Monday, September 7, 2009
History of Computers
The first computers were people! That is, electronic computers (and the earlier mechanical computers) were given this name because they performed the work that had previously been assigned to people. "Computer" was originally a job title: it was used to describe those human beings (predominantly women) whose job it was to perform the repetitive calculations required to compute such things as navigational tables, tide charts, and planetary positions for astronomical almanacs. Imagine you had a job where hour after hour, day after day, you were to do nothing but compute multiplications. Boredom would quickly set in, leading to carelessness, leading to mistakes. And even on your best days you wouldn't be producing answers very fast. Therefore, inventors have been searching for hundreds of years for a way to mechanize (that is, find a mechanism that can perform) this task.
Q1 CORPORATION SYSTEM
The computer system was developed and manufactured by Q1 Corporation. They delivered the first microcomputer system to the Litcom Division of Litton Industries in Melville, Long Island on December 11, 1972 (and a second system in February, 1973). In April 1974 Intel introduced the second-generation, single-chip 8-bit microprocessor, the 8080. Until then, Q1 systems were the only self-contained, general-purpose microcomputer systems in the world. 
COMMODORE VIC-1001
The VIC-1001 is the first of the VIC series of computers, which includes the tremendously successful VIC-20. The VIC-1001 was only sold in Japan. As such, it includes a special character ROM and keyboard that allow the user to enter Katakana characters.
ORDISOR PCC 2000
PCC 2000 is an obscure professional computer released in 1980. It was apparently marketed by Ordisor, (a company belonging to the group Sofragem) but it is not impossible that the machine was simply an importation from U.S.A. or Japan. The only information source we have so far is a french advert from may 1980.
MCM COMPUTERS
All the MCM machines were designed and built in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. The company was originally called "Micro Computer Machines, Inc." (the term "micro computer" was all the rage in the early 70's) but sometime in the late 70's changed the name to simply "MCM Computers". MCM was among the first companies to fully recognize and act upon microprocessor technology's immense potential for developing a new generation of cost-effective computing systems.
TERTA TAP-34 COMPUTER
TAP 34 is a self design of Terta company from Hungary. Primarily it was designed as a terminal for big computer systems but it was also able to process data alone. The main integrated circuits were assembled in the USSR and in Hungary by Tungsram, but several parts were imported from other countries.
RADIONIC MODEL R1001
Recently found on Ebay, this weird system is an extremly rare TRS-80 Model 1 clone, based on an other clone: The Komtek 1 (from Germany). It's equiped with a Level II basic and powered by a Zilog Z80 cpu.
Original Computer Mouse Patent
In 1964, the first prototype computer mouse was made to use with a graphical user interface. Douglas Engelbart's computer mouse received patent # 3,541,541 on November 17, 1970 for a "X-Y Position Indicator For A Display System"
History of the Personal Computer
In 1969 Intel was commissioned by a Japanese calculator company to produce an integrated circuit, a computer chip, for its line of calculators. Ted Hoff who was given the assignment was troubled by the fact that if he utilized standard methods of design the Japanese calculators would be just about as expensive as one of the new minicomputers that were being marketed and it would not do nearly as much. Hoff decided he would have to use a new approach to the calculator chip. Instead of "hardwiring" the logic of the calculator into the chip he created what is now called a microprocessor, a chip that can be programmed to perform the operations of a calculator; i.e., a computer on a slice of silicon. It was called the 4004 because that was the number of transistors it would replace. The contract gave the Japanese calculator company exclusive rights to the 4004. Hoff realized that the 4004 was a significant technical breakthrough and was concerned that Intel should not give it away to the Japanese calculator company as part of a relatively small contract. Fortunately for Intel the Japanese company did not realize the significance of what they had obtained and traded away their exclusive rights to the 4004 for a price reduction and some modifications in the calculator specifications.
Intel later developed another microprocessor for the Computer Terminal Corporation (CTC). This one was called the 8008. In this case CTC could purchase the product from Intel but Intel retained the right to market the 8008 to other customers. Intel began to create support for this programmable chip, the 8008. An employee of Intel, Adam Osborne, was given the assignment of writing manuals for the programming language for the 8008. Osborne later became important in the development of the personal computer for bringing about creation of the first portable computer; there is more about this below.
Gary Kildall, a professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, worked at Intel to develop a language and programs for their microprocessors. Kildall also played another important role in the development of the personal computer in that he wrote the first operating system for a microprocessor. It was called CP/M. Without an operating system a personal computer is a very awkward device to use.
By the early 1970s there was a vast number of people who had had some experience with mainframe computers and would love to have a computer of their own. In Albuquerque, New Mexico there was a man named Ed Roberts who ran a business selling kits for assembling electronic devices. The company's name was MITS for Micro Instrumentation Telemetry Systems. The company was not doing too well and Ed Roberts was looking for some new products to increase sales. The calculator business was becoming saturated, especially when the chip manufacturers such as Texas Instruments began to market calculators themselves. After a disasterous attempt to sell kits for programmable calculators Ed Roberts was desperate for a new product. He decided to try to do what no one else had attempted, to create a kit for assembling a home computer. He decided to base it upon a new chip Intel had developed, the 8080. Roberts negotiated a contract with Intel that gave him a low price on the 8080 chips if he could buy in large volume. About that time a magazine Popular Electronics, edited by Les Solomon, was looking for workable designs for desktop computers. Roberts promised Solomon a working model if Solomon would promote it through Popular Electronics. Ed Roberts decided to call his computer the Altair after the name of a planet in a StarTrek episode Les Solomon's daughter was watching. Roberts and the MITS people worked feverishly on building a prototype of the Altair to send to Popular Electronics but when the deadline for publication arrived the model was not quite ready. Nevertheless Popular Electronics published a picture of the empty case of the Altair on its front cover. The computer case with its lights and switches did look impressive. An article in the magazine revealed that the kits for the Altair were available for $397 from MITS in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
To everyone surprise computer buffs from all over the country sent in their $397 to buy an Altair kit. In fact, MITS was flooded with money. It went from a state of near bankruptcy owing $365,000 to a situation in which it had hundreds of thousands of dollars in the bank. MITS bank was a bit concerned that MITS had started engaging in something lucrative but illegal.
The Altair had a very limited capability. It had no keyboard, no video display and only 256 bytes of memory. Data input had to done by flipping toggle switches and the only output was the flashing lights in the computer. Nevertheless there was great enthusiasm for the Altair.
Two programmers in the Boston area (students at Harvard actually) decided to develop software for the Altair. Their names were Bill Gates and Paul Allen. They called Ed Roberts and told him they had the programs to run the programming language BASIC on the Altair. Roberts said he would buy it if he could see it running on the Altair. Gates and Allen didn't actually have the programs written but they immediately set out to write them. It took about six weeks. It was an amazing accomplishment that they got it to work. They developed the programs for the Altair by programming a Harvard computer to emulate the limited capabilities of the Altair. They were successful in the development and Paul Allen flew to Albuquerque to demonstrate the result. Given the multitude of things that could have gone wrong it was a miracle that the program worked. It worked however on a more sophisticated lab version of the Altair at MITS rather than the version sold to the general public. Gates and Allen's company Microsoft was founded in Albuquerque and only later moved to the Seattle area.
The members of the general public that sent in their $397 were finding a long, long wait before they received their Altair kit. MITS was just not prepared to handle the volume of business that came in. But MITS showed the demand was there and the market started to work.
Gary Kildall joined forces with a professor from U.C. Berkeley, John Torode, to produce a small computer also based upon the 8080 chip. Torode built computers under the name Digital Systems and Kildall wrote the software under the name Intergalactic Digital Research.
Altair's most effective early competitor was created by IMSAI Manufacturing of San Leandro, California. IMSAI was established by Bill Millard who had no particular interest in computers but knew a hot marketing opportunity when he saw one.
About this time Lee Felsenstein entered the picture. Lee Felsenstein was an interesting individual who played a number of important roles in the development of the personal computer. He had a quite interesting background. He grew up in Philadelphia and became an engineering student. One summer he got a job in the Los Angleles area working as an engineer for an operation that required a security clearance. He loved being an engineer and had no plans for doing anything else. Then one day the security officer where he worked called him into his office to inform him that he would not be given the necessary security clearance. When Lee had filled out the application forms for the job he had stated that he did not know any members of the Communist Party, which he reaffirmed under questioning by the security officer. The security officer then informed Lee that his parents were members of the Communist Party. As Steven Levy reports in his book Hackers, based upon an interview with Lee:
Lee had not been told. He had assumed that "Communist" was just a term, red-baiting, that people flung at activist liberals like his parents. His brother [Joe] had known-- his brother had been named after Stalin!--but Lee had not been told.
The security officer told him that he could not give him a security clearance at that time but if he kept out of political involvements he could reapply in a year or so and probably would get a security clearance then. Lee left the organization and after a while moved to Berkeley in 1963 where the countercultural revolution was in just beginning. Lee went to work on a weekly newspaper called the Berkeley Barb as a technician and journalist. The Barb was a radical newspaper run by Max Scheer. The Barb did not make much money and the staff received no pay other than when Max took them home for his wife Jane to feed them. Later Max started selling advertisement space in the Barb to massage parlors and started making a lot of money. But he still did not pay the staff any salary. This upset many on the staff in a two ways. First they were perplexed at their newspaper calling for social revolution but selling ads to massage parlors and second they were not getting any of that money. A group of the Barb staff, including Lee Felsenstein, left and started another newspaper the Berkeley Tribe. The Tribe was committed to ideological anarchism. Lee managed the Tribe for a while and then entered UC Berkeley and finished his engineering degree. After graduation he joined a communal organization called Resource One and later an offshoot Community Memory which sought to bring computers to the people by installing remote terminals in places of business.
About the time the Altair was announced a group of San Francisco Bay Area computer buffs organized the Homebrew Computer Club. After the club was operating for sometime Lee Felsenstein became the facilitor for the Club, an informal master of ceremonies to direct the meetings and discussions. As many as 750 attended the meetings and they became a major locus of information exchange on computers in the Bay Area. Steve Jobs and Stephen Wozniak attended these meetings. Adam Osborne sold his book An Introduction to Microcomputers at these meetings.
Lee Felsenstein did occasional engineering design work including a computer which was named the Sol after the editor of Popular Electronics, Les Solomon. The Sol would sell for about $1000 but include a lot more capabilities than the Altair. Felsenstein and others were also creating enhancements, such as memory boards, for the Altair. Lee Felsenstein also designed the Osborne Computer, the first portable computer. It was not portable in the sense of a laptop computer that can be used while traveling. It was portable in the sense that it could be conveniently carried from one place to another and there plugged in and used. The size was limited to the dimensions that could fit under a jetliner seat.
What was needed for these microcomputers was a disk drive. Disk drives had long been used with mainframe computers but they were too expensive for the low cost home computers the industry was trying to develop. Ed Shugart, the founder of the first major disk drive manufacturer, did announce the availability of a 5-1/4 inch drive. Gary Kildall while developing the first microcomputer operating system, CP/M (Computer Processor/Monitor), acquired a Shugart disk drive. The story of operating systems for computers is told elsewhere.
Intel later developed another microprocessor for the Computer Terminal Corporation (CTC). This one was called the 8008. In this case CTC could purchase the product from Intel but Intel retained the right to market the 8008 to other customers. Intel began to create support for this programmable chip, the 8008. An employee of Intel, Adam Osborne, was given the assignment of writing manuals for the programming language for the 8008. Osborne later became important in the development of the personal computer for bringing about creation of the first portable computer; there is more about this below.
Gary Kildall, a professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, worked at Intel to develop a language and programs for their microprocessors. Kildall also played another important role in the development of the personal computer in that he wrote the first operating system for a microprocessor. It was called CP/M. Without an operating system a personal computer is a very awkward device to use.
By the early 1970s there was a vast number of people who had had some experience with mainframe computers and would love to have a computer of their own. In Albuquerque, New Mexico there was a man named Ed Roberts who ran a business selling kits for assembling electronic devices. The company's name was MITS for Micro Instrumentation Telemetry Systems. The company was not doing too well and Ed Roberts was looking for some new products to increase sales. The calculator business was becoming saturated, especially when the chip manufacturers such as Texas Instruments began to market calculators themselves. After a disasterous attempt to sell kits for programmable calculators Ed Roberts was desperate for a new product. He decided to try to do what no one else had attempted, to create a kit for assembling a home computer. He decided to base it upon a new chip Intel had developed, the 8080. Roberts negotiated a contract with Intel that gave him a low price on the 8080 chips if he could buy in large volume. About that time a magazine Popular Electronics, edited by Les Solomon, was looking for workable designs for desktop computers. Roberts promised Solomon a working model if Solomon would promote it through Popular Electronics. Ed Roberts decided to call his computer the Altair after the name of a planet in a StarTrek episode Les Solomon's daughter was watching. Roberts and the MITS people worked feverishly on building a prototype of the Altair to send to Popular Electronics but when the deadline for publication arrived the model was not quite ready. Nevertheless Popular Electronics published a picture of the empty case of the Altair on its front cover. The computer case with its lights and switches did look impressive. An article in the magazine revealed that the kits for the Altair were available for $397 from MITS in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
To everyone surprise computer buffs from all over the country sent in their $397 to buy an Altair kit. In fact, MITS was flooded with money. It went from a state of near bankruptcy owing $365,000 to a situation in which it had hundreds of thousands of dollars in the bank. MITS bank was a bit concerned that MITS had started engaging in something lucrative but illegal.
The Altair had a very limited capability. It had no keyboard, no video display and only 256 bytes of memory. Data input had to done by flipping toggle switches and the only output was the flashing lights in the computer. Nevertheless there was great enthusiasm for the Altair.
Two programmers in the Boston area (students at Harvard actually) decided to develop software for the Altair. Their names were Bill Gates and Paul Allen. They called Ed Roberts and told him they had the programs to run the programming language BASIC on the Altair. Roberts said he would buy it if he could see it running on the Altair. Gates and Allen didn't actually have the programs written but they immediately set out to write them. It took about six weeks. It was an amazing accomplishment that they got it to work. They developed the programs for the Altair by programming a Harvard computer to emulate the limited capabilities of the Altair. They were successful in the development and Paul Allen flew to Albuquerque to demonstrate the result. Given the multitude of things that could have gone wrong it was a miracle that the program worked. It worked however on a more sophisticated lab version of the Altair at MITS rather than the version sold to the general public. Gates and Allen's company Microsoft was founded in Albuquerque and only later moved to the Seattle area.
The members of the general public that sent in their $397 were finding a long, long wait before they received their Altair kit. MITS was just not prepared to handle the volume of business that came in. But MITS showed the demand was there and the market started to work.
Gary Kildall joined forces with a professor from U.C. Berkeley, John Torode, to produce a small computer also based upon the 8080 chip. Torode built computers under the name Digital Systems and Kildall wrote the software under the name Intergalactic Digital Research.
Altair's most effective early competitor was created by IMSAI Manufacturing of San Leandro, California. IMSAI was established by Bill Millard who had no particular interest in computers but knew a hot marketing opportunity when he saw one.
About this time Lee Felsenstein entered the picture. Lee Felsenstein was an interesting individual who played a number of important roles in the development of the personal computer. He had a quite interesting background. He grew up in Philadelphia and became an engineering student. One summer he got a job in the Los Angleles area working as an engineer for an operation that required a security clearance. He loved being an engineer and had no plans for doing anything else. Then one day the security officer where he worked called him into his office to inform him that he would not be given the necessary security clearance. When Lee had filled out the application forms for the job he had stated that he did not know any members of the Communist Party, which he reaffirmed under questioning by the security officer. The security officer then informed Lee that his parents were members of the Communist Party. As Steven Levy reports in his book Hackers, based upon an interview with Lee:
Lee had not been told. He had assumed that "Communist" was just a term, red-baiting, that people flung at activist liberals like his parents. His brother [Joe] had known-- his brother had been named after Stalin!--but Lee had not been told.
The security officer told him that he could not give him a security clearance at that time but if he kept out of political involvements he could reapply in a year or so and probably would get a security clearance then. Lee left the organization and after a while moved to Berkeley in 1963 where the countercultural revolution was in just beginning. Lee went to work on a weekly newspaper called the Berkeley Barb as a technician and journalist. The Barb was a radical newspaper run by Max Scheer. The Barb did not make much money and the staff received no pay other than when Max took them home for his wife Jane to feed them. Later Max started selling advertisement space in the Barb to massage parlors and started making a lot of money. But he still did not pay the staff any salary. This upset many on the staff in a two ways. First they were perplexed at their newspaper calling for social revolution but selling ads to massage parlors and second they were not getting any of that money. A group of the Barb staff, including Lee Felsenstein, left and started another newspaper the Berkeley Tribe. The Tribe was committed to ideological anarchism. Lee managed the Tribe for a while and then entered UC Berkeley and finished his engineering degree. After graduation he joined a communal organization called Resource One and later an offshoot Community Memory which sought to bring computers to the people by installing remote terminals in places of business.
About the time the Altair was announced a group of San Francisco Bay Area computer buffs organized the Homebrew Computer Club. After the club was operating for sometime Lee Felsenstein became the facilitor for the Club, an informal master of ceremonies to direct the meetings and discussions. As many as 750 attended the meetings and they became a major locus of information exchange on computers in the Bay Area. Steve Jobs and Stephen Wozniak attended these meetings. Adam Osborne sold his book An Introduction to Microcomputers at these meetings.
Lee Felsenstein did occasional engineering design work including a computer which was named the Sol after the editor of Popular Electronics, Les Solomon. The Sol would sell for about $1000 but include a lot more capabilities than the Altair. Felsenstein and others were also creating enhancements, such as memory boards, for the Altair. Lee Felsenstein also designed the Osborne Computer, the first portable computer. It was not portable in the sense of a laptop computer that can be used while traveling. It was portable in the sense that it could be conveniently carried from one place to another and there plugged in and used. The size was limited to the dimensions that could fit under a jetliner seat.
What was needed for these microcomputers was a disk drive. Disk drives had long been used with mainframe computers but they were too expensive for the low cost home computers the industry was trying to develop. Ed Shugart, the founder of the first major disk drive manufacturer, did announce the availability of a 5-1/4 inch drive. Gary Kildall while developing the first microcomputer operating system, CP/M (Computer Processor/Monitor), acquired a Shugart disk drive. The story of operating systems for computers is told elsewhere.
A Brief History of Computers and Networks,
Webster's Dictionary defines "computer" as any programmable electronic device that can store, retrieve, and process data. The basic idea of computing develops in the 1200's when a Moslem cleric proposes solving problems with a series of written procedures.
As early as the 1640's mechanical calculators are manufactured for sale. Records exist of earlier machines, but Blaise Pascal invents the first commercial calculator, a hand powered adding machine. Although attempts to multiply mechanically were made by Gottfried Liebnitz in the 1670s the first true multiplying calculator appears in Germany shortly before the American Revolution.
In 1801 a Frenchman, Joseph-Marie Jacquard builds a loom that weaves by reading punched holes stored on small sheets of hardwood. These plates are then inserted into the loom which reads (retrieves) the pattern and creates(process) the weave. Powered by water, this "machine" came 140 years before the development of the modern computer.
As early as the 1640's mechanical calculators are manufactured for sale. Records exist of earlier machines, but Blaise Pascal invents the first commercial calculator, a hand powered adding machine. Although attempts to multiply mechanically were made by Gottfried Liebnitz in the 1670s the first true multiplying calculator appears in Germany shortly before the American Revolution.
In 1801 a Frenchman, Joseph-Marie Jacquard builds a loom that weaves by reading punched holes stored on small sheets of hardwood. These plates are then inserted into the loom which reads (retrieves) the pattern and creates(process) the weave. Powered by water, this "machine" came 140 years before the development of the modern computer.
What is an Abacus?
Article about the abacus, picture of abacus, the salamis table, counting boards, the chinese abacus, where to buy an abacus, and the history and origins of the abacus, and related links for further study. The abacus was one of the earliest counting devices in Asia and parts of Europe. It is still used today for arithmetic: adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Go and get your U560 UMPC!
Looking for UMPC! Then simply go for the easy-to-carry Amtek. Small size is one of its major highlights. Recently, at Computex the U560 prototype has been displayed. It was simply outstanding and eye-catching.
This flip-up UMPC features a full Side-kick, such as QWERTY which is installed under the closed screen. Other key features include a 1.3-megpaixel camera, 3600mAh battery. It also runs Windows Vista. In accordance with version, processor varies. For Instance, it has both the Intel 600MHz and 800Mhz processor.
So, what are you waiting for? Just go ahead and buy it! This amazing UMPC would surely make your gadget’s collection worthwhile!
This flip-up UMPC features a full Side-kick, such as QWERTY which is installed under the closed screen. Other key features include a 1.3-megpaixel camera, 3600mAh battery. It also runs Windows Vista. In accordance with version, processor varies. For Instance, it has both the Intel 600MHz and 800Mhz processor.
So, what are you waiting for? Just go ahead and buy it! This amazing UMPC would surely make your gadget’s collection worthwhile!
Fujitsu FMV-U8240
Fortunate for Akihabara News because they have passed their three days with the Fujitsu FMV-U8240 and fell in love with the majority of the characteristics on this ultra portable PC. They claimed to have made out that the Fujitsu FMV-U8240 in actual fact stood out with the CPU, performance, weight and LED keyboard however the screen rotation and touch screen instead of making, mar the device.
Though they preferred the FMV-U8240 on the whole they also kept on saying that it did not pile up the same as the Sony Vaio UX series portable PC. Battery life is a somewhat below par 2.5 to 3.5 hours of real world usage.
Besides the reviewer had tribulations with the swivel screen and the touchscreen: it is expected that these are pre-production tribulations. And at $1,190-$1,360, a piece, which is hinging on configuration, would be hoped so either. If still you are not satisfied with the writ-up above, below is the link that will land you to the full review of the Fujitsu FMV-U8240 and nice High definition videos of the device
Toshiba’s Satellite TXW Dynabook
Toshiba has announced to introduce another notebook known as TXW in its Dynabook collection. This Toshiba’s Satellite TXW Dynabook notebook sports 15.4-inch display with 1,280×800 resolution, 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7400 processor, Nvidia GeForce Go 7600 graphics card, 256MB memory, max 2GB RAM, 120GB hard drive, dual layer DVD super multi drive and a Vista Home Premium. Four USB ports with 802.11b/g wireless, IEEE, Ethernet and stereo speakers are also included.
The corporation has also introduced moderately cheap version of this laptop that comes equipped with 1.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5500 / 1.86GHz Intel Celeron M 440 processor, 120GB hard drive, 1GB memory and for this you only have to shell somewhere around $1,115 to $1,384 whereas to get superior model like TXW you have to shell from $1,839 to $2,049.Via: Pclaunches
Raon Digital swaps in Everun UMPC
That is why, I love Engadget, and obviously it deserves our love as it has all the latest and greatest news, views and blogs. Today also it has come first with the details of the new successor from the Raon Digital Vega, the Everun, which has just been rolled out, once again with a unique approach to design, which is a out of the ordinary keyboard that makes it look as if some sort of fancy medical or military device.
Anyway the rumor is fully rife and I too have confirmed its existence on the Internet, so don’t get confused. With a name like that, the Everun is making a battery life claim: 7 hours, in actual fact, which is almost double several of its rivals. And I think this has been made possible, conceivably, by picking of a slow and low-power Geode 600MHz CPU.
Apart from all that it features hard-drive and flash-based options and is consisted with a 4.8″ 800×480 screen, WiFi, Bluetooth and built-in HSDPA cellular networking. It weighs 1.1 lbs (500g). No word on its pricing but is most likely to be delivered in middle of July.
Now let’s take a look at some of its great specs:
XPS m1330
Apparently, we might see a new Dell ultraportable anytime soon. The specs and the looks of the new XPS m1330 are fairly impressive. The 13.3-inch lappy comes equipped with an optional LED backlit LCD boasting a brightness of 300cd/m2. Other salient features include Core 2 Duo processors of up to 2.4GHz, Santa Rosa chip, up to 4GB DDR2 SDRAM. You can either opt for a 32GB SSD drive or a 250GB HDD. Ethernet, 802.11a, a/g/ n and Bluetooth inclusion takes care of the connectivity issues.
Other on-board specs include a slot-loading DVD burner, an integrated 2MP webcam, HDMI and VGA connectors, a 128MB GeForce Go 8400M GS card and a biometric scanner. The machine will weigh 4 pounds. That’s a bit bulky to sport the word ‘ultraportable.’
Other on-board specs include a slot-loading DVD burner, an integrated 2MP webcam, HDMI and VGA connectors, a 128MB GeForce Go 8400M GS card and a biometric scanner. The machine will weigh 4 pounds. That’s a bit bulky to sport the word ‘ultraportable.’
VIA NanoBook UMD based Everex’s CE260 ultra-mobile device
Another new ultra-mobile device by Everex called CE260 that will soon hit our market shelves. Now, let’s move forward to catch that what all goodies this new device encompass in it.
The clamshell designed CE620 is based on VIA’s NanoBook ultra-mobile device reference design and sports a 7-inch 840-by-480 resolution screen with touch panel. It is powered by VIA C7-M processor and weighs less than 1.87 lbs.
Its battery life is up to five hours but no info about price and availability
The clamshell designed CE620 is based on VIA’s NanoBook ultra-mobile device reference design and sports a 7-inch 840-by-480 resolution screen with touch panel. It is powered by VIA C7-M processor and weighs less than 1.87 lbs.
Its battery life is up to five hours but no info about price and availability
Intel's latest UMPC Erath exhibited at Computex
It is good to hear that Intel has finally leaked its UMPC Erath at Computex 2007. This sensitive device comes with only 5.6″ display that swivels to offer you a landscape orientation especially when you view Word document and Excel spreadsheets in this undersized screen size.
As far as concerned about its battery life it is reported as prolonged with the help of Intel’s new low power architecture silicon inside.
It also comes with a QWERTY keyboard, the only information I have about it right now but I think it is for sure that this compact device will carry touch sensitive display to navigate through Windows but no info about price and accessibility; we will surely keep you posted.
As far as concerned about its battery life it is reported as prolonged with the help of Intel’s new low power architecture silicon inside.
It also comes with a QWERTY keyboard, the only information I have about it right now but I think it is for sure that this compact device will carry touch sensitive display to navigate through Windows but no info about price and accessibility; we will surely keep you posted.
Panasonic R6 Jet Black ultraportable with waterproof keyboard
Festooned in an all matte black finish and featuring a 10.4-inch screen, the R6 Jet Black is the latest ultraportable from the house of Panasonic. The innards of the R6 Jet black touts a 1.06GHZ ultra-low voltage Core 2 Duo processor, 1GB RAM, 160 GB hard disk drive, and a 1,024 x 768 XGA screen. At a weight of 940 grams, the ultraportable also has the 802.11 a/b/g WiFi, Ethernet, and two USB 2.0 ports. And yes, its keyboard is waterproof. Beginning July 13, the Jet Black ultraportable can be seen on the Japanese shelves with a price tag of 239,450 Yen
Samwell intros semi-rugged UMPC Ruggedbook 657
This Samwell’s RuggedBook 657 UMPC runs on Windows XP and uses VIA C7M 1.2GHz processor, 512MB RAM (max 1GB), integrated CD card with 2GB, 4GB or 8GB capacity or you can also go for 30GB, 60GB or 80GB 1.8-inch hard drive.
Some other specs of this compact device includes WiFi 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity, CMOS webcam, an optional fingerprint sensor and DVB-H TV tuner or GPS module. It also comes equipped with SD slot that also sports SD-IO and MMC cards.
However, the company has not made any comments on the price and the availability of this amazing device.
Some other specs of this compact device includes WiFi 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity, CMOS webcam, an optional fingerprint sensor and DVB-H TV tuner or GPS module. It also comes equipped with SD slot that also sports SD-IO and MMC cards.
However, the company has not made any comments on the price and the availability of this amazing device.
NC Digitech announces new notebook MEGABOOK L745X-206K
I guess this is a month of notebooks. There is launch of wide array of notebooks everyday. Joining the bandwagon is the MEGABOOK L745X-206K from Korean company NC Digitech.
Notebook looks really stylish in terms of design, especially a 17 inches WXGA monitor (1440×900). According to report, it is powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo T2350 processor, 1GB of RAM, Nvidia GeForce 7600 graphics with 256MB VRAM and a 120GB hard drive. In addition, this latest offering from NC Digitech also has a DVD-Multi burner, a 1.3 Megapixel webcam and a 4-in-1 card reader. Though, company has not given any information on price as yet but feature wise this notebook looks ok to me.
Notebook looks really stylish in terms of design, especially a 17 inches WXGA monitor (1440×900). According to report, it is powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo T2350 processor, 1GB of RAM, Nvidia GeForce 7600 graphics with 256MB VRAM and a 120GB hard drive. In addition, this latest offering from NC Digitech also has a DVD-Multi burner, a 1.3 Megapixel webcam and a 4-in-1 card reader. Though, company has not given any information on price as yet but feature wise this notebook looks ok to me.
Computing System
The next "personal computer" out of the gate was the IBM 5110 Computing System, announced by GSD in January 1978. Unlike the 5100 — which met the needs of professional and scientific problem-solvers — the 5110 was offered as a full-function computer to virtually all business and industry. Using new system and programs, a business could use the 5110 to automate such applications as general ledger and accounts payable. In addition, the 5110 system could be programmed to provide a variety of reports to help management analyze sales, schedule resources, reduce inventory cost and plan future growth.The 5110 featured a desktop unit, which housed a central processing unit, a keyboard and a 1,024-character display screen. Main memory held 16K, 32K, 48K or 64K bytes of data, depending on the unit. Offering either magnetic tape or diskette storage, the Model 1 could store as much as 204,000 bytes of information per tape cartridge or 1.2 million bytes on a single diskette; the Model 2 allowed only diskette storage. Up to two IBM 5114 diskette units, each housing a minimum of two diskette drives, could be attached to the 5110 for a total online diskette capacity of 4.8 million bytes.
Shown in the view above (from left) are the IBM 5103 printer, the 5114 diskette unit (the large box on the bottom), the 5106 auxiliary tape unit (the small box on the top) and the processing unit.
Within a week of its January 10 announcement, several hundred orders had already been received for the 5110. The first 5110 was shipped from the GSD's Rochester, Minn., plant on February 2, 1978, to Punxsutawney Electric Repair Company, a small electrical products distributor in Pennsylvania. The customer used the 5110 for billing, inventory control, accounts receivable and sales analysis. Citing the easy use of his new system, Jeff Grube, vice president of Punxsutawney Electric Repair, said: "If you can type and use a hand-held calculator, you have all the skills necessary to operate a 5110."
IBM System/23 Datamaster
Announced by GSD in July 1981 — one month before the IBM Personal Computer — the System/23 Datamaster was another demonstration of IBM's efforts to shrink the size and cost of computing. The new system combined word processing and data processing in a machine to give small businesses the big benefits of information processing.With a viewing screen, keyboard and diskette drives packaged in a single desktop console, the Datamaster was designed to be taken out of the carton, set up, checked out and operated by first-time users. It offered a choice of two printers, up to 4.4 megabytes of diskette storage, along with Business Management Accounting and Word Processing programming.
The IBM System/23 Datamaster could include two computer workstations (as shown above), which permitted two people to use the system simultaneously. Datamaster could be used for a wide variety of commercial applications in both small businesses and larger companies with standalone data processing needs within departments.
A full-function data processing installation, with a single computer workstation and an 80 character-per-second printer, cost $9,830, making Datamaster IBM's lowest-priced small business system. The cost of the word processing option, with associated hardware and software, ranged from $1,100 to $2,200.
IBM 5100 Portable Computer
Weighing approximately 50 pounds and sized slightly larger than an IBM typewriter, the 5100 Portable Computer was announced by the company's General Systems Division (GSD) in September 1975. The Portable Computer was intended to put computer capabilities at the fingertips of engineers, analysts, statisticians and other problem-solvers. Available in 12 models providing 16K, 32K, 48K or 64K positions of main storage, the 5100 sold for between $8,975 and $19,975. The 5100 was available with either APL or BASIC — or both — programming languages.If the size and weight of the 5100 seems huge by today's standards, then the Portable Computer was very slender compared to a late-1960's IBM computer with the equivalent capability. Such a machine would have been nearly as large as two desks and would have weighed about half a ton.
IBM Personal Computer
Before the beginning: Ancestors of the IBM Personal Computer
In the beginning, there was the IBM Personal Computer
In the beginning, there was the IBM Personal Computer
Well, not really.
Although IBM's launch of the Personal Computer (IBM 5150) in 1981 set the industry standard for personal computing, IBM had introduced a variety of small computers for individual users several years before that. So while now is certainly an appropriate moment to salute the legendary IBM PC on its 20th birthday, it's also a good time to take a brief look back at some of the pioneering IBM products that immediately preceded it.
One of the earliest IBM attempts to move computing into the hands of single users was the "SCAMP" project in 1973. This six-month development effort by the company's General Systems Division (GSD) produced a prototype device dubbed "Special Computer, APL Machine Portable" (SCAMP) that PC Magazine in 1983 called a "revolutionary concept" and "the world's first personal computer." To build the prototype in the short half-year allowed, its creators acquired off-the-shelf materials for major components. SCAMP could be used as a desktop calculator, an interactive APL programming device and as a "dispenser" of canned applications. The successful demonstration of the prototype in 1973 led to the launch of the IBM 5100 Portable Computer two years later.
Studio XPS
Dell's premier desktop PCs are designed for performance and include distinctive designs, premium materials, and XPS Support.
Studio
Stylish desktop designs and state-of-the-art technologies to make multimedia entertainment more affordable than ever.
Inspiron
Fully expandable, fully customizable desktop designed for essential tasks and available with advanced technology options.
Lighten Up
Introducing the InspironTM 11z, DellTM s newest thin and light Inspiron laptop.
Easily travels by your side, weighing approximately 3 lbs.1 and measuring only 1" thin.
Experience true mobility with Intel’s ultra-low-voltage processors.
Store your memories as soon as they unfold with a 250GB2 hard drive.
Internal optical drive not included; external optical drive optional.
Easily travels by your side, weighing approximately 3 lbs.1 and measuring only 1" thin.
Experience true mobility with Intel’s ultra-low-voltage processors.
Store your memories as soon as they unfold with a 250GB2 hard drive.
Internal optical drive not included; external optical drive optional.
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