Advancements in Computers in the Last Ten Years :: Essays Papers

Advancements in Computers in the Last Ten Years Computers date back all the way to 300B.C. with the invention of the abacus. This was a calculating devise to do math and it made the people of that time lives a lot easier. That is what the computers of today do but so much more. I will start at the basics of computers while trying not to boar you. The first real computer that actually made calculations was the ENIAC that was made by the government in 1943. It costed $500,000, weighed over 30 tons, had 19,000 vacuum tubes, and consumed almost 200 kilowatts of electricity (computer chronicles 8). Now we have advanced to laptops that are one inch thick and 15 inches wide and can do a lot more than the ENIAC could. There have been thousands of advancements and new technology in computers in the last ten years but I am only going to skim the tip of the iceberg. In 1990, there were tons of new computers and new software but the big issues were the new processors that were super fast for their time. They could go at speeds up to 33mhz, which is how fast your computer brings things up on the screen. In 1991 Microsoft come out with a version 5.0 MS-DOS mode which gave computers more space to run their programs. Also in 1991, Intel introduced a 50mhz microprocessor, which kill its other 33mhz processor of last year. Then a few months later MIPS Technologies come out with a 100mhz processor which started to make the processor group of the computer a very competitive area to come up with new technology for. In addition Hewlett-Packard Co. made the very first color scanner that could scan whatever you wanted and put it into your hard drive. 1991 was a big year for new technology in computers but that’s not all. Pixar began to work with Walt Disney Company to make a film that was completely computer animated and eventually come up with the movie toy story. In 1992 there were three major changes in computers and the technology. First Microsoft stock reached a record high for a computer stock ever and peaked at $113 a share that year. Next Microsoft shipped its 3.1 version of window and it is a big hit and was the most abundant program on the earth.