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M 10/3/011
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No class.
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T 10/4/011
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HW due: Read through the end of Chapter 4 in The Information. That is about 74 or
75 pages of reading, which means that you will need to do some reading every
day between Friday and today.
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W 10/5/011
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HW due (Guy): Order The Information by James Gleick, plus
our class textbook (see link below).
HW due (everyone else): Order the Engineering
Our Digital Future textbook (ISBN
0-13-184828-3 or 9780131848283) from Amazon.com or another source of your
choice. Note: Be sure to order the hardcover version!
It is not economical for the STA bookstore to order a small number of copies,
and you can save a significant amount of money by buying your own copy
on-line. Prices vary widely, from a low of about $6.50 to a high of more than
$60. Let me know your ordering status when we meet in class.
There are two ISBN formats in common usage. You can search for the book
either by its ISBN-10 code, which is 0-13-184828-3, or by its ISBN-13 code,
which is 9780131848283.
In class: Teach Guy the material concerning AND, OR, and NOT, truth tables,
prefixes (K, M, G, T, P), and possibly two’s complement arithmetic if time
permits.
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Th
10/6/011
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HW due: Add the following dword
hex numbers. A digit of 8 or greater in the leftmost position of the final
answer indicates a negative number. If a negative answer occurs when a
positive answer is expected, it should be interpreted as an overflow condition. Note that this is
different from carrying, which can occur at any time in any column, whenever
you have to write down a result that is larger than 0xF.
0x2235FACE
+0x1880CABB
0x654B2CE3
+0x73FC904E
0x0FADEBAC
+0x0EF14599
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F 10/7/011
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No school.
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M 10/10/011
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No school.
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T 10/11/011
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HW due (Guy): Read The Information (prologue and first 4 chapters), to p. 124 if
possible. Also attempt to create the equivalent of an AND gate, an OR gate,
and a NOT gate (inverter) using NAND gates as the only possible ingredient.
You may hook as many of them together as you wish, in any configuration you
wish. This is the symbol for a NAND gate:
HW due (everyone else):
1. Use a truth table to prove that
 .
2. Dream up a more complicated left-hand side that simplifies to something
surprisingly short, and use a truth table to prove that your simplification
is valid in all cases.
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W 10/12/011
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HW due:
1. Skim over the prologue and chapters 1-4 of The Information to refresh your memory (pp. 1-124). We will have
a discussion on some of the topics contained in those passages. Be prepared
to have a thoughtful discussion. Handwritten notes are permitted and encouraged
during the discussion.
2. The remainder of the period will consist of teaching Guy to subtract using
complement arithmetic, i.e., adding the negative. Mr. Hansen will sit off to
one side, watching silently (mostly).
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Th
10/13/011
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HW due:
1. Read pp. 9-20 in the blue textbook. If you do not have it yet, you will
have to do this reading at a future date. Most of it is review of things we
have already done.
2. Prepare for a discussion on floating point representation. Suggestion:
Read the Wikipedia article on IEEE 754-2008.
3. (Challenge!) Try to create equivalents of the AND, OR, and NOT gates using
nothing but NORs. This is similar to the NAND challenge that we did before,
but not exactly the same.
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F 10/14/011
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HW due:
1. If you have not already done so, read the Wikipedia article on IEEE
754-2008.
2. Make sure you have finished reading pp. 9-20 in the blue textbook.
3. Do the “NOR challenge” suggested yesterday. This will be collected, so
make sure it is in a suitable format for being handed in. Review the HW guidelines if necessary.
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M 10/17/011
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No class.
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T 10/18/011
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HW due:
1. Read p. 34 (top paragraph only) in the blue textbook, plus pp. 37-57. Reading
notes are required as described in the HW guidelines.
2. Write Exercises 2.2 (p. 58) #2, 4, 6, 8 only. Please think carefully about
your answers.
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W 10/19/011
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HW due: Read pp. 59-71, and finish yesterday’s
written problems if you have not already done so.
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Th
10/20/011
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HW due: Read pp. 74-78, 81-87.
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F 10/21/011
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HW due: Read pp. 88-93; write #9, 11, 13 on pp. 93-94.
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M 10/24/011
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HW due (Guy only): Please
fill out the first test, and meet during F
period to go over the answers.
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T 10/25/011
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HW due (everyone): Read pp.
110-117, 125-137; write #8, 9, 11 on p. 142.
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W 10/26/011
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HW due: Read through the
topic list on tomorrow’s calendar entry and prepare a list of at least 5 specific questions related to those
topics. If you would like to compute answers as well, that is great (but not
required). Try to choose questions that are personally challenging or
somewhat confusing to you. Some bad and good examples are shown below.
Wrong: I don’t understand what aliasing means.
Right: If I sample a 400 Hz audio signal at 650 Hz, what sort of aliasing
would I expect to get?
Wrong: I don’t understand what entropy means.
Right: Which has more entropy, a 2 MB file of English text or a .ZIP
(compressed) version that is only 600 KB?
Wrong: I don’t understand the Shannon-Nyquist
Theorem.
Right: I want to take a digital photo of a window screen that has 750
vertical stripes and 500 horizontal stripes. What is the minimum pixel
resolution that I need to avoid those horrible banding effects that you
sometimes see on TV?
Wrong: I don’t understand how to do calculations involving decibels.
Right: What is the power ratio represented by 65 dB? Or, how many dB would
correspond to a power ratio of 8000 to 1?
Wrong: I don’t understand how to do calculations involving storage
requirements.
Right: What is the uncompressed storage requirement for 30 seconds of
CD-quality audio (2 channels, 16 bits per sample, 44.1 KHz sampling rate)?
In class: Review for test.
Guy only: Make-up version of first test
during F period or after school.
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Th
10/27/011
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Test (100 pts.) on all material since beginning of
year. Topics for which you are
responsible that were not on the first test
include the following:
Nyquist’s Theorem (a.k.a. Shannon-Nyquist Theorem)
entropy
purpose of data compression: find patterns and represent them more compactly
commonality of compression, encryption, and error correcting codes = encoding
tradeoff of redundancy vs. accuracy
floating-point representation (IEEE 754-2008 single
precision format only)
ASCII (single-byte character code)
Unicode (double-byte character code)
amplitude
frequency
wavelength
envelope
octave
range of human hearing: approx. 20 Hz to 20 KHz
aliasing
sampling (A/D conversion)
bit depth = # of bits per sample
pixel
resolution
storage space calculations for digital audio, still images, or video with
sound
S/N ratio (in dBV) = 6 · bit depth
3 dB  factor of 2 (quite
accurate)
5 dB factor of 3 (less
accurate)
7 dB factor of 5 (quite
accurate)
10 dB = factor of 10 (exact)
20 dB = factor of 100
30 dB = factor of 1000
60 dB = factor of 1 million
90 dB = factor of 1 billion
120 dB = factor of 1 trillion
Note: dB (decibels) are for power
ratios. If you want a voltage ratio, double the dB count to get the voltage
ratio in dBV.
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F 10/28/011
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In honor of yesterday’s
test, there is no additional HW today. However, older assignments may be
re-scanned. Take this opportunity to get caught up on all your missing
assignments! All assignments for the year are posted here or in the archives
(see link at top of schedule).
Today is the last day of the first quarter. All work submitted after today
will be counted in the second quarter.
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M 10/31/011
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Special class (Guy only).
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