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In a thread over the weekend someone asked the question Whats the difference between a console and a computer"
I supposed it may sound a bit silly but with the X-Box coming out with a hard drive and internet acces, and the DC can have a keyboard and mouse plugged in, the answer doesnt seem quite so straightfoward.
I've just got back from a talk about music piracy, and with the whole napster .mp3 thing computers were obviously brought into the conversation.
According to american laws a computer is something that can store more than one program in it. It has to be running one program while having acces to a number of others at the same time.
Im not quite sure what "a number of others" means exactly, im guessing just more than one. So from now on, unless console start running games from their hard drives, it should be relatively easy to distinguish between the two.
Hope that helps whoever it was.
I supposed it may sound a bit silly but with the X-Box coming out with a hard drive and internet acces, and the DC can have a keyboard and mouse plugged in, the answer doesnt seem quite so straightfoward.
I've just got back from a talk about music piracy, and with the whole napster .mp3 thing computers were obviously brought into the conversation.
According to american laws a computer is something that can store more than one program in it. It has to be running one program while having acces to a number of others at the same time.
Im not quite sure what "a number of others" means exactly, im guessing just more than one. So from now on, unless console start running games from their hard drives, it should be relatively easy to distinguish between the two.
Hope that helps whoever it was.
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In a thread over the weekend someone asked the question Whats the difference between a console and a computer"
I supposed it may sound a bit silly but with the X-Box coming out with a hard drive and internet acces, and the DC can have a keyboard and mouse plugged in, the answer doesnt seem quite so straightfoward.
I've just got back from a talk about music piracy, and with the whole napster .mp3 thing computers were obviously brought into the conversation.
According to american laws a computer is something that can store more than one program in it. It has to be running one program while having acces to a number of others at the same time.
Im not quite sure what "a number of others" means exactly, im guessing just more than one. So from now on, unless console start running games from their hard drives, it should be relatively easy to distinguish between the two.
Hope that helps whoever it was.
I supposed it may sound a bit silly but with the X-Box coming out with a hard drive and internet acces, and the DC can have a keyboard and mouse plugged in, the answer doesnt seem quite so straightfoward.
I've just got back from a talk about music piracy, and with the whole napster .mp3 thing computers were obviously brought into the conversation.
According to american laws a computer is something that can store more than one program in it. It has to be running one program while having acces to a number of others at the same time.
Im not quite sure what "a number of others" means exactly, im guessing just more than one. So from now on, unless console start running games from their hard drives, it should be relatively easy to distinguish between the two.
Hope that helps whoever it was.
Computer: An electronic device designed to compute codes and languages to create a result.
The first British computers were designed in the World Wars to decipher and translate German codes!
The first British computers were designed in the World Wars to decipher and translate German codes!
By that definiton computers are the same as consoles because consoles also compute to create a result.
I was trying to give a definition that would differentiate bewtween computers and consoles as this seems like it will increasingly more difficult to do in the future.
I was trying to give a definition that would differentiate bewtween computers and consoles as this seems like it will increasingly more difficult to do in the future.
Technically a Games console IS a computer!
As is a microwave (computes the amount of time you enter in and cooks food for that length of time)
A radio computes radiowaves!
As is a microwave (computes the amount of time you enter in and cooks food for that length of time)
A radio computes radiowaves!
True, i agree with you completely but the person wanted a way of distinguishing computers from next-gen consoles.
I think most people can tell the difference between their washing machine and an digital watch dont you.
If you want to get technical, none of the things you said are computers, they have inside them Microcontrollers, which is essentially a little computer all on one chip, in other words it has the processer and the RAM and some ROM and a couple of I/O ports all built into it.
It all depends how technical you want to get, and to be honest i cant be @r$sed tonight, i've got Embedded Control at uni tomorrow which deals with all this micro controller crap so i'll find out and let you know tomoorow night if you want?
I think most people can tell the difference between their washing machine and an digital watch dont you.
If you want to get technical, none of the things you said are computers, they have inside them Microcontrollers, which is essentially a little computer all on one chip, in other words it has the processer and the RAM and some ROM and a couple of I/O ports all built into it.
It all depends how technical you want to get, and to be honest i cant be @r$sed tonight, i've got Embedded Control at uni tomorrow which deals with all this micro controller crap so i'll find out and let you know tomoorow night if you want?
Ok, i just got out of lecture, except it wasnt a lecture.
It was an exam.
Which I failed.
But i managed to find out the difference some stuff. Firstly your microwave isnt a computer but it contains a microcontroller. The difference between a microcontroller and a and a microprocessor is that:
"A microprocessor has all storage and data transfer devices externally of the chip. A microcontroller has them all built into the chip. A microcontroller is generally a lot slower than a microproccessor."
So there you have it.
It was an exam.
Which I failed.
But i managed to find out the difference some stuff. Firstly your microwave isnt a computer but it contains a microcontroller. The difference between a microcontroller and a and a microprocessor is that:
"A microprocessor has all storage and data transfer devices externally of the chip. A microcontroller has them all built into the chip. A microcontroller is generally a lot slower than a microproccessor."
So there you have it.
Most modern hosehold appliances contain microprocessors. Even most washing machines require hardcoded programs to run efficently...
Which is the main reason why Real Times Systems programming is so popular at the moment...
However although they contain computer hardware, they objects themselves are not computers, they are Microwaves, Dishwashers, etc...
Computers originally people whos it was to do manual computations. With Babbidge as the worlds first automated computer designer, and Ada as the worlds first programmer (despite living before Babbidge)...
However... I'm digressing from point here... I was wondering what the difference between a PC (Personal Computer... not IBM) and a console are...
It strikes me that, internally, consoles are, and always have been PC's ...
They have the singular, primary CPU, RAM, a format for accepting data (input) and a format for outputting data (output)...
(whi was that German guy who originally came up with this schematic?)
And now that the newer Consoles are getting Hard Drives, Keyboards and Mice...
Surely they are PC proper? ...
An evolution they made without the help of Microsoft...
(although I say evolution... arnt we just seeing a repeat of the Consoles - Computers movement we saw back in the late 70's early 80's... from Atari, Intellivision to Vic20, Speccy, Dragon, et al.?)
(also does anybody remeber the MSX... Microsofts last games machine effort?)
As such... why the worry that consoles are going to turn all PC because of the XBox when they seem prefectly happy to do this anyway?
I can understand the concern that IBM architecture will be implemented.
However...
The IBM architecture is sound... its the instablility MSWindows that causes the problems...
Also..
Why would an IBM architecture be adoted? ... Despite is familiarity, Games developers have historically ignored the IBM PC as a games machine in favour of Spectrum/C64/Amiga/et al. In fact until recently the PC had generally been considered an ill fitting for games software.
Which is the main reason why Real Times Systems programming is so popular at the moment...
However although they contain computer hardware, they objects themselves are not computers, they are Microwaves, Dishwashers, etc...
Computers originally people whos it was to do manual computations. With Babbidge as the worlds first automated computer designer, and Ada as the worlds first programmer (despite living before Babbidge)...
However... I'm digressing from point here... I was wondering what the difference between a PC (Personal Computer... not IBM) and a console are...
It strikes me that, internally, consoles are, and always have been PC's ...
They have the singular, primary CPU, RAM, a format for accepting data (input) and a format for outputting data (output)...
(whi was that German guy who originally came up with this schematic?)
And now that the newer Consoles are getting Hard Drives, Keyboards and Mice...
Surely they are PC proper? ...
An evolution they made without the help of Microsoft...
(although I say evolution... arnt we just seeing a repeat of the Consoles - Computers movement we saw back in the late 70's early 80's... from Atari, Intellivision to Vic20, Speccy, Dragon, et al.?)
(also does anybody remeber the MSX... Microsofts last games machine effort?)
As such... why the worry that consoles are going to turn all PC because of the XBox when they seem prefectly happy to do this anyway?
I can understand the concern that IBM architecture will be implemented.
However...
The IBM architecture is sound... its the instablility MSWindows that causes the problems...
Also..
Why would an IBM architecture be adoted? ... Despite is familiarity, Games developers have historically ignored the IBM PC as a games machine in favour of Spectrum/C64/Amiga/et al. In fact until recently the PC had generally been considered an ill fitting for games software.
As i've already said, the things you list like microwaves and washing machines and stuff contain micro-controllers NOT micro-processors, there is a difference between the two as i've already pointed out in this thread.
Going all technical the main difference between consoles and computers is that computers use CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computer) architecture in the chips and consoles use RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer). Also, as i've already said, by US law a computer is something that can run one program whilest also having acces to other programs, which at the moment consoles cant do as you put the DVD/CD whatever in and the machine has access to only the program on the disc, mainly a game. So unless we will have to start installing games onto our PS4's or whatever there is an easy(ish) guide to go by.
Even if we do start installing onto our consoles (which personally I doubt we will ever have to) there will still be a way of deciding what is what in that a PC will have to have a CISC chip in it, even though they are no-where near as fast as RISC chips which is what consoles have in them.
You're probably asking why PC's will always have CISC chips if they arent as fast as RISC, and the simple reason is that CISC came along first and if Intel/AMD whatever changed and started making RISC chips most of the programs on your computer wouldnt run because they would want the CPU to carry out instructions that the RISC chip couldnt do as it has a Reduced instruction set.
Going all technical the main difference between consoles and computers is that computers use CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computer) architecture in the chips and consoles use RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer). Also, as i've already said, by US law a computer is something that can run one program whilest also having acces to other programs, which at the moment consoles cant do as you put the DVD/CD whatever in and the machine has access to only the program on the disc, mainly a game. So unless we will have to start installing games onto our PS4's or whatever there is an easy(ish) guide to go by.
Even if we do start installing onto our consoles (which personally I doubt we will ever have to) there will still be a way of deciding what is what in that a PC will have to have a CISC chip in it, even though they are no-where near as fast as RISC chips which is what consoles have in them.
You're probably asking why PC's will always have CISC chips if they arent as fast as RISC, and the simple reason is that CISC came along first and if Intel/AMD whatever changed and started making RISC chips most of the programs on your computer wouldnt run because they would want the CPU to carry out instructions that the RISC chip couldnt do as it has a Reduced instruction set.
Your Honour wrote:
> As i've already said, the things you list like microwaves and
> washing machines and stuff contain micro-controllers NOT
> micro-processors, there is a difference between the two as i've
> already pointed out in this thread.
I know you said that... But they dont... Fuzzy logic based systemns are too complex to be handled by micro-controllers alone... they need a micro-processor
Going all technical the main
> difference between consoles and computers is that computers use CISC
> (Complex Instruction Set Computer) architecture in the chips and
> consoles use RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer).
Even though there are plenty of computers around with RISC chips? (e.g. Archimedes, DEC) There would have been more RISC based PC's however Intel got a little worries about its opposition to their CISC ideology, and so bought them out...
Also, as i've
> already said, by US law a computer is something that can run one
> program whilest also having acces to other programs,
which at the
> moment consoles cant do
Yes they can... muti-tasking is on the whole a software dependant activity (although didnt the AMiga have hardware assistance, which is why it was soo good at multi-tasking) ... What your saying is that a PC that only runs DOS based games arnt computers... but PCs that run games though Windows are?
as you put the DVD/CD whatever in and the
> machine has access to only the program on the disc, mainly a game.
> So unless we will have to start installing games onto our PS4's or
> whatever there is an easy(ish) guide to go by.
Equally going back to HardDrives... which are to be released for the PS2 (40GB) and come as standard on the XBox
> As i've already said, the things you list like microwaves and
> washing machines and stuff contain micro-controllers NOT
> micro-processors, there is a difference between the two as i've
> already pointed out in this thread.
I know you said that... But they dont... Fuzzy logic based systemns are too complex to be handled by micro-controllers alone... they need a micro-processor
Going all technical the main
> difference between consoles and computers is that computers use CISC
> (Complex Instruction Set Computer) architecture in the chips and
> consoles use RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer).
Even though there are plenty of computers around with RISC chips? (e.g. Archimedes, DEC) There would have been more RISC based PC's however Intel got a little worries about its opposition to their CISC ideology, and so bought them out...
Also, as i've
> already said, by US law a computer is something that can run one
> program whilest also having acces to other programs,
which at the
> moment consoles cant do
Yes they can... muti-tasking is on the whole a software dependant activity (although didnt the AMiga have hardware assistance, which is why it was soo good at multi-tasking) ... What your saying is that a PC that only runs DOS based games arnt computers... but PCs that run games though Windows are?
as you put the DVD/CD whatever in and the
> machine has access to only the program on the disc, mainly a game.
> So unless we will have to start installing games onto our PS4's or
> whatever there is an easy(ish) guide to go by.
Equally going back to HardDrives... which are to be released for the PS2 (40GB) and come as standard on the XBox
What
> your saying is that a PC that only runs DOS based games arnt
> computers... but PCs that run games though Windows are?
No, because they are still have access to other programs even if they cant run them at the same time.
Also isnt DOS a program in itself?
> your saying is that a PC that only runs DOS based games arnt
> computers... but PCs that run games though Windows are?
No, because they are still have access to other programs even if they cant run them at the same time.
Also isnt DOS a program in itself?
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