Welcome to the MODD Zone

(Mathematics Of Digital Data, Period D)
Web address shortcut for this page: www.modd.net/1011modd

Are you nervous when you see NCWEE? concerned when you see CIRC? perturbed when you see PBC? Visit Mr. Hansen’s fabled abbreviations page to make sense of those cryptic markings you see on your papers.

 

Schedule at a Glance (see archives for older entries)
Written assignments should follow the HW guidelines.

 

T 1/11/011

Midterm Exam, 11:00 a.m., Room MH-102.

This exam will be weighted as 20% of your overall semester course grade. The length will be similar to the 2007 midterm exam. Major topic areas are as follows:

  • Bits, bytes, hex, and hertz
  • K, M, G, T, P
  • Benefits of digital data
  • ASCII (table will be provided—no need to memorize codes)
  • Endianness
  • Two’s complement arithmetic
  • Overflow, machine epsilon, underflow
  • Circuit symbols (AND, OR, NOT, XOR, NAND)
  • Logical implication (IMP), reverse implication (RIMP), bidirectional implication (EQU)
  • Truth tables
  • Moore’s Law
  • Bit rate, bit depth, Nyquist’s Theorem, aliasing, Moiré patterns, posterization
  • A/D (quantization) and D/A conversion
  • Decibels (both dB and dBV), S/N ratio
  • Encryption (symmetric, asymmetric, XOR technique, public-private key pairs)
  • Cryptographic hash functions, one-way functions
  • Modulo arithmetic (execution only—no need to memorize formulas)
  • PKI (general overview only)
  • Data compression, both lossy and lossless
  • Information theory, entropy
  • Parity, error detection
  • Error correcting codes
  • Network topologies
  • Bandwidth, muxing, demuxing
  • Routing versus switching
  • IP address format (dotted quad)
  • Full-mesh formula
  • Famous names you need to know: Alan Turing, Claude Shannon, Harry Nyquist, Gordon Moore, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates.
  • Extra credit: Mark Zbikowski.

 

Other sample questions can be found on this year’s tests, which are provided below for your convenience in studying.

 


Warning: Not everything you need to know appears on the old tests or on the 2007 midterm exam. Use your study guide above to flesh out the list of topics you need to review.

 

Links Based on Class Discussions:
-- Latest revision of our MODD course outline from 2005, before we had a good textbook to use
-- Homemade “Segway”-like balancing scooter uses a fair amount of calculus!

Serious Links:
-- STA School Handbook
-- Summer math camps for talented high school students
-- Click here for other serious links

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Last updated: 07 Dec 2011