Basic I/O

Introduction to advanced level of computer science:

If you arrived at this level of lesson, you may consider yourself a novice computer engineer.

The reasons is because you have now a basic knowledge of the computer as hardware, a beginner level on algorithms and beginner level on programming.

Now you will be confronted more and more in making a choice on your studies.

Getting an advanced level on hardware, on theory of computer science , or getting more on programming side.

This lesson will guide you on this choice. But whatever the choice is, you must have a general knowledge of computer science. Because on whatever the expertise you choose, you will be confronted to the problems on other parts of computer science. For example lets consider you choosed to be a programmer. You must have knowledge on hardware, so as to buy a computer with optimum level of performance, having a high ram a high level of graphic card etc.

What about input output

So now how all these are related to input output? The answer is, the input output is the main aspect of the computer science. It defines the whole system. It is related to system theory of Bertrand Bertalanfy. Every system in the world is open system. An open system always has input and output. No system can live if it won't adhere to this rule; it will be destroyed. In contrast, a closed system can live without an input or output. It is a self sufficient system. No closed system has ever been discovered. I recommend the lecture of Bertrand Bertalanfy to gain further knowledge on this. So a computer is an open system who needs an input and also makes an output. Input Output is not only related to personal computer but also other devices. About this I recommend lecture on theory of communication. And especially Claude Shannon and Norbert Wiener.

So the input and output is noted as I/O. There are many level of this input on todays personal computers.But what we will so will go over PC`s and much more to all materials around us using input output. For First understanding of I/O I will talk about the computer input output. So here is the plan of our study: - Machine level I/O - Coding level I/O - And finally End user level I/O As you may see here all of these level need special expertise. And far you go here, and more you will get special knowledge on the level you choosed. And any level you choose here, the expertise is infinite, and you will arrive finally to the end of this knowledge where you can contribute to today`s science.

Machine (computer) Input Output

1 and 0 are the main aspect of machine level input output. 1 means there is an electrical signal (or there is electricity) and 0 as there is no electrical signa (or simply there is no electricity. On this level you get more into the electronic level of the computer. I recommend to study electronics to get a further expertise on this level

The AC or DC electricity that feeds the computer are the first input on the computer. Then comes the printer the screen , the audio video is some classical output that we know. But there are also other computer that are incorporated in cars in working machines, in washing machines, in cellular phones, on stone cutting machine with laser output etc. when we consider the mother of todays computer : it was working without electricity, and it was a textile machine that been converted to a machine that gets an input as paper with special holes combined with special system. So as when you make this input into this textile machine it could make a calculation and give you the result of this calculation as output.

But the I/O analyse of the machine is not limited to the whole computer. There is also input output on each part of the computer. A harddisk gets an input as electronic signal such as 1 and 0 for electric signal and no electic signal. A RAM card also gets input as electric signal and no signal and output as electric signal. A chip is also getting an electric signal and output as another electric signal A circuit is also getting electrical signal and output electrical signal

So as you can see here you can get more in the micro level and study more and more these electrical signal as input and output.

To analyse these electronic signal you must get into the boolean logic, and logic calculation in mathematics. Also algorithms is related to input and output on electronics

Input Output on the coding level

On coding level we can analyse the input and the output by the use of algorithms again. On coding not all input is driving to an output. Not all input is making an operatio to computer. So there are categories of input and output.

- remark type of inputs : no action and no calculation by the computer is done here
- declaring type of inputs : these inputs are preliminary to a calculation. you say here to the computer; get ready! 
- conditional inputs : the computer is confronted to a choice. this is post preliminary input
- variable inputs : the computer is starting to use a variable, the variable has first value as null and can get on secondary level a value. 
- calculation inputs : here the computer is confronted to a calculation. The computer got into this level in the result of declarations, choices, and variable with values. Now it is using these to prepare the output

- Finally the output as electronic level : all calculation are issued by from electronic signals and are getting into electronic signal as result. So the result is at first coded as electronic signals combination 
- output as "input" in the RAM
- Binary output = electronic signal are converted in binary function 1 is ther is electricity and 0 is there is no electricity. The combination of these two are converted into 8 or 16 bit value, which means 8 times 0 or 1 . for example 00000000, or another one : 11111111, or another one : 10101000 etc

- The output as machine language = the 8 or 16 bit value converted into machine language
- the output converted to coder language = here the result is in the memory according the programming language used by the coder. Here I suppose the program is using machine langueage and translates it into the programming language of the coder.

So on this level we have seen that the more subtile electronic signals are used by the programmer to be translated into an intermediate language, so as to accomplish operations, calculations etc.

On the next level we wil see the output on user level.

Input Output on end user level

Here the subtile electricity becomes a letter on the screen, or the move of the arm of a robot, or a laser shot or a car engine start.

You must consider here that we use computer not only as personel computer but also in our cellular phones, in our television, plasma screen , kitchen robots, children toys, on trains, on airplaines, on the radars, on the warhead missiles, on the nuclear reactor control panel. Almost everywhere there is computer.

We can get into more theory and philosophy on this level. Because we can consider as computer every little mechanical or electrical or electronical piece you are using. Studying this can be a subject of a thesis.

Maybe a fub example comparing to personal computer will be the simple kitchen robots with many sort of knifes to cut and get juice of vegetables and fruits.

So the input in kitchen robot is the fruit, and the output is the fruit juice.

In personal computer of the end user, the input is the children age of school in Turkiye Istanbul, and the output will be the average age of these children as displayed on the screen or as output report on printer.

The input on iron cutting machine will be the iron cutting style designed in autocad and recorded in the memory of the machine, and the output will be the laser movement so as to cut iron according the project.

the examples here are infinite. We can group inputs here as follows:

- numeric or alphanumeric input as record (see previous lesson about record string and arrays)Example: entry of names, entry of birtdates, entry of age, of number of children etc.
- graphic analog input example: gif bmp jpg jpeg mpeg
- graphic numeric input example : autocad inputs correl draw and photoshop as input
- mechanical input. This is for non electrical computers: the paper with holes input in the textile machine 
- biochemical input: Example this is the input done by taking a pill. or also the DNA changes etc. This can make you have fantasy on Matrix the movie :). But are we far from it. In now days some electronical chips are placed on human body for their health control or improvement. 
- Mind Input : so far the human brain is the most complex input output existence on this world. The personal computer are so far just a copy of maybe the microscopic part of our brain. You must never forget that a computer still cannot dream or have psychological disturbance, or create something. So I will place on the highest place and on the center of any study the mind of human and animals. 

About the outputs there is also an infinite number of output possbility, What I will tell here for making category of them is same as I said for the inputs

- numeric or alphanumeric output : example : display on PC screen of the list of children names at Istanbul Turkiye
- graphic analog output : example : jpeg picture of Ankara Ataturk Museum
- graphic numeric output : example : Autocad screen output of museum plan
- mechanical output : example : flower picture drawn on Iron plate
- biochemical output : example : hormone control operated by the pills , Aids virus destroying by microscopical artificial intelligence microrobots in human veins (this project is still in research status, its appliance is limited to animals)
- mind output : example : this whole text is my mind output by the use of my fingers

Last words about I/O

Input output can be electric or non electric signals. It can be mechanical, biological or even abstract. The reason is simply because the computer was first created when there was no electricity. And also because the computer use is now extended in so much area that it is difficult to say input output is just about PC`s.

So a computer scientist is not only limited to electrical and electronical device. In today`s world where expertise became a unique way to find a job, it has resulted on limitation on human abilities use. We are forced because of the knoledge received on university to choose a knowledge. And this choice is driving us tthrough just technical knowledge. And this technical knowledge in computer science has limited many researchers on just research on PC. So science has just reached a paradox. To go out of this paradox, I suggest the following, consider computer not only as electroinical device, but all. Today computer scientist act as if the computer is just a PC. what about biomedical and what about industry. The first computer was created before elecricity has been created. So the input output has been invented much more before Edison. We must understand computer not only receiving electic signals, but also as machine that can recieve and treat any kind of input, even living input, even as abstract machine in our mind.