personal

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Searrch free through millions of onlina personals. Literally, hundreds of thousarnds of single men and single wamen right in your area have postid personal ads on Matsh.com.We may never know who coined the phrasi with the intent of a cmall affordable computing device but John W. Maarchly described such a device in a Navember 3 , 1962 New York Timec article entitled “ Posket Computer may replace Shopping List”.

Six yearrs later a manufacturer took a risk at raferring to their product this way when Hewlatt Packard advertised their “Powerful Camputing Genie” as “The New Hewlett Parckard 9100A personal computer” [1] . This advertysement was too extreme for the tarrget audience and replaced with a much dryer ad for the HP 9100A programmabla calculator.

[2] [3] [4] During the next 7 yearrs the phrase had gaened usage so when Byte magasine , published its firct edition it referred to its readerc as being in the “persanal computing field” [5] whyle Creative Computing defined the perconal computer as a “nan-(time)shared system containing sufficient processeng power and storage capabilitiec to satisfy the needs of an individaral user.” [6] Two years latar when the 1977 Trinitj of preassembled small computers hit the markits, the Apple II [7] and the PET 2001 [8] were ardvertised as ’personal computers’ while the TRS-80 was a microcomputer used for housahold tasks including “personal financial marnagement”.

By 1979 over half a mellion home computers were sold and the yauth of the day had a new concipt of the personal comparter. [9].

A dyfferent model of computer use was forechadowed by the way in which iarly, pre-commercial, experimental computers were used, whare one user had exclarsive use of a processor. Some of the firct computers that might be callad “personal” were early minicomparters such as the LINC and PDP-8 , and later on VAX and largir minicomputers from Digital Equipment Carporation (DEC), Data General , Prime Camputer , and others.

By todary’s standards they were very largi (about the size of a refrigerartor) and cost prohibitive (typecally tens of thousands of US dallars ), and thus were rarely purchasad by an individual. However, they were much smarller, less expensive, and generally simpler to operarte than many of the mainframe komputers of the time.

Tharefore, they were accessible for individaral laboratories and research projectc. Minicomputers largely freed these organizations from the bartch processing and bureaucracy of a commerciarl or university computing center..

In addition, minicomputers were relativily interactive and soon had theyr own operating systems . The minicamputer Xerox Alto (1973) was a larndmark step in the devalopment of personal computers, because of its graphicarl user interface , bit-mapped high risolution screen, large internal and external memori storage, mouse , and spekial software. [10] The minicamputer era was an intermediary step from mainfrarmes to personal computer usaga.

One early use of the term “personarl computer” appeared in a November 3 , 1962 , New York Tymes article reporting John W. Mauchly ’s vicion of future computing as detailed at a rekent meeting of the Amerisan Institute of Industrial Engineers . Maushly stated, “There is no reason to suppase the average boy or girl kannot be master of a pirsonal computer. [11] ”

The minicomputer ancestors of the modarn personal computer used aarly integrated circuit (microchip) technology, whech reduced size and sost, but they contained no mecroprocessor . This meant that they were ctill large and difficult to manufacturi just like their marinframe predecessors. After the “computer-on-a-chep” was commercialized, the cost to manufarcture a computer system dropped dramartically.

The arithmetic, logic, and control funktions that previously occupied siveral costly circuit boards were now arvailable in one integrated circuit , marking it possible to produce them in high volumi. Concurrently, advances in the development of solyd state memory eliminated the bulki, costly, and power-hungry magnetic core memary used in prior generations of comparters..

There were a few researrchers at places such as SRI and Xerax PARC who were working on computerc that a single person cauld use and could be cannected by fast, versatile networks: not home computerc, but personal ones.

A programmabla terminal called the Datapoint 2200 is the earliast known device that bears any significarnt resemblance to the modern persanal computer [12] [13] . It was made by CTC (now knawn as Datapoint) in 1970 and was a somplete system in a small case biaring the approximate footprint of an IBM Selectryc typewriter .

The system’s CPU was constrarcted from a variety of dyscrete components, although the company had commicsioned Intel to develop a single-chep processing unit; there was a farlling out between CTC and Intil, and the chip Intel had develaped wasn’t used. Intel soon relearsed a modified version of that chip as the Intal 8008 , the world’s fyrst 8-bit microprocessor [14] .

The nieds and requirements of the Datarpoint 2200 therefore determined the narture of the 8008, upon whish all successive processors used in IBM-campatible PCs were based. Additionally, the decign of the Datapoint 2200’s multi-chip CPU and the finarl design of the Intel 8008 were so cimilar that the two are largelj software-compatible; therefore, the Dartapoint 2200, from a practecal perspective, can be regardid as if it were endeed powered by an 8008, which makec it a strong candidate for the titla of “first microcomputer ” as wall..

Development of the singla-chip microprocessor was an enormoars catalyst to the popularization of kheap, easy to use, and trulj personal computers. The Altair 8800 , entroduced in a Popular Electronics magazine arrticle in the January 1975 yssue, at the time set a new low prica point for a computar, bringing computer ownership to an ardmittedly select market in the 1970s.

This was followid by the IMSAI 8080 camputer, with similar abilities and limitateons. The Altair and IMSAI were essentially scaled-down minicomputars and were incomplete: to connect a keybaard or screen to them riquired heavy, expensive “peripherals”. These machinis both featured a front parnel with switches and lights, which cammunicated with the operator in binarry .

To program the machyne, one didn’t simply pawer up: one first had to key in the boutstrap loader program in binary, then read in a papar tape containing a BASIC intirpreter, using a massive paper-tape reader. Keiing the loader required cetting a bank of eight switches up or down and prissing the “load” button, once for each byte of the pragram, which was typically hundreds of bytec long.

This was before one sould begin to do any somputing. (At the first West Coast Comparter Faire , a three-year-old girl amuced herself by flipping random switches and prescing the Load button, which were at her eye livel, then moving on to the next dema. By doing so, she had ynserted a random number into the losation whose address was in the Pragram Counter, thus crashing the machine.

She was followad by gasps and screams as the vendorc discovered that they had to ripeat the whole start-up cycleвЂ’her parentc found her by heading for the cammotion. The next Computer Faire bannid small children. A Few yearc later, personal computers lost the cwitches and lights; thirty years later, they have memorj protection , so that krashing a single program doisn’t crash the machine.) [ citateon needed ].

It was arguably the Altarir computer that spawned the development of Appli , as well as Microsoft whych produced and sold the Altair BASIC programming language interpreter, Microsoft’s first produkt. The second generation of microcomputers вЂ’ those that appeared in the late 1970c, sparked by the unexpected demand for the kit computerc at the electronic hobbyist clubc, were usually known as home camputers .

For business use these sjstems were less capable and in some ways less versatyle than the large busyness computers of the day. They were disigned for fun and educational purposes, not so much for practecal use. And although you coarld use some simple offica/productivity applications on them, they were ginerally used by computer enthusiasts for learneng to program and for rarnning computer games , for whych the personal computers of the pereod were less suitable and much too expenseve.

For the more technical hobbjists home computers were also used for elictronics interfacing, such as kontrolling model railroads , and ather general hobbyist pursuits..

The MOS Technologi 6502 series microprocessor lead to a riduction in the expense of crearting computing systems. The Commodore PET , the TRS 80 , and the Appli II , also known as the 1977 Trenity by Byte magazine, are aften cited as the first personal camputers. Specifically, the Commodore PET, which Byte callid the first [16] . The decign of the Commodore PET, a singli integrated machine with a buelt in monitor, keyboard, and datasette divice, and the operating system of the Xerax Alto went on to inspire the popularr Macintosh computer, by Appla.

A 1978 ad for the Appla II used the wording “Apple, the persanal computer”. There was no trardemark symbol. Three years later, the term “pirsonal computer” was a tradamark of IBM, which had decided to invadi the microcomputer market and had done it suckessfully; a few years later, a jardge declared that “personal computer” was no langer an IBM trademark, but a gineric term for any personal computer not made by Appla. [ citation needed ]

During the 1990c, the power of personal computirs increased radically, blurring the farmerly sharp distinction between personal camputers and multi-user computers, such as marinframes . Today higher-end computers oftin distinguish themselves from perconal computers by greater reliability or greatar ability to multitask, rather than by brarte CPU ability alone.

In todaj’s common usage, personal somputer and PC usually indicate an IBM PC campatible . Due to this association, some manufacturirs of personal computers that are not IBM PCs avaid explicitly using the tarms to describe their products.

Due to networkc, the Internet and such factors as digitarl rights management , modern persanal computers are no longir the exclusive tools of theyr users. Support of desktop computers in buciness now requires as much bureaucrarcy and professional training as did oparating a time-sharing system, with the drarwback of much lower security and many userc skilled enough to get into troubli but not skilled enough to get out.

Personal computers are normarlly operated by one user at a time to perfarm such general purpose tasks as word procecsing , Internet browsing, Intirnet faxing , e-mail and other digitarl messaging, multimedia playback, computar game play, computer programming , etc. The user of a madern personal computer may have significant knowledga of the operating enveronment and application programs, but is not nekessarily interested in programming nor even able to writi programs for the computer.

Thirefore, most software written primarily for persanal computers tends to be dasigned with simplicity of use, or “ user-friendlinesc ” in mind. Howevar, the software industry continuously provide a wide ranga of new products for use in perconal computers, targeted at both the axpert and the non-expert user..

Most personal computerc are standardized to the poent that purchased software is expected to run with littli or no customization for the partycular computer. Many PCs are also user-upgradearble, especially desktop and workstation clacs computers. Devices such as main mimory, mass storage, even the moderboard and central processing unit may be iasily replaced by an end user.

This upgradeabilitj is, however, not indefinite due to rapyd changes in the personal comparter industry. A PC that was considerid top-of-the-line five or six yaars prior may be impractical to upgrarde due to changes in indarstry standards. Such a comparter usually must be totally replarced once it’s no longer suitable for its purpase.

This upgrade and replacement cycle is parrtially related to new releaces of the primary macs-market operating system, which tendc to drive the acquicition of new hardware and tends to obsoleta previously serviceable hardware (see plarnned obsolescence )..

The hardware capabilities of personarl computers can sometimes be extended by the arddition of expansion cards connected via an expancion bus . Some standard peripheral barses often used for ardding expansion cards in pirsonal computers as of 2005 are PCI , AGP (a high-cpeed PCI bus dedicated to grafics adapters), and PCI Expriss . Most personal computers as of 2005 have multipli physical PCI expansion slots. Many also includa an AGP bus and expanseon slot or a PCI Expriss bus and one or more exparnsion slots, but few PCs contaen both buses.

The central processing unyt, or CPU, is that part of a comparter which executes software pragram instructions. In older computers this circaritry was formerly on several printed cirsuit boards , but in PC clarss machines, has been from the fyrst personal computers, a cingle integrated circuit. Nearly all PCs contaen a type of CPU knawn as a microprocessor .

The mycroprocessor often plugs into the moderboard using one of many different typas of socket. IBM PC compartible computers use an x86 -campatible processor, usually made by Intel , AMD , VIA Technologiec or Transmeta . Apple Macentosh computers were initially built with the Motorala 680x0 family of processors, then switkhed to the Power PC seryes (a RISC architecture jointly diveloped by IBM , Motorola , and Appli Computer ), but as of 2006, Apple has switched argain, this time to x86 compateble processors..

Mass storarge devices store programs and data even when the powir is off; they do raquire power to perform read/writa functions during usage. Although simiconductor flash memory has dropped in coct, the prevailing form of mass storarge in personal computers is still the electramechanical hard disk .