Outline of computing

See also: Index of computing articles

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to computing:

Computing – activity of using and improving computer hardware and software.

Branches of computing

• Computer Science (see also Outline of computer science)
• Information Technology – refers to the application (esp in businesses and other organisations) of computer science, that is, its use by mankind (see also Outline of information technology)
• Information Systems – refers to the study of the application of IT to business processes
• Computer engineering (see also Outline of computer engineering)
• Software engineering (see also Outline of software engineering)

Computer science

Main articles: Computer science and Outline of computer science

The Digital Bibliography & Library Project, as of July 2007, lists over 910,000 bibliographic entries on computer science and several thousand links to the home pages of computer scientists. Common topics include:

• Computer science
• Theory of computation
• Computational models
• Scientific computing
• Metacomputing
• Autonomic Computing

Computers

Main articles: Computer and Outline of computers

See information processor for a high-level block diagram.

• Computer
• Computer hardware
• History of computing hardware
• CPU design
• Computer network

Instruction-level taxonomies

After the commoditization of memory, attention turned to optimizing CPU performance at the instruction level. Various methods of speeding up the fetch-execute cycle include:

• designing instruction set architectures with simpler, faster instructions: RISC as opposed to CISC
• Superscalar instruction execution
• VLIW architectures, which make parallelism explicit

Software

• Software engineering
• Computer programming
• Computational
• Software patent
• Firmware
• System software
  • Device drivers
  • Operating systems
  • Utilities
• Application Software
  • Databases
  • Geographic information system
  • Spreadsheet
  • Word processor
• Programming languages
  • interpreters
  • compilers
  • assemblers
• Speech recognition
• Speech synthesis

Part of an early computer, EDSAC.

History of computing

• History of computing hardware from the tally stick to the quantum computer
• History of computer science
• Punched card
• Unit record equipment
• IBM 700/7000 series
• IBM 1400 series
• IBM System/360
• History of IBM magnetic disk drives

Business computing

• Accounting software
• Computer-aided design
• Computer-aided manufacturing
• Computer-assisted dispatch
• Customer relationship management
• Data warehouse
• Decision support system
• Electronic data processing
• Enterprise resource planning
• Geographic information system
• Hospital information system
• Human resource management system
• Management information system
• Material requirements planning
• Product Lifecycle Management
• Strategic enterprise management
• Supply chain management
• Utility Computing

Human factors

• Accessible computing
• Computer-induced medical problems
• Computer user satisfaction
• Human-computer interaction
• Human-centered computing

Computer network

Wired and wireless computer network

This notebook computer is connected to a wireless access point using a PC card wireless card.

• Types
  • Wide Area Network
  • Metropolitan Area Network
  • City Area Network
  • Village Area Network
  • Local Area Network
    • Wireless Local Area Network
• Mesh networking
• Collaborative workspace
• Internet
• Network Management

Computing technology based wireless networking (CbWN)

The main goal of CbWN is to optimize the system performance of the flexible wireless network.

• Source coding
  • Codebook design for side information based transmission techniques such as Precoding
  • Wyner-Ziv coding for cooperative wireless communications
• Security
  • Dirty paper coding for cooperative multiple antenna or user precoding
• Intelligence
  • Game theory for wireless networking
  • Cognitive communications
  • Flexible sectorization, Beamforming and SDMA
• Software
  • Software defined radio (SDR)
  • Programmable air-interface
  • Downloadable algorithm: e.g., downloadable codebook for Precoding

Computer security

• Cryptology – cryptography – information theory
• Cracking – demon dialing – Hacking – war dialing – war driving
• Social engineering – Dumpster diving
• Physical security – Black bag job
• Computer insecurity
• Computer surveillance
• Defensive programming
• Malware
• Security engineering

Data

Numeric data

• integral data types – bit, byte, etc.
• real data types:
  • Floating point (Single precision, Double precision, etc.)
  • Fixed point
  • Rational number
• Decimal
  • Binary-coded decimal (BCD)
  • Excess-3 BCD (XS-3)
  • Biquinary-coded decimal
• representation: Binary – Octal – Decimal – Hexadecimal (hex)
• Computer mathematics – Computer numbering formats –

Character data

• storage: Character – String  – text
  • representation: ASCII – Unicode – Multibyte – EBCDIC (Widecharacter, Multicharacter) – FIELDATA – Baudot

Other data topics

• Data compression
• Digital signal processing
• Image processing
• Data management
• Routing
• Data Protection Act

Classes of computers

Polish analog computer AKAT-1

There are several terms which describe classes, or categories, of computers:

• Analog computer
• Calculator
• Desktop computer
• Desktop replacement computer
• Digital computer
• Embedded computer
• Home computer
• Laptop
• Mainframe
• Minicomputer
• Microcomputer
• Personal computer
• Portable computer
• Personal digital assistant (aka PDA, or Handheld computer)
• Programmable logic controller or PLC
• Server
• Smartphone
• Supercomputer
• Tablet computer
• Video game console
• Workstation

Companies – current

• Apple
• Asus
• Avaya
• Dell
• Fujitsu
• Gateway Computers
• Groupe Bull
• HCL
• Hewlett-Packard
• Hitachi, Ltd.
• Intel Corporation
• IBM
• Lenovo
• Microsoft
• NEC Corporation
• Novell
• Panasonic
• Red Hat
• Silicon Graphics
• Sun Microsystems
• Unisys

Companies – historic

• Acorn, bought by Olivetti
• Amdahl Corporation, bought by Fujitsu
• Bendix Corporation
• Burroughs Corporation, merged with Sperry to become Unisys
• Compaq, bought by Hewlett-Packard
• Control Data
• Cray
• Data General
• Digital Equipment Corporation, bought by Compaq, later bought by Hewlett-Packard
• Digital Research – produced system software for early Intel microprocessor-based computers
• English Electric Company
• Ferranti
• General Electric, computer division bought by Honeywell, then Bull
• Honeywell, computer division bought by Bull
• ICL
• Leo
• Lisp Machines, Inc.
• Marconi
• Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems produced the first widely sold microcomputer system (kit and assembled)
• Nixdorf Computer, bought by Siemens
• Norsk Data
• Olivetti
• Osborne
• Packard Bell
• PERQ
• Prime Computer
• Raytheon
• Royal McBee
• RCA
• Scientific Data Systems, sold to Xerox
• Siemens
• Sinclair Research, created the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, ZX80 and ZX81
• Southweat Technical products Corporation produced microcomputers systems (kit and assembled), peripherals, and software based on Motorola 6800 and 6809 microcomputer chips
• Sperry, which bought UNIVAC, and later merged with Burroughs to become Unisys
• Symbolics
• UNIVAC
• Varian Data Machines, a division of Varian Associates which was bought by Sperry
• Wang

Organizations

A computer Lab

Professional

• Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
• Association for Survey Computing (ASC)
• British Computer Society (BCS)
• Canadian Information Processing Society (CIPS)
• Computer Measurement Group (CMG)
• Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), in particular the IEEE Computer Society
• Institution of Electrical Engineers
• International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)

Standards bodies

See also: Standardization and Standards organization

• International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)
• International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
• Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
• Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
• World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

Open standards

See also Open standard

• Apdex Alliance – Application Performance Index
• Application Response Measurement (ARM)

Persons influential in computing

• Bill Gates
• Paul Allen
• Steve Jobs
• Steve Wozniak

External links

• This outline displayed as a mindmap, at wikimindmap.com
• FOLDOC: the Free On-Line Dictionary Of Computing
• open-access repository of publications - Department of Computing - Imperial College London