Figure 1.11 The message “Hello.” in
ASCII or UTF-8 encoding

1-36
 Representing Numeric Values
• Binary notation: Uses bits to represent a
number in base two
• Limitations of computer representations of
numeric values
– Overflow: occurs when a value is too big to be
represented
– Truncation: occurs when a value cannot be
represented accurately

1-37
 The Binary System
The traditional decimal system is based
on powers of ten.

The Binary system is based on powers

of two.

1-38
 Figure 1.13 The base ten and binary
systems

1-39
 Figure 1.14 Decoding the binary
representation 100101

1-40
 Figure 1.15 An algorithm for finding the binary
representation of a positive integer

1-41
Figure 1.16 Applying the algorithm in Figure 1.15
to obtain the binary representation of thirteen

1-42
 Figure 1.17 The binary addition facts

1-43
 Figure 1.18 Decoding the binary
representation 101.101

1-44
 Storing Integers
• Two’s complement notation: The most
popular means of representing integer values
• Excess notation: Another means of
representing integer values
• Both can suffer from overflow errors

1-45
 Figure 1.19 Two’s complement
notation systems

1-46
 Figure 1.20 Coding the value -6 in two’s
complement notation using four bits

1-47
 Figure 1.21 Addition problems converted to
two’s complement notation

1-48
Figure 1.22 An excess eight conversion
table

1-49
 Figure 1.23 An excess notation system using bit
patterns of length three

1-50
 Storing Fractions
• Floating-point Notation: Consists of a sign bit,
a mantissa field, and an exponent field.
• Related topics include
– Normalized form
– Truncation errors

1-51
 Figure 1.24 Floating-point notation
components

1-52
 5
Figure 1.25 Encoding the value 2 ⁄8

1-53
 Communication Errors
• Parity bits (even versus odd)
• Checkbytes
• Error correcting codes

1-54
Figure 1.26 The ASCII codes for the letters A and
F adjusted for odd parity

1-55
 Figure 1.27 An error-correcting code

1-56
 Figure 1.28 Decoding the pattern 010100 using
the code in Figure 1.27

1-57