0:11
- Hi, my name is Madison Maxey.
0:13
I have a company called
Loomia, and we focus
0:15
on making smart fabrics for smart clothing
0:18
and smart soft-good products.
0:21
The sky's the limit when
it comes to textiles.
0:25
- My name is Danielle Applestone,
0:26
and I'm CEO of Other Machine Copmany.
0:31
We build a desktop milling machine.
0:34
A milling machine takes
a rotating cutting tool
0:38
and moves it through material
to create a 3-D object.
0:42
- Under the hood, all computers
0:44
do the same four basic things.
0:46
They input information, store, and process
0:49
the information, and
then output information.
0:53
Each of these things is done
0:55
by a different part of the computer.
0:57
There are input devices that
take input from the outside
1:01
world and convert it
into binary information.
1:05
There's memory to store this information.
1:08
There's a central processing unit, or CPU,
1:12
where all the calculations are done.
1:14
And finally, there are output devices
1:17
that take information and
convert it into physical output.
1:22
- [Danielle] Let's talk about input first.
1:24
Computers can take many
different types of input,
1:26
like the keyboard of a computer,
the touch pad of a phone,
1:30
a camera, a microphone, or a GPS,
1:34
but even the sensors
on a car, a thermostat,
1:36
or a drone are also
different input devices.
1:40
Now, let's look at a simple
example of how input travels
1:43
through a computer and becomes output.
1:47
When you press a key on your keyboard,
1:49
let's say the letter B, the keyboard
1:51
converts the letter to a number.
1:54
That number is sent as binary,
1:56
ones and zeros, into the computer.
2:00
Starting from this
number, the CPU calculates
2:03
how to display the
letter B pixel-by-pixel.
2:06
The CPU requests step-by-step
instructions from memory,
2:09
which tell it how to draw the letter B.
2:12
The CPU runs these instructions
2:13
and stores the results
as pixels in memory.
2:18
Finally, this pixel information
2:20
is sent in binary to the screen.
2:23
The screen is an output
device, which converts
2:25
the binary signals into the tiny lights
2:27
and colors that make up what you see.
2:32
- This all happens so quickly
it feels instantaneous,
2:36
but to display each letter,
a computer runs thousands
2:41
of instructions, starting from the moment
2:43
your finger presses the keyboard.
2:48
- In that example, the
output device was the screen,
2:51
but there are many
different types of output,
2:53
which take a binary
signal from the computer
2:55
and do something in the physical world.
2:58
For example, a speaker will play sound
3:01
and a 3-D printer will print an object.
3:03
Output devices can also
control physical motion,
3:06
like a robotic arm, the motor
of a car, or the cutting tool
3:10
of the milling machine
that my company makes.
3:14
New types of inputs and
outputs let computers
3:16
interact with the world
in entirely new ways.
3:19
This has been helped out by improvements
3:21
to the speed and size
of the memory and CPU.
3:25
The more complicated
a task is and the more
3:27
information that's input or
output, the more processing
3:30
power and memory a computer needs.
3:34
Typing letters on a screen may be easy,
3:36
but to do complicated
3-D graphics or record
3:39
a high-definition movie, modern computers
3:42
often have multiple CPUs to
process all that information,
3:46
and many gigabits of memory to store it.
3:51
- No matter what it is you
want to do with a computer,
3:55
every single action is about inputting
3:58
information from the physical world,
4:01
storing and processing that information,
4:04
and getting some output back
into the physical world.
