Evolution of Technology

Evolution of Technology

Introduction

The following pages will include the evolution of digital processors. What was a "computer" in the 1950s is very different from what a "computer" was in the 2000s. We can look upon these different "computers" in zoological terms. This is like Darwin's origin of species. As the years went by, new species of "computers" came into being. There was Darwinian process of selection and evolution at work. Whole Earth Catalog and the WELL influenced what we think of as "computing" today in many ways. This is also included in the essay.

Discussion

The history of the production of processors is fully consistent with the history of the technology of other electronic components and circuits. The first step, it has spread from the 1940s to the end of 1950, was the creation of processors using electromechanical relays, ferrite cores (device memory) and vacuum tubes. They were placed in distinct connectors on the modules assembled in the rack. A comprehensive number of such posts, joined the conductors, the amount represented by the processor. A distinctive feature was the low reliability, low speed and excessive heat (www.eolss.net).

The second stage, from the mid-1950s to mid-1960s, was the introduction of transistors. Transistors mounted already close to the modern in appearance Cards installed in the rack. As before, the average processor consists of a number of such posts. Increased performance, improved reliability reduced power consumption were the landmark of these digital processsors.

The third stage that occurred in the mid -1960s was the use of microchips. Originally used chip low level of integration, containing simple transistor and resistor assembly, then as technology began to be used chips that implement some elements of digital circuitry. Later appeared chips containing functional units of the processor - the firmware device, arithmetic logic unit, registers, devices with data buses and teams.

The fourth stage, in the early 1970s, was to create, thanks to a breakthrough in the technology of LSI and VLSI (large and very large scale integrated circuits, respectively), the microprocessor - chip-on-chip which were physically located in all the major elements and components of the processor (www2.elo.utfsm.cl). By Intel in 1971 the world's first 4-bit microprocessor 4004 was ready for use in calculators . Gradually, almost all processors were produced in the format of microprocessors. Except for a long time there were only limited-edition processors, hardware optimized for distinct tasks, for example, supercomputers or processors to solve a number of military missions, or processors, which are subject to special requirements in terms of speed of response, reliability, or protection against electromagnetic pulse and ionizing radiation.

Now the word microprocessor and processor almost become synonymous, but this was not the case because the usual (large) and microprocessor computer coexisted for at least 10-15 years, and only in the early 1980s, microprocessors replaced their older counterparts. However, the central processing unit of some supercomputers, even today, is a complex, built on the basis of chips high and extra high degree of integration. The transition to microprocessor then allowed creating ...