Lecture 3: Computer and Computation
What we covered in lecture¶
Computer foundations: CPU, GPU, memory, storage, and why they matter for scientific workflows.
Software stack thinking: tools, libraries, and reproducible environments.
HPC and cloud basics for running larger jobs.
Performance basics and simple scaling ideas.
Practical Git workflow: branch, commit, merge, and conflict handling.
What you should be able to do¶
Explain when CPU-first vs GPU-first workflows make sense.
Describe the basic difference between local machine, HPC, and cloud usage.
Use simple timing/performance checks to compare two code paths.
Run a branch-based Git workflow and resolve a basic merge conflict.
Explain key open-source license differences at a practical level.