i dont understand this part, it almost sounds like a key thing that will determine the type of essay (like how academic it is) before i can suggest anythingOriginally posted by elephantinc
for something called 'The extended project', which is equivalent to an AS
Haha.... do they even exist?? And no, don't really want to know if they do...Originally posted by Chirone
what computer science thongs do you know about?
BWAHAHA, didn't even know i did that typo!Originally posted by stwert
Haha.... do they even exist?? And no, don't really want to know if they do...
I considered it, but it's not really relevant to the course I want to do... (I checked, there is no course on elephant :hug: )Originally posted by ColdWave
Elephants :p
We need to log 100 hours (I could write 6000 words in 10) so I think it's intended that we spend a lot of time on research, so something new would be good.Originally posted by Chirone
also what computer science thongs do you know about? would you rather do something you're familiar with or something thats totally new to you?
The project is intended for the best students (the only people that really do it are the ones trying to get in to one of the best universities). From the examples I've seen, many aren't that academic. But I think it is intended to be, especially since I'm doing a science (and most examples I've seen were for english type subjects). I would certainly prefer to do something more academic and it would probably make me look better if it was more academic.Originally posted by Chirone
i dont understand this part, it almost sounds like a key thing that will determine the type of essay (like how academic it is) before i can suggest anything
lol. As far as Mac Vs PC is concerned, I think it would be a bit subjective and not academic enough (if my interviewer had strong feelings on the subject it might not go down well). Most of the people that apply for computer science seem to be gamers that only take the subject because they a) they can't think of anything else and b) seem to like anything to do with games so just do computer science because it is in some small way related and they can't think of anything else. I think these kinds of people would do something more trivial and I want to try and differentiate myself from them.Originally posted by stwert
But on the topic, you could write about "Why RAID is not a backup" or "Mac vs PC" or "The considerations, pros and cons of render farms"
So do you think this might be a good idea? Do you think it is a subject that's open to discussion rather than just stating facts?Originally posted by gster123
6000 Words is not a lot really.
Thers a lot to go at with regards to parallel processing, the history and development would fill 6000 words easily, before going on to specilist applications within the GPU and the rise of the GPGPU with stream processing, development tools such as CUDA and the overall advantages and disadvantages for each.
6000 words would be easily acheivable on the subject for a well researched and referenced project.
Yes, the intorduction to parallel processing sets the scene with history, discuss the process of "standard" parrallel processing, then go onto the GPU and its stream processing and limiting factors of uning this over other methods say genetic algorithms as they are limited in stream (if I remember correctly!).Originally posted by elephantinc
So do you think this might be a good idea? Do you think it is a subject that's open to discussion rather than just stating facts?
You certainly make a convincing argument! I'd still be worried they wouldn't see it as that academic. It would be fine in an interview but most universities don't interview and would just read my personal statement, in which I'd be lucky to have enough room for the title and while I could give it a title that would it wasn't the typical mac Vs PC war flame bait, I still think they would see the topic and jump to conclusions (or at least not think it sounds that impressive).Originally posted by Chirone
i would probably say that mac vs pc is a plausible topic, however, you can't take a fanboy approach, if it were me i'd take a whole hci (human computer interaction) approach
and by that i mean looking at each operating system from all the hci principles (things like how easy it is to use the interface)..........................
..............but yeah... i wouldn't say stwert's suggestions are completely off a plausible essay. you just have to take a realistic approach rather than a fanboy approach.
To be honest, I think the tutor would just give me a blank look. He's not a computing/IT teacher (and my Computing teachers don't know/don't care about it).Originally posted by gster123
Yes, the intorduction to parallel processing sets the scene with history, discuss the process of "standard" parrallel processing, then go onto the GPU and its stream processing and limiting factors of uning this over other methods say genetic algorithms as they are limited in stream (if I remember correctly!).
The GPU is also limited in its instruction set over a CPU and therefore cannot "do" everyting a CPU can faster. There are lots of examples of advantages and disadvantages of the GPU for processing. In effect when it comes to a lot of stuff (encoding video, rendering etc) your taking advantage of its vector processing, thought this may not be to all applicaitions.
There are also power issues, not too sure of the difference (good to look up) is processing on the GPU watt/instruction more economical? Dont know the answer to this but worth a look.
Propose the idea and possibly package it as "Will the emergence of GPU processing mean the demise of the CPU" or something like that.
You may even get into giving CUDA a go, I did except I managed to make my screen black and white and could not get it back to colour untill I uninstalled it, even with a qualified quadro GFX card!
I would run the idea past the tutor, to get a feel for what they are after.
Cheers
Steve
