History Of Computers Part 3

5 pieces of technology that I think will revoutionize technology

Blu-ray HD video technology – Blu-ray is a technology that I think will revolutionize technology because:

• It has high storage capacity of 25 GB per layer.
• If it has more storage capability, it means that more data can be stored per disc.
• For people who enjoy movies, this means that the image and audio quality of the movie can be better than other movie formats such as DVD (which can only store 4.7 GB per layer).
• More content can also be placed into the Blu-ray disc.
• For gamers, it means mostly the same thing; more space means less compression to get better graphics and sound of a video game. Bonus materials such as more levels, weapons, etc. can be included in a game.

 

Apple Iphone – Apple’s Iphone revolutionized technology because its touch screen feature has influenced other company to include it in their latest technology. Most cell phones and mp3 players are now being released with a touch screen to add a new attractive and useful feature.

 

Xbox 360 – Microsoft’s Xbox 360 also revolutionized technology because it has many features that are very useful in everyday life. For example, if ever you wanted to watch a movie, you could easily rent a movie at the Xbox live Marketplace. You could also stream pictures and videos from your Xbox to another external monitor or stream pictures and video to your Xbox. You can upload your photos to the hard drive and share them with your friends on Xbox Live. The Xbox 360 will also play DVD movies. You also have the option of downloading game demos and trailers as well as new content for games such as new levels, characters, vehicles, weapons, and much more from the Xbox Marketplace.

 

Laptop – the main benefit of a laptop is the portability. This can be a huge benefit, allowing you to take your computer to and from work, on planes, on camping trips, and practically anywhere else. Since the main feature of the laptop is its portability, you could listen to music, watch videos, and play games. If you carry a laptop with you, your applications and documents are always immediately available. With a wireless card, your laptop can also access the Internet while on the go, so you have more places to do research, check your email, and be more productive.

 

Television – I think TV revolutionizes technology. It is a technology that has been constantly been changing since it was invented. It started as a soundless black and white screen. After a few years, it became coloured and with sound. After the basic TV, new flat screen plasma and LCD started reducing the size of TVs but dramatically increasing the picture quality greatly. Today we are even able to browse the internet through our TV’s and pick-up satellite shows from all over the world. I think television wont be stopping anytime soon with innovations. It will continue to revolutionize the world with its magnificent features.

 

 

 

 

History Of Computers Part 2

A Turing machine is the simplest form of computer.  A Turing machine is made of a “ribbon of paper” of indefinite length. There is a “head” that can read the symbol, chose to write a new symbol in place, and then move left or right. The Turing machine is said to be in a certain “state”.  The program is a list of “transitions”, that is a list that says, given a current state and a symbol currently under the head, what should be written on the tape, what state the machine should go, and whether the head should move left or right.  The tape is used to store data. In addition, it can also store a series of transitions) and then the head can run “sub-programs”. We then say a Turing machine is emulating another one.

Apple’s first product was the Apple 1was sold as an assembled circuit board.  They were hand built by Steve Wozniak.   They were priced at $666.66 and they produced about 200 units.  It was shown in April 1976 at the Homebrew Computer Club.  Mark Mukkala helped fund $250,000 for Apple.

Bill Gates first product was a version of programming language BASIC for the Altair 8800.  People began to copy Gate’s program’s and sell them to other people so he demanded that they pay him.  He made a liecense saying that if you buy a program from him it may only be used for one computer and is not to be shared.  With this, computer companies could make more money by selling more programs to each individual instead of one buying it and sharing it with everyone else.

November 1985	Windows 1.01	1.01	Unsupported	-
November 1987	Windows 2.03	2.03	Unsupported	-
March 1989	Windows 2.11	2.11	Unsupported	-
May 1990	Windows 3.0	3.0	Unsupported	-
March 1992	Windows 3.1x	3.1	Unsupported	5
October 1992	Windows For Workgroups 3.1	3.1	Unsupported	5
July 1993	Windows NT 3.1	NT 3.1	Unsupported	5
December 1993	Windows For Workgroups 3.11	3.11	Unsupported	5
January 1994	Windows 3.2 (released in Simplified Chinese only)	3.2	Unsupported	5
September 1994	Windows NT 3.5	NT 3.5	Unsupported	5
May 1995	Windows NT 3.51	NT 3.51	Unsupported	5
August 1995	Windows 95	4.0.950	Unsupported	5
July 1996	Windows NT 4.0	NT 4.0.1381	Unsupported	6
June 1998	Windows 98	4.10.1998	Unsupported	6
May 1999	Windows 98 SE	4.10.2222	Unsupported	6
February 2000	Windows 2000	NT 5.0.2195	Extended Support until July 13, 2010[19]	6
September 2000	Windows Me	4.90.3000	Unsupported	6
October 2001	Windows XP	NT 5.1.2600	Current for SP2 and SP3 (RTM and SP1 unsupported).	8
March 2003	Windows XP 64-bit Edition 2003	NT 5.2.3790	Unsupported	6
April 2003	Windows Server 2003	NT 5.2.3790	Current for SP1, R2, SP2 (RTM unsupported).	8
April 2005	Windows XP Professional x64 Edition	NT 5.2.3790	Current	8
July 2006	Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs	NT 5.1.2600	Current	-
November 2006 (volume licensing) January 2007 (retail)	Windows Vista	NT 6.0.6001	Current. Version Changed to NT 6.0.6001 with SP1 (February 4 08)	8
July 2007	Windows Home Server	NT 5.2.4500	Current	8
February 2008	Windows Server 2008

 

Microsoft Zune 80GB (2nd Generation)

 

SCHEDULED RELEASE DATE: NOVEMBER 13th 2008

“The new Microsoft Zune 2.0 is great for music and entertainment.  The Zune easily connects you with your music, videos, and pictures wherever and whenever you want, and unlike the iPod, it even has a built-in FM radio so you can keep up with local news and sports or just listen to fm radio. Your Zune gives you the power to wirelessly share full-length tracks, playlists, pictures and podcasts with your other Zune-wielding friends. And when you receive songs that you just can’t get out of your head, you can easily tag the songs and buy them the next time you sync up. Whether you’re listening to music, radio, or rocking out to the latest music videos on the bright, roomy screen, the Zune allows you to tailor your entertainment, right in the palm of your hand.”

 

History Of Computers Part 1

Part One:

ENIAC:

ENIAC stands for Electrical Numerical Integrator and Computer. ENIAC, was the first general purpose electronic computer. The ENIAC was big it was, 30 tons and took up 1800 square feet of floor space. The ENIAC contained 6000 manual switches. The ENIAC was designed and built to calculate artillery firing tables for the U.S Army’s Ballistic Research Laboratory.

 

Vacuum Tube Sizes:

In electronics, a vacuum tube is a device used to amplify, switch, otherwise modify, or create an electrical signal by controlling the movement of electrons in a low-pressure space. Some special function vacuum tubes are filled with low-pressure gas: these are so-called soft valves (or tubes), as distinct from the hard vacuum type which have the internal gas pressure reduced as far as possible. Almost all depend on the thermal emission of electrons, hence thermionic.
Vacuum tubes were critical to the development of electronics technology, which drove the expansion and commercialization of radio broadcasting, television, radar, sound reproduction, large telephone networks, analog and digital computers, and industrial process control. Some of these applications pre-dated electronics, but it was the vacuum tube that made them widespread and practical.
For most purposes, the vacuum tube has been replaced by solid-state devices such as transistors and solid-state diodes. Solid-state devices last much longer, are smaller, more efficient, more reliable, and cheaper than equivalent vacuum tube devices. However, tubes are still used in specialized applications: for engineering reasons, as in high-power radio frequency transmitters; or for their aesthetic appeal, as in audio amplification. Cathode ray tubes are still used as display devices in television sets, video monitors, and oscilloscopes, although they are being replaced by LCDs and other flat-panel displays. A specialized form of the electron tube, the magnetron, is the source of microwave energy in microwave ovens and some radar systems.

 

Transistors:

a transistor is a semiconductor device commonly used to amplify or switch electronic signals. A transistor is made of a solid piece of a semiconductor material, with at least three terminals for connection to an external circuit. A voltage or current applied to one pair of the transistor’s terminals changes the current flowing through another pair of terminals. Because the controlled power can be much larger than the controlling power, the transistor provides amplification of a signal.

The key advantages that have allowed transistors to replace their vacuum tube predecessors in most applications are:

• Small size and minimal weight, allowing the development of miniaturized electronic devices.
• Highly automated manufacturing processes, resulting in low per-unit cost.
• Lower possible operating voltages, making transistors suitable for small, battery-powered applications.
• No warm-up period for cathode heaters required after power application.
• Lower power dissipation and generally greater energy efficiency.
• Higher reliability and greater physical ruggedness.
• Extremely long life. Some transistorized devices produced more than 30 years ago are still in service.
• Complementary devices available, facilitating the design of complementary-symmetry circuits, something not possible with vacuum tubes.
• Though in most transistors the junctions have different doping levels and geometry, some allow bidirectional current flow.
• Ability to control very large currents, as much as several hundred amperes.
• Insensitivity to mechanical shock and vibration, thus avoiding the problem of microphonics in audio applications.
• More sensitive than the hot and macroscopic tubes

The first transistor- The first patent for the field-effect transistor principle was filed in Canada by Austrian-Hungarian physicist Julius Edgar Lilienfeld on October 22, 1925, but Lilienfeld published no research articles about his devices, and they were ignored by industry. In 1934 German physicist Dr. Oskar Heil patented another field-effect transistor. There is no direct evidence that these devices were built, but later work in the 1990s show that one of Lilienfeld’s designs worked as described and gave substantial gain. Legal papers from the Bell Labs patent show that William Shockley and a co-worker at Bell Labs, Gerald Pearson, had built operational versions from Lilienfeld’s patents, yet they never referenced this work in any of their later research papers or historical articles.

 

Integrated Circuit:

In electronics, an integrated circuit (also known as IC, microcircuit, microchip, silicon chip, or chip) is a miniaturized electronic circuit (consisting mainly of semiconductor devices, as well as passive components) that has been manufactured in the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material. Integrated circuits are used in almost all electronic equipment in use today and have revolutionized the world of electronics.

A hybrid integrated circuit is a miniaturized electronic circuit constructed of individual semiconductor devices, as well as passive components, bonded to a substrate or circuit board.

Invention of IC – The integrated circuit was independently co-invented by Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments^[2] and Robert Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductor ^[3] around the same time. Kilby recorded his initial ideas concerning the integrated circuit in July 1958 and successfully demonstrated the first working integrated circuit on September 12, 1958.^[2] Kilby won the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics for his part of the invention of the integrated circuit.^[4] Robert Noyce also came up with his own idea of integrated circuit, half a year later than Kilby. Noyce’s chip had solved many practical problems that the microchip developed by Kilby had not. Noyce’s chip, made at Fairchild, was made of silicon, whereas Kilby’s chip was made of germanium.

 

Timex Sinclair:

 

 

The keyboard is a ‘touch sensitive membrane’, a flexible plastic surface with the actual switches under the surface. While easy to clean and water resistant, it is very difficult and slow to type on, because you have to press hard and very deliberately to use the tiny, closely-spaced keys. Touch-typing is impossible. Resourceful users hacked into their system and added their own ‘real’ keyboard, external to the system.

 

First Home Computer:

 

Computer History Year/Enter	Computer History Inventors/Inventions	Computer History Description of Event
1936	Konrad Zuse – Z1 Computer	First freely programmable computer.
1942	John Atanasoff & Clifford Berry ABC Computer	Who was first in the computing biz is not always as easy as ABC.
1944	Howard Aiken & Grace Hopper Harvard Mark I Computer	The Harvard Mark 1 computer.
1946	John Presper Eckert & John W. Mauchly ENIAC 1 Computer	20,000 vacuum tubes later…
1948	Frederic Williams & Tom Kilburn Manchester Baby Computer & The Williams Tube	Baby and the Williams Tube turn on the memories.
1947/48	John Bardeen, Walter Brattain & Wiliam Shockley The Transistor	No, a transistor is not a computer, but this invention greatly affected the history of computers.
1951	John Presper Eckert & John W. Mauchly UNIVAC Computer	First commercial computer & able to pick presidential winners.
1953	International Business Machines IBM 701 EDPM Computer	IBM enters into ‘The History of Computers‘.
1954	John Backus & IBM  FORTRAN Computer Programming Language	The first successful high level programming language.
1955 (In Use 1959)	Stanford Research Institute, Bank of America,  and General Electric ERMA and MICR	The first bank industry computer – also MICR (magnetic ink character recognition) for reading checks.
1958	Jack Kilby & Robert Noyce The Integrated Circuit	Otherwise known as ‘The Chip’
1962	Steve Russell & MIT Spacewar Computer Game	The first computer game invented.
1964	Douglas Engelbart Computer Mouse & Windows	Nicknamed the mouse because the tail came out the end.
1969	ARPAnet	The original Internet.
1970	Intel 1103 Computer Memory	The world’s first available dynamic RAM chip.
1971	Faggin, Hoff & Mazor Intel 4004 Computer Microprocessor	The first microprocessor.
1971	Alan Shugart &IBM The “Floppy” Disk	Nicknamed the “Floppy” for its flexibility.
1973	Robert Metcalfe & Xerox The Ethernet Computer Networking	Networking.
1974/75	Scelbi  & Mark-8 Altair & IBM 5100 Computers	The first consumer computers.
1976/77	Apple I, II & TRS-80 & Commodore Pet Computers	More first consumer computers.
1978	Dan Bricklin & Bob Frankston VisiCalc Spreadsheet Software	Any product that pays for itself in two weeks is a surefire winner.
1979	Seymour Rubenstein & Rob Barnaby WordStar Software	Word Processors.
1981	IBM The IBM PC – Home Computer	From an “Acorn” grows a personal computer revolution
1981	Microsoft MS-DOS Computer Operating System	From “Quick And Dirty” comes the operating system of the century.
1983	Apple Lisa Computer	The first home computer with a GUI, graphical user interface.
1984	Apple Macintosh Computer	The more affordable home computer with a GUI.
1985	Microsoft Windows	Microsoft begins the friendly war with Apple.
SERIES	TO BE	CONTINUED

 

Paragraph Assignment

This year, I would like to accomplish a lot of things. One thing I would like to accomplish is to understand various types of technology. I want to be able to distinguish parts of computers and how each plays a part. I am interested in computer technology because that’s what I like the most. I want to become a computer engineer because I am interested in computers. I need to be familiar with computers in order to prepare me for university where I take computer engineering. A technology I could not live without is a computer because I use the computer for school, talk to friends, or even just listening to music. I can use the computer to type out my homework without having to worry about making my writing neat enough. In this course I would like to learn about computer parts and the function of each one. I will study hard to accomplish my goals.

 

 

 

 

Definitions..

  

Hard Drive – The hard drive is what stores all your data. It houses the hard disk, where all your files and folders are physically located. A typical hard drive is only slightly larger than your hand, yet can hold over 100 GB of data. The data is stored on a stack of disks that are mounted inside a solid encasement. These disks spin extremely fast (typically at either 5400 or 7200 RPM) so that data can be accessed immediately from anywhere on the drive. The data is stored on the hard drive magnetically, so it stays on the drive even after the power supply is turned off.

CPU (Central Processing Unit) – This is the pretty much the brain of the computer. It processes everything from basic instructions to complex functions. Any time something needs to be computed, it gets sent to the CPU. The CPU can also be referred to simply as the “processor.”

Motherboard – Also known as the mainboard or logic board, this is the main circuit board of your computer. This is where you’ll find the CPU, the ROM, memory expansion slots, PCI slots, serial ports, USB ports, and all the controllers for things like the hard drive, DVD drive, keyboard, and mouse. Basically, the motherboard is what makes everything in your computer work together.

Power Supply – Also called a power supply unit or PSU, the component that supplies power to a computer. Most personal computers can be plugged into standard electrical outlets. The power supply then pulls the required amount of electricity and converts the AC current to DC current

PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) – It is a hardware bus designed by Intel and used in both PCs and Macs. Most add-on cards such as SCSI, Firewire, and USB controllers, use a PCI connection. PCI slots are found in the back of your computer and are about 3.5″ long and about 0.5″ high.

PCI Express – PCI Express does not use a parallel bus structure, but instead is a network of serial connections controlled by a hub on the computer’s motherboard. This enables PCI Express cards to run significantly faster than previous PCI cards.

USB (Universal Serial Bus) – USB is the most common type of computer port used in today’s computers. It can be used to connect keyboards, mice, game controllers, printers, scanners, digital cameras, and removable media drives.

Firewire - A standard Firewire connection can transfer data at 400 Mbps, which is roughly 30 times faster than USB 1.1. This blazing speed allows for quick transfers of large files. You may see Firewire referred to by its technical name, IEEE 1394, since it was standardized by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Both terms refer to the same technology.

IEEE-1394 (Institute of Electricaland Electronics Engineers ) – High Performance Serial Bus, is an electronics standard for connecting devices to your personal computer. IEEE 1394 provides a single plug-and-socket connection on which up to 63 devices can be attached with data transfer speeds up to 400 Mbps

LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) – LCDs are super-thin displays that are used in laptop computer screens and flat panel monitors. Smaller LCDs are used in handheld TVs, PDAs, and portable video game devices. The image on an LCD screen is created by sandwiching an electrically reactive substance between two electrodes. This color of this substance can be changed by increasing or reducing the electrical current.

Plasma (in relation to screens) – a type of flat panel display now commonly used for large TV displays. Many tiny cells located between two panels of glass hold an inert mixture of noble gases. The gas in the cells is electrically turned into a plasma which then excites phosphors to emit light.

HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) – HDMI is a digital interface for transmitting audio and video data in a single cable. It is supported by most HDTVs and related components, such as DVD and Blu-ray players, cable boxes, and video game systems. HDMI cables are less prone to interference and signal noise than analog cables.

RAM (Random Access Memory) – RAM is made up of small memory chips that are connected to the motherboard of your computer. Every time you open a program, it gets loaded from the hard drive into the RAM. This is because reading data from the RAM is much faster than reading data from the hard drive.

Flash Memory – Flash memory is a type of electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM). A common use of flash memory is to store the BIOS settings in a computer’s ROM. When the BIOS needs to be changed, the flash memory can be written in blocks, rather than bytes, making it easy to update.

AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) – This is a graphics card expansion port designed by Intel that resides on the motherboard of a computer. AGP ports run at 66 MHz and can transfer data up to 528 MB/sec. This allows games and applications to store and retrieve larger, more realistic 3D shapes and textures without slowing down the animation on the screen. Additionally, AGP cards can store graphics in system memory rather than video memory, which also helps improve performance.

DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) – It can also stand for “Digital Video Disc,” but with the mulitple uses of DVDs, the term “Digital Versatile Disc” is more correct. A DVD is a high-capacity optical disc that looks like a CD, but can store much more information. While a CD can store 650 to 700 MB of data, a single-layer, single-sided DVD can store 4.7 GB of data. This enables massive computer applications and full-length movies to be stored on a single DVD.