Chapter 8
Digital Electronics
The whole of the developments and operations of analysis are now capable of being executed by machinery … As soon as an Analytical Engine exists, it will necessarily guide the future course of science.—Charles Babbage, from Life of a Philosopher, 1864
There is no magic in the decimal (base 10) numbering system; it is one of many different numbering schemes and it just happens to be the most common. Is it a coincidence that there are 10 unique numbers in the decimal system and we have 10 fingers and 10 toes? Perhaps. But we can imagine that there exists some connection between the convenience of counting on fingers and the management of large numbers.
By the same token, a computer has two “fingers” to count on, ...
Get Automated Lighting, 3rd Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
