Powerpoint

This is a link to a Powerpoint template I created using Microsoft Powerpoint. It can be used as long as I am credited for the work.
To download the font I used, please go to http://www.dafont.com/search.php?q=grape+soda.

Computer Interfaces

Molex Connectors

Molex connectors are used to connect disk drives using a two piece pin and socket connection. The company Molex developed these in the late 1950s and early 1960s and are now used in cars, vending machines, and computers. Because the connections have a large contact surface area, they are most often used for power.

SATA Cables

Serial ATA, or SATA, are cables used to connect storage devices such as hard drives and optical drives. These replaced the Parallel ATA, or PATA, cables because they are cheaper, smaller, and faster than the PATA cables. 

Jumper

Jumpers are conductors used to close a break in or an opening. When jumpers are put on two or more jumper pins, an electrical connection is made and the computer will activate settings according to the placement of the jumpers.

BIOS and CMOS Jumper

The BIOS and CMOS jumpers are used to clear the CMOS and BIOS passwords. These are located on the motherboard near the processor and CMOS battery or near the edge of the motherboard. To clear the CMOS and BIOS, put the jumper on the middle wire and the uncovered one and turn on the computer to see if the password has been cleared. If it has, put the jumper back in its original position.

Computer Fan

This cable gives power to active cooling fans. They can either be 2 pin, 3 pin, or 4 pin. Cooling fans are used to draw warm air away from the computer components so the parts operate more efficiently.

DVI Monitor Cable

The DVI monitor cable is used to connect the computer to the monitor. It can have up to 29 pins (DVI-I Dual Link). The signal speed is 60 Hz.

USB 3.0

The USB 3.0 is used to transfer data at a faster rate than USB 2.0. They can transfer data at 500 MB/s and can only be used in USB 3.0 ports. USB 3.0 ports are colored blue instead of black or white.

Firewire

Firewire is a interface used for data transfers. It was designed by Apple in the 1980s. It is similar to USB but USB has more of the market. Firewire is a serial bus and transfers data one bit at a time. It is often used to connect data storage devices and DV cameras.

PCI Buses

PCI is a bus for connecting RAM and other internal hardware to the motherboard. Any attached device is either an integrated circuit or an expansion card. The speed of these buses can be 133 MB/s, 266 MB/s, or 533 MB/s.

Display Port

The Display Port is a display interface developed by VESA (Video Electronics Standards Association) and is used to connect a video source to a video display device. The speed is 4.6 MB/s.

PS/2 Port

These ports connect Mice (green) and keyboards (purple) to a PC computer. They are 6 pin Mini-DIN connectors. The data signal is 10 to 16 kHz with 1 stop bit, 1 start bit, and 1 parity bit.

                                           Steps to Install NAS4free

• 1)     Boot from CD.
• 2)     Once you get to the console menu configure the network interfaces. You can either select auto-detection or select your own. If you select auto-detection it will detect and add the correct interfaces.
• 3)     After you configure the network interfaces, select number 2, configure network IP address. It will ask if you want to use DHCP, select yes.
• 4)     The next thing it will ask is if you want to use IPv6. I selected yes but you could use either.
• 5)     The next thing it will ask is if you want to enable autoconfiguration

Design Your Own Computer

Motherboard

The motherboard is what all the components of a computer fit into and connects each part.

                                                Central Processing Unit (CPU)

The CPU is where all the data is processed.

                                                Random Access Memory (RAM)

The RAM device allows data to be read and written at a very fast speed and regardless of what data was accessed first.

                                                Graphics Card

The graphics card generates image feeds and sends them to a monitor. Video and graphics can be integrated into the motherboard or CPU which might eventually make these obsolete.

                                                Power Supply Unit (PSU)

The PSU is what supplies power to the other components. It converts the alternating current from the wall socket to a low voltage direct current.

                                                Hard Disk Drive (HDD)

Stores digital information on a disk.

                                Solid-State Drive (SSD)

Stores information but unlike a HDD, it has no moving parts.

                                                High End Computer

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7994402&CatId=9784

This is an ASUS P9X79-E WS motherboard. It is compatible with Core i7, Xeon E5-1600 series, Xeon E5-2600 series processors with a LGA2011 Socket. This part costs $512.49.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7808049&CatId=1969

This is a HP Xeon E5-2640 processor. These processors are designed for, cost-effectiveness, energy efficiency, and performance running 2.50 GHz. This processor costs $1047.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7010612&CatId=11481

This is a PNY Optima MD8192KD3 memory card. The memory speed & Interface DDR3 1333MHz. It is made to boost the performance of a PC and for casual gaming with a 8GB storage. This part costs $96.

 

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=8989594&CatId=7387

This is a EVGA GeForce GTX Titan Z graphics card. This graphics card is designed for gamers and has 5760 cores and 12 GB of 7Gbps GDDR5 memory.
Interface PCIe 3.0 x16
It costs $3000.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7739052&CatId=139

This is a Seagate 4TB Barracuda Internal Desktop hard drive. This hard drive can store 4 terabytes of data with 64MB buffer memory. It can transfer 4GB/s for fast data transfers. It costs $150.

 

The recommended PSU wattage is 595 watts. To meet this power usage I have chosen the Corsair RM Series™ RM650 Fully Modular Power Supply Unit. It can deliver up to 650 W. It is 92% energy efficient with 140mm fan that runs silently. The fan doesn’t even turn on until the PSU is under a heavy load.

This part costs $120.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=8592253

 

This computer would cost about $5000 to build.

 

                        Computer I could realistically build someday

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=8992456&CatId=8586

This is a ASUS Z97-A ATX motherboard. It is compatible with 4^th and 5^th generation intel core family processors with a LGA1150 socket. This part costs $140.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=8526350&CatId=4729

This is a Intel® Core™ i5-3340S Quad Core Processor.  These processors are fast and efficient with a clock speed of 2.8 GHz. This processor costs $190.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=154009&CatId=11478

This is a Corsair High Perform Vengeance 4GB DDR3 1600MHz memory card. The speed is 1600MHz and is made for very good performance. This part costs $48.

 

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=8899411&CatId=7387

This is a Asus GeForce® GTX 750 TI graphics card. It was designed for 3D gaming with a 1150 MHz clock speed. This card has dual fans for better heat removal efficiency and 3X lower noise emissions.

Interface PCIe 3.0 x16.
 This part costs $130.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7686636&CatId=139

This is a Toshiba 3TB Internal hard drive. It can store 3TB of data with a 64MB buffer. At 7,200 RPM, this hard drive is extremely fast and only costs $100.

 

The recommended wattage for this computer is 418W. To meet this requirement, I have chosen the Ultra X4 750-Watt Modular Power Supply V2 PSU. It can deliver up to 750W of power. This part costs $110.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1583410&CatId=5440

This computer would cost $718 to build.

 

I did not design these computers for any specific purpose, but as it turns out, both would be great gaming computers.

Quantum Computing, Group Report. By Henry Meeker and Isaac Fuglestad.

The column of equipment for a
 quantum computer
(NY Times, May 2013)

Quantum computing is still a very young technology. It was kicked off by a paper written by Richard Feynman in 1981 in which he theorized computations could be made much faster using the odd properties of quantum mechanics. Very little physical progress was made until the early 2000’s, in which a handful of early, weak quantum processors were developed. Nearly all of this research and development had been achieved through government and university laboratories. These early quantum computers consisted of very few qubits (those will be explained later) compared to today's processors. In the late 2000’s development of quantum computers really began to speed up. More processors were made each year, with the next having more qubits than the one before it. In 2011 the company D-Wave released the first commercially available quantum computer; this processor included 128 qubits. There has been a large amount of controversy surrounding quantum computing, especially D-Wave. Tests administered on these computers have had mixed results, sometimes getting an answer faster than classic computations, sometimes taking much longer. Currently the most advanced quantum computer is the D-Wave Two, boasting 512 qubits. Companies and universities around the world are itching to test this new technology and are willing to pay the hefty price to get their hands on one. Many experiments and papers are being made throughout the country as researchers continue to investigate the nebulous depths of quantum computers.

Richard Feynman, the mind behind quantum computers
(Brain Pickings, 2013)

A vibration filter from a quantum computer
(D-Wave Blog, Jan 2007)

These computers are being made to be the next generation in technological development. They are intended to make complicated calculations in less time than the best supercomputers to date. One use of this still young technology is encryption. The best encryption currently has to do with factoring very large prime numbers. Current computing takes very long to decrypt these complicated messages, the calculation method used is very slow. Quantum computers work in such a way that prime factorization is very easy, making current encryptions a breeze. These computers can also be used to create even stronger encryption methods in the future. Another use of them is to find the most efficient method to complete an action. For example, scientists at NASA need to find the best route for a rover to reach a destination. Ordinary computers would take ages considering all of the different routes and options. Quantum computers can find the most efficient path much faster due to the fact that it can calculate many bits in parallel. As this technology is better understood the uses of it will grow and they will help propel humankind into the next era of technology.

A close up of a quantum computer's processing chip
(BBC, May 2013)

Quantum computers are being built very rapidly in the scientific community. Currently the outstanding company making them is D-Wave systems. They are currently the main producers of quantum computers that are available to the general public. They are making these so rapidly because they would like to be the household name of quantum computing. They would like to become the main producers and developers of these computers while this field is still very young. They are making them for a profit, not necessarily to expand the field. At D-Wave they don’t conduct much research or perform many experiments. Instead they try to build the best computers they can sell, the research and experimenting is then conducted by those who buy their systems. Other groups are testing these computers to see what algorithms work best and what kind of interface should be used to access this brand new technology. The people exploring the capabilities of quantum computers tend to be government groups (NASA, the CIA, etc) or major universities (Cambridge, Oxford, Waterloo, etc). Testing for these machines involves giving them very complicated questions, including problems that involve the factorization of very high numbers or finding the most efficient method to complete an action. Right now quantum computers are mostly being tested compared to current supercomputers. These studies are being conducted by research facilities and universities, not D-Wave. D-Wave seems to have cornered the market on these advanced machines, but the future of quantum computing may lead in any direction.

A regular bit in comparison to a qubit
(University of Strathclyde, 2012

Computers work of the idea of data having a value of a one or zero, on or off, true or false. Those data values are called bits, short for binary digits. Using transistors on silicon chips, a computer can change them to from ones to zeros. Using this, a regular computer can process the complex tasks it is given. A quantum computer uses quantum bits, also known as qubits. Instead of transistors on a chip, qubits are manipulated as single

Qubit functions
(Wikimedia Commons, 2007)

atoms. These atoms may be in many positions, which means they won’t strictly be in the configuration of a one or a zero. They can be a one, a zero, or something in between; a superstate of a one and zero. That is the quantum portion of quantum computing, the very erratic behavior of matter at an atomic level. That is also what gives this new technology an advantage over classic computers. The fact that these qubits can be measured as both a one and zero allows it to process information that would take classic computers ages to calculate. Quantum computer excel in problems dealing with efficiency: finding the easiest path to travel, searching a very large database faster than classic computers, etc. A good analogy of quantum computers versus classic computers is trying to find the lowest valley in a mountain range. A regular computer would go about doing this by rolling over every surface in the mountain range, often getting stuck in what it thinks are the lowest valleys when really they aren’t. A quantum computer instead tunnels through until it finds the lowest point, which is much faster. While modern supercomputers and classic algorithms currently surpass quantum computers on some problems, as the new technology improves it will hopefully far surpass traditional computers.

The equipment required to
keep these computers cold

(Grunert Imaging, May 2013)

D-Wave machines
(D-Wave Systems, 2012)

D-Wave Systems was founded in 1999 and their mission is to use physics, manufacturing, computer science and engineering to build a computer that can help solve many of the problems in the world today. For the first five years they came up with ideas on how quantum computing might be accomplished. They decided to use advanced superconducting technology to create these supercomputers. By 2004 they realized they had to make their own facility to build the parts they need. The machines were designed and built in this facility.

The sensitive processor
               (NY Times, March 2013)

The quantum computer is an advanced computer designed to increase processing speed and security. Ultra secret keys are created by measuring the polarization of photons emitted by entangled particles. If no one has tried spying on the signal the measurements of the polarization will be the same. Each time the computers have the same measurements, the key gets longer until it is almost uncrackable. Because the signal is so sensitive, if someone tried spying on it, the computers will have different measurements and they will both instantly know the signal was spied on. This happens because the particles are “entangled” which means even over great distances, the particles will react to each other instantaneously but any outside interaction will disrupt the signal.

One of the mammoth D-Wave computers
(Vancouver Sun, Feb 2014)

The first commercially available quantum computers were released in 2010 by D-Wave Systems. Each year D-Wave doubled the amount of qubits in the computers and by 2013 they had 512 qubits and were ready to be released. Quantum computers are still a work in progress and will likely take many more years before all their uses are discovered and the developers finally understand exactly how it works.

Paragraphs in Times New Roman written by Henry Meeker, those in Arial written by Isaac Fuglestad.

I am most interested in how computers work, how they are linked and interact with other computers, and the programming that make them work. I did a HTML and CSS and some of a JavaScript course online and I would like to continue learning more about programming.

Introduction

Welcome to my blog! My name is Isaac and I will be using this blog to create an online portfolio of technology, media and other projects in digital format.