Influences of Personal Computers Today
Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, people wanted and needed an easier way of calculating and measuring. Through the dreams of Charles Babbage, the computer was born. These new machines could do any regular math more than twice as fast as any human. Sadly, these ideas were not appreciated until almost one hundred years later.In the 1950's, the idea of computers was broght up again. This is when people finally started crediting Babbage's work. The technology available now made it possible for people to construct a digital computer. The idea of building a computer became a necessity when World War II came about. Many important names such as ENIAC and IBM cam about, and computers became a very wide interest in the world. What influenced personal computers of today? The thought of a machine being more intelligent than a mathmetician was laughed at, and thought of as an impossibility. That all changed when Charles Babbage was brought into the world. Charles Babbage was a mathmetician, engineer, and a future computer designer. He was actually known as the "Grandfather" (Slater 3) of the modern day computer. He was and still is, thought of as ahead of his time.
http://www.asap.unime1b.edu.au/hstm/data/337.htm Computer History Association of California. Nearly anything can be stored on a computer, such as pictures, sound, movies, etc. These files are either stored by internal or external means. When Information is stored internally, it is stored on a Hard Disk, which is like a regular disk, but much larger storage and quicker access speed. It is also slightly larger than a regular disk. These drives store so much information sometimes that their capacity must registered in gigabytes. To put it in perspective, One gigabyte is equal to 1,000 megabytes. One megabyte is equal to 1,000 kilobytes. One kilobyte is equal to 1,000 bytes, which can be represented by letters and numbers. Finally, the big breakthrough occurred. A theory of magnetic coils was introduced. A special ferrite metal was used for these coils, which now were metal rings. Ferrite was much less expensive than vacuum tubes. Also, these coils could store information as long as needed. For vacuum tubes to do this, they had to have a constant supply of electricity. The coils, however, did not. A man named Jay Forrester proved this theory very useful. He strung many of these coils shaped like donuts on a wire grid. Each coil had its own location on the grid, and could be accessed and used much quicker than vacuum tubes. When a vacuum tube was Computers today also use highly advanced forms of input. One of the newest forms is the CD-ROM, and even newer, DVD-ROM. CD-ROM stands for Compact Disk Read Only Memory. these disks can hold up to 600 megabytes of information, and are much quicker than regular floppy disks. A CD-ROM consists of a grooved metal ultra-thin sheet enclosed in hard plastic, in which case a grove stands for a one, and a flat area a zero. DVD-ROM is even newer than this. They turned on, it represented a one, and when off, a zero. The ferrite coils worked in much the same way. When charged north a one, and south a zero. This was named Random-Access Coincident-Current Memory. It more than doubled operating speed. This prototype was improved, and received a shorter name, RAM. This stands for just Random Access Memory. This type of memory is used and then reset for its next instructions.
Some common words found in the essay are:
Access Memory, Difference Engine, Charles Babbage, Project Whirlwind, NT Windows, Nolan Bushnell, War II, Memory ROM, Engine Technology, Integrator Computer, vacuum tube, vacuum tubes, charles babbage, analytical engine, computer history, mechanical computer, personal computers, difference engine, digital computer, equal 1000, computer difference engine, mechanical computer difference, transistor vacuum tube, world war ii,
Approximate Word count = 2224
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)
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