Personal Computer Hardware
This was helpful in understanding the inner workings of the computer. I learned all of this back in junior high, but it has faded since then.
Moore's Law
Now this was something I had never heard of before. I found it interesting that the law became a self fulfilling prophesy as manufacturers strove to fulfill the expectations of increase in processing power. I wonder if we would have made the same amount of progress without this law - would manufacturers have worked so hard and been so competitive otherwise? And the predictions for how long it's going to last are so varied - will we have a decade longer to grow or will it be hundreds of years? It will be fun to find out.
Computer History Museum
I wasn't sure what I was supposed to read as the link took me to the general website so I just poked around a bit and read about some of the different exhibits on computer history. I particularly like the "This Day in History" for today - in 1980 the last STRETCH supercomputer was shut down. I also liked the section on the advances in computer chess from 1945 to 1997 when Deep Blue defeated the World Champion Chess Player.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Re: Computer History Museum
ReplyDeleteI also didn’t know what we were supposed to do with the Computer History Museum link but figured that it was something extra to give us insight about the abundant history of the computer, even though, in terms of other possible museum attractions, it is still a rather recent idea.
While I’m not a very technologically savvy person, I would be really interested in visiting this museum someday to see the organization and displays of the exhibits. I also think that their exhibit on the history of computer chess is interesting in terms of learning how the computer advances its capabilities over time to with a human in a competitive game. I liked how the museum made photographs and videos available online for this and other exhibits. My favorite part of the website was the ability to search the Museum Collection archive. I specifically enjoyed the marketing brochures collection of the early technology.
You know, I didn't notice that portion of the website. I'll have to check it out now - thanks for mentioning it!
ReplyDeleteI didn't notice the section of the Computer History Museum on Deep Blue. I'll have to go check that out. I took a class as an undergrad on computational thinking, and we looked at the match between Deep Blue and Garry Kasparov, and at what would be required for a computer to perform at that level. I think it's really interesting to look at the type of thinking that humans do compared to what computers do. They're astoundingly different, and both impressive in their own way. Hopefully in the robot apocalypse we'll come out on top!
ReplyDelete