Information Technology 2

Since the 1940s, the development of the computer has spurred the growth of technology into realms only dreamed of at the turn of the 20th century. Computers have changed the way we live and how we do business. Today computers are used to send emails, surf the internet, play games, and reserve airline and concert tickets. Basically, a computer is an electronic device that can receive a set of instructions, or program and then carry out this program by performing calculations on numerical data or by manipulating other forms of information.

A number of important events in the development of programming languages and environments (i.e. Operating Systems) are listed in the milestone table , including FORTRAN (1957), CTSS (1965), C (1972), VisiCalc (1983), and Windows (1989). Early computers used the vacuum tube as their basic electronic component. Technological advances in the design and manufacture of electronic components led to new generations of computers that were considerable smaller, faster, and less expensive than their predecessors.

Using today’s VLSI (Very-Large-Scale Integration) technology, a computer can be packaged in a single electronic component called a computer chip. Because of their affordability and small size, computer chips can be installed in watches, pocket calculators, cameras, and of course, computers. Small, cheap, programmable microprocessors make it relatively simple for small companies to build computers.

Between 1975 and 1985, hundreds of firms entered the business. Some started in garages (such as Apple Computer, Inc.), university computer departments (such as Sun Microsystems, Inc.), and college dormitories (such as Dell). Only a handful became successful global corporations: most died. Dozens of small firms entered the British microcomputer market in the late 1970s and early 1980s, including Acorn, Amstrad, Apricot, Camputers, Dragon Data, Enterprise, Grundy, Jupiter Cantab, Memotech, Oric, Positron, Sinclair Research (the creation of Sir Clive Sinclair), and Torch. However, most struggled to attract software, and few survived.

The market needed a standard, and IBM, the industry’s dominant supplier, was best placed to create it. The company did that when it launched its first personal computer, the IBM PC, in 1981. Since then, “PC-compatibles”, or “clones” of the PC, have gradually taken over more and more of the market, displacing proprietary designs such as the Atari ST, Commodore Amiga, and Apple Macintosh.

To rival the Apple Macintosh (in the early days of course), Intel’s microprocessors and Microsoft’s MS-DOS and Windows programs have become de facto standards because their sales dominate the personal computer market.
The computers of today are categorised by their size, performance (measured in gigahertz or FLOPS) and number of processors. The most recent developments in computer systems include highly scalable multi=processor systems with 32, 64 or 128 processors. Even home computers now have components such as Pentium (multi core) processors.