Week 2 Reading Notes

Article 1: Computer Hardware This Wikipedia article gave a run down of the hardware of a computer that makes it work. Every personal computer needs various elements to create, store, translate, and communicate information. In addition, computers must be powered somehow, so must have mechanisms for regulating the flow of electricity as well as conducting it. Information can also be transferred to a computer through other devices such as CDs and flash drives. Video cards which have to do with computer screen function are always one step behind game producers which makes me wonder if there is a better way to make this system work. Sound cards allow computers to receive and put out sound. Other devices input messages into a computer such as keyboards, mice, and microphones. Article 2: Moore’s Law and Video Moor’s law basically seems to say that digital devices are getting exponentially better at everything that can be quantitatively measured. There seems to be a subtle balance though between cost and density. Just as when you buy in bulk, the more transistors you put on a chip, the less each one costs individually, but the more in that space, the higher likelihood of defects. Kryder’s addresses the fact that the increase in hard drive capacity is positively related to the increase in transistor count. Other ways of measuring increased efficiency are RAM storage capacity and optical fiber data. Pixels are used in the case of digital cameras. The compensator for Moore’s law is that new programs will accomplish the same task, but faster than their older counterparts. Some believe Moore’s law will end when transistors can’t get any smaller by human means, but other feel some new technology will replace transistors before this happens and so Moore’s law will continue to be in effect. Article 3: Computer History Museum The computer history museum is located in California, and houses artifacts dealing with the evolution of computer technology. The message repeated over and over in the articles listed on this web site is that computers used to be too big, expensive, slow, and difficult to use to be helpful to the general public. Analog computers on the other hand have been in use for centuries. The slide rule is a good example of an analog computer. Computers were used for simple games in the beginning, but the games became more complex with time, as we can see from modern computer games. Besides articles on the website, this site has a catalog search where you can search for images, articles, and even audio files about everything leading up to the state of modern day computers. I did a search for Atari and came up with some fun results.