10 'survival' technologies are indifferent

We live in a marvelous world, with the siege of modern technology. But rarely do we stop to think about the technologies that we still use every day, even if it lacks it for a few moments, we'll be crazy.

Here are 10 technologies that play a "critical" role in a digital age but are rarely remembered by most users.

1. Unicode

We use computers for all forms of communication, communication, from IM to emailing or writing literature. The problem is that computers are not in general language with humans, they only use string symbols 0 and 1 only. Therefore, all sentences, symbols, dots and commas need to be "translated" to 0 and 1 first. Then talk about storage or processing.

10 'survival' technologies are indifferent Picture 1 Early generations of computers relied on ASCII conversion codes, however, this software only handled Western characters. Hindi, Thai and Arabic are completely outside of ASCII coverage.

That is the reason why Unicode was born. This code standard can "translate" each character, symbol, and cheek of more than 30 different writing languages ​​into the digital language that computers understand.

With nearly 1500 pages of data, Unicode is really a complicated program. But ever since Microsoft defaults to Unicode as the internal code for the Windows NT operating system, users have embraced it enthusiastically and enthusiastically.

Now, you use Unicode whenever you sit in front of your computer screen without realizing it. In fact, if you want to read this article with a Web browser, you have to rely on Unicode.

2. Digital signal processing process

Digital photos, digital music, digital videos. The popularity of these technologies makes it easy to forget that you live in an analog world. Computers can only "cope" with all audiovisual data thanks to a very advanced algorithm, which is digital signal processing or DSP.

Wherever you see digital media, there is also the silent presence of DSP. The DSP algorithm will correct and correct errors when the optical drive reads music from a CD. When you compress any audio file into MP3 format, that's when SDP works.

Then when you enjoy music on the stereo surround speakers, how can DSP be missing?

The role of DSP for digital communication is the same as the wire and motor inside the wristwatch. Their mystery shows silently beneath the surface of things: Extremely essential but seemingly invisible in our eyes.

If DSP is missing, almost all of the digital technologies we are using, from DVD to mobile phones, to broadband DSL printers all become "zombies."

3. Management code

Modern programming has become much more complex and sophisticated than before. It can be said that the new operating system is like onions, with the sub-class of layers interfering with each other - "peeling off forever". Security holes, technical errors . are always serious threats in the era of "home networked, networked people" as today.

For many programmers, the solution they choose is to use platforms specific to the managed code environment, such as Java or .NET.

You can imagine them as a nanny, quietly taking care of computer programs, memory management and even "home keeping," wary of external security risks.

For ordinary users, a managed code program doesn't seem to be any different from an old-fashioned program. But the software operating on the virtual platform always brings a sense of stability, reliability and more security. The reason is that .Net is increasingly popular when developing applications for Windows.

10 'survival' technologies are indifferent Picture 2 4. Transistor

According to Moore's law, the number of transistors on each integrated circuit board will double every 2 years. Currently, Intel has succeeded in making the world's first 2-billion-transistor chip model. But have you ever wondered: what transistor is used for?

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call transistors the greatest invention of the 20th century. Simply put, it is an on-off switch that is controlled by electric current. But that short description line hides a huge, invisible power behind. When connected, the transistor can create circuit boards, CPUs that are "brains" of modern computers and servers.

The more the manufacturer manages to cram more transistors on the chip surface, the bigger the chip's power. That's why the chip industry is moving away from 65 nanometer manufacturing technology to 45 nanometers and beyond 32 nanometers.

In the near future, existing chip designs will be replaced by optical chips or even quantum chips, with performance and performance far beyond the current.

5. XML

Whether you know it or not, at least there are several XML documents residing in your computer right now.

XML (or Extensible Markup Language) is a general purpose markup language initiated by the W3C organization. The main purpose of XML is to simplify data sharing between different systems, especially those connected to the Internet.

The popularity of word processing software supports the editing and maintenance of XML documents quickly.

Before XML, there were very few data descriptive languages ​​that met elements such as multipurpose, Internet-friendly, easy to learn and easy to create.

In fact, most "pre-XML" data exchange formats are dedicated, proprietary and binary format (bit strings instead of strings), which is difficult to use between different applications. or between different platforms.

Creating and maintaining on common editors is even more difficult. However, the advent of XML changed everything. And now, text editing becomes so simple that you don't need to think about what XML is anymore.

( Continued )