# Outline of computing

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to computing:
Computing – activity of using and improving computer hardware and computer software.

## Branches of computing

* Computer science (see also Outline of computer science)
* Information technology – refers to the application (esp in businesses and other organisations) of computer science, that is, its use by mankind (see also Outline of information technology)
* Information systems – refers to the study of the application of IT to business processes
* Computer engineering (see also Outline of computer engineering)
* Software engineering (see also Outline of software engineering)

## Computer science

Computer science – (outline)
* Computer science
* Theory of computation
* Scientific computing
* Metacomputing
* Autonomic computing

## Computers

See information processor for a high-level block diagram.
* Computer
* Computer hardware
* History of computing hardware
* Processor design
* Computer network
* Computer performance by orders of magnitude

### Instruction-level taxonomies

After the commoditization of memory, attention turned to optimizing CPU performance at the instruction level. Various methods of speeding up the fetch-execute cycle include:
* designing instruction set architectures with simpler, faster instructions: RISC as opposed to CISC
* Superscalar instruction execution
* VLIW architectures, which make parallelism explicit

## Software

* Software engineering
* Computer programming
* Computational
* Software patent
* Firmware
* System software
** Device drivers
** Operating systems
** Utilities
* Application Software
** Databases
** Geographic information system
** Spreadsheet
** Word processor
* Programming languages
** interpreters
** Compilers
** Assemblers
* Speech recognition
* Speech synthesis

## History of computing

* History of computing
** History of computing hardware from the tally stick to the quantum computer
** History of computer science
** History of computer animation
** History of computer graphics
** History of computer networking
** History of computer vision
** Punched card
** Unit record equipment
** IBM 700/7000 series
** IBM 1400 series
** IBM System/360
** History of IBM magnetic disk drives

## Business computing

* Accounting software
* Computer-aided design
* Computer-aided manufacturing
* Computer-aided dispatch
* Customer relationship management
* Data warehouse
* Decision support system
* Electronic data processing
* Enterprise resource planning
* Geographic information system
* Hospital information system
* Human resource management system
* Management information system
* Material requirements planning
* Product Lifecycle Management
* Strategic enterprise management
* Supply chain management
* Utility Computing

## Human factors

* Accessible computing
* Computer-induced medical problems
* Computer user satisfaction
* Human-computer interaction (outline)
* Human-centered computing

## Computer network
### Wired and wireless computer network

* Types
** Wide area network
** Metropolitan area network
** City Area Network
** Village Area Network
** Local area network
*** Wireless local area network
* Mesh networking
* Collaborative workspace
* Internet
* Network management

### Computing technology based wireless networking (CbWN)

The main goal of CbWN is to optimize the system performance of the flexible wireless network.
* Source coding
** Codebook design for side information based transmission techniques such as Precoding
** Wyner-Ziv coding for cooperative wireless communications
* Security
** Dirty paper coding for cooperative multiple antenna or user precoding
* Intelligence
** Game theory for wireless networking
** Cognitive communications
** Flexible sectorization, Beamforming and SDMA
* Software
** Software defined radio (SDR)
** Programmable air-interface
** Downloadable algorithm: e.g., downloadable codebook for Precoding

## Computer security

* Cryptology – cryptography – information theory
* Cracking – demon dialing – Hacking – war dialing – war driving
* Social engineering – Dumpster diving
* Physical security – Black bag job
* Computer security
* Computer surveillance
* Defensive programming
* Malware
* Security engineering

## Data
### Numeric data

* Integral data types – bit, byte, etc.
* Real data types:
** Floating point (Single precision, Double precision, etc.)
** Fixed point
** Rational number
* Decimal
** Binary-coded decimal (BCD)
** Excess-3 BCD (XS-3)
** Biquinary-coded decimal
* representation: Binary – Octal – Decimal – Hexadecimal (hex)
* Computer mathematics – Computer numbering formats

### Character data

* storage: Character – String – text
** representation: ASCII – Unicode – Multibyte – EBCDIC (Widecharacter, Multicharacter) – FIELDATA – Baudot

### Other data topics

* Data compression
* Digital signal processing
* Image processing
* Data management
* Routing
* Data Protection Act

## Classes of computers

There are several terms which describe classes, or categories, of computers:
* Analog computer
* Calculator
* Desktop computer
* Desktop replacement computer
* Digital computer
* Embedded computer
* Home computer
* Laptop
* Mainframe
* Minicomputer
* Microcomputer
* Personal computer
* Portable computer
* Personal digital assistant (aka PDA, or Handheld computer)
* Programmable logic controller or PLC
* Server
* Smartphone
* Supercomputer
* Tablet computer
* Video game console
* Workstation

## Organizations
### Companies – current

* Apple
* Asus
* Avaya
* Dell
* Fujitsu
* Gateway Computers
* Groupe Bull
* HCL
* Hewlett-Packard
* Hitachi, Ltd.
* Intel Corporation
* IBM
* Lenovo
* Microsoft
* NEC Corporation
* Novell
* Panasonic
* Red Hat
* Silicon Graphics
* Sun Microsystems
* Unisys

### Companies – historic

* Acorn, bought by Olivetti
* Amdahl Corporation, bought by Fujitsu
* Bendix Corporation
* Burroughs Corporation, merged with Sperry to become Unisys
* Compaq, bought by Hewlett-Packard
* Control Data
* Cray
* Data General
* Digital Equipment Corporation, bought by Compaq, later bought by Hewlett-Packard
* Digital Research – produced system software for early Intel microprocessor-based computers
* Elliott Brothers
* English Electric Company
* Ferranti
* General Electric, computer division bought by Honeywell, then Bull
* Honeywell, computer division bought by Bull
* ICL
* Leo
* Lisp Machines, Inc.
* Marconi
* Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems produced the first widely sold microcomputer system (kit and assembled)
* Nixdorf Computer, bought by Siemens
* Norsk Data
* Olivetti
* Osborne
* Packard Bell
* PERQ
* Prime Computer
* Raytheon
* Royal McBee
* RCA
* Scientific Data Systems, sold to Xerox
* Siemens
* Sinclair Research, created the ZX Spectrum, ZX80, and ZX81
* Southweat Technical products Corporation produced microcomputers systems (kit and assembled), peripherals, and software based on Motorola 6800 and 6809 microcomputer chips
* Sperry, which bought UNIVAC, and later merged with Burroughs to become Unisys
* Symbolics
* UNIVAC
* Varian Data Machines, a division of Varian Associates which was bought by Sperry
* Wang

### Professional organizations

* Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
* Association for Survey Computing (ASC)
* British Computer Society (BCS)
* Canadian Information Processing Society (CIPS)
* Computer Measurement Group (CMG)
* Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), in particular the IEEE Computer Society
* Institution of Electrical Engineers
* International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)

### Standards bodies

* International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)
* International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
* Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
* Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
* World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

### Open standards bodies

See also Open standard
* Apdex Alliance – Application Performance Index
* Application Response Measurement (ARM)

## Computing publications

* Digital Bibliography & Library Project – as of July 2007, lists over 910,000 bibliographic entries on computer science and several thousand links to the home pages of computer scientists.

## Persons influential in computing

Major figures associated with making personal computers popular.
* Microsoft
** Bill Gates
** Paul Allen
* Apple Inc.
** Steve Jobs
** Steve Wozniak