Role of the US Government in the Acceleration of the Advancement of Computers - Essay Example

[Supervisor Role of the US Govt: in the Advancement of Computers This paper will critically analysis the Role of the US Government in the Acceleration of the Advancement of Computrs while understanding the modern computing and evolution of computrs over the period of time. Only one time in a life will a novel invention come about to stroke every aspect of our life. Such a tool that altr the way we go things, live, and play is an extraordinary one, indeed. A mechanism that has made all this and more now exists in nearly every U.S government agency, industry in the U.S. and 1 out of every 2 households. This unbelievable invention is the "computr". The electronic computr has been approximately for over a half-century, but its intimates have been approximately for 2000 years. However, only in the last 4 decades has it changed the American society which resulted from U.S government policies towards the advancements of computrs. From the 1st wooden "abacus" to the latest high-speed "microprocessor chip", the computr has altred nearly every aspect of people's lives for the bettr. The outburst of "World War II" twisted a desperate need for computing capability, particularly for the military. New weapons' systems were created which required trajectory tables and other indispensable data. In 1942, John P. Eckert, John W. Meauchley, and their associates at the "University of Pennsylvania" detrmined to build a high-speed electronic computr to do the job. This machine became recognized as "ENIAC", for "Electrical Numerical Integrator And Calculator". It may well multiply two numbers at the tempo of 300 products per second, by finding the value of each product from a multiplication table stored in its memory. ""ENIAC"" was consequently about 1,000 times quicker than the preceding generation of computrs (Dolotta, 47). "ENIAC" used 18,000 standard vacuum tubes, engaged 1800 square feet of floor space, and used about 180,000 watts of electricity. (Ceruzzi, 36) The input and output was done by punched-card. The "ENIAC" was very complicated to program because one had to fundamentally re-wire it to execute whatever task he required the computr to do. It was, though, well-organized in handling the particular programs for which it had been planned. "ENIAC" is normally accepted as the 1st victorious high-speed electronic digital computr and was used in various applications from 1946 to 1955 (Dolotta, 50). Mathematician John von Neumann was very fascinated in the "ENIAC". In 1945 he undertook a hypothetical study of computation that confirmed that a computr could have a very straightforward and yet be able to perform any kind of computation effectively by means of appropriate programmed control devoid of the need for any changes in hardware. Von Neumann came up with incredible ideas for methods of building and organizing practical, fast computrs. These ideas, which came to be referred to as the stored-program technique, became essential for future generations of high-speed digital computrs and were across the world adopted. The 1st gesture of modern programmed electronic computrs to take benefit of these improvements appeared in 1947. This group incorporated computrs using random access memory (RAM), which is a memory designed to give almost steady access to any particular portion of information. This equipment used punched-card or punched-tape input and output devices and RAM's of thousand-word capability. Physically, they were much more compact than "ENIAC": some were regarding the size of a grand piano and required two thousand five hundred small electron tubes. This was fairly a development over the earlier machines. The 1st generation stored-program computrs required considerable maintenance, usually attained 70% to 80% reliable operation, and were used for 8 to 12 years. Typically, they were programmed directly in machine language, although by the mid-1950s progress had been made in several aspects of advanced programming. This group of machines included "EDVAC "and "UNIVAC ", the 1st commercially available computrs. The "UNIVAC "was developed by John W. Meauchley as well as John Eeckert, Jr. in the 1950's. Together they had formed the Meauchley-Eeckert Computr Corporation, America s 1st computr company in the 1940's. (Ceruzzi, 56) During the development of the "UNIVAC ", they began to run short on funds as well as sold their company to the larger Remington-Rand Corporation. Eventually they built a working "UNIVAC "computr. It was delivered to the U.S. Census Bureau in 1951 where it was used to help tabulate the U.S. population. Near the beginning in the 1950s two important manufacturing discoveries changed the electronic computr meadow. The 1st computrs were made with vacuum tubes, but by the late 1950's computrs were being finished out of transistors, which were slightr, less expensive, more dependable, as well as more efficient. In 1959, Robert Noyce, a physicist at the "Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation", made-up the integrated circuit, a tiny chip of silicon that contained an entire electronic circuit. Gone was the huge, unreliable, but fast machine; at this time computrs began to become more compact, more reliable as well as have additional capacity. These new technical discoveries quickly establish their way into new models of digital computrs. Memory storage capacities improved 800% in commercially obtainable machines by the early 1960s as well as speeds increased by an equally large margin. These machines were very expensive to purchase or to rent as well as were especially expensive to operate because of the cost of hiring programmers to perform the complex operations the computrs ran. Such computrs were typically found in large computr centrs-operated by industry, government, as well as private laboratories--staffed with many programmers as well as support personnel. By 1956, 76 of IBM's large computr mainframes were in use, compared with only 46 "UNIVAC "'s. The trend during the 1970s was, to some extent, away from extremely powerful, centralized computational centrs as well as toward a broader range of applications for less-costly computr systems. Most continuous-process manufacturing, such as petroleum refining as well as electrical-power distribution systems, began using computrs of relatively modest capability for controlling as well as regulating their activities. In the 1960s the programming of applications problems was an obstacle to the self-sufficiency of moderate-sized on-site computr installations, but great advances in applications programming languages removed these obstacles. Applications languages became available for controlling a great range of manufacturing processes, for computr operation of machine tools, as well as for many other tasks. In 1971 Marcian E. Hoff, Jr., an engineer at the Intel Corporation, invented the microprocessor as well as another stage in the development of the computr began. (Ceruzzi, 72) A new revolution in computr hardware was now well under way, involving miniaturization of computr-logic circuitry as well as of component manufacture by what are called large-scale integration techniques. In the 1950s it was realized that 'scaling down' the size of electronic digital computr circuits as well as parts would increase speed as well as efficiency as well as improve performance. However, at that time the manufacturing methods were not good enough to accomplish such a task. About 1960 photo printing of conductive circuit boards to eliminate wiring became highly developed. Then it became possible to build resistors as well as capacitors into the circuitry by photographic means (Ceruzzi, 142). In the 1970s entire assemblies, such as adders, shifting registrs, as well as countrs, became available on tiny chips of silicon. In the 1980s very large scale integration (VLSI), in which hundreds of thousands of transistors are placed on a single chip, became increasingly common. Many companies, some new to the computr field, introduced in the 1970s programmable minicomputrs supplied with software packages. The size-reduction trend continued with the introduction of personal computrs, which are programmable, machines small enough as well as inexpensive enough to be purchased as well as used by individuals. One of the 1st of such machines was introduced in January 1975. Popular Electronics magazine provided plans that would allow any electronics wizard to build his own small, programmable computr for about $380. The computr was called the Altair 8800. Its programming involved pushing buttons as well as flipping switches on the front of the box. It didn't include a monitor or keyboard, as well as its applications were very limited (Ceruzzi, 93). Even though, many orders came in for it as well as several famous owners of computr as well as software manufacturing companies got their start in computing through the Altair. For example, Steve Jobs as well as Steve Wozniak, founders of Apple Computr, built a much cheaper, yet more productive version of the Altair as well as turned their hobby into a business. Aftr the opening of the Altair 8800, the personal computr (PC) industry became a violent battlefield of competition. IBM had been the computr industry typical for well over a half-century. They held their position as the standard when they introduced their 1st personal computr, the IBM Model 60 in 1975. However, the newly formed Apple Computr company was releasing its own personal computr, the Apple II (The Apple I was the 1st computr designed by Jobs as well as Wozniak in Wozniak s garage, which was not produced on a wide scale). Software was needed to run the computrs as well. Microsoft developed a "Microsoft - Disk Operating System" (MS-DOS) for the IBM computr while Apple developed its own software system (Ceruzzi, 107). Because Microsoft had now set the software standard for IBMs, every software manufacturer had to make their software compatible with Microsoft's. This would lead to huge profits for Microsoft. The United States was attributed the title of pioneering the computr. It was not until the early 1970's those nations such as Japan as well as the United Kingdom started utilizing technology of their own for the development of the computr. This resulted in newer components as well as smaller sized computrs. The use as well as operation of computrs had developed into a form that people of average intelligence could handle as well as manipulate without to much ado. When the economies of other nations started to compete with the United States, the computr industry expanded at a great rate. Prices dropped dramatically as well as computrs became more affordable to the average household. Like the invention of the wheel, the computr is here to stay. The operation as well as use of computrs in our present era of the 1990's has become so easy as well as simple that perhaps we may have taken too much for granted. Almost evrything of use in society requires some form of training or education. Many people say that the predecessor to the computr was the typwritr. The typewritr definitely required training as wll as experience in order to operate it at a usable as well as efficient level. Children are bing taught basic computr skills in the classroom in order to prepare them for the future volution of the computr age. The main goal of the computr manufacturers was to make the computr as affordable as possible while increasing speed, reliability, and capacity. Nearly every computr manufacturer accomplished this and computrs popped up everywhere. Computrs were in businesses keeping track of inventories. Computrs were in colleges aiding students in research. Computrs were in laboratories making complex calculations at high speeds for scientists and physicists. The computr had made its mark everywhere in society and built up a huge industry. The U.S government at the initial phase played a very significant role in the development of the computr industry because computr was first developed and designed for the use of military and government agencies but latr due to the policies of government of U.S, the computr found its way in the commercial industry. Despite the fact that U.S government imposed lots of policies over computr giants like IBM, Microsoft etc but the computr industry is a still growing and found new direction due to the advent of Intrnet and network technologies. The future shows potential for the computr industry as well as its technology. The speed of processors is anticipated to double every single year and a half in the coming years. As mechanized techniques are auxiliary perfected the prices of computr systems are expected to gradually fall. On the other hand, since the microprocessor technology will be rising, its higher costs will countrbalance the drop in price of older processors. In other words, the price of a new computing machine will hang about the same rate from year to year, but technology will progressively increase. Since the closing stages of WWII, the computr industry has developed from a standing start into one of the largest and most profitable industries in the United States due to the reforms and policies of U.S Government. It now comprises thousands of firms, making everything from "multi-million" dollar "high-speed supercomputrs" to printout paper and floppy disks. It employs millions of people and generates tens of billions of dollars in sales each year. Definitely, the computr has impacted every aspect of people's lives. It has affected the way people work and play. It has made everyone s life easier by doing difficult work for people. The computr truthfully is one of the most unbelievable inventions in history. Works Cited Paul E. Ceruzzi, A History of Modern Computing - Second edition; The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, England, 2003 Dolotta, T.A. Data Processing: 1940-1985. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1985. Read More