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How Your PC Was
Invented
MIND MAGAZINE | Everybody
can benefit from using a computer, whether you’re an office worker, a
student, a teacher or a doctor, using technology for work and leisure
has become a common thing to do. It wasn’t always the case, before the
eighties, having a computer was expensive and it was reserved for very
specific uses only. Nowadays, in the era of personal computers (the PC),
the power of electronics is accessible to everyone. The price of a PC
has gone down dramatically over the years and their processing speed is
always increasing. If the auto industry had followed the same pattern,
cars would now be worth around $100 and could speed up to 800 km/h! The
last few years showed an incredible evolution and a little recap can
come handy to understand what’s coming next.
The machine that’s working in front you is very technologically
advanced: The modern computer is the fruit of 50 years of efforts, and
all the current usage of a computer were not imaginable just 10 years
ago. The first computer was assembled in 1946, it cost millions of
dollars and took 1,000 square feet of space and could do 5,000
operations a second using cards and switches. It was called the ENIAC
(Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), and it came from the
scientific expertise gained during World War II. Today, a rudimentary
calculator can match the same performances as the ENIAC for just a few
dollars.
Until the end of the seventies, computers had three major problems that
caused their lack of popularity. Firstly, they were gigantic; it was
common for a computer to take an entire room. Also computers were very
hard and frustrating to operate. Punch cards had to be prepared by the
dozens to enter a program, and errors were really easy to make. Finally,
computers were so expensive that only very large corporations, research
centres and universities could afford them. But it wasn’t until 1977,
when the Commodore was introduced, that personal computers really became
accessible to common people. In the early parts of the eighties,
computers were still functioning by entering codes in a text-only
environment. In 1981, the very first laptop appeared on the market, it
was called the Osborne I, it weighted 24 pounds and costing $1,750.
Later, the apparition of the Apple II marked the year 1984. At that
time, a regular computer could be bought from about $600. With the
introduction of the Macintosh, that for the first time ever, a computer
had a desktop interface and a mouse. Then, three years later, the first
version of Microsoft Windows took advantage of the growing popularity of
PCs. It offered basically the same features than the first Macintosh did
when it was released.
In the mid 1990s, the CD-Rom got an immensely popular by offering a
bigger support for large applications and files. Also, the Internet
really got into gear around 1996 and its popularity is undeniable today.
More recently, the Tablet PC, a computer that is a cross between a
Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) and a laptop is offering a new
alternative for technology enthusiasts. Wireless and high-speed access
to the Internet is also a growing trend right now. And a lot more is
still ahead, the next big thing to come is the 64-bit computer chip. The
“frame” of a computer processor is still the same since the mid
eighties, namely they are working on a 32-bit structure. The next wave
of processors promises to offer performances simply impossible to get
with the current technology.
Over the next five years, billions of dollars will be spent to create
the Internet II. This “Internet upgrade” as been in the works since
1996, and it will use a load of new technologies, among them a new and
more efficient Internet Protocol (IP). This evolution of the current
Internet will offer ultra high transmission speed and will put the end
of the days you had to wait to download large files. Using a new
technology called “GigaPOP”, your connection speed will be guaranteed.
In other words, Internet II will be much more faster than it is
nowadays, and the speed of your connection will never change regardless
of the traffic.
Starting from a machine weighting several tons and occupying an entire
military complex to a super fast micro computer that holds in the palm
of your hand that connects you to the world, PCs have a lot to offer to
everyone.
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