Engineering Seminar Topics and Seminar Topics

A Cryogenic processor is a unit designed to reach ultra-low temperatures (usually around -300°F / -150°C) at a slow rate in order to prevent thermal shock to the components being treated. The first commercial unit was developed by Ed Busch in the late 1960s and was later perfected by Peter Paulin who founded 300 Below. Mr. Paulin, previously a learjet pilot for Medivac, was featured on the Discovery Channel along with his company after he married the computer to the cryogenic process. This conversion of cryogenic processors to utilize computer technology successfully allowed for the mainstream adoption of cryogenics.

Before computers were added to control cryogenic processors, the “treatment” process of an object was previously done manually by immersing the object in liquid nitrogen. This normally caused thermal shock to occur within an object, resulting in cracks to the structure. Modern cryogenic processors measure changes in temperature down to fractions of a degree and adjust the input of liquid nitrogen accordingly to ensure that only small fractional changes in temperature occur over a long period of time. Their temperature measurements and adjustments are condensed into “profiles” that are used to repeat the process in a certain way when treating for similarly grouped objects.

The general processing cycle for modern cryogenic processors occurs within a three day time window, with 24 hours to reach the optimal bottom temperature for a product, 24 hours to hold at the bottom temperature, and 24 hours to return to room temperature.

A microprocessor (sometimes abbreviated µP) is a digital electronic component with miniaturized transistors on a single semiconductor integrated circuit (IC). One or more microprocessors typically serve as a central processing unit (CPU) in a computer system or handheld device.

Microprocessors made possible the advent of the microcomputer. Before this, electronic CPUs were typically made from bulky discrete switching devices (and later small-scale integrated circuits) containing the equivalent of only a few transistors. By integrating the processor onto one or a very few large-scale integrated circuit packages (containing the equivalent of thousands or millions of discrete transistors), the cost of processor power was greatly reduced. Since the advent of the IC in the mid-1970s, the microprocessor has become the most prevalent implementation of the CPU, nearly completely replacing all other forms. See History of computing hardware for pre-electronic and early electronic computers.

The evolution of microprocessors has been known to follow Moore’s Law when it comes to steadily increasing performance over the years. This law suggests that the complexity of an integrated circuit, with respect to minimum component cost, doubles every 24 months. This rule has been generally followed, unconsciously, since the early 1970s. From their humble beginnings as the drivers for calculators, the continued increase in power has led to the dominance of microprocessors over every other form of computer; every system from the largest mainframes to the smallest handheld computers now uses a microprocessor at its core.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is defined as intelligence exhibited by an artificial entity. Such a system is generally assumed to be a computer.

Although Artificial Intelligence has a strong science fiction connotation, it forms a vital branch of computer science, dealing with intelligent behavior, learning and adaptation in machines. Research in AI is concerned with producing machines to automate tasks requiring intelligent behavior. Examples include control, planning and scheduling, the ability to answer diagnostic and consumer questions, handwriting, speech, and facial recognition. As such, it has become a scientific discipline, focused on providing solutions to real life problems. AI systems are now in routine use in economics, medicine, engineering and the military, as well as being built into many common home computer software applications, traditional strategy games like computer chess and other video games.

In computing, a firewall is a piece of hardware and/or software which functions in a networked environment to prevent some communications forbidden by the security policy, analogous to the function of firewalls in building construction. A firewall is also called a Border Protection Device (BPD), especially in NATO contexts, or packet filter in BSD contexts. A firewall has the basic task of controlling traffic between different zones of trust. Typical zones of trust include the Internet (a zone with no trust) and an internal network (a zone with high trust). The ultimate goal is to provide controlled connectivity between zones of differing trust levels through the enforcement of a security policy and connectivity model based on the least privilege principle.

Proper configuration of firewalls demands skill from the administrator. It requires considerable understanding of network protocols and of computer security. Small mistakes can render a firewall worthless as a security tool.

There are three basic types of firewalls depending on:

* Whether the communication is being done between a single node and the network, or between two or more networks.
* Whether the communication is intercepted at the network layer, or at the application layer.
* Whether the communication state is being tracked at the firewall or not

A stealth virus hides from the operating system when the system checks the location where the virus resides, by forging results that would be expected from an uninfected system. A so-called fast-infector virus infects not only programs that are executed but also those that are merely accessed. As a result, running antiviral scanning software on a computer infected by such a virus can infect every program on the computer. A so-called slow-infector virus infects files only when the files are modified, so that it appears to checksumming software that the modification was legitimate. A so-called sparse-infector virus infects only on certain occasions—for example, it may infect every tenth program executed. This strategy makes it more difficult to detect the virus.