Evolution of Computer Technology - Essay Example

Evolution of Computer Technology Our present computer technology is about 50 years old now. In this short span, numerous advances and innovations have been made that computer technology has become an indispensable tool in the modern way of life. In the years before the 1980s, computer research and development had been largely dependent on the US government’s usage. During these times computer systems were enormous and expensive. But this changed with the introduction of microprocessors that enabled high performance in computing in a low-cost and small desktop system. This has revolutionized the computer industry paving the way for the development of computer systems that is driven by technology- and marketing concerns. Because of this the computer industry continues to expand and innovate and its products, evolve rapidly to accommodate the demands of the market. This paper will examine the development of computer technology – its rapid evolution – today. Specifically, this examination will focus on the improvement of system performance through the development of RISC, pipelining, cache memory and virtual memory in the past twenty-five years. Pipelining and Superscaler The importance of the computer system lies in its capacity to efficiently speed up processes. This is the reason why performance takes precedence in computer design and analysis. The Reduced Instruction Set Computer or RISC is one of the design principles that have been developed to this end. One of the simplest ways to achieve high performance in computers is through pipelining. The basic idea behind this concept is to overlap instruction execution to reduce the total time to complete instruction sequence – a method of parallelism in the operation of microprocessor. (Hennessy, Patterson & Arpaci-Dusseau 2007, p. 37) The Stretch computer designed by IBM and released in 1961 was the first computer to employ a lookahead facility (a basic form of instruction pipelining) to pick up code, decode, calculate addresses and fetch operands several instructions in advance. (Anderson 1994, p. 354) Today, all large uniprocessor machines are pipelined to improve performance. The superscaler architecture is a modern form of pipelining in CISMs. A superscalar architecture replicates each of the pipeline stages so that two or more instructions at the same stage of the pipeline can be processed simultaneously. (Anderson, p. 354) Security and Memory Management Another important improvement in modern computer systems is the ability to multitask. In computers, this is about managing more than one program at a time and the ability to switch between them so that one program is waiting for I/O another can run on the CPU. (Carter 2001, p. 51) This process is usually managed by the computer’s operating system (OS). Multitasking performance is central to fast interaction between multiple users and programs on the same computer. Today, it has greatly improved with the introduction of the virtual memory. With this tool, the dilemma posed by the changes that occur in the execution of programs that are closed and restarted during multitasking is addressed. The virtual memory, introduced by IBM, creates a system of memory addresses that is independent of physical memory by setting up a numbering scheme that is typically much larger than physical memory can accommodate. (Walters 2001, p. 141) Here, a memory system management is fundamental because it translates between virtual and physical memory as things are moved back and forth. Multitasking, however, presents additional problems in regard to protection and security. In this environment, programs can corrupt other programs. Without protection, a program could just control another program or process and even write to any location in the memory. Cache Strategies The development of cache strategies has also contributed to the high performance of computers. Cache narrows the gap between the high operational speed of the computing unit and the low input/output data rates of the main memory as it can decrease the time the CPU receives instruction and data. (Haraszti, p. 61) Cache strategies are now developed and employed because a single level of cache may not be sufficient to provide a required system performance. Cache management strategies, wrote Goddard, Brenner and Lyshevski (2003), are based on locality principle wherein spatial (selection of what is brought into the cache) and temporal (selection of what must be removed) localities are embedded. (p. 12) Conclusion RISC, pipelining, cache memory and virtual memory – these are areas that determine the capabilities, performance, and, ultimately, the success of a computer system. These areas have received tremendous focus and attention in recent years and they undoubtedly would dramatically affect the future computer systems. As mentioned elsewhere in this paper, since the 1980s the development and design of computer systems have been technology and market driven. Where it previously accommodated the requirements of the US government, today it must meet the needs of individuals – from students to businessmen, from writers to computer gamers, from creative to techies. Two important considerations have so far stood out in shaping the evolution of computer systems during these past twenty years – mobility and speed. The design and development of RISC, pipelining, cache memory and virtual memory systems today were mostly geared towards satisfying these two factors. For instance, we have the now ubiquitous IBM’s processor, the Intel Core Duo, which is packed speed and multitasking power in a small chip. Here, to improve data processing a multiple microprocessor core is put within one microprocessor unit, allowing two separate microprocessor core to crunch data separately and increasing the processing capability of the system as a result. (Lee & Shakaff 2008, p. 1529) In particular, the concepts of pipelining and memory management are of interest because it highlights the achievement of computer development in terms of how computer architecture processes today’s media-rich data. In looking closer at the principle and rudiments that make it work, one can appreciate the genius that powers the computer that compliments our needs and expectations. It allows us to see through how size, speed, latency, bandwidth, power consumption, robustness, affordability, and other performance characteristics are achieved. In addition, it allows us to better understand the dynamics behind the networking architecture behind the Internet and the recent development of wireless connectivity. References Anderson, John. (1994). Foundations of Computer Technology. CRC Press. Carter, Jerome. (2001). Electronic Medical Records: A Guide for Clinicians and Administrators. ACP Press. Dorf, Richard. (2006). Sensors, Nanoscience, Biomedical Engineering, and Instruments: Sensors Nanoscience Biomedical Engineering. CRC Press. Goddard, W., Brenner, D. and Lyshevski, S. (2003). Handbook of Nanoscience, Engineering, and Technology. CRC Press. Hennessy, John, Patterson, David and Arpaci-Dusseau, Andrea. (2007). Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach. Morgan Kauffman. Lee, W., & Shakaff, A. (2008, November). “Implementing a Large Data Bus VLIW Microprocessor.” American Journal of Applied Sciences, 5(11), 1528-1534. Retrieved November 26, 2008, from Computers & Applied Sciences Complete database. Walters, Garrison. (2001). The Essential Guide to Computing: The Story of Information Technology. Prentice Hall PTR. Read More