College of DuPage
[email protected]. Computer and Internetworking Technologies Computer Science (CIT) Scholarship 10-1-2010 Computer Hardware Basics Clyde Cox College of DuPage,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://dc.cod.edu/citpub Part of the Computer Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Cox, Clyde, "Computer Hardware Basics" (2010). Computer and Internetworking Technologies (CIT) Scholarship. Paper 2. http://dc.cod.edu/citpub/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Computer Science at
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[email protected]. CIT 1100 Chapter 1 Introduction to Computers Digital computers have been around for over 50 years in many different sizes and configurations. When the first mainframe computes were designed, it was thought that all the computing needs could be accomplished with as few as 5 machines. Given the cost and complexity of the first systems, it’s understandable why people felt that way. As far reaching an effect as the large mainframe had on the industry, it would soon be eclipsed by the inexpensive home computer. You would be hard pressed to think of a business that has not been affected by computers. Large corporations that once relied totally on expensive mainframes began to put computers onto everyone’s desk. Decentralizing computers made people more productive and with the addition of local area networks allow people to share data and communicate in ways that were once unheard of.