Computing

Even after computers were commercialized around the 1950s, most computers were “hosted” in highly secured data processing centers, and users accessed the host computers through “dumb” terminals. By the late 1960s, IBM became a dominant vendor of large-scale computers called a “mainframe” host. In the mid-1970s, minicomputers started challenging mainframe computers. In many cases, minicomputers could host applications and perform the same functions as mainframes, but with less cost.

Hardware Vs Software

The knowledge and technologies developed for the Stretch project played a major role in the design, management, and manufacture of the later IBM System/360--the most successful computer family in IBM history. The 501 is built on a 'building block' concept which allows it to be highly flexible for many different uses and could simultaneously control up to 63 tape drives—very useful for large databases of information. For many business users, quick access to this huge storage capability outweighed its relatively slow processing speed.

unplugged Activities: Computer Science Without The Computer

It used $120 worth of electronics components, as outlined in the September 1973 issue of hobbyist magazine Radio Electronics. The original design included two memory boards and could generate and store 512 characters as 16 lines of 32 characters. The TV Typewriter was used by many small television stations well in the 1990s. Its large scope intrigued early hackers at MIT, who wrote the first computerized video game, SpaceWar!

Powerbook Series Of Laptops Is Introduced

For example, whenever you use the Internet, you're looking at something that's stored on a server. Many businesses also use local file servers to store and share files internally. The second type of computer you may be familiar with is a laptop computer, commonly called a laptop.

The PC Jr. is marketed as a home computer but is too expensive and limited in performance to compete with many of the other machines in that market. It offered increased performance and storage capacity over the original IBM PC and sold for about $4,000. It also included more memory and accommodated high-density 1.2-megabyte 5 1/4-inch floppy disks.

This chapter provides a first examination of the principal forms of supercomputer architecture and the underlying concepts that govern their performance. The hardware devices attached to the computer are called peripheral equipment. Peripheral equipment includes all input, output, and secondary storage devices. In the case of personal computers, some of the input, output, and storage devices are built into the same physical unit.