Computer revolution

Eig. 1. The pace of technological change ia both the microelectronics-based computer revolution, as characterized by the number of bits in a DRAM, and the industrial revolution, as characterized by the horsepower developed by a steam engine (19). 

Gorniak-Kocikowska K. The computer revolution and the problem of global ethics. Sci Eng Ethics 1996 2.2 177-90. 

We are facing a second computer revolution while still in the midst of the first one And it s probably the important revolution. 

Research articles of interest to biochemists may appear in many types of research journals. Research libraries do not have the funds necessary to subscribe to every journal, nor do scientists have the time to survey every current journal copy for articles of interest. Two publications that help scientists to keep up with published articles are Chemical Titles (published every 2 weeks by the American Chemical Society) and the weekly Current Contents available in hard copy and computer disks (published by the Institute of Science Information). The Life Science edition of Current Contents is the most useful for biochemists. The computer revolution has reached into the chemical and biochemical literature, and most college and university libraries now subscribe to computer bibliographic search services. One such service is STN International, the scientific and technical information network. This on-line system allows direct access to some of the world s largest scientific databases. The STN databases of most value to life scientists include BIOSIS Pre-views/RN (produced by Bio Sciences Information Service covers original research reports, reviews, and U.S. patents in biology and biomedicine), CA (produced by Chemical Abstracts service covers research reports in all areas of chemistry), MEDLINE, and MEDLARS (produced by the U.S. National Library of Medicine and Index Medicus, respectively cover all areas of biomedicine). These networks provide on-line service and their databases can be accessed from personal computers in the office, laboratory, or library. Some... 

The same computer revolution that started in the middle of the last century also plays an important, in fact crucial, role in the development of methods and algorithms to study solvation problems. Dealing, for instance, with a liquid system means the inclusion of explicit molecules, in different thermodynamic conditions. The number of possible arrangements of atoms or molecules is enormous, demanding the use of statistical mechanics. Here is where computer simulation, Monte Carlo (MC) or molecular dynamics (MD), makes its entry to treat liquid systems. Computer simulation is now an important, if not central, tool to study solvation phenomena. The last two decades have seen a remarkable development of methods, techniques and algorithms to study solvation problems. Most of the recent developments have focused on combining quantum mechanics and statistical mechanics using MC or... 

His work has flown on a Space Shuttle, and it has been hailed as art. It may well be part of the next computing revolution. 

The second more modern definition describes a Network comprised of more computers tied together with relatively few terminals on each computer. This second form of network became a reality with the mini computer revolution was spurred by acceptance Digitals PDP-8 and PDP-11 Mini computers in the 1960s and development of Digitals Network Architecture (DNA) in the 1970s. In order to clarify the distinction lets call the first form of "network" Data Communications and the second type a Digital Computer Network. 

Computational chemistry is the study of chemistry using computer-based methods. Advances in both method development and applications to chemistry have been catalyzed by the computer revolution. They have also been stimulated by the ever-increasing realizations by chemists that computer simulation is becoming a full partner with experimental work in chemistry. 

Metalloids have some chemical and physical properties of metals and other properties of nonmetals. In the periodic table, the metalloids lie along the border between metals and nonmetals. Silicon (Si) is probably the most well-known metalloid. Some metalloids such as silicon, germanium (Ge), and arsenic (As) are semiconductors. A semiconductor is an element that does not conduct electricity as well as a metal, but does conduct slightly better than a nonmetal. The ability of a semiconductor to conduct an electrical current can be increased by adding a small amount of certain other elements. Silicon s semiconducting properties made the computer revolution possible. 

Chromatography data handling has benefited much from the computer revolution. A PC-based data station typically incorporates method storage, data archival, and report generation as well as full HPLC system control. For large laboratories, a centralized client-server network is becoming the standard system to ensure data security and compliance with regulations. Most network systems also allow the user to access data and to control the system remotely from the office and/or from home via a secured web connection. 

A number of new approaches to the problem of evaluating dispersion at micro-and mesoscopic scales have appeared during the past 10 to 15 yr. In particular, cellular automata modeling, advances in numerical simulations, improved physical micromodels, and the development and application of fractal and percolation concepts are significant steps. Most of these approaches are outgrowths of the computer revolution that took place over the same period. In fact, the development of more formal mathematical foundations for some of these approaches has followed their implementation on computers. 

The most efficient use of a transient recorder is, thus, as part of a signal averager. The most cost effective way is to do it yourself. Implementation of this plan assumes that the reader has a microcomputer—almost any will do, although we vastly prefer a machine that runs CP/M with the attendant enormous software availability—and a parallel port on the computer. The parallel port is used to control the transient recorder and act as the data input bus. To utilize the 10-Hz repetition rate of a modern Nd YAG laser, with every laser shot resulting in the storage of 1024 points/shot, the programming must be done in assembly code for speed. These facts require that the scientist becomes reasonably familiar with his/her microcomputer, but we feel that since a standard microcomputer now costs less than a plain vanilla oscilloscope it is time for all experimentalists to learn basic bit manipulation to fully exploit the computer revolution. 

Without convenient terminals and hard-copy devices, the situation for the chemist would be little better than the early days of chemical graphics, when even the largest of companies would only invest in a few expensive workstations and chemists would have to leave their laboratories to run a search. The real turning point that made the computer revolution happen was that systems were beginning to be hardware-independent and prices were continually decreasing in the competitive computer market. 

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