Outline of computing
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to computing:
Computing – activity of using and improving computer hardware and computer software.
Branches of computing[edit]
- 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[edit]
Computers[edit]
See information processor for a high-level block diagram.
- Computer
- Computer hardware
- History of computing hardware
- Processor design
- Computer network
- Computer performance by orders of magnitude
Instruction-level taxonomies[edit]
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[edit]
- Software engineering
- Computer programming
- Computational
- Software patent
- Firmware
- System software
- Application Software
- Programming languages
- Speech recognition
- Speech synthesis
History of computing[edit]
- History of computing
- History of computing hardware from the tally stick to the quantum computer
- History of computer science
- History of computer animation
- History of computer graphics
- History of computer networking
- History of computer vision
- Punched card
- Unit record equipment
- IBM 700/7000 series
- IBM 1400 series
- IBM System/360
- History of IBM magnetic disk drives
Business computing[edit]
- Accounting software
- Computer-aided design
- Computer-aided manufacturing
- Computer-aided 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[edit]
- Accessible computing
- Computer-induced medical problems
- Computer user satisfaction
- Human-computer interaction (outline)
- Human-centered computing
Computer network[edit]
Wired and wireless computer network[edit]
Computing technology based wireless networking (CbWN)[edit]
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[edit]
- Cryptology – cryptography – information theory
- Cracking – demon dialing – Hacking – war dialing – war driving
- Social engineering – Dumpster diving
- Physical security – Black bag job
- Computer security
- Computer surveillance
- Defensive programming
- Malware
- Security engineering
Data[edit]
Numeric data[edit]
- Integral data types – bit, byte, etc.
- Real data types:
- 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[edit]
Other data topics[edit]
- Data compression
- Digital signal processing
- Image processing
- Data management
- Routing
- Data Protection Act
Classes of computers[edit]
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
Organizations[edit]
Companies – current[edit]
- 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[edit]
- 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
- Elliott Brothers
- 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 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
Professional organizations[edit]
- 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[edit]
- 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 bodies[edit]
See also Open standard
- Apdex Alliance – Application Performance Index
- Application Response Measurement (ARM)
Computing publications[edit]
- Digital Bibliography & Library Project – as of July 2007[update], lists over 910,000 bibliographic entries on computer science and several thousand links to the home pages of computer scientists.
Persons influential in computing[edit]
Major figures associated with making personal computers popular.