Basic History and Info

Transistorinvented in 1948 as a replacement for the vacuum tubemuch smaller in design and more reliableless expensiveThe space race of the 1950's between the Soviet Union and USA helped to drive the evolution computer hardwareThe development of the integrated chip, a small silicon chip containing hundreds of transistors soon made previous technology obsolete1971 Intel engineered the first microprocessora single silicon chip containing all of a computers computational componentsAs computers evolved, more powerful and more cost-effective options became availableMoore's law: the number of transistors that can be packed into a silicon chip of the same price would roughly double every 2 yearsDesktop> laptop> netbook> tablet> mobile> 6th sense

A computer that provides other computers connected to a network with access to data, programs, or other resourcesEmail servers- managing sending and receiving mail (SMTP, POP, IMAP)File servers- FTP/SFTP file uploads and downloadsApplication servers- web applications- XML- providing some contextual meaning to the dataWeb servers- hosting web-based content- linked documents and linked data

Before the "microprocessor revolution"Room sized computers with room sized price tagsCan be used to communicate via a terminal or thin client a combination of keyboard and screen that transfers information to and from a mainframe computer or server Less "powerful" and customizable Mainframes can communicate in real-time, simultaneously using timesharing techniquestimesharing system allows travel agents all over the country to make reservations, book flights, all at the same time. Can also share computer power/space

When mainframes are not powerful enoughUsed for calculation-intensive work - CERN computerConstructed out of thousands of microprocessors

Central processing Unit (also called microprocessor)Every computer has at least one (current computers often have 2 (dual-core) or 4 (quad-core) or 6-core processorsThese enable computers to do multiple tastes at a time, called Parallel ProcessingMany times the computer runs "faster" as a result of multicore setupsCan cluster computers to share CPUs in a similar fashion to achieve similar resultsInstalled on a computer's motherboard- a printed circuit board consisting of many of a computer's primary components while providing connectors to other things (audio, video, storage, etc.). In Apple- the motherboard is called the logic board.CPU is really the brain of a computerInterprets and executes instructions and performs logical and arithmetic operationsThese instructions are stored in RAM (Random Access Memory)

Basic Info

Server

Mainframes

Supercomputers

CPU