Computer Hardware
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Computer Fundamentals 28/08/2012 Computer Hardware Introduction Computer hardware is nation of hardware and netic core memory de- Special points of the collection of physical software forms a usable vices to solid-state static interest: elements that comprise a computing system. and dynamic semiconduc- Computer Hardware computer system. Com- tor memory, which great- puter hardware refers to The history of com- ly reduced the cost, size Early History of Computing Hard- the physical parts or puting hardware start- and power consumption ware components of computer ing at 1960 is marked by of computer devices. such as monitor, key- the conversion from vac- Eventually the cost of in- board, hard disk, mouse, uum tube to solid state tegrated circuit devices etc. refers to objects that devices such as the tran- became low enough that you can actually touch, sistor and later the inte- home computers and per- like disks, disk drives, grated circuit. By 1959 sonal computers became display screens, key- discrete transistors were widespread. boards, printers, boards, considered sufficiently and chips. In contrast, reliable and economical software is untouchable. that they made further Software exists as ideas, vacuum tube computers application, concepts, uncompetitive. Comput- and symbols, but it has er main memory slowly no substance. A combi- moved away from mag- Inside this issue: History of Computing Hardware (1960s– Home Computing 5 present) ASUS takes a lead 6 The mass increase in the crochip), starting around Computer Hardware 7 use of computers acceler- 1965. However, the IBM for Gaming ated with 'Third Genera- System/360 used hybrid Computer Hardware 10 tion' computers. These circuits, which were solid- for Professionals generally relied on Jack state devices interconnect- Peripheral Equipment 11 Kilby's invention of the ed on a substrate with dis- Description: Data General NO- integrated circuit (or mi- Qubee’s New Offer 15 crete wires. VA System Date: 7 January 2011, Source: Goodwill Computer Mu- Interesting Story 16 seum Computer Hardware Cont.….. The first integrated cir- nental ballistic missile, ECL logic gate integrat- cuit was produced in and in the Central Air ed circuits to make up September 1958 but Data Computer used for sixty-four parallel data computers using them flight control in the US processors.[1] didn't begin to appear Navy's F-14A Tomcat until 1963. Some of fighter jet. their early uses were in embedded systems, no- By 1971, the Illiac IV Illiac IV tably used by NASA for supercomputer, which the Apollo Guidance was the fastest computer Computer, by the mili- in the world for several tary in the LGM-30 years, used about a quar- Minuteman interconti- ter-million small-scale Mainframe Computers While large mainframe the 1960s and 1970s. It behind IBM with their computers such as the brought computing power popular PDP and VAX “Quality is more System/360 increased to more people, not only computer systems. important than storage and processing through more convenient Smaller, affordable quantity, One home run abilities, the integrated physical size but also hardware also brought is much better than two circuit also allowed de- through broadening the about the development doubles” - Steve Jobs velopment of much computer vendor field. of important new operat- smaller computers. The Digital Equipment Corpo- ing systems like Unix. minicomputer was a sig- ration became the number nificant innovation in two computer company Nova: Minicomputers In 1969, Data General were multiples of the 8- large-scale integrated shipped a total of 50,000 bit byte. It was first to (LSI) circuits. Also nota- Novas at $8000 each. employ medium-scale ble was that the entire The Nova was one of integration (MSI) cir- central processor was the first 16-bit minicom- cuits from Fairchild contained on one 15- puters and led the way Semiconductor, with inch printed circuit Data General’s Nova toward word lengths that subsequent models using board. Page 2 Computer Fundamentals TV Typewriter In 1973, the TV Type- zine. The original design the various signals need- writer, designed by Don included two memory ed to create the TV sig- Lancaster, provided boards and could gener- nal. Clive Sinclair later electronics hobbyists ate and store 512 charac- used the same approach with a display of alpha- ters as 16 lines of 32 in his legendary Sinclair numeric information on characters. A 90-minute ZX80. an ordinary television cassette tape provided set. It used $120 worth supplementary storage of electronics compo- for about 100 pages of TV Typewriter by Don Lancaster nents, as outlined in the text. His design used September 1973 issue of minimalistic hardware to Radio Electronics maga- generate the timing of Fourth generation The basis of the fourth Microprocessor-based Although processing power generation was the in- computers were origi- and storage capacities have “Do you want to vention of the micropro- nally very limited in grown beyond all recognition spend the rest of your cessor by a team at Intel. their computational abil- since the 1970s, the underlying life selling sugared Unlike third generation ity and speed, and were technology of large-scale inte- water or do you want minicomputers, which in no way an attempt to gration (LSI) or very-large- a chance to change were essentially scaled downsize the minicom- scale integration (VLSI) mi- the world?” – Steve down versions of main- puter. They were ad- crochips has remained basical- Jobs frame computers, the dressing an entirely dif- ly the same, so it is widely re- fourth generation's ori- ferent market. garded that most of today's gins are fundamentally computers still belong to the different[clarification needed]. fourth generation. Intel’s Microprocessor On November 15, 1971, cuitry, but computers RAM chip, based on an in- Intel released the world's were developed around vention by Robert Dennard of first commercial micro- it, with much of their IBM, (kilobits of memory on processor, the 4004. It processing abilities pro- one chip) - the microprocessor was developed for a Jap- vided by one small mi- allowed fourth generation anese calculator compa- croprocessor chip. Cou- computers to be smaller and Intel 4004 Processor ny, Busicom, as an alter- pled with one of Intel's faster than prior computers. native to hardwired cir- other products - the Page 3 Computer Hardware Supercomputers: Cray-1 At the other end of the computer to make vector Cray-1 could calculate computing spectrum processing practical, had 150 million floating from the microcomput- a characteristic horse- point operations per se- ers, the powerful super- shoe shape, to speed cond (150 megaflops). computers of the era al- processing by shortening 85 were shipped at a so used integrated cir- circuit paths. Vector pro- price of $5 million each. cuit technology. In 1976 cessing, which uses one The Cray-1 had a CPU the Cray-1 was devel- instruction to perform that was mostly con- Super computer: Cray-1 oped by Seymour Cray, the same operation on structed of SSI and MSI who had left Control many arguments, has ECL ICs. Data in 1972 to form his been a fundamental su- own company. This ma- percomputer processing chine, the first super- method ever since. The Microcomputer emerges [10] “Being the richest man The advent of the micro- Byte Magazine) began This expanded the PCs in the cemetery doesn’t processor and solid-state the era of mass-market presence in homes, re- matter to me...Going to memory made home home computers; much placing the home com- bed at night saying computing affordable. less effort was required to puter category during we’ve done something Early hobby microcom- obtain an operating com- the 1990s and leading to wonderful– that’s what puter systems such as puter, and applications the current monoculture matter to me” - Steve the Altair 8800 and Ap- such as games, word pro- of architecturally identi- Jobs ple I introduced around cessing, and spreadsheets cal personal computers. 1975 marked the release began to proliferate. Dis- of low-cost 8-bit proces- tinct from computers used sor chips, which had in homes, small business sufficient computing systems were typically power to be of interest based on CP/M, until to hobby and experi- IBM introduced the IBM- mental users. By 1977 PC, which was quickly pre-assembled systems adopted. The PC was such as the Apple II, heavily cloned, leading to Commodore PET, and mass production and con- First Personal Computer by Apple TRS-80 (later dubbed sequent cost reduction the "1977 Trinity" by throughout the 1980s. Page 4 Computer Fundamentals Computer Hardware: Home Computing New quad-core Intel with the fastest quad- Mac OS X is de- Core i5 processors are core processor available signed to take ad- standard on the new — the Intel Core i7. All vantage of each core, iMac. Choose a 21.5- models use Intel’s re- it captures every last inch iMac with a cently refined chipsets. bit of performance 2.5GHz or 2.7GHz quad That means the new from the processor. -core Intel Core i5. Or iMac performs nearly expand your view with a twice as fast as the pre- 27-inch iMac featuring a vious generation,1 add- 2.7GHz or 3.1GHz quad ing a new dimension of -core Intel Core i5. You speed to everything you can even configure iMac do. And since Apple iMac (Price 98,000-1,40,000) HP’s Desktop PC Featuring Windows 7 Elevate your listening experience Features Home Premium and/or with premium music playback that 2nd Generation Intel(R) other operating systems MP3 players can’t touch. Make it Core(TM) i5-2400 quad- The latest evolution of sound the way you like it—the “Be nice to nerds.