Floppy Disk Drives

Introduction to Floppy Disk Drive

If you have spent any time at all working with a computer, then chances are good that you have used a floppy disk at some point. The floppy disk drive (FDD) was the primary means of adding data to a computer until the CD-ROM Drive became popular. In fact, FDDs have been a key component of most personal computers for more than 20 years.

The floppy disk drive (FDD) was invented at IBM by Alan Shugart in 1967. The first floppy drives used an 8-inch disk (later called a "diskette" as it got smaller), which evolved into the 5.25-inch disk that was used on the first IBM Personal Computer in August 1981. The 5.25-inch disk held 360 kilobytes compared to the 1.44 megabyte capacity of today's 3.5-inch diskette.

The 5.25-inch disks were dubbed "floppy" because the diskette packaging was a very flexible plastic envelope, unlike the rigid case used to hold today's 3.5-inch diskettes.

Parts of a Floppy Disk Drive

The Disk

A floppy disk is a lot like a cassette tape :

• Both use a thin plastic base material coated with iron oxide. This oxide is a ferromagnetic material, meaning that if you expose it to a magnetic field it is permanently magnetized by the field.
  

• Both can record information instantly.
• Both can be erased and reused many times.
• Both are very inexpensive and easy to use.

If you have ever used an audio cassette, you know that it has one big disadvantage -- it is a sequential device. The tape has a beginning and an end, and to move the tape to another song later in the sequence of songs on the tape you have to use the fast forward and rewind buttons to find the start of the song, since the tape heads are stationary. For a long audio cassette tape it can take a minute or two to rewind the whole tape, making it hard to find a song in the middle of the tape.

A floppy disk, like a cassette tape, is made from a thin piece of plastic coated with a magnetic material on both sides. However, it is shaped like a disk rather than a long thin ribbon. The tracks are arranged in concentric rings so that the software can jump from "file 1" to "file 19" without having to fast forward through files 2-18. The diskette spins like a record and the heads move to the correct track, providing what is known as direct access storage.

In the illustration above, you can see how the disk is divided

into tracks (brown) and sectors (yellow).

The Drive : The major parts of a FDD include:

• Read/Write Heads: Located on both sides of a diskette, they move together on the same assembly. The heads are not directly opposite each other in an effort to prevent interaction between write operations on each of the two media surfaces. The same head is used for reading and writing, while a second, wider head is used for erasing a track just prior to it being written. This allows the data to be written on a wider "clean slate," without interfering with the analog data on an adjacent track.
• Drive Motor: A very small spindleengages the metal hub at the center of the diskette, spinning it at either 300 or 360 rotations per minute (RPM).
• Stepper Motor: This motor makes a precise number of stepped revolutions to move the read/write head assembly to the proper track position. The read/write head assembly is fastened to the stepper motor shaft.
• Mechanical Frame: A system of levers that opens the little protective window on the diskette to allow the read/write heads to touch the dual-sided diskette media. An external button allows the diskette to be ejected, at which point the spring-loaded protective window on the diskette closes.
• Circuit Board: Contains all of the electronics to handle the data read from or written to the diskette. It also controls the stepper-motor control circuits used to move the read/write heads to each track, as well as the movement of the read/write heads toward the diskette surface.

The read/write heads do not touch the diskette media when the heads are traveling between tracks. Electronic optics check for the presence of an opening in the lower corner of a 3.5-inch diskette (or a notch in the side of a 5.25-inch diskette) to see if the user wants to prevent data from being written on it

Click on the picture to see a brief video of a diskette being inserted.
Look for the silver, sliding door opening up
and the read/write heads being lowered to the diskette surface.
Read/write heads for each side of the diskette

Writing Data on a Floppy Disk

The following is an overview of how a floppy disk drive writes data to a floppy disk. Reading data is very similar. Here's what happens:

1. The computer program passes an instruction to the computer hardware to write a data file on a floppy disk, which is very similar to a single platter in a hard disk drive except that it is spinning much slower, with far less capacity and slower access time.

2. The computer hardware and the floppy-disk-drive controller start the motor in the diskette drive to spin the floppy disk.

   The disk has many concentric tracks on each side. Each track is divided into smaller segments called sectors, like slices of a pie.

3. A second motor, called a stepper motor, rotates a worm-gear shaft (a miniature version of the worm gear in a bench-top vise) in minute increments that match the spacing between tracks.

   The time it takes to get to the correct track is called "access time." This stepping action (partial revolutions) of the stepper motor moves the read/write heads like the jaws of a bench-top vise. The floppy-disk-drive electronics know how many steps the motor has to turn to move the read/write heads to the correct track.

4. The read/write heads stop at the track. The read head checks the prewritten address on the formatted diskette to be sure it is using the correct side of the diskette and is at the proper track. This operation is very similar to the way a record player automatically goes to a certain groove on a vinyl record.

5. Before the data from the program is written to the diskette, an erase coil (on the same read/write head assembly) is energized to "clear" a wide, "clean slate" sector prior to writing the sector data with the write head. The erased sector is wider than the written sector -- this way, no signals from sectors in adjacent tracks will interfere with the sector in the track being written.
6. The energized write head puts data on the diskette by magnetizing minute, iron, bar-magnet particles embedded in the diskette surface, very similar to the technology used in the mag stripe on the back of a credit card. The magnetized particles have their north and south poles oriented in such a way that their pattern may be detected and read on a subsequent read operation.

7. The diskette stops spinning. The floppy disk drive waits for the next command.

On a typical floppy disk drive, the small indicator light stays on during all of the above operations.

Floppy Disk Drive Facts :

Here are some interesting things to note about FDDs:

• Two floppy disks do not get corrupted if they are stored together, due to the low level of magnetism in each one.

• In your PC, there is a twist in the FDD data-ribbon cable -- this twist tells the computer whether the drive is an A-drive or a B-drive.

• Like many household appliances, there are really no serviceable parts in today's FDDs. This is because the cost of a new drive is considerably less than the hourly rate typically charged to disassemble and repair a drive.

• If you wish to redisplay the data on a diskette drive after changing a diskette, you can simply tap the F5 key (in most Windows applications).

• In the corner of every 3.5-inch diskette, there is a small slider. If you uncover the hole by moving the slider, you have protected the data on the diskette from being written over or erased.

• Floppy disks, while rarely used to distribute software (as in the past), are still used in these applications:
  • in some Sony digital cameras
  • for software recovery after a system crash or a virus attack
  • when data from one computer is needed on a second computer and the two computers are not networked
  • in bootable diskettes used for updating the BIOS on a personal computer
  • in high-density form, used in the popular Zip drive

All About Google

Introduction:

What began as a project helmed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two students in Stanford University's Ph.D. program, is now one of the most influential companies on the World Wide Web: Google.


At first, the students' goal was to make an efficient search engine that gave users relevant links in response to search requests. While that's still Google's core purpose today, the company now provides services ranging from e-mail and document storage to productivity software and mobile phone operating systems. In less than a decade, Google evolved from a two-man enterprise to a multibillion-dollar corporation. Today, Google's popularity continues to grow. You know... Yahoo! relied on Google searches for nearly four years until developing its own search engine technologies in 2004. In this article, we'll learn about the backbone of Google's business: its search engine. We'll also look at the other services Google offers to both average users and to commercial businesses. Then we'll take a quick peek at some of the tools Google has developed over the years. We'll also learn more about the equipment Google uses to keep its massive operation running.

Do you know?


Google's name is a variation of the word "googol," which is a mathematical term for a one followed by 100 zeros. Page and Brin felt the name helped illustrate Google's monumental mission: Organizing billions of bytes of data found on the Web.

About google search engine:

Google's search engine is a powerful tool. Without search engines like Google, it would be practically impossible to find the information you need when you browse the Web. Like all search engines, Google uses a special algorithm to generate search results. While Google shares general facts about its algorithm, the specifics are a company secret. This helps Google remain competitive with other search engines on the Web and reduces the chance of someone finding out how to abuse the system.

­

Google uses automated programs called spiders or crawlers, just like most search engines. Also like other search engines, Google has a large index of keywords and where those words can be found. What sets Google apart is how it ranks search results, which in turn determines the order Google displays results on its search engine results page (SERP). Google uses a trademarked algorithm called PageRank, which assigns each Web page a relevancy score.

A Web page's PageRank depends on a few factors:

• The frequency and location of keywords within the Web page: If the keyword only appears once within the body of a page, it will receive a low score for that keyword.

• How long the Web page has existed: People create new Web pages every day, and not all of them stick around for long. Google places more value on pages with an established history.

• The number of other Web pages that link to the page in question: Google looks at how many Web pages link to a particular site to determine its relevance.

Google services:

As Google has grown, the company has added several new services for its users. Some of the services are designed to help make Web searches more efficient and relevant, while others seem to have little in common with search engines. With many of its services, Google has entered into direct competition with other companies.

Google's specialized searches are an extension of its normal search engine protocol. With specialized searches, you can narrow your search to specific resources. You can enter keywords into Google and search for:

• Images related to your keywords
• Maps
• News articles or footage
• Products or services you can purchase online
• Blog entries containing the keywords you've chosen
• Content in books
• Videos
• Scholarly papers

For these searches, Google has created specialized indexes that only contain relevant sources. For example, if you search for the term "Planet Earth" in the news category, the results will include only news articles that contain those keywords. The results will look very different from Google's normal SERP.­

In the last few years, Google has unveiled services that don't relate to search engines upon first glance. For example, Google's Gmail is a free Web-based e-mail program. When the service first launched, Google limited the number of users who could create accounts. The first group of users could invite a limited number of people to join the service, and so Gmail invitations became a commodity. Today, anyone can sign up for a free Gmail account.

Google's Gmail is now available to all users, but it was once a limited commodity.

Gmail organizes e-mails into conversations. This means that when you send an e-mail to someone and he or she replies, both e-mails are grouped together as a thread in your inbox. This makes it easier to follow the flow of an e-mail exchange. If you reply to your friend's response, Google will attach your message to the bottom of the thread. It's easy to navigate through the e-mail program and follow specific conversations.

Google tools:

Google offers a popular tool called Google Maps, an online mapping service similar to MapQuest. Google uses map sources from companies like NAVTEQ and TeleAtlas, as well as satellite data from DigitalGlobe and MDA Federal, to create interactive maps. You can use Google maps to view an address' location or get driving directions to a particular destination.

The Google Earth application

Google Maps has several view modes. The map view is a basic road map, satellite view overlays a road map on top of satellite photos of the region, terrain view creates a topographic map with a road map overlay, and the traffic view uses red, yellow and green to indicate congested major roadways in the area. Street view mode is available in several U.S. cities. Selecting street view in such locations as Orlando, Fla., gives you the option to view photos taken from street level. You can navigate through the city by clicking on arrows in the photographs, and you can rotate your view 360 degrees.

toolbar:

The Google Toolbar is another handy add-on available for Firefox or Internet Explorer users. The toolbar has customizable buttons. Each button maps to a particular function, which can include anything from viewing a Web site's PageRank to translating a word from one language to another.

The Google Desktop application

Google Desktop is another application you can download for free. This program lets you search your computer the way you would search the Internet using the Google search engine. You can also choose to download Google Gadgets, computer programs that integrate seamlessly into your desktop. Each gadget does something different. Gadgets include clocks, calendars, news feeds and weather reports.

Google revenue:

Unlike some Internet companies, Google has multiple ways of generating revenue beyond private investment or selling shares of its stock. Google uses three methods to partner with merchants and advertisers: Google Checkout, Google AdWords and Google AdSense.

In 2004, Google became a publicly traded company on NASDAQ.

Google Checkout is a service designed to make online purchases easier for both the consumer and the retailer. On the consumer end, users create a free Google Checkout account. Part of the account creation process includes entering a credit or debit card number, which Google stores in a secure database. When the user visits a retailer that subscribes to Google Checkout, he or she can click on the checkout option and Google facilitates the transaction. This means that the user doesn't have to enter a card number every time he or she makes a purchase.

Retailers can set up Google Checkout accounts for free, but as of August 2008, Google charges a 2 percent plus 20-cent fee per transaction. For example, if a customer buys a $10 item from a merchant, Google will charge that merchant 40 cents for that transaction.

Another way Google generates revenue is through a pair of Web advertising services called AdWords and AdSense. With AdWords, advertisers can submit ads to Google that include a list of keywords relating to the product, service or business. When a Google user searches the Web using one or more of those keywords, the ad appears on the SERP in a sidebar. The advertiser pays Google every time a user clicks on the ad.

AdSense is similar, except that instead of displaying ads on a Google SERP, a webmaster can choose to integrate ads into his or her own site. Google's spiders crawl the site and analyze the content. Then, Google selects ads that contain keywords relevant to the webmaster's site. The webmaster can customize the location and color of the sidebar containing the ads. Every time someone clicks on an ad on the webmaster's site, the webmaster receives a portion of the ad revenue (Google gets the rest).

With both AdWords and AdSense, Google's strategy is to provide targeted advertising to users. Google believes that by providing advertising relevant to the information for which the user is already searching, the chances of someone following the ad are greatly increased.

Google Equipment:

How many servers does Google have? The company is quiet about the subject, but estimates range from 200,000 to more than 450,000 machines.

Google uses hundreds of thousands of servers to provide services to its users. Google's strategy is to use relatively inexpensive machines running on a customized operating system based on Linux. A program called Google File System manages the data on Google's servers.

Google uses servers for different tasks. Web servers receive and process user queries, sending the request on to the next appropriate server. Index servers store Google's indexes and search results. Document servers to store search summaries, user information, gmail and Google Docs files. Ad servers store the advertisements Google displays on search pages.

Google divides the information on each index server into 64 MB blocks. There are three copies of each block of data, and each copy is stored on a different server running on a separate power strip. The blocks of data are distributed semi-randomly so that no two servers have the exact same collection of data blocks. That way, if there's a problem with one server, the data will still exist in other machines. Using multiple copies of data to prevent an interruption in service is called redundancy. Find out more in How the Google File System Works.

Here's a list of the Google Servers used by different services as they're returned in the HTTP headers

Server Name	Services
GWS (Google Web Server)	Web Search, Image Search and many other services
GFE/1.3 (Google Front-End)	Gmail, Calendar, Picasa Web Albums, Docs, Blogger, orkut, Reader and many other services
GWS-GRFE/0.50	Groups
bsfe (Blog Search Front-End)	Blog Search
OFE/0.1 (Ocean Front-End)	Book Search, Patent Search, Catalogs (Ocean is Google Book Search's code-name)
SMS search frontend 1.0	Google SMS
Search-History HTTP Server	Web History
Auto-Completion Server	Google Suggest, Firefox/Google Toolbar auto-complete
TrustRank Frontend	Safe Browsing
GCS/1.0	Safe Browsing
SFE/0.8	Finance
FTS (C)1997-2007 Interactive Data Managed Solutions AG	Finance charts
asfe	Base
mediaserver	Base (images)
cffe	Product Search (Froogle)
btfe	Thumbnails: Image Search, Google Video, Youtube
Video Stats Server	Google Video
cachefe:image (Cache Front-End)	Picasa Web photos
staticfe	interface images (Picasa Web)
ctcserver	Google Call ( www.google.com/call )
GoogleChartServer/1.0	used for dynamically-generated charts (e.g.: Google Video's stats)
NFE/1.0 (News Front-End)	News
mfe (Maps Front-End)	Maps
Keyhole Server 2.4	Maps, Earth (imagery)
PSFE/4.0	Alerts
igfe (iGoogle Front-End)	iGoogle
COMINST/1.0	Testing software installation (Pack, Picasa)
TWS/0.9 (Translation Web Server)	Translate
mws (Music Web Server)	Music Search
R2FE/1.0 (Reviews Front-End)	Reviews (Music, Movies)
zfe	Reviews
pfe	Co-op
codesite/5477219	Code
ga-reporting-fe	Analytics reporting
ucfe	Analytics
lpfe	Analytics (www.google-analytics.com/siteopt.js)
Toolbar Gaia User Service Server	Google Toolbar authentication
cafe (Ad Conversion Front-End)	Conversions
AdClickServer	Google test ad server
Google Trends	Google Trends
TFE/0.0 (Transliteration Front-End)	Google Indic Transliteration
Apache	most Labs services

A master computer manages each set of servers. The master computer's job is to keep track of which servers hold each block of data in the event of a catastrophe. If one server goes down, the master computer redirects all traffic to the other servers containing the same data.

Google at early ages:

In 1998, Google's equipment was relatively modest. Co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin used Stanford equipment and donated machines to run Google's search engine duties. The equipment at that time included:

• Two 300-megahertz (MHz) Dual Pentium II servers with 512 megabytes (MB) of memory
• A four-processor F50 IBM RS6000 computer with 512 MB of memory
• A dual-processor Sun Ultra II computer with 256 MB of memory
• Several hard drives (some of which were housed in a box covered in LEGO bricks) ranging from 4 to 9 gigabytes (GB) for a total of more than 350 GB of storage space

The first google sever

Google company culture:

Google has come a long way since Sergey Brin and Larry Page networked a few computers together at Stanford. What started as a modest project is now a multibillion-dollar global organization that employs more than 19,000 people around the world. Brin and Page are still very much involved with Google's operations -- they're Presidents of Google's Technology and Products divisions, respectively.

In September 2008, Google's market capitalization figure (Google's stock price multiplied by the number of outstanding company shares) was more than $145 billion. Google's stock is listed in NASDAQ as GOOG, and in late 2008 Google had more than 314 million outstanding shares in the marketplace .

The Googleplex -- Google's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.

Google's headquarters are in Mountain View, Calif. Google cheekily calls its campus the Googleplex -- a combination of the words "Google" and "complex" and a play on the term googolplex: One followed by a googol of zeroes. Life at the Googleplex is pretty sweet. Here's just a small list of the amenities you can find there:

• Several café stations where employees can gather to eat free food and have conversations
• Snack rooms stocked with goodies ranging from candy to healthy foods like carrots and yogurt
• Exercise rooms
• Game rooms with video games, foosball, pool tables and ping-pong
• A baby grand piano for those who enjoy tickling the ivories

In addition to these amenities, Google employees receive a comprehensive benefits package that includes not only medical and dental coverage, but also a host of other services. These include tuition reimbursement, a child care center, adoption assistance services, an on-site doctor, financial planning classes and lots of opportunities to gather with coworkers at special corporate events. Google's philosophy also places importance on nonprofit work, and so Google will match up to $3,000 of any employee's contributions to nonprofit organizations.

Google has asserted itself as one of the most dominant forces on the Internet. Still, the company says its mission is "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful". With a goal that lofty, it's a good bet that the people behind Google feel their work is just beginning.

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LCD - How it Works

LCD stands for Liquid Crystal Display.

LCD technology has been around for a long time but it is now becoming very popular for flat-screen computer monitors and televisions. It can provide a much better, brighter image than the old CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) monitors and TVs. Here is a very basic summary of how LCD works. (Maybe someone can expand on this.) There is a set of two transparent panels with a liquid crystal solution between them. Light is shined from behind the panels. Each crystal either allows light to pass through or blocks the light. The configuration of the crystals forms the image.

An LCD TV is sometimes referred to as a "transmissive" display — light isn't created by the liquid crystals themselves; a light source (bulb) behindthe panel shines light through the display. A white diffusion panel behind the LCD redirects and scatters the light evenly to ensure a uniform image.

The display consists of two polarizing transparent panels and a liquid crystal solution sandwiched in between. The screen's front layer of glass is etched on the inside surface in a grid pattern to form a template for the layer of liquid crystals. Liquid crystals are rod-shaped molecules that bend light in response to an electric current — the crystals align so that light cannot pass through them. Each crystal acts like a shutter, either allowing light to pass through or blocking the light. The pattern of transparent and dark crystals forms the image. It's the same display technology behind your digital watch but way more sophisticated.

The multi-layered structure of an active-matrix LCD panel. Because they use red, green and blue color filters in place of phosphor dots, LCD panels are completely immune to image burn-in.

LCD TVs use the most advanced type of LCD, known as an "active-matrix"LCD. This design is based on thin film transistors (TFT) — basically, tiny switching transistors and capacitors that are arranged in a matrix on a glass substrate. Their job is to rapidly switch the LCD's pixels on and off. In a color TV's LCD, each color pixel is created by three sub-pixels with red, green and blue color filters.

One of the biggest challenges for LCD TV manufacturers has been speeding up the "pixel response" time (how fast an individual pixel's color can change without blurring) to ensure that fast-moving objects don't exhibit "motion lag" or ghosting. It's especially critical for larger-screen LCD TVs where much of the viewing will be DVD movies and/or HDTV.

An important difference between plasma and LCD technology is that an LCD screen doesn't have a coating of phosphor dots (colors are created through the use of filters). That means you'll never have to worry about image burn-in, which is great news, especially for anyone
planning to connect a PC or video game system. LCD TVs are extremely energy-efficient, typically consuming 60% less power than comparably-sized tube-type direct-view TVs!

Overview:

Resolution is important when talking about TVs and Cable/Satellite channels, but can also be very confusing. One reason this is a confusing topic is because you have many TVs displaying at different resolutions, but TV channels displaying at just a few resolutions. Many people don’t know what the TV channels are displaying at, so they rely on the different resolution of TVs being sold. Most people just look for the highest resolution number and purchase that one. But that doesn’t necessary mean that it is the best. In the TV world the resolution that really matters is the number of horizontal lines of resolution. You might see resolutions that say 1280 x 768; the last number represents the horizontal lines across a TV. In that horizontal line there are thousands of pixels. Pixels are basically like a tiny flash light that can shine red, green, and blue, or all three colors. This article will discuss the different
Resolution Technologies and what all the TVs and TV programs are displaying at.

What is Interlaced vs. Progressive and why is Progressive Better?

On Flat-panel TV sets you will notice they all have different resolutions .These resolutions can be: 1080p, 1080i, 720p, or 480p (this is just for ED TV’s see HD vs. ED for more info). The number stands for the amount of horizontal lines on a Television. The letter at the end of the number stands for the resolution type (“p” stands for Progressive Scan, “i” stands for Interlaced). Consequently, a number reading 1080i would stand for 1080 Horizontal Interlaced Lines of resolution.

What are Interlaced and Progressive ?

Interlaced is a way of displaying lines across a display, like a T.V. Even though some TV’s have 1080i (1080 interlaced lines) it’s really not better than 720p (720 progressive lines). Imagine you want to move a picture of a ball over a few inches. With Interlaced lines,540 lines of the picture will be moved 540 lines 540 lines of the picture will be moved and then the rest of the 540 lines are moved in the next frame. This means that at any given time, only half of the picture is on the screen at a time. One frame will only display on the odd lines (1, 3, 5); the next frame will only display on the even lines (2, 4, 6). This happens so fast that the human eye is tricked into thinking that it is only seeing one picture. So if it takes 1/60th of a second to move the lines then your ball will get moved a few inches in 1/30th of a second.

See the Example below:

Interlaced displays can cause flickering. Some people might not notice it, while others with sensitive eyes will. Most modern TVs are so fast you won’t be able to notice. With rogressive,the image is moved progressively. This means that if a TV’s resolution is 720p (720 Progressive Horizontal Lines), all 720 lines are moved during each frame.

See example below:
The result of progressive is a smoother picture. Instead of moving half the lines 4 inches and then the rest of the lines 4 inches as an Interlaced TV would do. Progressive, moves 720 lines (whole picture) 2 inches and then 2 inches. 720 lines of progressive would be like having 1440i Interlaced lines. As a simple rule you can take your Interlaced number and divide
by 2. So for a 1080i line TV, you are actually getting 540 lines. With progressive you are getting your total horizontal lines used. Even 540 lines are good. Current DVDs display at 480p lines, but HDTV channels display at 720p lines or 1080i. As a general rule, try to stay away from Interlaced technology. However if the TV displays at 1080i or 720p then you are pretty much good to go. In recent technology advances there is media that will display at 1080p. Also HD Displays that are 1080p will not down convert the 1080i signal which will provide a better image then a 1080i channel on a 720p HD Display.


Actually, LCD images are inferior to CRT images, color uniformity, image sharpness and viewing angle are poor compared to a CRT and fast moving images appear blurred because the crystals can't quite keep up and react quickly enough. They are getting better, but will never beat the image quality of a CRT. But obviously are smaller and lighter, so it's worthing having one anyway.

What is Animation ?

Animate means "to give life to". An animator's job is to take a static image or object and literally bring it to life by giving it movement and personality. In computer animation, animators use software to draw, model and animate objects and characters in vast digital landscapes. There are two basic kinds of computer animation computer-assisted and computer-generated.

Computer-assisted animation is typically two-dimensional (2-D), like cartoons. The animator draws objects and characters either by hand or with a computer. Then he positions his creations in key frames, which form an outline of the most important movements. Next, the computer uses mathematical algorithms to fill in the "in-between" frames. This process is called tweening. Key framing and tweening are traditional animation techniques that can be done by hand, but are accomplished much faster with a computer.
Computer-generated animation is a different story. First of all, it's three-dimensional (3-D), meaning that objects and characters are modeled on a plane with an X, Y and Z axis. This can't be done with pencil and paper. Key framing and tweening are still an important function of computer-generated animation, but there are other techniques that don't relate to traditional animation. Using mathematical algorithms, animators can program objects to adhere to (or break) physical laws like gravity, mass and force. Or create tremendous herds and flocks of creatures that appear to act independently, yet collectively. With computer-generated animation, instead of animating each hair on a monster's head, the monster's fur is designed to wave gently in the wind and lie flat when wet.

The basic animation is shown here , the creation of bouncing ball by 6 steps :


The bouncing ball after adding animation effects :


Technology has long been a part of the animator's toolkit. Animators at Disney revolutionized the industry with innovations like the use of sound in animated short films and the multi-plane camera stand that created the parallax effect of background depth.
The roots of computer animation began with computer graphics pioneers in the early 1960s working at major U.S. research institutes, often with government funding [source: Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science]. Their earliest films were scientific simulations with titles like "Flow of a Viscous Fluid" and "Propagation of Shock Waves in a Solid Form."
Ed Catmull at the University of Utah was one of the first to toy with computer animation as art, beginning with a 3-D rendering of his hand opening and closing. The University of Utah was the source of the earliest important breakthroughs in 3-D computer graphics, like the hidden surface algorithm that allows a computer to conceptualize three-dimensional objects, and the Utah Teapot, a strikingly rendered 3-D teapot that signaled a turning point in the photorealistic quality of 3-D graphics.
In 1973, "Westworld" became the first film to contain computer-generated 2D graphics. More films in the late 1970s and early 1980s relied on computer graphics, or CG, to create primitive effects that were designed to look computer-generated. "Tron" (1982) was ideal for showcasing undeniably digital effects since the movie took place inside a computer.
"Jurassic Park" (1993) was the first feature film to integrate convincingly real, entirely computer-generated characters into a live action film, and "Toy Story" (1995) from Pixar was the first full-length "cartoon" made entirely with computer-generated 3-D animation
The increasing sophistication and realism of 3-D animation can be directly credited to an exponential growth in computer processing power. Today, a standard desktop computer runs 5,000 times faster than those used by computer graphics pioneers in the 1960s. And the cost of the basic technology for creating computer animation has gone from $500,000 to less than $2,000

Some types in animation explained below:

1.) The Traditional animation

Egyptian burial chamber mural, approximately 4000 years old image, showing wrestlers in action. Even though this may appear similar to a series of animation drawings, there was no way of viewing the images in motion. It does, however, indicate the artist's intention of depicting motion.

2.) Stop motion

This animation is used to describe animation created by physically manipulating real-world objects and photographing them one frame of film at a time to create the illusion of movement. There are many different types of stop-motion animation, usually named after the type of media used to create the animation.

3.) computer animation

Like stop motion, computer animation encompasses a variety of techniques, the unifying idea being that the animation is created digitally on a computer.

4.)Draw on film Animation

5.) Paint-on-Glass animation

6.) Pin Screen Animation

7.) Sand animation

8.) Flip book animation

There are so many animation softwares available in market today. Which Provides the basic keys to make an animation.

(for eg;)

1. Adobe photoshop,
2. Maya animation Software
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BIOS (Basic Input/Output System)

Introduction

the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) , also known as the System BIOS, is a boot firmware, designed to be the first code run by a PC when powered on. The initial function of the BIOS is to identify, test, and initialize system devices such as the video display card, hard disk, and floppy disk and other hardware. This is to prepare the machine into a known state, so that software stored on compatible media can be loaded, executed, and given control of the PC.

How It Works ?

Every desktop and laptop computer in common use today contains a microprocessor its central processing unit. The microprocessor is the hardware component. To get its work done, the microprocessor executes a set of instructions known as software. You are probably very familiar with two different types of software:

The Operating System - An operating system(commonly abbreviated to either OS or O/S) is an interface between hardware and applications. The operating system acts as a host for the applications that are run on the machine. As a host, one of the purposes of an operating system is to handle the details of the operation of the hardware. windows 98, 2000, XP, Vista, Linux/Unix and Mac OS etc.

The Applications - Applications are pieces of software that are programmed to perform specific tasks. On your computer right now you probably have a browser application, a word processing application, an e-mail application and so on. You can also buy new applications and install them.

What Actually BIOS Does ?

The BIOS software has a number of different roles, but its most important role is to load the operating system. When you turn on your computer and the microprocessor tries to execute its first instruction, it has to get that instruction from somewhere. It cannot get it from the operating system because the operating system is located on a hard disk, and the microprocessor cannot get to it without some instructions that tell it how. The BIOS provides those instructions. Some of the other common tasks that the BIOS performs include:

• A power-on self-test (POST) for make sure that everything is working properly.

• Activating other BIOS chips on different cards installed in the computer - For example, SCSI and graphics cards often have their own BIOS chips.
• Provides a low-level routines to operating system to interface all the hardware components.

• Managing a collection of settings for the Hard Disks, clock, etc.

The first thing the BIOS does is check the information stored in a tiny (64 bytes) amount of RAM located on a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) chip. The CMOS Setup provides detailed information particular to your system and can be altered as your system changes.
Interrupt handlers are small pieces of software that act as translators between the hardware components and the operating system.
The device drivers are other pieces of software that identify the base hardware components such as keyboard, mouse, hard drive and floppy drive.

Booting The Computer

Whenever you turn on your computer, the first thing you see is the BIOS software doing its thing. On many machines, the BIOS displays text describing things like the amount of memory installed in your computer, the type of hard disk and so on. It turns out that, during this boot sequence, the BIOS is doing a remarkable amount of work to get your computer ready to run. This section briefly describes some of those activities for a typical PC. After checking the CMOS Setup and loading the interrupt handlers, the BIOS determines whether the video card is operational.

Next, the BIOS checks to see if this is a cold boot or a reboot. It does this by checking the value at memory address 0000:0472. A value of 1234h indicates a reboot, and the BIOS skips the rest of POST. Anything else is considered a cold boot.

If it is a cold boot, the BIOS verifies RAM by performing a read/write test of each memory address. If the BIOS finds any errors during the POST, it will notify you by a series of beeps or a text message displayed on the screen. An error at this point is almost always a hardware problem.

While rebooting if you have left the Disk, you probably seen this message

This i the message you receive if a disk is in the drive
when you restart your computer.

Don't worry about it and it can be fix easily, just pop out the disk and press a key to continue.

Configuring BIOS

Now you know that the BIOS checks the CMOS Setup for custom settings. Here is the process to change those settings.

To enter the CMOS setup do the following :

• press a certain key or combination of keys during the initial startup sequence.
• Most systems use "Esc," "Del," "F1," "F2," "Ctrl-Esc" or "Ctrl-Alt-Esc" to enter setup.

Once you have entered setup, you will see a set of text screens with a number of options. Some of these are standard, while others vary according to the BIOS manufacturer. Common options include:

• System Time/Date - Set the system time and date
• Boot Sequence - The order that BIOS will try to load the operating system
• Plug and Play - A standard for auto-detecting connected devices; should be set to "Yes" if your computer and operating system both support it
• Mouse/Keyboard - "Enable Num Lock," "Enable the Keyboard," "Auto-Detect Mouse"...
• Drive Configuration - Configure hard drives, CD-ROM and floppy drives
• Memory - Direct the BIOS to shadow to a specific memory address
• Security - Set a password for accessing the computer
• Power Management - Select whether to use power management, as well as set the amount of time for standby and suspend
• Exit - Save your changes, discard your changes or restore default settings

Be very careful when making changes to setup. Incorrect settings may keep your computer from booting. When you are finished with your changes, you should choose "Save Changes" and exit. The BIOS will then restart your computer so that the new settings take effect.

Updating your BIOS

Occasionally, a computer will need to have its BIOS updated. This is especially true of older machines. As new devices and standards arise, the BIOS needs to change in order to understand the new hardware. Since the BIOS is stored in some form of ROM, changing it is a bit harder than upgrading most other types of software.

To change the BIOS itself, you'll probably need a special program from the computer or BIOS manufacturer. Look at the BIOS revision and date information displayed on system startup or check with your computer manufacturer to find out what type of BIOS you have. Then go to the BIOS manufacturer's Web site to see if an upgrade is available. Download the upgrade and the utility program needed to install it.

Major BIOS manufacturers include:

• Americans Megatrends Inc. (AMI)

• Phoenix Technologies

• ALi

• Winbond