overview of computers

1.Anatomy

2.Modern PC Exploded view

Motherboard:
The motherboard is a large PCB (printed circuit board) that
houses most of your computers components and directs data
traffic to and from the appropriate devices. The most popular
motherboard sizes are ATX and microATX.
CPU:
The CPU is the brain that carries out your
computers instructions. You wont be able
to see your CPU when you open your case
because a heatsink covers it. Heatsinks are
metal blocks (often copper or aluminum)
that cool the processor by dissipating the
heat. Many heatsinks use fans to augment
the cooling process.
RAM:
The CPU stores temporary information,
such as data relating to open programs, in
RAM. When the RAM reaches its capacity,
the processor redirects the excess data to
your hard drive. Because the hard drive isnt
nearly as fast as RAM, this virtual memory
stores and releases data at a slower rate. If
your computer performs slowly when you
have multiple programs open, you can usually
increase the performance by adding additional
RAM.
BIOS:
The motherboard manufacturer installs a basic OS (operating
system) in the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) chip.
The BIOS activates when you turn on the computer and performs
system checks before starting your main OS. It also lets the
processor communicate with the PCs peripherals. Many BIOSes
let you configure some system activities, such as power-saving
functions. Newer BIOS chips store information in flash ROM,
which lets users upgrade the BIOS software.
AGP:
The AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port)
houses your graphics card, which supplies
the image to the monitor. Some motherboards
include an integrated graphics
card. AGP graphics cards, which often
include additional RAM, generally provide
better quality images than generic
integrated chips.
PCI:
PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect)
slots let peripherals communicate quickly
with the processor. You can add devices,
such as modems and sound cards, to the
PCI slot. PCI device ports protrude from
the back of the computer.

Anatomy Of A Computer

Have you ever looked inside the box you use every day? The
ports peeking out of the front and back of the PC are only a few
of the dozens of components that make up your computer. If
you are planning to upgrade your PC or replace a broken component,
it wont hurt to take a look at the descriptions below before you crack
open the case.
PSU:
The PSU (power supply unit) isnt the
prettiest component by any means. It
funnels power through the multicolored
cables (many cables have more than one
connector) to each device.
FireWire/IEEE 1394:
Current FireWire ports transfer data as fast as
400Mbps (megabits per second). (The next generation
of FireWire offers speeds as fast as 3,200 Mbps.)
You can use FireWire to connect many different
types of peripherals, including digital cameras and
digital video cameras. Like USB ports, FireWire ports
are hot-swappable, which means you can connect a
device to the FireWire port, unplug it, and connect
another device without rebooting the computer.
USB:
Many peripherals, such as MP3 players, modern printers,
and PDAs (personal digital assistants) require USB

(Universal Serial Bus) connections. Some devices are able

to draw power from the computer in addition to data
through the USB port. USB 1.1 ports transfer data at
12Mbps (megabits per second), while new USB 2.0 ports
can transfer data at up to 480Mbps. Keep in mind that if
you have a USB 1.1 peripheral and a USB 2.0 port, data will
transfer at the USB 1.1 speed.
Serial Port:
Serial ports are much slower than new USB and
FireWire ports. You can attach some older keyboards,
mice, and modems to the serial
port, but chances are your serial port is
free. The serial port is also known
as a COM (communications) port.
Parallel Port:
If you have an older printer or scanner, you probably
connect the device to the parallel port. USB and
FireWire connections are quickly replacing parallel ports
on most peripherals, including scanners and printers.
Keep that in mind the next time you buy a peripheral;
youll want to be sure that you have an available USB
port and you may need to buy a USB cable.
Sound Card:
Motherboards often have integrated sound chips. If
your motherboard does not have a sound chip or if
you want better sound quality, you can buy a sound
card. Most sound cards attach to one of the motherboards
PCI slots.

3.HISTORY
3.1.Personal Computers:

1939
Hewlett-Packard is Founded. David Packard and Bill Hewlett found
Hewlett-Packard in a Palo Alto, California garage. Their first
product was the HP 200A Audio Oscillator, which rapidly becomes
a popular piece of test equipment for engineers. Walt Disney
Pictures ordered eight of the 200B model to use as sound effects
generators for the 1940 movie Fantasia.

Hewlett and Packard in the garage workshop courtesy HP

1940
The Complex Number Calculator (CNC) is completed. In 1939, Bell
Telephone Laboratories completed this calculator, designed by
researcher George Stibitz. In 1940, Stibitz demonstrated the CNC at
an American Mathematical Society conference held at Dartmouth
College. Stibitz stunned the group by performing calculations
remotely on the CNC (located in New York City) using a Teletype
connected via special telephone lines. This is considered to be the
first demonstration of remote access computing.

The Complex Number Calculator (CNC)

1941
Konrad Zuse finishes the Z3 computer. The Z3 was an early
computer built by German engineer Konrad Zuse working in
complete isolation from developments elsewhere. Using 2,300
relays, the Z3 used floating point binary arithmetic and had a 22-bit
word length. The original Z3 was destroyed in a bombing raid of
Berlin in late 1943. However, Zuse later supervised a reconstruction
of the Z3 in the 1960s which is currently on display at the Deutsches
Museum in Munich.
The Zuse Z3 Computer

The first Bombe is completed. Based partly on the design of the

Polish Bomba, a mechanical means of decrypting Nazi military
communications during WWII, the British Bombe design was
greatly influenced by the work of computer pioneer Alan Turing and
others. Many bombes were built. Together they dramatically
improved the intelligence gathering and processing capabilities of
Allied forces. [Computers]

Bombe replica, Bletchley Park, U.K.

1942
The Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC) is completed. After
successfully demonstrating a proof-of-concept prototype in 1939,
Atanasoff received funds to build the full-scale machine. Built at
Iowa State College (now University), the ABC was designed and
built by Professor John Vincent Atanasoff and graduate student Cliff
Berry between 1939 and 1942. The ABC was at the center of a
patent dispute relating to the invention of the computer, which was
resolved in 1973 when it was shown that ENIAC co-designer John
Mauchly had come to examine the ABC shortly after it became
functional.
The Atanasoff-Berry Computer

The legal result was a landmark: Atanasoff was declared the

originator of several basic computer ideas, but the computer as a
concept was declared un-patentable and thus was freely open to all.
This result has been referred to as the "dis-invention of the
computer." A full-scale reconstruction of the ABC was completed in
1997 and proved that the ABC machine functioned as Atanasoff had
claimed.

1943

Whirlwind installation at MIT

Project Whirlwind begins. During World War II, the

U.S. Navy approached the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT) about building a flight simulator to
train bomber crews. The team first built a large analog
computer, but found it inaccurate and inflexible. After
designers saw a demonstration of the ENIAC
computer, they decided on building a digital
computer. By the time the Whirlwind was completed
in 1951, the Navy had lost interest in the project,
though the U.S. Air Force would eventually support
the project which would influence the design of the
SAGE program.

The Relay Interpolator is completed. The U.S. Army asked Bell

Labs to design a machine to assist in testing its M-9 Gun Director.
Bell Labs mathematician George Stibitz recommended using a
relay-based calculator for the project. The result was the Relay
Interpolator, later called the Bell Labs Model II. The Relay
Interpolator used 440 relays and since it was programmable by
paper tape, it was used for other applications following the war.

George Stibitz circa 1940

1944
Harvard Mark-1 is completed. Conceived by Harvard professor
Howard Aiken, and designed and built by IBM, the Harvard Mark-1
was a room-sized, relay-based calculator. The machine had a fiftyfoot long camshaft that synchronized the machines thousands of
component parts. The Mark-1 was used to produce mathematical
tables but was soon superseded by stored program computers.

Harvard Mark-I in use, 1944

The first Colossus is operational at Bletchley Park. Designed by

British engineer Tommy Flowers, the Colossus was designed to
break the complex Lorenz ciphers used by the Nazis during WWII.
A total of ten Colossi were delivered to Bletchley, each using 1,500
vacuum tubes and a series of pulleys transported continuous rolls of
punched paper tape containing possible solutions to a particular
code. Colossus reduced the time to break Lorenz messages from
weeks to hours. The machines existence was not made public until
the 1970s
The Colossus at Work At Bletchley Park

1945

John von Neumann wrote "First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC"

in which he outlined the architecture of a stored-program computer.
Electronic storage of programming information and data eliminated
the need for the more clumsy methods of programming, such as
punched paper tape a concept that has characterized mainstream
computer development since 1945. Hungarian-born von Neumann
demonstrated prodigious expertise in hydrodynamics, ballistics,
meteorology, game theory, statistics, and the use of mechanical
devices for computation. After the war, he concentrated on the
development of Princetons Institute for Advanced Studies computer
and its copies around the world.

John von Neumann

1946
In February, the public got its first glimpse of the ENIAC, a machine
built by John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert that improved by 1,000
times on the speed of its contemporaries.

ENIAC

Start of project: 1943

Completed: 1946
Programmed: plug board and switches
Speed: 5,000 operations per second
Input/output: cards, lights, switches, plugs
Floor space: 1,000 square feet
Project leaders: John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert.

An inspiring summer school on computing at the University of

Pennsylvanias Moore School of Electrical Engineering stimulated
construction of stored-program computers at universities and
research institutions. This free, public set of lectures inspired the
EDSAC, BINAC, and, later, IAS machine clones like the AVIDAC.
Here, Warren Kelleher completes the wiring of the arithmetic unit
components of the AVIDAC at Argonne National Laboratory. Robert
Dennis installs the inter-unit wiring as James Woody Jr. adjusts the
deflection control circuits of the memory unit.

AVIDAC

1948

IBMs Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator computed scientific

data in public display near the companys Manhattan headquarters.
Before its decommissioning in 1952, the SSEC produced the moonposition tables used for plotting the course of the 1969 Apollo flight
to the moon.

Speed: 50 multiplications per second

Input/output: cards, punched tape
Memory type: punched tape, vacuum tubes, relays
Technology: 20,000 relays, 12,500 vacuum tubes
Floor space: 25 feet by 40 feet
Project leader: Wallace Eckert

IBMs SSEC

1949
Maurice Wilkes assembled the EDSAC, the first practical storedprogram computer, at Cambridge University. His ideas grew out of
the Moore School lectures he had attended three years earlier.
For programming the EDSAC, Wilkes established a library of short
programs called subroutines stored on punched paper tapes.

Technology: vacuum tubes

Memory: 1K words, 17 bits, mercury delay line
Speed: 714 operations per second

Wilkes with the EDSAC

The Manchester Mark I computer functioned as a complete system

using the Williams tube for memory. This University machine
became the prototype for Ferranti Corp.s first computer.

Manchester Mark I

Start of project: 1947

Completed: 1949
Add time: 1.8 microseconds
Input/output: paper tape, teleprinter, switches
Memory size: 128 + 1024 40-digit words
Memory type: cathode ray tube, magnetic drum
Technology: 1,300 vacuum tubes
Floor space: medium room
Project leaders: Frederick Williams and Tom Kilburn

1950
Engineering Research Associates of Minneapolis built the ERA
1101, the first commercially produced computer; the companys first
customer was the U.S. Navy. It held 1 million bits on its magnetic
drum, the earliest magnetic storage devices. Drums registered
information as magnetic pulses in tracks around a metal cylinder.
Read/write heads both recorded and recovered the data. Drums
eventually stored as many as 4,000 words and retrieved any one of
them in as little as five-thousandths of a second.
ERA 1101 drum memory

The National Bureau of Standards constructed the SEAC (Standards

Eastern Automatic Computer) in Washington as a laboratory for
testing components and systems for setting computer standards. The
SEAC was the first computer to use all-diode logic, a technology
more reliable than vacuum tubes, and the first stored-program
computer completed in the United States. Magnetic tape in the
external storage units (shown on the right of this photo) stored
programming information, coded subroutines, numerical data, and
output.

SEAC

The National Bureau of Standards completed its SWAC (Standards

Western Automatic Computer) at the Institute for Numerical
Analysis in Los Angeles. Rather than testing components like its
companion, the SEAC, the SWAC had an objective of computing
using already-developed technology.

SWAC

Alan Turings philosophy directed design of Britains Pilot ACE at

the National Physical Laboratory."We are trying to build a machine
to do all kinds of different things simply by programming rather
than by the addition of extra apparatus," Turing said at a
symposium on large-scale digital calculating machinery in 1947 in
Cambridge, Mass.
Pilot ACE

Start of project: 1948

Completed: 1950
Add time: 1.8 microseconds

Input/output: cards
Memory size: 352 32-digit words
Memory type: delay lines
Technology: 800 vacuum tubes
Floor space: 12 square feet
Project leader: J. H. Wilkinson
1951
MITs Whirlwind debuted on Edward R. Murrows "See It Now"
television series. Project director Jay Forrester described the
computer as a "reliable operating system," running 35 hours a week
at 90-percent utility using an electrostatic tube memory.

MIT Whirlwind

Start of 1945
project:
Completed: 1951
Add time: Approx. 16 microseconds
Input/output: cathode ray tube, paper tape, magnetic tape
Memory size: 2048 16-digit words
Memory type: cathode ray tube, magnetic drum, tape (1953 core memory)
Technology: 4,500 vacuum tubes, 14,800 diodes
Floor space: 3,100 square feet
Project leaders: Jay Forrester and Robert Everett

Englands first commercial computer, the Lyons Electronic Office,

solved clerical problems. The president of Lyons Tea Co. had the
computer, modeled after the EDSAC, built to solve the problem of
daily scheduling production and delivery of cakes to the Lyons tea
shops. After the success of the first LEO, Lyons went into business
manufacturing computers to meet the growing need for data
processing systems.
LEO

The UNIVAC I delivered to the U.S. Census Bureau was the first
commercial computer to attract widespread public attention.
Although manufactured by Remington Rand, the machine often was
mistakenly referred to as the "IBM UNIVAC." Remington Rand
eventually sold 46 machines at more than $1 million each.F.O.B.
factory $750,000 plus $185,000 for a high speed printer.
UNIVAC I

Speed: 1,905 operations per second

Input/output: magnetic tape, unityper, printer
Memory size: 1,000 12-digit words in delay lines

Memory type: delay lines, magnetic tape

Technology: serial vacuum tubes, delay lines, magnetic tape
Floor space: 943 cubic feet
Cost: F.O.B. factory $750,000 plus $185,000 for a
high speed printer
Project J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly
leaders:
1952
John von Neumanns IAS computer became operational at the
Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, N.J. Contract obliged
the builders to share their designs with other research institutes. This
resulted in a number of clones: the MANIAC at Los Alamos
Scientific Laboratory, the ILLIAC at the University of Illinois, the
Johnniac at Rand Corp., the SILLIAC in Australia, and others.

Los Alamos MANIAC

1953
IBM shipped its first electronic computer, the 701. During three
years of production, IBM sold 19 machines to research laboratories,
aircraft companies, and the federal government.

IBM 701

1954
The IBM 650 magnetic drum calculator established itself as the first
mass-produced computer, with the company selling 450 in one year.
Spinning at 12,500 rpm, the 650s magnetic data-storage drum
allowed much faster access to stored material than drum memory
machines.

IBM 650

1956

MIT researchers built the TX-0, the first general-purpose,

programmable computer built with transistors. For easy
replacement, designers placed each transistor circuit inside a
"bottle," similar to a vacuum tube. Constructed at MITs Lincoln
Laboratory, the TX-0 moved to the MIT Research Laboratory of
Electronics, where it hosted some early imaginative tests of
programming, including a Western movie shown on TV, 3-D tic-tactoe, and a maze in which mouse found martinis and became
increasingly inebriated.
MIT TX0

1958
SAGE Semi-Automatic Ground Environment linked hundreds
of radar stations in the United States and Canada in the first largescale computer communications network. An operator directed
actions by touching a light gun to the screen.
The air defense system operated on the AN/FSQ-7 computer (known
as Whirlwind II during its development at MIT) as its central
computer. Each computer used a full megawatt of power to drive its
55,000 vacuum tubes, 175,000 diodes and 13,000 transistors.
SAGE operator station

Japans NEC built the countrys first electronic computer, the NEAC
1101.

1959
IBMs 7000 series mainframes were the companys first
transistorized computers. At the top of the line of computers all
of which emerged significantly faster and more dependable than
vacuum tube machines sat the 7030, also known as the "Stretch."
Nine of the computers, which featured a 64-bit word and other
innovations, were sold to national laboratories and other scientific
users. L. R. Johnson first used the term "architecture" in describing
the Stretch.
IBM STRETCH

1960
The precursor to the minicomputer, DECs PDP-1 sold for
$120,000. One of 50 built, the average PDP-1 included with a
cathode ray tube graphic display, needed no air conditioning and
required only one operator. Its large scope intrigued early hackers
at MIT, who wrote the first computerized video game, SpaceWar!,
for it. The SpaceWar! creators then used the game as a standard
demonstration on all 50 computers.

DEC PDP-1

1961

According to Datamation magazine, IBM had an 81.2-percent share

of the computer market in 1961, the year in which it introduced the
1400 Series. The 1401 mainframe, the first in the series, replaced the
vacuum tube with smaller, more reliable transistors and used a
magnetic core memory.
Demand called for more than 12,000 of the 1401 computers, and the
machines success made a strong case for using general-purpose
computers rather than specialized systems.

IBM 1401

1962
The LINC (Laboratory Instrumentation Computer) offered the first
real time laboratory data processing. Designed by Wesley Clark at
Lincoln Laboratories, Digital Equipment Corp. later commercialized
it as the LINC-8.
Research faculty came to a workshop at MIT to build their own
machines, most of which they used in biomedical studies. DEC
supplied components.

Wes Clark with LINC

1964
IBM announced the System/360, a family of six mutually
compatible computers and 40 peripherals that could work together.
The initial investment of $5 billion was quickly returned as orders
for the system climbed to 1,000 per month within two years. At the
time IBM released the System/360, the company was making a
transition from discrete transistors to integrated circuits, and its
major source of revenue moved from punched-card equipment to
electronic computer systems.

IBM System/360

CDCs 6600 supercomputer, designed by Seymour Cray, performed

up to 3 million instructions per second a processing speed three
times faster than that of its closest competitor, the IBM Stretch. The
6600 retained the distinction of being the fastest computer in the
world until surpassed by its successor, the CDC 7600, in 1968. Part
of the speed came from the computers design, which had 10 small
computers, known as peripheral processors, funneling data to a large
central processing unit.

CDC 6600

1965
Digital Equipment Corp. introduced the PDP-8, the first
commercially successful minicomputer. The PDP-8 sold for
$18,000, one-fifth the price of a small IBM 360 mainframe. The
speed, small size, and reasonable cost enabled the PDP-8 to go into
thousands of manufacturing plants, small businesses, and scientific
laboratories.

DEC PDP-8

1966
The Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
contracted with the University of Illinois to build a large parallel
processing computer, the ILLIAC IV, which did not operate until
1972 at NASAs Ames Research Center. The first large-scale array
computer, the ILLIAC IV achieved a computation speed of 200
million instructions per second, about 300 million operations per
second, and 1 billion bits per second of I/O transfer via a unique
combination of parallel architecture and the overlapping or "pipelining" structure of its 64 processing elements.
ILLIAC IV

This photograph shows one of the ILLIACs 13 Burroughs disks,

the debugging computer, the central unit, and the processing unit
cabinet with a processing element.

Hewlett-Packard entered the general purpose computer business

with its HP-2115 for computation, offering a computational power
formerly found only in much larger computers. It supported a wide
variety of languages, among them BASIC, ALGOL, and
FORTRAN.

HP-2115

1968

Data General Corp., started by a group of engineers that had left

Digital Equipment Corp., introduced the Nova, with 32 kilobytes of
memory, for $8,000.
In the photograph, Ed deCastro, president and founder of Data
General, sits with a Nova minicomputer. The simple architecture of
the Nova instruction set inspired Steve Wozniaks Apple I board
eight years later.

Ed deCastro and Nova

The Apollo Guidance Computer made its debut orbiting the Earth on
Apollo 7. A year later, it steered Apollo 11 to the lunar surface.
Astronauts communicated with the computer by punching two-digit
codes and the appropriate syntactic category into the display and
keyboard unit.

Apollo Guidance Computer

1971
The Kenbak-1, the first personal computer, advertised for $750 in
Scientific American. Designed by John V. Blankenbaker using
standard medium-scale and small-scale integrated circuits, the
Kenbak-1 relied on switches for input and lights for output from its
256-byte memory. In 1973, after selling only 40 machines, Kenbak
Corp. closed its doors.

Kenbak-1

1972

Hewlett-Packard announced the HP-35 as "a fast, extremely

accurate electronic slide rule" with a solid-state memory similar to
that of a computer. The HP-35 distinguished itself from its
competitors by its ability to perform a broad variety of logarithmic
and trigonometric functions, to store more intermediate solutions for
later use, and to accept and display entries in a form similar to
standard scientific notation.

HP-35

1973
The TV Typewriter, designed by Don Lancaster, provided the first
display of alphanumeric information on an ordinary television set. It
used $120 worth of electronics components, as outlined in the
September 1973 issue of Radio Electronics. The original design
included two memory boards and could generate and store 512
characters as 16 lines of 32 characters. A 90-minute cassette tape
provided supplementary storage for about 100 pages of text.

TV Typewriter

The Micral was the earliest commercial, non-kit personal computer

based on a micro-processor, the Intel 8008. Thi Truong developed
the computer and Philippe Kahn the software. Truong, founder and
president of the French company R2E, created the Micral as a
replacement for minicomputers in situations that didnt require high
performance. Selling for $1,750, the Micral never penetrated the
U.S. market. In 1979, Truong sold Micral to Bull.
Micral

1974

Researchers at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center designed the

Alto the first work station with a built-in mouse for input. The
Alto stored several files simultaneously in windows, offered menus
and icons, and could link to a local area network. Although Xerox
never sold the Alto commercially, it gave a number of them to
universities. Engineers later incorporated its features into work
stations and personal computers.

Xerox Alto

Scelbi advertised its 8H computer, the first commercially advertised

U.S. computer based on a microprocessor, Intels 8008. Scelbi
aimed the 8H, available both in kit form and fully assembled, at
scientific, electronic, and biological applications. It had 4 kilobytes
of internal memory and a cassette tape, with both teletype and
oscilloscope interfaces. In 1975, Scelbi introduced the 8B version
with 16 kilobytes of memory for the business market. The company
sold about 200 machines, losing $500 per unit.

Scelbi 8H

1975
The January edition of Popular Electronics featured the Altair 8800
computer kit, based on Intels 8080 microprocessor, on its cover.
Within weeks of the computers debut, customers inundated the
manufacturing company, MITS, with orders. Bill Gates and Paul
Allen licensed BASIC as the software language for the Altair. Ed
Roberts invented the 8800 which sold for $297, or $395 with a
case and coined the term "personal computer." The machine
came with 256 bytes of memory (expandable to 64K) and an open
100-line bus structure that evolved into the S-100 standard. In 1977,
MITS sold out to Pertec, which continued producing Altairs through
1978.
MITS Altair

The visual display module (VDM) prototype, designed in 1975 by

Lee Felsenstein, marked the first implementation of a memorymapped alphanumeric video display for personal computers.
Introduced at the Altair Convention in Albuquerque in March 1976,
the visual display module allowed use of personal computers for
interactive games.

Felsensteins VDM

Tandem computers tailored its Tandem-16, the first fault-tolerant

computer, for online transaction processing. The banking industry
rushed to adopt the machine, built to run during repair or expansion.

Tandem-16

1976
Steve Wozniak, a young American electronics expert, designed the
Apple-1, a single-board computer for hobbyists. With an order for
50 assembled systems from Mountain View, California computer
store The Byte Shop in hand, he and best friend Steve Jobs started a
new company, naming it Apple Computer, Inc. In all, about 200 of
the boards were sold before Apple announced the follow-on Apple II
a year later as a ready-to-use computer for consumers, a model
which sold in the millions.

Apple-1, signed by Steve Wozniak

The Cray I made its name as the first commercially successful

vector processor. The fastest machine of its day, its speed came
partly from its shape, a C, which reduced the length of wires and
thus the time signals needed to travel across them.

Cray I

Project started: 1972

Project completed: 1976
Speed: 166 million floating-point operations per
second
Size: 58 cubic feet
Weight: 5,300 lbs.
Technology: Integrated circuit
Clock rate: 83 million cycles per second
Word length: 64-bit words
Instruction set: 128 instructions

1977
The Commodore PET (Personal Electronic Transactor) the first
of several personal computers released in 1977 came fully
assembled and was straightforward to operate, with either 4 or 8
kilobytes of memory, two built-in cassette drives, and a membrane
"chiclet" keyboard.

Commodore PET

The Apple II became an instant success when released in 1977 with

its printed circuit motherboard, switching power supply, keyboard,
case assembly, manual, game paddles, A/C powercord, and cassette
tape with the computer game "Breakout." When hooked up to a
color television set, the Apple II produced brilliant color graphics.

Apple II

In the first month after its release, Tandy Radio Shacks first desktop
computer the TRS-80 sold 10,000 units, well more than the
companys projected sales of 3,000 units for one year. Priced at
$599.95, the machine included a Z80 based microprocessor, a video
display, 4 kilobytes of memory, BASIC, cassette storage, and easyto-understand manuals that assumed no prior knowledge on the part
of the consumer.
TRS-80

1978
The VAX 11/780 from Digital Equipment Corp.
featured the ability to address up to 4.3 gigabytes of
virtual memory, providing hundreds of times the
capacity of most minicomputers.

VAX 11/780

1979
Atari introduces the Model 400 and 800 Computer. Shortly after
delivery of the Atari VCS game console, Atari designed two
microcomputers with game capabilities: the Model 400 and Model
800. The two machines were built with the idea that the 400 would
serve primarily as a game console while the 800 would be more of a
home computer. Both sold well, though they had technical and
marketing problems, and faced strong competition from the Apple
II, Commodore PET, and TRS-80 computers.

Advertisment for Atari 400 and 800 computers

1981
IBM introduced its PC, igniting a fast growth of the personal
computer market. The first PC ran on a 4.77 MHz Intel 8088
microprocessor and used Microsofts MS-DOS operating system.

Adam Osborne completed the first portable computer,

the Osborne I, which weighed 24 pounds and cost
$1,795. The price made the machine especially
attractive, as it included software worth about $1,500.
The machine featured a 5-inch display, 64 kilobytes of
memory, a modem, and two 5 1/4-inch floppy disk
drives.
In April 1981, Byte Magazine Editor in Chief Chris
Morgan mentioned the Osborne I in an article on
"Future Trends in Personal Computing." He wrote: "I
recently had an opportunity to see the Osborne I in
action. I was impressed with its compactness: it will
fit under an airplane seat. (Adam Osborne is currently
seeking approval from the FAA to operate the unit on
board a plane.) One quibble: the screen may be too
small for some peoples taste."

Osborne I

Apollo Computer unveiled the first work station, its DN100,

offering more power than some minicomputers at a fraction of the
price. Apollo Computer and Sun Microsystems, another early
entrant in the work station market, optimized their machines to run
the computer-intensive graphics programs common in engineering.

Apollo DN100

1982
The Cray XMP, first produced in this year, almost doubled the
operating speed of competing machines with a parallel processing
system that ran at 420 million floating-point operations per second,
or megaflops. Arranging two Crays to work together on different
parts of the same problem achieved the faster speed. Defense and
scientific research institutes also heavily used Crays.

Commodore introduces the Commodore 64. The C64, as it was

better known, sold for $595, came with 64KB of RAM and featured
impressive graphics. Thousands of software titles were released over
the lifespan of the C64. By the time the C64 was discontinued in
1993, it had sold more than 22 million units and is recognized by the
2006 Guinness Book of World Records as the greatest selling single
computer model of all time.

Early Publicity still for the Commodore 64

1983
Apple introduced its Lisa. The first personal computer with a
graphical user interface, its development was central in the move to
such systems for personal computers. The Lisas sloth and high price
($10,000) led to its ultimate failure.
The Lisa ran on a Motorola 68000 microprocessor and came
equipped with 1 megabyte of RAM, a 12-inch black-and-white
monitor, dual 5 1/4-inch floppy disk drives and a 5 megabyte Profile
hard drive. The Xerox Star which included a system called
Smalltalk that involved a mouse, windows, and pop-up menus
inspired the Lisas designers.

Compaq Computer Corp. introduced first PC clone that used the

same software as the IBM PC. With the success of the clone,
Compaq recorded first-year sales of $111 million, the most ever by
an American business in a single year.
With the introduction of its PC clone, Compaq launched a market
for IBM-compatible computers that by 1996 had achieved a 83percent share of the personal computer market. Designers reverseengineered the Compaq clone, giving it nearly 100-percent
compatibility with the IBM.

Compaq PC clone

1984
Apple Computer launched the Macintosh, the first successful
mouse-driven computer with a graphic user interface, with a single
$1.5 million commercial during the 1984 Super Bowl. Based on the
Motorola 68000 microprocessor, the Macintosh included many of
the Lisas features at a much more affordable price: $2,500.

Apple Macintosh

Apples commercial played on the theme of George Orwells "1984"

and featured the destruction of Big Brother with the power of
personal computing found in a Macintosh. Applications that came as
part of the package included MacPaint, which made use of the
mouse, and MacWrite, which demonstrated WYSIWYG
(What You See Is What You Get) word processing.

IBM released its PC Jr. and PC-AT. The PC Jr. failed, but the PCAT, several times faster than original PC and based on the Intel
80286 chip, claimed success with its notable increases in
performance and storage capacity, all for about $4,000. It also
included more RAM and accommodated high-density 1.2-megabyte
5 1/4-inch floppy disks.

IBM PC Jr.

1985
The Amiga 1000 is released. Commodores Amiga 1000 sold for
$1,295 dollars (without monitor) and had audio and video
capabilities beyond those found in most other personal computers. It
developed a very loyal following and add-on components allowed it
to be upgraded easily. The inside of the case is engraved with the
signatures of the Amiga designers, including Jay Miner as well as
the paw print of his dog Mitchy.

Amiga 1000 with Seiko Music Keyboard

1986
Daniel Hillis of Thinking Machines Corp. moved artificial
intelligence a step forward when he developed the controversial
concept of massive parallelism in the Connection Machine. The
machine used up to 65,536 processors and could complete several
billion operations per second. Each processor had its own small
memory linked with others through a flexible network that users
could alter by reprogramming rather than rewiring.

Connection Machine

The machines system of connections and switches let processors

broadcast information and requests for help to other processors in a
simulation of brainlike associative recall. Using this system, the
machine could work faster than any other at the time on a problem
that could be parceled out among the many processors.

IBM and MIPS released the first RISC-based workstations, the

PC/RT and R2000-based systems. Reduced instruction set computers
grew out of the observation that the simplest 20 percent of a

computers instruction set does 80 percent of the work, including

most base operations such as add, load from memory, and store in
memory.
The IBM PC-RT had 1 megabyte of RAM, a 1.2-megabyte floppy
disk drive, and a 40-megabyte hard drive. It performed 2 million
instructions per second, but other RISC-based computers worked
significantly faster.

1987
IBM introduced its PS/2 machines, which made the 3 1/2-inch
floppy disk drive and video graphics array standard for IBM
computers. The first IBMs to include Intels 80386 chip, the
company had shipped more than 1 million units by the end of the
year. IBM released a new operating system, OS/2, at the same time,
allowing the use of a mouse with IBMs for the first time.

IBM PS/2

1988
Apple cofounder Steve Jobs, who left Apple to form his own
company, unveiled the NeXT. The computer he created failed but
was recognized as an important innovation. At a base price of
$6,500, the NeXT ran too slowly to be popular.
The significance of the NeXT rested in its place as the first personal
computer to incorporate a drive for an optical storage disk, a built-in
digital signal processor that allowed voice recognition, and objectoriented languages to simplify programming. The NeXT offered
Motorola 68030 microprocessors, 8 megabytes of RAM, and a 256megabyte read/write optical disk storage.
NeXT

3.2.Storage Devices:

The cost of hard drives, used in computers for storing data in large
quantities, has been falling rapidly for many years. Below are some
details. Note the steep decline in the cost per megabyte. The
column headed "W" shows the warranty duration in years. The
"Price of Drive" is the retail price, sales taxes extra. The "Cost per
megabyte" is the retail price, all taxes included. Prices are in
Canadian currency, except prices marked "U$" which are in United
States currency. These examples have been selected from hard
drives advertised for sale at retail, to show the lowest available permegabyte cost.

Source

Manufacturer

W
y

Capacity

Price of
Drive

Cost per
megabyte

5 megabytes

U$50,000

U$10,000

26 megabytes

U$5000

U$193

18 megabytes

U$4199

U$233

5 megabytes

U$3500

U$700

5 megabytes

U$1700

U$340

1956
Note 0

IBM
1980 January
Morrow Designs
1980 July

Note 34

North Star
1981 September
Apple
1981 November
Seagate
1981 December

Note 31

VR Data Corp.

6.3 megabytes

U$2895

U$460

Note 32

Morrow Designs

10 megabytes

U$2999

U$300

Note 33

Morrow Designs

10 megabytes

U$2949

U$295

Note 31

VR Data Corp.

19 megabytes

U$5495

U$289

Note 33

Morrow Designs

20 megabytes

U$3829

U$191

Note 33

Morrow Designs

26 megabytes

U$3949

U$152

Note 32

Morrow Designs

26 megabytes

U$3599

U$138

1982 March
Xebec

U$260

1983 December
Note 35

Corvus

6 megabytes

U$1895

U$316

4.Different Types Of Computers

4.1.Mainframes:
Mainframe computers (colloquially referred to as "big iron) are computers used primarily by corporate and governmental organizations for
critical applications, bulk data processing such as census, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise resource planning and transaction
processing.
The term originally referred to the large cabinets called "main frames" that housed the central processing unit and main memory of early
computers.Later, the term was used to distinguish high-end commercial machines from less powerful units. Most large-scale computer
system architectures were established in the 1960s, but continue to evolve.
Modern mainframes can run multiple different instances of operating systems at the same time. This technique of virtual machines allows
applications to run as if they were on physically distinct computers.
Mainframes are designed to handle very high volume input and output (I/O) and emphasize throughput computing. Since the late1950s, mainframe designs have included subsidiary hardware (called channels or peripheral processors) which manage the I/O devices,
leaving the CPU free to deal only with high-speed memory.
IBM mainframes dominate the mainframe market at well over 90% market share. Unisys manufactures ClearPath Libra mainframes, based
on earlier Burroughs products and ClearPath Dorado mainframes based on Sperry Univac OS 1100 product lines.
Differences from Super Computers:
A supercomputer is a computer that is at the frontline of current processing capacity, particularly speed of calculation. Supercomputers are
used for scientific and engineering problems (high-performance computing) which are data crunching and number crunching, while
mainframes are used for transaction processing. The differences are as follows:

Mainframes are often approximately measured in millions of instructions per second (MIPS), but supercomputers are measured
in floating point operations per second (FLOPS) and more recently by traversed edges per second or TEPS. Examples of integer
operations include moving data around in memory or checking values. Floating point operations are mostly addition, subtraction, and
multiplication with enough digits of precision to model continuous phenomena such as weather prediction and nuclear simulations. In
terms of computational ability, supercomputers are more powerful.

Mainframes are built to be reliable for transaction processing as it is commonly understood in the business world: a commercial
exchange of goods, services, or money. A typical transaction, as defined by the Transaction Processing Performance Council, would
include the updating to a database system for such things as inventory control (goods), airline reservations (services), or banking
(money). A transaction could refer to a set of operations including disk read/writes, operating system calls, or some form of data
transfer from one subsystem to another. This operation doesn't count toward the processing power of a computer. Transaction
processing is not exclusive to mainframes but also used in the performance of microprocessor-based servers and online networks.

In 2007, an amalgamation of the different technologies and architectures for supercomputers and mainframes has led to the socalled gameframe.

4.2.Mini Computers:
A minicomputer, or colloquially mini, is a class of smaller computers that developed in the mid-1960s and sold for much less
than mainframe and mid-size computers from IBM. Many were sold indirectly to Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) for final end use
application. During the two decade lifetime of the minicomputer class (1965-1985), almost 100 companies formed and only a half dozen
remained.
The term "minicomputer" developed in the 1960s to describe the smaller computers that became possible with the use
of transistors and core memory technologies, minimal instructions sets and less expensive peripherals such as the ubiquitous Teletype
Model 33 ASR. They usually took up one or a few 19-inch rack cabinets, compared with the large mainframes that could fill a room.
The definition of minicomputer is vague with the consequence that there are a number of candidates for the first minicomputer. An early
and highly successful minicomputer was Digital Equipment Corporation's (DEC) 12-bit PDP-8, which was built using discrete transistors
and cost from US$16,000upwards when launched in 1964.
A variety of companies emerged that built turnkey systems around minicomputers with specialized software and, in many cases, custom
peripherals that addressed specialized problems such as computer aided design, computer aided manufacturing, process
control, manufacturing resource planning, and so on. Many if not most minicomputers were sold through theseoriginal equipment
manufacturers and value-added resellers.
Several pioneering computer companies first built minicomputers, such as DEC, Data General, and Hewlett-Packard (HP) (who now refers
to its HP3000 minicomputers as "servers" rather than "minicomputers"). And although today's PCs and servers are clearly microcomputers
physically, architecturally their CPUs and operating systems have developed largely by integrating features from minicomputers.

4.3.Micro computers:
A microcomputer is a small, relatively inexpensive computer with a microprocessor as its central processing unit (CPU). It includes a
microprocessor, memory, and input/output (I/O) facilities. Microcomputers became popular in the 1970s and 80s with the advent of
increasingly powerful microprocessors. The predecessors to these computers, mainframes and minicomputers, were comparatively much
larger and more expensive (though indeed present-day mainframes such as the IBM System z machines use one or more custom
microprocessors as their CPUs)
The term microcomputer came into popular use after the introduction of the minicomputer, although Isaac Asimov used the term
microcomputer in his short story "The Dying Night" as early as 1956 (published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in July that
year). Most notably, the microcomputer replaced the many separate components that made up the minicomputer's CPU with one integrated
microprocessor chip. The French developers of the Micral N (1973) filed their patents with the term "Micro-ordinateur", a literal equivalent of
"Microcomputer", to designate the first solid state machine designed with a microprocessor.
All these improvements in cost and usability resulted in an explosion in their popularity during the late 1970s and early 1980s. A large
number of computer makers packaged microcomputers for use in small business applications. By 1979, many companies such
as Cromemco, Processor Technology, IMSAI, North Star Computers, Southwest Technical Products Corporation, Ohio Scientific, Altos
Computer Systems, Morrow Designs and others produced systems designed either for a resourceful end user or consulting firm to deliver

business systems such as accounting, database management, and word processing to small businesses. This allowed businesses unable
to afford leasing of a minicomputer or time-sharing service the opportunity to automate business functions, without (usually) hiring a fulltime staff to operate the computers. A representative system of this era would have used an S100 bus, an 8-bit processor such as an Intel
8080 or Zilog Z80, and either CP/M or MP/M operating system.
Monitors, keyboards and other devices for input and output may be integrated or separate. Computer memory in the form of RAM, and at
least one other less volatile, memory storage device are usually combined with the CPU on a system bus in one unit. Other devices that
make up a complete microcomputer system include batteries, a power supply unit, a keyboard and various input/output devices used to
convey information to and from a human operator (printers, monitors, human interface devices). Microcomputers are designed to serve only
one user at a time, although they can often be modified with software or hardware to concurrently serve more than one user.
Microcomputers fit well on or under desks or tables, so that they are within easy access of users. Bigger computers
like minicomputers, mainframes, and supercomputers take up large cabinets or even dedicated rooms.
A microcomputer comes equipped with at least one type of data storage, usually RAM. Although some microcomputers (particularly early 8bit home micros) perform tasks using RAM alone, some form of secondary storage is normally desirable. In the early days of home micros,
this was often a data cassette deck (in many cases as an external unit). Later, secondary storage (particularly in the form of floppy
disk and hard disk drives) were built into the microcomputer case.

4.4.Personal Computers:
A personal computer is a general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities and original sale price make it useful for individuals, and is
intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator. This contrasts with the batch processing or timesharing models that allowed larger, more expensive minicomputer and mainframe systems to be used by many people, usually at the same
time. A related term is "PC" that was initially an acronym for "personal computer", but later became used primarily to refer to the
ubiquitous Wintel platform.
Since the early 1990s, Microsoft operating systems and Intel hardware have dominated much of the personal computer market, first
with MS-DOS and then with Windows. Popular alternatives to Microsoft's Windows operating systems include Apple's OS X and free opensource Unix-like operating systems such as Linux and BSD. AMD provides the major alternative to Intel's processors.
"PC" is an initialism for "personal computer". However, it is used in a different sense: It means a personal computer with an Intel x86compatible processor running Microsoft Windows (sometimes called Wintel). "PC" is used in contrast with "Mac", an Apple
Macintosh computer. This sense of the word is used in the Get a Mac advertisement campaign that ran between 2006 and 2009, as well as
its rival, I'm a PC campaign, that appeared in 2008.

Types:
Workstation

Sun SPARCstation 1+ from the early 1990s, with a 25 MHz RISC processor

A workstation is a high-end personal computer designed for technical, mathematical, or scientific applications. Intended primarily to be used
by one person at a time, they are commonly connected to a local area network and run multi-user operating systems. Workstations are

used for tasks such as computer-aided design, drafting and modeling, computation-intensive scientific and engineering calculations, image
processing, architecturalmodeling, and computer graphics for animation and motion picture visual effects.
Desktop computer

A Dell OptiPlex desktop computer

Prior to the widespread usage of PCs, a computer that could fit on a desk was remarkably small, leading to the "desktop" nomenclature.
More recently, the phrase usually indicates a particular style of computer case. Desktop computers come in a variety of styles ranging from
large vertical tower cases to small models which can be tucked behind an LCD monitor. In this sense, the term "desktop" refers specifically
to a horizontally oriented case, usually intended to have the display screen placed on top to save desk space. Most modern desktop
computers have separate screens and keyboards.
Gaming computer
A gaming computer is a standard desktop computer that typically has high-performance hardware, such as a more powerful video card,
processor and memory, in order to handle the requirements of demanding video games, which are often simply called "PC games". A
number of companies, such as Alienware, manufacture prebuilt gaming computers, and companies such as Razer and Logitech market
mice, keyboards and headsets geared toward gamers.
Single unit
Single-unit PCs (also known as all-in-one PCs) are a subtype of desktop computers that combine the monitor and case of the computer
within a single unit. The monitor often utilizes a touchscreen as an optional method of user input, but separate keyboards and mice are
normally still included. The inner components of the PC are often located directly behind the monitor and many of such PCs are built
similarly to laptops.
Nettop
A subtype of desktops, called nettops, was introduced by Intel in February 2008, characterized by low cost and lean functionality. A similar
subtype of laptops (or notebooks) is the netbook, described below. The product line features the new Intel Atom processor, which
specifically enables nettops to consume less power and fit into small enclosures.
Home theater PC

An Antec Fusion V2 home theater PC, with a keyboard placed on top of it.

A home theater PC (HTPC) is a convergence device that combines the functions of a personal computer and a digital video recorder. It is
connected to a TV set or an appropriately sized computer display, and is often used as a digital photo viewer, music and video player, TV
receiver, and digital video recorder. HTPCs are also referred to as media center systems or media servers. The general goal in a HTPC is
usually to combine many or all components of a home theater setup into one box. More recently, HTPCs gained the ability to connect to
services providing on-demand movies and TV shows.