Fantastic progress has been made since the 1940s. A modern microcomputer is 10,000 times cheaper than a 1940s computer. It is much more reliable. It works much faster. Itr can handle much more information. Can you imagine what cars would be like if that technology had made the same kind of progress? A Rolls Royce would be as cheap as this book. It would be more powerful than a train. And you could go around the world 2,500 times on a tank of gas.
Size and Speed
First generation computers were made in the 1040s. They took years to build. They cost a small fortune. And they had thousands of parts. One computer weighed many tons. It filled huge rooms. It used great amounts of power, creating a lot of heat-so the rooms had to be air-conditioned. Early computers used vacum tubes. These were a bit like light bulbs. And, like light bulbs, they burned out. So the computer was always breaking down. The transistor was invented in 1948. It replaced the vacuum tube. A transistor is much smaller than a vacuum tube. It uses very little power. And it lasts for a long time. Transistor are made fom silicon, which comes from ordinary sand, so the cost is low. This invention launched the second generation of computers. Transistors made TVs and radios smaller, cheaper and more reliable. They did the same for computers. The silicon chip was invented in the 1960s. This was the real breakthrough. A chip is tiny-just a fraction of an inch across. Yet it can carry thousands of even smaller electronic parts. These parts are imprinted on the chip. The chip, with these printed parts, is called an integrated circuit. Chips made the third generation of computers possible. These computers are incredibly powerful, cheap, and compact compared with earlier ones. For this reason they are called microcomputers. Now, there's fourth generation of computers. In these, a single chip contains a complete computer processor. Imagine what computers of the future will be like !
Chips with Everything
The silicon chip has amazing qualities. It is tiny, but it works fast. It is cheap, but reliable. It was powerful, but uses up little energy. In fact, it uses last than 1/100 of the energy used a light bulb. Because of this, chips can be used in battery-powered devices. A chip is also sturdy, because the wiring is built into it. Mny chips work well even in boiling heat or icy cold. Making chips is complicated. It must be done very carefully. Exact temperatures must be used. The equipment must be kept clean and free of dust. All this costs money. But, the raw material used in chips is very cheap. And huge numbers can be made at one time. Therefore, chips can be made very cheaply. Because chips are very cheap, computing power is now widely used. Chips are used in all kinds of everyday machines. And they are being used to do interesting things. Watches, for example, no longer just tell time. Some now have built-in alarms and musical chimes. Others have stopwatches and calculators. Still others have video games and miniature radios. All of these are controlled by tiny silicon chips.
Taken from : Computer World: A Gateway Fact Book
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar