1.
Microsoft
–
Its best known software products are the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, Microsoft Office office suite, and Internet Explorer and Edge web browsers. Its flagship hardware products are the Xbox video game consoles and the Microsoft Surface tablet lineup, as of 2016, it was the worlds largest software maker by revenue, and one of the worlds most valuable companies. Microsoft was founded by Paul Allen and Bill Gates on April 4,1975, to develop and it rose to dominate the personal computer operating system market with MS-DOS in the mid-1980s, followed by Microsoft Windows. The companys 1986 initial public offering, and subsequent rise in its share price, since the 1990s, it has increasingly diversified from the operating system market and has made a number of corporate acquisitions. In May 2011, Microsoft acquired Skype Technologies for $8.5 billion, in June 2012, Microsoft entered the personal computer production market for the first time, with the launch of the Microsoft Surface, a line of tablet computers. The word Microsoft is a portmanteau of microcomputer and software, Paul Allen and Bill Gates, childhood friends with a passion for computer programming, sought to make a successful business utilizing their shared skills. In 1972 they founded their first company, named Traf-O-Data, which offered a computer that tracked and analyzed automobile traffic data. Allen went on to pursue a degree in science at Washington State University. The January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics featured Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systemss Altair 8800 microcomputer, Allen suggested that they could program a BASIC interpreter for the device, after a call from Gates claiming to have a working interpreter, MITS requested a demonstration. Since they didnt actually have one, Allen worked on a simulator for the Altair while Gates developed the interpreter and they officially established Microsoft on April 4,1975, with Gates as the CEO. Allen came up with the name of Micro-Soft, as recounted in a 1995 Fortune magazine article. In August 1977 the company formed an agreement with ASCII Magazine in Japan, resulting in its first international office, the company moved to a new home in Bellevue, Washington in January 1979. Microsoft entered the OS business in 1980 with its own version of Unix, however, it was MS-DOS that solidified the companys dominance. For this deal, Microsoft purchased a CP/M clone called 86-DOS from Seattle Computer Products, branding it as MS-DOS, following the release of the IBM PC in August 1981, Microsoft retained ownership of MS-DOS. Since IBM copyrighted the IBM PC BIOS, other companies had to engineer it in order for non-IBM hardware to run as IBM PC compatibles. Due to various factors, such as MS-DOSs available software selection, the company expanded into new markets with the release of the Microsoft Mouse in 1983, as well as with a publishing division named Microsoft Press. Paul Allen resigned from Microsoft in 1983 after developing Hodgkins disease, while jointly developing a new OS with IBM in 1984, OS/2, Microsoft released Microsoft Windows, a graphical extension for MS-DOS, on November 20,1985. Once Microsoft informed IBM of NT, the OS/2 partnership deteriorated, in 1990, Microsoft introduced its office suite, Microsoft Office
2.
Microsoft Surface
–
Microsoft Surface is a series of touchscreen Windows personal computers and interactive whiteboards designed and developed by Microsoft. The devices are manufactured by Pegatron and are designed to be devices that set examples to Windows OEMs. It comprises four generations of hybrid tablets, 2-in-1 detachable notebooks, a convertible desktop all-in-one, an interactive whiteboard, with the exception of the first-generation Surface and Surface 2, all Surface PCs use Intel processors and are compatible with Microsofts Windows 10 operating system. The Surface family features five lines of devices, The Surface line of hybrid tablets, with optional detachable keyboard accessories. The latest model, the Surface 3, uses an Intel Atom SoC processor, the Surface Pro line of professional hybrid tablets, use similar optional detachable keyboard accessories. The latest Surface Pro 4 uses a 6th generation Intel Core i Series processors, the Surface Book, a notebook with a detachable screen. The base is configurable with/without discrete graphics and an independently operable screen with support for the included stylus, the Surface Studio, a 28-inch all-in-one desktop that adjusts into a digital drafting table with stylus and on-screen Surface Dial support. The Surface Hub, a screen interactive whiteboard designed for collaboration. The 2012 Surface tablet launched alongside the general availability release of Windows 8 on October 26,2012, Surface Pro became available on February 9,2013. Surface devices were available only at Microsoft Stores and online. According to then Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, the spot for the bulk of the PC market was $300 to $800. On October 16, the pricing was revealed for the Surface, in November 2012, Steve Ballmer described the distribution approach to Surface as modest. On November 29,2012, Microsoft revealed the pricing for the two versions of Surface with Windows 8 Pro, the tablet would go on sale on February 9,2013, in the United States and Canada. A launch event was set to be held on February 8,2013, the 128GB version of the tablet sold out on the same day as its release. There was less demand for the 64GB version, because of the smaller available storage capacity. On September 23,2013, Microsoft announced the Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2, the Surface 2 launched October 22,2013, alongside the Surface Pro 2, four days after the general availability of Windows 8.1. Later, Microsoft launched a variation of the Surface 2 with LTE connectivity for the AT&T network on March 18,2014, Microsoft then announced the redesigned Surface Pro 3 on May 20,2014, which went on sale on June 20,2014. The following year, on March 30,2015, it announced the Surface 3, a more compact version of the Surface Pro 3
3.
Central processing unit
–
The computer industry has used the term central processing unit at least since the early 1960s. The form, design and implementation of CPUs have changed over the course of their history, most modern CPUs are microprocessors, meaning they are contained on a single integrated circuit chip. An IC that contains a CPU may also contain memory, peripheral interfaces, some computers employ a multi-core processor, which is a single chip containing two or more CPUs called cores, in that context, one can speak of such single chips as sockets. Array processors or vector processors have multiple processors that operate in parallel, there also exists the concept of virtual CPUs which are an abstraction of dynamical aggregated computational resources. Early computers such as the ENIAC had to be rewired to perform different tasks. Since the term CPU is generally defined as a device for software execution, the idea of a stored-program computer was already present in the design of J. Presper Eckert and John William Mauchlys ENIAC, but was initially omitted so that it could be finished sooner. On June 30,1945, before ENIAC was made, mathematician John von Neumann distributed the paper entitled First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC and it was the outline of a stored-program computer that would eventually be completed in August 1949. EDVAC was designed to perform a number of instructions of various types. Significantly, the programs written for EDVAC were to be stored in high-speed computer memory rather than specified by the wiring of the computer. This overcame a severe limitation of ENIAC, which was the considerable time, with von Neumanns design, the program that EDVAC ran could be changed simply by changing the contents of the memory. Early CPUs were custom designs used as part of a larger, however, this method of designing custom CPUs for a particular application has largely given way to the development of multi-purpose processors produced in large quantities. This standardization began in the era of discrete transistor mainframes and minicomputers and has accelerated with the popularization of the integrated circuit. The IC has allowed increasingly complex CPUs to be designed and manufactured to tolerances on the order of nanometers, both the miniaturization and standardization of CPUs have increased the presence of digital devices in modern life far beyond the limited application of dedicated computing machines. Modern microprocessors appear in electronic devices ranging from automobiles to cellphones, the so-called Harvard architecture of the Harvard Mark I, which was completed before EDVAC, also utilized a stored-program design using punched paper tape rather than electronic memory. Relays and vacuum tubes were used as switching elements, a useful computer requires thousands or tens of thousands of switching devices. The overall speed of a system is dependent on the speed of the switches, tube computers like EDVAC tended to average eight hours between failures, whereas relay computers like the Harvard Mark I failed very rarely. In the end, tube-based CPUs became dominant because the significant speed advantages afforded generally outweighed the reliability problems, most of these early synchronous CPUs ran at low clock rates compared to modern microelectronic designs. Clock signal frequencies ranging from 100 kHz to 4 MHz were very common at this time, the design complexity of CPUs increased as various technologies facilitated building smaller and more reliable electronic devices
4.
Random-access memory
–
Random-access memory is a form of computer data storage which stores frequently used program instructions to increase the general speed of a system. A random-access memory device allows data items to be read or written in almost the same amount of time irrespective of the location of data inside the memory. RAM contains multiplexing and demultiplexing circuitry, to connect the lines to the addressed storage for reading or writing the entry. Usually more than one bit of storage is accessed by the same address, in todays technology, random-access memory takes the form of integrated circuits. RAM is normally associated with types of memory, where stored information is lost if power is removed. Other types of non-volatile memories exist that allow access for read operations. These include most types of ROM and a type of memory called NOR-Flash. Integrated-circuit RAM chips came into the market in the early 1970s, with the first commercially available DRAM chip, early computers used relays, mechanical counters or delay lines for main memory functions. Ultrasonic delay lines could only reproduce data in the order it was written, drum memory could be expanded at relatively low cost but efficient retrieval of memory items required knowledge of the physical layout of the drum to optimize speed. Latches built out of vacuum tube triodes, and later, out of transistors, were used for smaller and faster memories such as registers. Such registers were relatively large and too costly to use for large amounts of data, the first practical form of random-access memory was the Williams tube starting in 1947. It stored data as electrically charged spots on the face of a cathode ray tube, since the electron beam of the CRT could read and write the spots on the tube in any order, memory was random access. The capacity of the Williams tube was a few hundred to around a thousand bits, but it was smaller, faster. In fact, rather than the Williams tube memory being designed for the SSEM, magnetic-core memory was invented in 1947 and developed up until the mid-1970s. It became a form of random-access memory, relying on an array of magnetized rings. By changing the sense of each rings magnetization, data could be stored with one bit stored per ring, since every ring had a combination of address wires to select and read or write it, access to any memory location in any sequence was possible. Magnetic core memory was the form of memory system until displaced by solid-state memory in integrated circuits. Data was stored in the capacitance of each transistor, and had to be periodically refreshed every few milliseconds before the charge could leak away
5.
Solid-state drive
–
A solid-state drive is a solid-state storage device that uses integrated circuit assemblies as memory to store data persistently. SSD technology primarily uses electronic interfaces compatible with traditional block input/output hard disk drives, additionally, new I/O interfaces like SATA Express and M.2 have been designed to address specific requirements of the SSD technology. SSDs have no moving mechanical components and this distinguishes them from traditional electromechanical magnetic disks such as hard disk drives or floppy disks, which contain spinning disks and movable read/write heads. Compared with electromechanical disks, SSDs are typically resistant to physical shock, run silently. However, while the price of SSDs has continued to decline over time, as of 2015, most SSDs use MLC NAND-based flash memory, which is a type of non-volatile memory that retains data when power is lost. For applications requiring fast access but not necessarily data persistence after power loss, such devices may employ batteries as integrated power sources to retain data for a certain amount of time after external power is lost. SSDs had origins in the 1950s with two similar technologies, magnetic core memory and charged capacitor read-only storage and these auxiliary memory units emerged during the era of vacuum-tube computers, though their use ceased with the introduction of cheaper drum storage units. Later, in the 1970s and 1980s, SSDs were implemented in memory for early supercomputers of IBM, Amdahl, and Cray. In the late 1970s, General Instruments produced an electrically alterable ROM which operated somewhat like the later NAND flash memory, unfortunately, a ten-year life was not achievable and many companies abandoned the technology. In 1976, Dataram started selling a product called Bulk Core, in 1978, Texas Memory Systems introduced a 16 kilobyte RAM solid-state drive to be used by oil companies for seismic data acquisition. The following year, StorageTek developed the first RAM solid-state drive, the Sharp PC-5000, introduced in 1983, used 128-kilobyte solid-state storage cartridges containing bubble memory. In 1984, Tallgrass Technologies Corporation had a backup unit of 40 MB with a solid state 20 MB unit built in. The 20 MB unit could be used instead of a hard drive, in September 1986, Santa Clara Systems introduced BatRam, a 4 megabyte mass storage system expandable to 20 MB using 4 MB memory modules. The package included a battery to preserve the memory chip contents when the array was not powered. 1987 saw the entry of EMC Corporation into the SSD market, however, by 1993, EMC had exited the SSD market. Software-based RAM disks remain in use as of 2016 because they are an order of faster than other technology, though they consume CPU resources. In 1989, the Psion MC400 laptop included four slots for removable storage in the form of flash-based solid-state disk cards, in 1991, SanDisk Corporation created a 20 MB solid state drive which sold for around $1,000. In 1994, STEC, Inc. bought Cirrus Logics flash controller operation, in 1995, M-Systems introduced flash-based solid-state drives
6.
Heat pipe
–
A heat pipe is a heat-transfer device that combines the principles of both thermal conductivity and phase transition to efficiently manage the transfer of heat between two solid interfaces. At the hot interface of a pipe a liquid in contact with a thermally conductive solid surface turns into a vapor by absorbing heat from that surface. The vapor then travels along the pipe to the cold interface. The liquid then returns to the hot interface through either capillary action, centrifugal force, or gravity, due to the very high heat transfer coefficients for boiling and condensation, heat pipes are highly effective thermal conductors. The effective thermal conductivity varies with heat pipe length, and can approach 100 kW/ for long heat pipes, in comparison with approximately 0.4 kW/ for copper. A typical heat pipe consists of a pipe or tube made of a material that is compatible with the working fluid such as copper for water heat pipes. Typically, a pump is used to remove the air from the empty heat pipe. The heat pipe is filled with a working fluid and then sealed. The working fluid mass is chosen so that the heat pipe contains both vapor and liquid over the temperature range. Below the operating temperature, the liquid is too cold and cannot vaporize into a gas, above the operating temperature, all the liquid has turned to gas, and the environmental temperature is too high for any of the gas to condense. Whether too high or too low, thermal conduction is still possible through the walls of the heat pipe, the vast majority of heat pipes for room temperature applications use ammonia, alcohol or water as the working fluid. Copper/water heat pipes have an envelope, use water as the working fluid. Water heat pipes are sometimes filled by partially filling with water, heating until the water boils and displaces the air, for the heat pipe to transfer heat, it must contain saturated liquid and its vapor. The saturated liquid vaporizes and travels to the condenser, where it is cooled and turned back to a saturated liquid. In a standard heat pipe, the liquid is returned to the evaporator using a wick structure exerting a capillary action on the liquid phase of the working fluid. Wick structures used in heat pipes include sintered metal powder, screen, and grooved wicks, when the condenser is located above the evaporator in a gravitational field, gravity can return the liquid. In this case, the pipe is a thermosyphon. Finally, rotating heat pipes use centrifugal forces to return liquid from the condenser to the evaporator, the advantage of heat pipes over many other heat-dissipation mechanisms is their great efficiency in transferring heat
7.
Haswell (microarchitecture)
–
Haswell is the codename for a processor microarchitecture developed by Intel as the fourth-generation core successor to the Ivy Bridge microarchitecture. Intel officially announced CPUs based on this microarchitecture on June 4,2013 at Computex Taipei 2013, with Haswell, which uses a 22 nm process, Intel also introduced low-power processors designed for convertible or hybrid ultrabooks, designated by the Y suffix. Haswell CPUs are used in conjunction with the Intel 8 Series chipsets, Intel 9 Series chipsets, the Haswell architecture is specifically designed to optimize the power savings and performance benefits from the move to FinFET transistors on the improved 22 nm process node. Haswell has been launched in three forms, Desktop version, Haswell-DT Mobile/Laptop version, Haswell-MB BGA version,47 W and 57 W TDP classes. All other models have GT3, GT2 or GT1 integrated graphics, see also Intel HD and Iris Graphics for more details. Due to the low power requirements of tablet and UltraBook platforms, Haswell-ULT, native support for dual-channel DDR3 memory, with up to 32 GB of RAM on LGA1150 variants 64 KB L1 cache and 256 KB L2 cache per core A total of 16 PCI Express 3. The instruction decode queue, which holds instructions after they have been decoded, is no longer statically partitioned between the two threads that each core can service, new sockets and chipsets, LGA1150 for desktops, and rPGA947 and BGA1364 for the mobile market. Z97 and H97 chipsets for the Haswell Refresh and Broadwell, in Q22014, LGA 2011-v3 with X99 chipset for the enthusiast-class desktop platform Haswell-E. Intel Transactional Synchronization Extensions for the Haswell-EX variant, hardware graphics support for Direct3D11.1 and OpenGL4.3. Intel 10.18.14.4578 driver is the last planned release on Windows 7/8.1. DDR4 for the enthusiast and enterprise/server segments and for the Enthusiast-Class Desktop Platform Haswell-E Variable Base clock like LGA2011, four versions of the integrated GPU, GT1, GT2, GT3 and GT3e, where GT3 version has 40 execution units. Haswells predecessor, Ivy Bridge, has a maximum of 16 EUs, GT3e version with 40 EUs and on-package 128 MB of embedded DRAM, called Crystalwell, is available only in mobile H-SKUs and desktop R-SKUs. Effectively, this eDRAM is a Level 4 cache, it is shared dynamically between the on-die GPU and CPU, and serving as a cache to the CPUs Level 3 cache. Optional support for Thunderbolt technology and Thunderbolt 2.0 Fully integrated voltage regulator, new advanced power-saving system, due to Haswells new low-power C6 and C7 sleep states, not all power supply units are suitable for computers with Haswell CPUs. 37,47,57 W thermal design power mobile processors,35,45,65,84,88,95 and 130–140 W TDP desktop processors. 15 W TDP processors for the Ultrabook platform leading to reduced heat, which results in thinner as well as lighter Ultrabooks, shrink of the Platform Controller Hub, from 65 nm to 32 nm. Haswell-EP variant, released in September 2014, with up to 18 cores and marketed as the Xeon E5-1600 v3, Haswell-EX variant is expected to be released in 2015, with 18 cores and functioning TSX. Up to 35 MB total unified cache for Haswell-EP and up to 40 MB for Haswell-EX, LGA 2011-v3 socket replaces LGA2011 for the Haswell EP, the new socket has the same number of pins, but it is keyed differently due to electrical incompatibility
8.
Computer fan
–
Generally these are found in axial and sometimes centrifugal forms. The former is called a muffin fan, after the Rotron Muffin line. These components need to be kept within a temperature range to prevent overheating, instability, malfunction. While in earlier personal computers it was possible to cool most components using natural convection, to cool these components, fans are used to move heated air away from the components and draw cooler air over them. Fans attached to components are used in combination with a heatsink to increase the area of heated surface in contact with the air. In the IBM compatible PC market, the power supply unit almost always uses an exhaust fan to expel warm air from the PSU. Active cooling on CPUs started to appear on the Intel 80486, a third vent fan in the side of the PC, often located over the CPU, is also common. The graphics processing unit on most modern graphics cards require a heatsink. In some cases, the chip on the motherboard has another heatsink. Other components such as the drives and RAM may also be actively cooled. It is not uncommon to find five or more fans in a modern PC, used to aerate the case of the computer. The components inside the case cannot dissipate heat efficiently if the air is too hot. Case fans move air through the case, usually drawing cooler air in through the front or bottom. Standard axial case fans are 80,92,120,140,200 and 230 mm in width and length, decorative fans and accessories are popular with case modders. Air filters are used over intake fans, to prevent dust from entering the case. Heatsinks are especially vulnerable to being clogged up, as the effect of the dust will rapidly degrade the heatsinks ability to dissipate heat. While the power supply contains a fan with few exceptions, it is not to be used for case ventilation, the hotter the PSUs intake air is, the hotter the PSU gets. As the PSU temperature rises, the conductivity of its internal components decrease, decreased conductivity means that the PSU will convert more of the input electric energy into thermal energy
9.
Wi-Fi
–
Wi-Fi or WiFi is a technology for wireless local area networking with devices based on the IEEE802.11 standards. Wi-Fi is a trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance, which restricts the use of the term Wi-Fi Certified to products that successfully complete interoperability certification testing. Devices that can use Wi-Fi technology include personal computers, video-game consoles, smartphones, digital cameras, tablet computers, digital audio players, Wi-Fi compatible devices can connect to the Internet via a WLAN network and a wireless access point. Such an access point has a range of about 20 meters indoors, hotspot coverage can be as small as a single room with walls that block radio waves, or as large as many square kilometres achieved by using multiple overlapping access points. Wi-Fi most commonly uses the 2.4 gigahertz UHF and 5 gigahertz SHF ISM radio bands, having no physical connections, it is more vulnerable to attack than wired connections, such as Ethernet. In 1971, ALOHAnet connected the Hawaiian Islands with a UHF wireless packet network, ALOHAnet and the ALOHA protocol were early forerunners to Ethernet, and later the IEEE802.11 protocols, respectively. A1985 ruling by the U. S. Federal Communications Commission released the ISM band for unlicensed use and these frequency bands are the same ones used by equipment such as microwave ovens and are subject to interference. In 1991, NCR Corporation with AT&T Corporation invented the precursor to 802.11, the first wireless products were under the name WaveLAN. They are the credited with inventing Wi-Fi. In 1992 and 1996, CSIRO obtained patents for a method used in Wi-Fi to unsmear the signal. The first version of the 802.11 protocol was released in 1997 and this was updated in 1999 with 802. 11b to permit 11 Mbit/s link speeds, and this proved to be popular. In 1999, the Wi-Fi Alliance formed as an association to hold the Wi-Fi trademark under which most products are sold. Wi-Fi uses a number of patents held by many different organizations. In April 2009,14 technology companies agreed to pay CSIRO $1 billion for infringements on CSIRO patents and this led to Australia labeling Wi-Fi as an Australian invention, though this has been the subject of some controversy. In 2016, the local area network Test Bed was chosen as Australias contribution to the exhibition A History of the World in 100 Objects held in the National Museum of Australia. The name Wi-Fi, commercially used at least as early as August 1999, was coined by the brand-consulting firm Interbrand, the Wi-Fi Alliance had hired Interbrand to create a name that was a little catchier than IEEE802. 11b Direct Sequence. Phil Belanger, a member of the Wi-Fi Alliance who presided over the selection of the name Wi-Fi, has stated that Interbrand invented Wi-Fi as a pun upon the word hi-fi. Interbrand also created the Wi-Fi logo, the yin-yang Wi-Fi logo indicates the certification of a product for interoperability
10.
Bluetooth
–
Bluetooth is a wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances from fixed and mobile devices, and building personal area networks. Invented by telecom vendor Ericsson in 1994, it was conceived as a wireless alternative to RS-232 data cables. It can connect up to seven devices, overcoming problems that older technologies had when attempting to connect to each other. Bluetooth is managed by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, which has more than 30,000 member companies in the areas of telecommunication, computing, networking, the IEEE standardized Bluetooth as IEEE802.15.1, but no longer maintains the standard. The Bluetooth SIG oversees development of the specification, manages the qualification program, a manufacturer must meet Bluetooth SIG standards to market it as a Bluetooth device. A network of patents apply to the technology, which are licensed to individual qualifying devices, the development of the short-link radio technology, later named Bluetooth, was initiated in 1989 by Nils Rydbeck, CTO at Ericsson Mobile in Lund, Sweden, and by Johan Ullman. The purpose was to develop wireless headsets, according to two inventions by Johan Ullman, SE 8902098-6, issued 1989-06-12 and SE9202239, issued 1992-07-24, Nils Rydbeck tasked Tord Wingren with specifying and Jaap Haartsen and Sven Mattisson with developing. Both were working for Ericsson in Lund, the specification is based on frequency-hopping spread spectrum technology. The idea of this name was proposed in 1997 by Jim Kardach who developed a system that would allow mobile phones to communicate with computers, at the time of this proposal he was reading Frans G. Bengtssons historical novel The Long Ships about Vikings and King Harald Bluetooth. The implication is that Bluetooth does the same with communications protocols, the Bluetooth logo is a bind rune merging the Younger Futhark runes and, Haralds initials. Bluetooth operates at frequencies between 2402 and 2480 MHz, or 2400 and 2483.5 MHz including guard bands 2 MHz wide at the end and 3.5 MHz wide at the top. This is in the globally unlicensed Industrial, Scientific and Medical 2.4 GHz short-range radio frequency band, Bluetooth uses a radio technology called frequency-hopping spread spectrum. Bluetooth divides transmitted data into packets, and transmits each packet on one of 79 designated Bluetooth channels, each channel has a bandwidth of 1 MHz. It usually performs 800 hops per second, with Adaptive Frequency-Hopping enabled, Bluetooth low energy uses 2 MHz spacing, which accommodates 40 channels. Originally, Gaussian frequency-shift keying modulation was the modulation scheme available. Since the introduction of Bluetooth 2. 0+EDR, π/4-DQPSK and 8DPSK modulation may also be used between compatible devices, devices functioning with GFSK are said to be operating in basic rate mode where an instantaneous data rate of 1 Mbit/s is possible. The term Enhanced Data Rate is used to describe π/4-DPSK and 8DPSK schemes, the combination of these modes in Bluetooth radio technology is classified as a BR/EDR radio. Bluetooth is a protocol with a master-slave structure
11.
USB 3.0
–
USB3.0 is the third major version of the Universal Serial Bus standard for interfacing computers and electronic devices. Among other improvements, USB3.0 adds the new transfer rate referred to as SuperSpeed USB that can transfer data at up to 5 Gbit/s, which is about ten times as fast as the USB2.0 standard. Manufacturers are recommended to distinguish USB3.0 connectors from their USB2.0 counterparts by blue color-coding of the Standard-A receptacles and plugs, USB3.1, released in July 2013, is the successor standard that replaces the USB3.0 standard. The specification of USB3.0 is similar to that of USB2.0, but with many improvements, earlier USB concepts such as endpoints and the four transfer types are preserved but the protocol and electrical interface are different. The specification defines a separate channel to carry USB3.0 traffic. This gives USB3.0 a potential total bandwidth, if used both ways, of twenty times that of USB2.0. In USB3.0, dual-bus architecture is used to allow both USB2.0 and USB3.0 operations to take place simultaneously, thus providing backward compatibility. Connections are such that they also permit forward compatibility, that is, the structural topology is the same, consisting of a tiered star topology with a root hub at level 0 and hubs at lower levels to provide bus connectivity to devices. The SuperSpeed transaction is initiated by the host making a request followed by a response from the device, the device either accepts the request or rejects it, if accepted, the device sends data or accepts data from the host. If the endpoint is halted, the device shall respond with a STALL handshake, if there is lack of buffer space or data, it responds with a Not Ready signal to tell the host that it is not able to process the request. When the device is ready, it will send an Endpoint Ready to the host which will then reschedule the transaction, the SuperSpeed bus provides for a transfer mode at a nominal rate of 5.0 Gbit/s, in addition to the three existing transfer modes. Accounting for the overhead, the raw data throughput is 4 Gbit/s. Scrambling is implemented using a linear feedback shift register. The LFSR is reset whenever a COM symbol is sent or received, unlike previous standards, the USB3. As with earlier versions of USB, USB3.0 provides power at 5 volts nominal, the available current for low-power SuperSpeed devices is 150 mA, an increase from the 100 mA defined in USB2.0. For high-power SuperSpeed devices, the limit is six unit loads or 900 mA and this move effectively opened the specification to hardware developers for implementation in future products. Manufacturers of USB3.0 host controllers include, but are not limited to, Renesas Electronics, Fresco Logic, ASMedia Technology, Etron, VIA Technologies, Texas Instruments, NEC, as of November 2010, Renesas and Fresco Logic have passed USB-IF certification. Motherboards for Intels Sandy Bridge processors have been seen with Asmedia, on 28 October 2010, Hewlett-Packard released the HP Envy 17 3D featuring a Renesas USB3.0 host controller several months before some of their competitors
12.
Secure Digital
–
Secure Digital is a non-volatile memory card format developed by the SD Card Association for use in portable devices. The standard was introduced in August 1999 by joint efforts between SanDisk, Panasonic and Toshiba as an improvement over MultiMediaCards, and has become the industry standard. The three companies formed SD-3C, LLC, a company that licenses and enforces intellectual property rights associated with SD memory cards and SD host, the companies also formed the SD Association, a non-profit organization, in January 2000 to promote and create SD Card standards. SDA today has about 1,000 member companies, the SDA uses several trademarked logos owned and licensed by SD-3C to enforce compliance with its specifications and assure users of compatibility. There are many combinations of factors and device families, although as of 2016. Secure Digital includes four card families available in three different sizes, the four families are the original Standard-Capacity, the High-Capacity, the eXtended-Capacity, and the SDIO, which combines input/output functions with data storage. The three form factors are the size, the mini size, and the micro size. Electrically passive adapters allow a card to fit and function in a device built for a larger card. The SD cards small footprint is a storage medium for smaller, thinner. The second-generation Secure Digital card was developed to improve on the MultiMediaCard standard, which continued to evolve, Secure Digital changed the MMC design in several ways, Asymmetrical slots in the sides of the SD card prevent inserting it upside down. Most SD cards are 2.1 mm thick, compared to 1.4 mm for MMCs. The SD specification defines a card called Thin SD with a thickness of 1.4 mm, the cards electrical contacts are recessed beneath the surface of the card, protecting them from contact with a users fingers. The SD specification envisioned capacities and transfer rates exceeding those of MMC, for a comparison table, see below. While MMC uses a pin for data transfers, the SD card added a four-wire bus mode for higher data rates. The SD card added Content Protection for Recordable Media security circuitry for digital rights management content-protection, full-size SD cards do not fit into the slimmer MMC slots, and other issues also affect the ability to use one format in a host device designed for the other. The Secure Digital High Capacity format, announced in January 2006 and defined in version 2.0 of the SD specification, the SDHC trademark is licensed to ensure compatibility. SDHC cards are physically and electrically identical to standard-capacity SD cards, Version 2.0 also introduces a High-speed bus mode for both SDSC and SDHC cards, which doubles the original Standard Speed clock to produce 25 MB/s. SDHC host devices are required to accept older SD cards, however, older host devices do not recognize SDHC or SDXC memory cards, although some devices can do so through a firmware upgrade
.svg){kind=logo}
