Introduction To Computers

Compaq's success launched a market for IBM-compatible computers that by 1996 had achieved an 83-percent share of the personal computer market. Weighing 24 pounds and costing $1,795, the Osborne 1 is the first mass-produced portable computer. Its price was especially attractive as the computer included very useful productivity software worth about $1,500 alone. It featured a 5-inch display, 64 KB of memory, a modem, and two 5.25-inch floppy disk drives. The first advertisement for a microprocessor, the Intel 4004, appears in Electronic News. Developed for Busicom, a Japanese calculator maker, the 4004 had 2250 transistors and could perform up to 90,000 operations per second in four-bit chunks.

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In this course, we use Microsoft's Excel spreadsheet application software. Everything you do on your computer will rely on both hardware and software. For example, right now you may be viewing this lesson in a web browser and using your mouse to click from page to page. As you learn about different types of computers, ask yourself about the differences in their hardware.

If you are on a personal connection, like at home, you can run an anti-virus scan on your device to make sure it is not infected with malware. Completing the CAPTCHA proves you are a human and gives you temporary access to the web property. When talking about a computer or a "PC," you're usually referring to a desktop computer found in a home or office. An example of the back of a personal computer and brief descriptions of each connection is found on our computer connections page. Memory - Temporary primary storage for data traveling between the storage and CPU.

Choosing Between Business Computers & Personal Computers

The first use of SIMD instructions was in vector supercomputers such as the CDC Star-100 and the Texas Instruments ASC in the early 1970s. Vector processing was especially popularized by Cray in the 1970s and 1980s by attached vector processors such as those produced by the FPS , and by supercomputers such as the Thinking Machines CM-1 and CM-2. Sun Microsystems introduced SIMD integer instructions in its VIS instruction set extensions in 1995 in its UltraSPARC I microprocessor; the first widely deployed SIMD for gaming was Intel’s MMX extensions to the x86 architecture. IBM and Motorola then added AltiVec to the POWER architecture, and there have been several extensions to the SIMD instruction sets for both architectures.

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Under the leadership of MIT's Gordon Brown and Jay Forrester, the team first built a small analog simulator, but found it inaccurate and inflexible. News of the groundbreaking electronic ENIAC computer that same year inspired the group to change course and attempt a digital solution, whereby flight variables could be rapidly programmed in software. Completed in 1951, Whirlwind remains one of the most important computer projects in the history of computing. Foremost among its developments was Forrester’s perfection of magnetic core memory, which became the dominant form of high-speed random access memory for computers until the mid-1970s. You can expect to begin your computer science degree by developing a foundation in keycomputer science topics.

Hardware: Meeting The Machine

This very small home computer is available in the UK as a kit for £79 or pre-assembled for £99. Inside was a Z80 microprocessor and a built-in BASIC language interpreter. Output was displayed on the user’s home TV screen through use of an adapter. About 50,000 were sold in Britain, primarily to hobbyists, and initially there was a long waiting list for the system. The fastest machine of its day, The Cray-1's speed comes partly from its shape, a "C," which reduces the length of wires and thus the time signals need to travel across them. High packaging density of integrated circuits and a novel Freon cooling system also contributed to its speed.