The computer's master control program. When a computer is turned on, a small "boot program" loads the operating system. Although additional system modules may be loaded as needed, the main part, known ...

A note from the Editor in Chief: Scientific American is celebrating its 166th year. Given its history as the longest continuously published magazine in the U.S., it's probably no surprise that it has ...

What if you could strip away the layers of abstraction that operating systems impose and interact directly with your computer’s hardware? Imagine crafting a program where every instruction is executed ...

DNA, specifically the genome, is the software of life 13. All of the characteristics and functions of living cells are written into the genetic code of DNA. Biologists now have the potential to act as ...

In part one of this series, we looked at the PLC’s internal architecture, briefly discussed Ladder Logic programming, Human-Machine Interfaces, advantages of the PLC’s ability to react consistently ...

Sixty years ago, on May 1, 1964, at 4 am in the morning, a quiet revolution in computing began at Dartmouth College. That’s when mathematicians John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz successfully ran the ...