All About the Personal Computer
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Floppy disk, Pentium, Megabytes, Megahertz, CD ROM, E-mail . . . these words are related to computers. When computers became commercially available, large businesses were the only ones that could acquire them for specific and limited use (payroll, research, etc . . . ). Until the late 1970’s, computers were tools for the "specially skilled" scientists, mathematicians and engineers. That was changed in the early 1980’s with the Personal Computer. That computer invaded the small businesses, the homes and the schools. By the 1990’s, most people (globally) were using computers for daily activities and/or owned (at home) at least a computer. Computers have come a long way, technology is still evolving and challenges are still being pursued by the computer industry. In 1944, the Mark I, an electromechanical computer, could multiply two numbers in 6 seconds and divide two numbers in about 12 seconds. In 1994, computers could perform well over 100 million additions per second. Modern computers are small in size and can run with low power (such as notebook and palm computers). In short, since the introduction of the ENIAC (the first and largest known computer in the world), Computer system design has evolved rapidly to about five generations: 1. Vacuum tubes – Very Large digital computers (1945 – 1958). 2. Transistors – Mainframe computers (1959 – 1964). 3. Integrated Circuits (IC) – Minicomputers (1965 – 1970). 4. LSI, VLSI – Microcomputers (1970 – 1980). 5. Enhanced VLSI, RISC, CISC – PCs, Supercomputers (1980+). The Personal Computer, or PC, has evolved dramatically from 1980 on. Computer systems are designed to assist individuals with tasks. They come in a variety of shapes, sizes, capabilities, performance and specialties. The computer system is an intricate arrangement of high technology components assembled together in a perfect way to make that machine assist the user. Since the ENIAC digital computer, this industry has been revolutionized in designing the mainframes where limited corporations owned, to minicomputers where large and mid size corporations could purchase, to the microcomputers for the hobbyist and the curious to the introduction of the Personal Computer in the early 1980’s for all the corporations and small businesses as well as homes and schools. Computer systems range from a relatively simple "dumb" terminal to a large and a very complex mainframe or supercomputer. Computer systems are simple in performing any task. The complex task is broken into one or more simple subtasks and so on. With the continuous change in computer system technology and performance, it is becoming confusing to understand the computer architecture.
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About the Book
All About the Personal Computer
This book illustrates the basic components and how they interact with each other to form a fairly complex device that is known as a "computer." It gives a brief history of the change in electronics technology from the early 80’s to today’s computers.
In the past two decades, computers have evolved into every home and office. They are getting smaller in size and bigger in performance, but overall the basic function is still the same: Processors, Memories, and Interfaces (Input/Output).
About the Author
Carlos Hattab lives in Dayton, Ohio, with his wife and three children. Carlos received his B.S. in Electrical & Electronic Engineering Technology and M.S. in Engineering Management Science from the University of Dayton. This book is a collection of over 20 years of experience in electrical & electronics design, computer technology and networking systems. Carlos has written many computer related technical articles and programs in machine code, assembly & high level computer languages. He has also designed many systems that are driven by computers. His knowledge has aided people, as well as companies, in resolving simple and complex computer and network tasks. Carlos has written this book to share his experiences and knowledge with anyone who wishes to understand the components that make up a computer system.