By: Ritchie Smythe
The home personal computer as we know it today can be traced back to the computing architecture designed by John von Neumann back in 1945. It defined computers as a synergy of hardware and software where the latter provided an instruction set that tells the hardware just what and how to do what it was designed to.
Many will trace the origins of the computer back to the invention of the abacus. To the extent that the abacus was a precursor of the binary mathematics that's at the root of any computing machine language, that may be so.
But as a tool that does the work we expect, the first computers were purely hardware machines that don't have an iota of flexibility and were constructed purely as a scientific calculator with very narrow focus. The way we know computers to behave and act really got its first grounding from von Neumann who devised the stored application or program architectures that's basic to any computer.
Making Them Smaller
Certain technological milestones paved the way for computers to become what they are today. The most defining milestone was the emergence of transistors and Integrated circuits in the 60s. Up until the late 50s, computers used vacuum tubes that occupied large rooms or entire building floors. Getting the most computing power for any given volume of space became the trend as computers the size of a large room came down to freezer and ref sizes.
Miniaturization became an essential factor in the market acceptability of computers. But not at the expense of computing power for sure. Companies can often allocate the rooms and facilities to support one, no matter how large. The IBM and Unisys mainframe computers required large rooms, often complexes to house DASD storage arrays each the size of a large washing machine and CPUs the size of 14 cu.ft refrigerators that you often find them in clusters.
A Computer in Every Home
It couldn't be done at those sizes and the millions you need to have one. The technological trigger that started the road to home computing came with Intel's 8080 line of processor chips. It didn't make the PC home-bound right away, it will take years for this. After this last major technical landmark came a slew of developments that made computing power cheaper and their housing a lot smaller.
Of course, not all households could afford the Personal Computer at that time, as only the rich and corporate executives can. That was in the early 80s. In another 10 years, the PC will see its place in the home at a rate faster than it took corporations to realize they can't do without computers. By then the Intel processing power has increased a hundred fold while remaining as small as it was when it started with the IBM PC.
The Current Generation
The internet has given rise to a new generation of computing devices that has one clear advantage of computers of the past – true portability. You can carry a laptop anywhere on the planet and stay connected with your family and colleagues in the office. Miniaturization has been unrelenting over the last decades, making the power of a mainframe computer reside on a footprint no larger than half the size of a credit card and soldered with related component no bigger than a grade school notebook.
The new generation will see a more of this happening. Already computer makers are talking about nanotechnologies than can further compress the computer power into even smaller footprints. Our kids are sure to benefit from them soon. GP
About the Author
ITC Sales is a leading supplier of Dell Laptops such has the Dell Vostro and Dell Inspiron.
(ArticlesBase SC #1590902)
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ - Tracing the Evolution of the Home Computer
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