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12 | <title>technikum29 - <!--#echo var="title" --></title> |
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15 | <meta name="t29.SVN" content="$Id: search.shtm 108 2009-08-19 17:20:00Z heribert $" /> |
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16 | <meta name="t29.thistranslation" content="12.11.2009" /> |
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17 | <meta name="t29.comment" content="Initial announcement" /> |
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19 | <body> |
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20 | <!--#echo encoding="none" var="heading" --> |
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21 | <div id="content"> |
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22 | <h2><!--#echo var="title" --></h2> |
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23 | |
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24 | <h3>Pianola</h3> |
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25 | <p>The technikum29 is quite versatile – beside all the communication |
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26 | and computer technology we also show very special exhibits: This is |
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27 | a fully executable pianola, year of manufacture about 1910-1915.</p> |
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28 | |
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29 | <p> |
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30 | It's a great experience see and hear such old jukeboxes, typically made |
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31 | only of natural materials like leather, gum, wood, bone glue, felt, metal, paper, |
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32 | ivory and glas. |
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33 | <br/>By assembling these elements on an intelligent way, one could |
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34 | build a simple mechanical machine which is especially impressive |
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35 | for today's people. Here at the technikum29, we will show you how |
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36 | this device works, we will explain the basic functionality and |
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37 | play challenging compositions. While having covers removed, you can |
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38 | even see the fascinating mechanics working. |
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39 | </p> |
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40 | |
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41 | <div class="box center"> |
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42 | <img src="/shared/photos/kommunikationstechnik/pianola.jpg" |
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43 | alt="Picture of the Pianola" width="700" height="618" class="nomargin-bottom" /> |
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44 | </div> |
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45 | <h3 id="Q1"> technikum29 supports school projects:</h3> |
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46 | |
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47 | <p>Microcontrollers revolutionize |
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48 | and influence next to everything. How can schools participate on these |
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49 | developments and perform successful and interesting projects?<br> |
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50 | Six pupils of Q1 (12th year in school) of the Albert-Einstein secondary |
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51 | school were looking for a suitable idea for their so called "project |
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52 | week". This project should be connected to mathematics, physics and/or |
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53 | computer science. This is where the technikum29 got involved. The idea |
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54 | the pupils came up with was to connect technology from the 1950s with |
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55 | modern equipment of 2012. Communication spanning time and technology.<br> |
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56 | <div class="box left"> |
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57 | <img src="/shared/photos/kommunikationstechnik/arduino1.jpg" width="606" height="335" /> |
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58 | </div> |
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59 | <p>Traditionally such projects required knowledge only accessible to |
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60 | computer scientists, engineers and the like. Often they had to spend |
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61 | weeks of reading data sheets, writing cryptic assembly code etc. How |
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62 | things have changed! Since 2009 a cheap and versatile module named |
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63 | "Arduino" is available - a controller based on the well known ATmega |
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64 | 328 chip featuring 32 kB of memory. Arduino boards are designed not |
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65 | for the expert but for the layman and are the perfect base for |
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66 | creative people, artists, designers etc. |
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67 | <br> |
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68 | This project focuses on connecting computers to the "real world". The |
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69 | small Arduino board can be programmed to be used as an interface for |
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70 | nearly everything. The pupils decided to connect an early fax machine |
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71 | (a Siemens KF108 made in 1958) to a modern PC. <br> |
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72 | This fax machine is based on a rotating drum which holds the sheet of |
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73 | paper to be transmitted to the receiving station. The picture is |
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74 | scanned in a spiral movement by a photodetector that slowly moves in |
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75 | parallel to the axis of the drum. Of course, this is incompatible with |
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76 | more recent fax machines. |
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77 | |
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78 | The Arduino was planned to act as the interface between this historic |
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79 | device and a modern PC. Thus the pupils first had to learn how to |
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80 | program such a micro controller which turned out to be quite difficult |
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81 | for non-programmers. Nevertheless the software approach has its |
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82 | advantages: It is more easily debugged compared with a traditional |
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83 | hardware based interface. Thus it only took a single week to program |
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84 | and interface the Arduino board to the Siemens fax. |
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85 | |
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86 | <div class="box left"> |
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87 | <img src="/shared/photos/kommunikationstechnik/arduino2.jpg" width="606" height="354" /> |
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88 | </div> |
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89 | |
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90 | <p>The fax machine generates an auido signal with a frequency of 1.5 kHz |
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91 | denoting black pixels to be transmitted. To convert this into a binary |
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92 | signal with a 5V level an amplifier circuit is needed that is followed |
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93 | by an RC-combination. In addition to that a synchronization signal is |
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94 | necessary to signal the start of a new line being scanned. This is |
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95 | generated utilizing a reed-contact that is triggered by a so called |
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96 | "super magnet" that has been glued onto the axis of the scanner drum. |
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97 | The reed-contact thus generates a signal for every revolution of the |
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98 | drum which corresponds to a single line being scanned.<br> |
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99 | |
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100 | The control program for the Arduino was developed by the pupils (the |
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101 | source code can be found <a href="/de/lernprojekte/arduino-projekt-programme/"> >>HERE</a>). It allows the picture being scanned, a historic Mickey-Mouse drawing, to be transferred to the PC |
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102 | where it is displayed slowly line by line with good resolution. |
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103 | |
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104 | The experiment was a full success and will inspire future projects. |
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105 | |
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106 | <p class="small">*) Arduino: The name of this board derives from King "Arduino of |
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107 | Ivrea" who lived in medieval times in northern Italy where the |
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108 | controller was developed.</small> <br> |
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109 | |
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110 | |
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111 | <h3 id="leander">Art in the Museum</h3> |
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112 | |
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113 | <p>The technikum29 motivates activities that get awards and prices. The latest |
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114 | example is that of the young artist Leander A. Schwarzer who transforms |
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115 | everyday things into pieces of art. He has developed pictures made from zippers |
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116 | that can be opened thus giving the viewer the opportunity to modify the picture |
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117 | itself.<br> |
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118 | His latest visit to the technikum29 has inspired him to make art from |
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119 | and with punch cards which were the basis of industrialization in the 20th |
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120 | century. First the "Terzett" (Trio) was created which consists of three punched |
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121 | cards with these irreversible sentences:</p> |
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122 | |
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123 | <div class="box left"> |
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124 | <img src="/shared/photos/start/lk.jpg" width="250" height="350" class="nomargin-bottom" /> |
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125 | <p class="Bildtext small">Picture 1: 3 punch cards with text</p></div> |
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126 | |
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127 | ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE<br> |
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128 | IMPOSSIBLE IS NOTHING<br> |
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129 | IMAGINE ALL THE PEOPLE<br> |
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130 | <div class="box right"> |
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131 | <img src="/shared/photos/start/leander.jpg" alt="Leander Schwarzer" width="313" height="239" class="nomargin-bottom" /> |
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132 | <p class="Bildtext small">Picture 2: Leander A. Schwarzer punching cards on an IBM key punch</p> |
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133 | |
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134 | </div> |
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135 | |
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136 | <p>These cards were hanged on a wall at a distance of 1-2 cm. During the day sun |
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137 | rays create shadows of the punched and coded text on the wall behind the cards. |
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138 | This work of art was awarded a price at the 32th grafics competition in Austria |
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139 | (Innsbruck, 2011). This in turn motivated Mr. Schwarzer to continue his work |
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140 | with punched cards. He spent several days at the technikum29 punching excerpts |
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141 | from Marx' "Capital" thereby creating a pile of several hundred cards. These |
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142 | were shown in the exhibition "A Symbol of Freedom" in Piacenza (Italy). Punched |
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143 | cards transform contemporary slogans into visual paradoxes when they create |
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144 | their unique shadows.</p> |
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145 | <div class="box left"> |
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146 | <img src="/shared/photos/start/lk-musik.jpg" alt="Musik aus Lochkarten" width="336" height="188" class="nomargin-bottom" /> |
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147 | <p class="Bildtext small">Picture 3: Punched cards running through a "musical clock"</p> |
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148 | </div> |
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149 | |
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150 | <p>Another work, "Fetish Character of commodities", concatenates the cards |
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151 | containing Marx' text fragments. This string of cards is then pulled through a |
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152 | mechanism like a musical clock that generates sounds controlled by the holes in |
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153 | the cards. So, finally, the "Capital" is transformed into atmospheric sounds.</p><br> |
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154 | |
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155 | |
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156 | |
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157 | |
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158 | <h3>Movie projector "Dresden 1"</h3> |
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159 | |
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160 | <div class="box left clear-after"> |
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161 | <img src="/shared/photos/kommunikationstechnik/kinomaschine.dresden1.jpg" |
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162 | alt="Photography of the movie projector Dresden 1" width="350" height="630" /> |
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163 | |
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164 | <div class="bildtext"> |
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165 | <p>The technikum29 has a movie projector from 1951 (there are |
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166 | more and even older projectors from the 1930s that are stored in the |
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167 | archive for lack of space).</p> |
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168 | <p> |
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169 | Movie projectors have always been very complex devices. At that time, |
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170 | the bright picture projection was archived with an arc light which was |
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171 | generated between two carbon pencils. The waste heat was deflected via a |
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172 | chimney pipe! <!-- stupid mode... --> |
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173 | Since the pencils got shorter and shorter while the movie went on, they |
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174 | had to be moved continously closer together for producing a constant |
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175 | luminosity. Otherwise the light goes out. |
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176 | <br/>We will repair this device to show an original newsreel from the 1960s. |
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177 | </p> |
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178 | </div> |
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179 | </div> |
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180 | |
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181 | <h3 id="demo">Siemens Demonstration Computer</h3> |
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182 | <div class="box center"> |
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183 | <img src="/shared/photos/rechnertechnik/siemens-democomputer.jpg" alt="Siemens demonstration educational computer CPU" width="700" height="587" /> |
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184 | <p class="center"><b>Siemens educational computer</b></p> |
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185 | </div> |
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186 | |
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187 | <p>This demonstration model was build in 1973, when personal computers were not |
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188 | invented for a long time yet. Engineers had to be trained to understand |
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189 | computer architectures. Therefore, this big education model was constructed. |
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190 | It is a giant implementation of a typical register machine where 126 lamps |
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191 | display all registers, control, ALU and RAM, including the data flow. |
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192 | Featuring a mutable clock pulse and only 4 bit word with, elementary opcodes |
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193 | could be reproduced in a very illustrative way. The device can be toggled to |
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194 | process one instruction or one cycle a time. |
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195 | <br>On the left side, the computer program could be directly "written" by plugging |
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196 | cartidges labeled with assembly instruction mnemonics or numerical values |
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197 | (immediate operands). On this cartiges the user could directly read the binary |
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198 | value of the machine instruction which will be the content of the corresponding |
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199 | random access field. As you might guess, the computer cannot change the program |
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200 | memory without user interaction, so this model actually implements an Harvard |
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201 | architecture, even though the (german) labels on the frontend suggest something |
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202 | different. |
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203 | <br>The picture above shows a currently running program that adds memory cells. It |
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204 | shows that computer word lengths do not limit the length of proccessable |
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205 | numbers. |
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206 | <br>It is a wonderful device that can even be used today to understand the elementary |
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207 | workflow of modern high end desktop CPUs. |
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208 | </p> |
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209 | |
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210 | </div><!-- end of content --> |
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