1.
USB flash drive
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USB flash drives are typically removable and rewritable, and physically much smaller than an optical disc. Most weigh less than 30 grams, since first appearing on the market in late 2000, as with virtually all computer memory devices, storage capacities have risen while prices have dropped. As of March 2016, flash drives with anywhere from 8 to 256 GB are frequently sold, storage capacities as large as 2 TB are planned, with steady improvements in size and price per capacity expected. Some allow up to 100,000 write/erase cycles, depending on the type of memory chip used. USB flash drives are used for the same purposes for which floppy disks or CDs were once used, i. e. for storage, data back-up. They are smaller, faster, have thousands of times more capacity, additionally, they are immune to electromagnetic interference, and are unharmed by surface scratches.44 MB3. 5-inch floppy disk. The USB connector may be protected by a cap or by retracting into the body of the drive. Most flash drives use a standard type-A USB connection allowing connection with a port on a personal computer, USB flash drives draw power from the computer via the USB connection. Some devices combine the functionality of a media player with USB flash storage. Pua Khein-Seng from Malaysia is considered by many to be the Father of Pen Drive and he is notable for incorporating the worlds first single chip USB flash controller. Pua hails from Sekinchan, Selangor, Malaysia, pua founded Phison Electronics based in Taiwan with four other partners and is believed to have produced the worlds first USB flash drive with system-on-chip technology. Competing claims have made by Singaporean company Trek Technology and Chinese company Netac Technology, Both Trek Technology. Trek won a Singaporean suit, but a court in the United Kingdom revoked one of Treks UK patents, Trek Technology and IBM began selling the first USB flash drives commercially in 2000. IBMs USB flash drive became available on December 15,2000, in 2000, Lexar introduced a Compact Flash card with a USB connection, and a companion card read/writer and USB cable that eliminated the need for a USB hub. That is considerably slower than what a hard drive or solid-state drive can achieve when connected via the SATA interface. Transfer rates may be given in megabytes per second, megabits per second, or in optical drive multipliers such as 180X.1, which is limited to 12 Mbit/s with accounted overhead. The effective transfer rate of a device is significantly affected by the access pattern, for example. Like USB2.0 before it, USB3.0 dramatically improved data rates compared to its predecessor
2.
Bus (computing)
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In computer architecture, a bus is a communication system that transfers data between components inside a computer, or between computers. This expression covers all related components and software, including communication protocols. Modern computer buses can use both parallel and bit serial connections, and can be wired in either a multidrop or daisy chain topology, or connected by switched hubs, as in the case of USB. An early computer might contain a hand-wired CPU of vacuum tubes, a drum for main memory. In both examples, computer buses of one form or another move data between all of these devices, in most traditional computer architectures, the CPU and main memory tend to be tightly coupled. In most cases, the CPU and memory share signalling characteristics, the bus connecting the CPU and memory is one of the defining characteristics of the system, and often referred to simply as the system bus. It is possible to allow peripherals to communicate with memory in the same fashion and this is commonly accomplished through some sort of standardized electrical connector, several of these forming the expansion bus or local bus. However, as the differences between the CPU and peripherals varies widely, some solution is generally needed to ensure that peripherals do not slow overall system performance. Many CPUs feature a set of pins similar to those for communicating with memory. Others use smart controllers to place the data directly in memory, most modern systems combine both solutions, where appropriate. As the number of potential peripherals grew, using a card for every peripheral became increasingly untenable. This has led to the introduction of bus systems designed specifically to support multiple peripherals, common examples are the SATA ports in modern computers, which allow a number of hard drives to be connected without the need for a card. However, these systems are generally too expensive to implement in low-end devices. This has led to the development of a number of low-performance bus systems for these solutions. All such examples may be referred to as peripheral buses, although this terminology is not universal, in modern systems the performance difference between the CPU and main memory has grown so great that increasing amounts of high-speed memory is built directly into the CPU, known as a cache. These system buses are used to communicate with most other peripherals, through adaptors. Such systems are more similar to multicomputers, communicating over a bus rather than a network. In these cases, expansion buses are entirely separate and no longer share any architecture with their host CPU, what would have formerly been a system bus is now often known as a front-side bus
3.
Serial port
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In computing, a serial port is a serial communication interface through which information transfers in or out one bit at a time. Throughout most of the history of computers, data was transferred through serial ports to devices such as modems, terminals. Modern computers without serial ports may require serial-to-USB converters to allow compatibility with RS-232 serial devices, serial ports are still used in applications such as industrial automation systems, scientific instruments, point of sale systems and some industrial and consumer products. Server computers may use a port as a control console for diagnostics. Network equipment often use serial console for configuration, serial ports are still used in these areas as they are simple, cheap and their console functions are highly standardized and widespread. A serial port requires very little supporting software from the host system, some computers, such as the IBM PC, use an integrated circuit called a UART. This IC converts characters to and from asynchronous serial form, implementing the timing and framing of data in hardware, very low-cost systems, such as some early home computers, would instead use the CPU to send the data through an output pin, using the bit-banging technique. Early home computers often had proprietary serial ports with pinouts and voltage levels incompatible with RS-232, low-cost processors now allow higher-speed, but more complex, serial communication standards such as USB and FireWire to replace RS-232. These make it possible to connect devices that would not have operated feasibly over slower serial connections, such as storage, sound. Many personal computer motherboards still have at least one serial port, small-form-factor systems and laptops may omit RS-232 connector ports to conserve space, but the electronics are still there. RS-232 has been standard for so long that the circuits needed to control a serial port became very cheap and often exist on a single chip, sometimes also with circuitry for a parallel port. The individual signals on a serial port are unidirectional and when connecting two devices the outputs of one device must be connected to the inputs of the other, devices are divided into two categories data terminal equipment and data circuit-terminating equipment. A line that is an output on a DTE device is an input on a DCE device and vice versa so a DCE device can be connected to a DTE device with a straight wired cable, conventionally, computers and terminals are DTE while modems and peripherals are DCE. If it is necessary to connect two DTE devices a cross-over null modem, in the form of either an adapter or a cable, generally, serial port connectors are gendered, only allowing connectors to mate with a connector of the opposite gender. With D-subminiature connectors, the male connectors have protruding pins, either type of connector can be mounted on equipment or a panel, or terminate a cable. Connectors mounted on DTE are likely to be male, and those mounted on DCE are likely to be female, however, this is far from universal, for instance, most serial printers have a female DB25 connector, but they are DTEs. The desire to supply serial interface cards with two ports required that IBM reduce the size of the connector to fit onto a single card back panel, a DE-9 connector also fits onto a card with a second DB-25 connector. Starting around the time of the introduction of the IBM PC-AT, serial ports were built with a 9-pin connector to save cost
4.
Parallel port
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A parallel port is a type of interface found on computers for connecting peripherals. The name refers to the way the data is sent, parallel ports send multiple bits of data at once, in parallel communication, as opposed to serial interfaces that send bits one at a time. To do this, parallel ports require multiple data lines in their cables and port connectors, there are many types of parallel ports, but the term has become most closely associated with the printer port or Centronics port found on most personal computers from the 1970s through the 2000s. Today, the port interface is virtually non-existent because of the rise of Universal Serial Bus devices, along with network printing using Ethernet. The parallel port interface was originally known as the Parallel Printer Adapter on IBM PC-compatible computers and it was primarily designed to operate printers that used IBMs 8-bit extended ASCII character set to print text, but could also be used to adapt other peripherals. Graphical printers, along with a host of other devices, have designed to communicate with the system. An Wang, Robert Howard and Prentice Robinson began development of a low-cost printer at Centronics, the printer used the dot matrix printing principle, with a print head consisting of a vertical row of seven metal pins connected to solenoids. When power was applied to the solenoids, the pin was pulled forward to strike the paper and leave a dot. On their original design, a typical glyph was printed as a matrix seven high and five wide, while the A models used a print head with 9 pins and this left the problem of sending the ASCII data to the printer. While a serial port does so with the minimum of pins and wires, it requires the device to buffer up the data as it arrives bit by bit, a parallel port makes this simpler, the entire ASCII value is presented on the pins in complete form. In addition to the seven pins, the system also needed various control pins as well as electrical grounds. Wang happened to have a stock of 20,000 Amphenol 36-pin micro ribbon connectors that were originally used for one of their early calculators. The interface only required 21 of these pins, the rest were grounded or not connected, the connector has become so closely associated with Centronics that it is now popularly known as the Centronics connector. The Centronics Model 101 printer, featuring this connector, was released in 1970, the host sent ASCII characters to the printer using 7 of 8 data pins, pulling them high to +5V to represent a 1. When the data was ready, the host pulled the STROBE pin low, the printer responded by pulling the BUSY line high, printing the character, and then returning BUSY to low again. The host could send another character. Control characters in the data caused other actions, like the CR or EOF, the host could also have the printer automatically start a new line by pulling the AUTOFEED line high, and keeping it there. The host had to watch the BUSY line to ensure it did not feed data to the printer too rapidly, especially given variable-time operations like a paper feed
5.
Game port
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The game port, originally introduced on the Game Control Adapter, is a device port that was found on IBM PC compatible and other computer systems throughout the 1980s and 1990s. It was the connector for joystick input, and occasionally MIDI devices. Originally located on an expansion card, the game port was later integrated with PC sound cards. During the transition to USB, many devices used the game port. The game port first appeared during the launch of the original IBM PC in 1981. The design allowed for four analog axes and four buttons on one port, at the time there was no sort of industry standard for controller ports, although the closest was the Atari joystick port. This was originally introduced in 1977, on the Atari VCS, but it could not be considered truly widespread until around 1983, when it appeared on the Commodore 64 and several other platforms. In contrast with the IBM design, the Atari port was designed for digital inputs. It did include two analog inputs as well, which could support a single analog joystick, but these were not widely used, the Apple II also sported a joystick port with enough channels for two joysticks, but only one button per stick. The BBC Micro had a port to the IBM design, even using the same 15-pin connector. In most respects, the IBM design was similar or more advanced than existing designs, originally available only as add-on that took up an entire slot, game ports remained relatively rare in the early days of the IBM PC, and most games used the keyboard as an input. IBM did not release a joystick of its own for the PC, the most common device available was the Kraft joystick, originally developed for the Apple II but easily adapted to the IBM with the addition of another button on the back of the case. When IBM finally did release a joystick, for the IBM PCjr, however, it connected to the computer using two incompatible 7-pin connectors, which were mechanically connected together as part of a larger multi-pin connector on the back of the machine. This eliminated the need for the Y-adaptor, adaptors for Atari-style digital sticks were also common during this era. The game port became more common in the mid-1980s, as improving electronic density began to produce expansion cards with ever-increasing functionality. By 1983, it was common to see cards combining memory, game ports, serial and parallel ports and a realtime clock on a single expansion card. The era of expansion cards largely came to an end by the late 1980s. Game ports were not always part of this set of ports
6.
Apple Desktop Bus
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Apple Desktop Bus is a bit-serial peripheral bus connecting low-speed devices to computers. ADB was quickly introduced on later Macintosh models, on models of NeXT computers. Early during the creation of the Macintosh computer, the team had selected the fairly sophisticated Zilog 8530 to supply serial communications. The original design, known as AppleBus, had many of the features as USB in terms of performance and device support. During development of the AppleBus system, computer networking became an important feature of any computer system. With no card slots, the Macintosh was unable to add support for Ethernet or similar local area networking standards. Work on AppleBus was re-directed to networking purposes, and was released in 1985 as the AppleTalk system and this left the Mac with the original single-purpose mouse and keyboard ports, and no general purpose system for low-speed devices to use. ADB was created by Steve Wozniak, who had been looking for a project to work on in the mid-1980s. Someone suggested that he should create a new system for devices like mice and keyboards, one that would require only a single daisy-chained cable. As the story goes, he went away for a month, the first system to use ADB was the Apple IIGS in 1986. It was subsequently used on all Apple Macintosh machines starting with the Macintosh II, ADB was also used on later models of NeXT computers. The vast majority of ADB devices were for input, including balls, joysticks, graphics tablets. Special-purpose uses included software protection dongles and even the Teleport modem, the first Macintosh to move from ADB was the iMac in 1998, which featured USB in its place. The last Apple computer to have an ADB port was the Yosemite Power Macintosh G3 in 1999, subsequent models used a USB-based trackpad. In keeping with Apples general philosophy of design, ADB was intended to be as simple to use as possible, while still being inexpensive to implement. A suitable connector was found in the form of the 4 pin mini-DIN connector, the connectors were small, widely available, and can only be inserted the correct way. They do not lock into position, but even with a friction fit they are enough for light duties like those intended for ADB. ADB can be implemented for less than a penny, the connector always costs more than the controller hardware, aDBs protocol required only a single pin for data, labeled ADB
7.
PS/2 port
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PS/2 keyboard or PS/2 mouse redirects here. For the physical keyboards normally supplied with IBM PS/2 computers, see Model M keyboard, the PS/2 port is a 6-pin mini-DIN connector used for connecting some keyboards and mice to a PC compatible computer system. Its name comes from the IBM Personal System/2 series of personal computers, the PS/2 mouse connector generally replaced the older DE-9 RS-232 serial mouse connector, while the PS/2 keyboard connector replaced the larger 5-pin/180° DIN connector used in the IBM PC/AT design. The PS/2 designs on keyboard and mouse interfaces are electrically similar, communication is serial, synchronous and bidirectional. The attached device generates the clock signal, the host controls communication using the clock line, when the host pulls the clock low, communication from the device is inhibited. Older laptops and most contemporary motherboards have a port that supports either a keyboard or a mouse. Sometimes the port also allows one of the devices to be connected to the two normally unused pins in the connector to both to be connected at once through a special splitter cable. This configuration is common on IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad notebooks among many others, the PS/2 keyboard interface was electrically the same as for the 5-pin DIN connector on former AT keyboards, and keyboards designed for one can be connected to the other with a simple wiring adapter. Various Macintosh clone computers from the late 1990s featured PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports, including the Motorola StarMax, PS/2 is now considered a legacy port, with USB ports now normally preferred for connecting keyboards and mice. This dates back at least as far as the Intel/Microsoft PC2001 specification of 2000 and this hinders fast typists, as well as users who depend on unusual hotkeys to be recognized by special software or seek to use alternative input methods like Braille or chorded input. Also, USB mice do not cause the USB controller to interrupt the system when they have no change to report according to the USB HID specifications default profile for mice. The PS/2 interface saves power due to its nature compared to USB which requires periodic polling, so it is a popular interface for laptops internal keyboards. Many keyboards and mice were specifically designed to both the USB and the PS/2 interfaces and protocols, selecting the appropriate connection type at power-on. Such devices are equipped with a USB connector and ship with a passive wiring adapter to allow connection to a PS/2 port. Such passive adapters are not standardized and may therefore be specific to the device came with. They cannot be used to other devices to PS/2 ports. While combi-devices supporting USB and PS/2 are still available, most USB keyboards, connecting them to a PS/2 port would require an adapter, actively translating between the protocols. Such adapters only support certain classes of USB devices such as keyboards and mice, older PS/2-only peripherals can be connected to a USB port via an active adapter, which generally provides a pair of PS/2 ports at the cost of one USB port
8.
MagSafe
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Apple was granted US Patent No. Apple has been phasing out the MagSafe connector, the relaunched MacBook and fourth-generation MacBook Pro replaced it with USB-C ports used for charging, as of October 2016, the MacBook Air is currently the only remaining device to use the MagSafe connector. MagSafe has connector pins that are designed so the connector can be inserted in either orientation. LEDs on both the top and bottom of the connector show green if the battery is fully charged. MagSafe can be found on the MacBook, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air notebook computers, the MacBook and the 13-inch MacBook Pro use a 60 W MagSafe charger, whereas the 15- and 17-inch MacBook Pro use an 85 W MagSafe charger. The MacBook Air has a lower-powered 45 W version of the MagSafe adapter, the power brick is smaller, but the MagSafe connector is the same as on the 60 W and 85 W chargers. Apple has made it clear that an adapter with the same or higher wattage than originally provided may be used without problems, Apple formerly offered a “MagSafe Airline Adapter” for use on certain compatible airplanes. It had a DC input and would power the computer, some Apple desktop displays included a MagSafe connector cable which allowed charging of Apple laptops. On June 11,2012, a thinner MagSafe 2 connector was announced at Apples 2012 Worldwide Developers Conference and it was manufactured, reportedly, simply in order to fit the new MacBook Pro 15-inch with Retina display, as well as the updated line of MacBook Air. It also has a new shape based on the original one. Apple sells a MagSafe-to-MagSafe 2 converter to use of older-style MagSafe adaptors with newer Apple laptops. The MagSafe connector pins allow for the adapter to be inserted in either of two orientations, the first and second pins on each side of the tiny central pin have continuity with their mirror pins. The inner large pins are V+, measuring with no load will give 6.86 V DC for MagSafe and about 3 V DC for MagSafe 2, the full voltage is provided after a ~40kOhm load is applied for one second. The outer large pins are 0 V, the tiny center pin is a data pin using the 1-Wire protocol. The computer uses this pin to change the LED’s color and retrieve the serial number, only two wires – power and ground – go to the charger unit. There is no data communication via the adapter sense pin with the unit itself. The maximum voltage supplied is as follows,14.5 V DC for the 45 W units supplied with MacBook Air 16.5 V DC for the 60 W units supplied with MacBook and 13 MacBook Pro 18. Rather it acts as shielding for the pins and a ferrous attractor for the magnet in the laptop
9.
Hot swapping
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Hot swapping and hot plugging consist in replacing or adding components without stopping or shutting down the system. Once the appropriate software is installed on the computer, a user can plug and unplug the component without rebooting, a well-known example of this functionality is the Universal Serial Bus that allows users to add or remove peripheral components such as a mouse, keyboard, or printer. Computer components are described as cold-pluggable if the computer system must be powered down to add or remove them. The opposite term is hot-pluggable, hot-pluggable components can be added or removed without powering down the computer, most components in computer systems, such as CPUs and memory, are only cold-pluggable. However it is common for high-end servers and mainframes to feature hotplug capability for other components, such as PCIe, the terms hot plug and cold plug can be taken to mean two different things, depending on the context. In a more generic context, hot plug is the ability to add or remove hardware without powering down the system, hot swapping is used whenever it is desirable to change the configuration or repair a working system without interrupting its operation. Hot swapping may be used to add or remove peripherals or components, to allow a device to synchronize data with a computer, a machine may have dual power supplies, each adequate to power the machine, a faulty one may be hot-swapped. Machines that support hot swapping need to be able to modify their operation for the configuration, either automatically on detecting the change. All electrical and mechanical connections associated with hot-swapping must be designed so that neither the equipment nor the user can be harmed while hot-swapping, other components in the system must be designed so that the removal of a hot-swappable component does not interrupt operation. There are two slightly differing meanings of the term hot swapping and it may refer only to the ability to add or remove hardware without powering down the system, while the system software may have to be notified by the user of the event in order to cope with it. Examples include RS-232 and lower-end SCSI devices and this is sometimes called cold plugging. However, if the system can detect and respond to addition or removal of hardware, examples include USB, FireWire and higher-end SCSI devices. Some implementations require a component shutdown procedure prior to removal and this simplifies the design, but such devices are not robust in the case of component failure. If a component is removed while it is being used, the operations to that device fail, in these systems hot swap is normally used for regular maintenance to the computer, or to replace a broken component. Most modern hot-swap methods use a connector with staggered pins. Most staggered-pin designs have ground pins longer than the others, ensuring that no sensitive circuitry is connected before there is a reliable system ground. Pins of the nominal length do not necessarily make contact at exactly the same time due to mechanical tolerances. Specialized hot-plug power connector pins are now available with repeatable DC current interruption ratings of up to 16 A
10.
Direct current
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Direct current is a flow of electrical charge carriers that always takes place in the same direction. The current need not always have the magnitude, but if it is to be defined as dc. This contrasts with alternating current which varies the direction of flow, sources of direct current include power supplies, electrochemical cells and batteries, and photovoltaic cells and panels. The intensity, or amplitude, of a direct current might fluctuate with time, in some such cases the dc has an ac component superimposed on it. An example of this is the output of a cell that receives a modulated light communications signal. A source of dc is sometimes called a dc generator, batteries and various other sources of dc produce a constant voltage. This is called pure dc and can be represented by a straight, the peak and effective values are the same. The peak to peak value is zero because the instantaneous amplitude never changes, in some instances the value of a dc voltage pulsates or oscillates rapidly with time, in a manner similar to the changes in an ac wave. The unfiltered output of a wave or a full wave rectifier. In 1820, Hans Christian Orsted discovered that electrical current creates a magnetic field and this discovery made scientists relate magnetism to the electric phenomena. In 1879, Thomas Edison invented the light bulb. He improved a 50-year-old idea using lower current electricity, a vacuum inside the globe and a small carbonized filament. At that time, the idea of lightning was not new. Edison not only invented an incandescent electric light, but an electric lighting system contained all the necessary elements to make the incandescent light safe, economical. Prior to 1879, direct current electricity had been used in lighting for the outdoors and it was in the 1880s when the modern electric utility industry began. It was an evolution from street lighting systems and from gas and it was located in Lower Manhattan, on Pearl Street. This station provided light and electricity to customers in a one square mile range, the station was called Thomas Edisons Pearl Street Electricity Generating Station. This station introduced four elements of an electric utility system, Efficient distribution, competitive price, reliable central generation
11.
Serial communication
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In telecommunication and data transmission, serial communication is the process of sending data one bit at a time, sequentially, over a communication channel or computer bus. This is in contrast to parallel communication, where bits are sent as a whole. Serial communication is used for all communication and most computer networks. The migration from PCI to PCI Express is an example, many serial communication systems were originally designed to transfer data over relatively large distances through some sort of data cable. Practically all long-distance communication transmits data one bit at a time, rather than in parallel, the cables that carry this data and the computer ports they plug into are usually referred to with a more specific name, to reduce confusion. Keyboard and mouse cables and ports are almost invariably serial—such as PS/2 port and Apple Desktop Bus, many communication systems were generally originally designed to connect two integrated circuits on the same printed circuit board, connected by signal traces on that board. Integrated circuits are more expensive when they have more pins, to reduce the number of pins in a package, many ICs use a serial bus to transfer data when speed is not important. Some examples of such low-cost serial buses include SPI, I²C, dc-bus, UNI/O, the communication links across which computers—or parts of computers—talk to one another may be either serial or parallel. A parallel link transmits several streams of data simultaneously along multiple channels, whereas, several factors allow serial to be clocked at a higher rate, Clock skew between different channels is not an issue. A serial connection requires fewer interconnecting cables and hence occupies less space, the extra space allows for better isolation of the channel from its surroundings. Crosstalk is less of an issue, because there are fewer conductors in proximity, in many cases, serial is cheaper to implement than parallel. Many ICs have serial interfaces, as opposed to parallel ones, so that they have fewer pins and are therefore less expensive
12.
Communications protocol
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These are the rules or standard that defines the syntax, semantics and synchronization of communication and possible error recovery methods. Protocols may be implemented by hardware, software, or a combination of both, Communicating systems use well-defined formats for exchanging various messages. Each message has a meaning intended to elicit a response from a range of possible responses pre-determined for that particular situation. The specified behavior is independent of how it is to be implemented. Communications protocols have to be agreed upon by the parties involved, to reach agreement, a protocol may be developed into a technical standard. Multiple protocols often describe different aspects of a single communication, a group of protocols designed to work together are known as a protocol suite, when implemented in software they are a protocol stack. Most recent protocols are assigned by the IETF for Internet communication, the ITU-T handles telecommunications protocols and formats for the PSTN. As the PSTN and Internet converge, the two sets of standards are also being driven towards convergence, the nature of a communication, the actual data exchanged and any state-dependent behaviors, is defined by these specifications. In digital computing systems, the rules can be expressed by algorithms, expressing the algorithms in a portable programming language makes the protocol software operating-system independent. Operating systems usually contain a set of cooperating processes that manipulate shared data to communicate each other. This communication is governed by protocols, which can be embedded in the process code itself. In contrast, because there is no memory, communicating systems have to communicate with each other using a shared transmission medium. Transmission is not necessarily reliable, and individual systems may use different hardware or operating systems, to implement a networking protocol, the protocol software modules are interfaced with a framework implemented on the machines operating system. This framework implements the functionality of the operating system. The best known frameworks are the TCP/IP model and the OSI model and this gave rise to the concept of layered protocols which nowadays forms the basis of protocol design. Systems typically do not use a protocol to handle a transmission. Instead they use a set of cooperating protocols, sometimes called a family or protocol suite. Some of the best known protocol suites are TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, X.25, AX.25, the protocols can be arranged based on functionality in groups, for instance there is a group of transport protocols
13.
Peripheral
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A peripheral is an ancillary device used to put information into and get information out of the computer. Touchscreens are an example that combines different devices into a hardware component that can be used both as an input and output device. A peripheral device is defined as any auxiliary device such as a computer mouse or keyboard that connects to. Other examples of peripherals are image scanners, tape drives, microphones, loudspeakers, webcams, common input peripherals include keyboards, computer mice, graphic tablets, touchscreens, barcode readers, image scanners, microphones, webcams, game controllers, light pens, and digital cameras. Common output peripherals include computer displays, printers, projectors, computer hardware Controller Display device Expansion card Punched card input/output Punched tape Video game accessory
14.
Computer mouse
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A computer mouse is a pointing device that detects two-dimensional motion relative to a surface. This motion is typically translated into the motion of a pointer on a display, physically, a mouse consists of an object held in ones hand, with one or more buttons. Mice often also other elements, such as touch surfaces and wheels. The earliest known publication of the mouse as referring to a computer pointing device is in Bill Englishs July 1965 publication. The plural for the rodent is always mice in modern usage. The plural of a mouse is mouses and mice according to most dictionaries. The first recorded usage is mice, the online Oxford Dictionaries cites a 1984 use. The trackball, a pointing device, was invented in 1944 by Ralph Benjamin as part of a World War II-era fire-control radar plotting system called Comprehensive Display System. Benjamin was then working for the British Royal Navy Scientific Service, Benjamins project used analog computers to calculate the future position of target aircraft based on several initial input points provided by a user with a joystick. Benjamin felt that a more elegant input device was needed and invented what they called a ball for this purpose. The device was patented in 1947, but only a prototype using a ball rolling on two rubber-coated wheels was ever built, and the device was kept as a military secret. Another early trackball was built by British electrical engineer Kenyon Taylor in collaboration with Tom Cranston, Taylor was part of the original Ferranti Canada, working on the Royal Canadian Navys DATAR system in 1952. DATAR was similar in concept to Benjamins display, the trackball used four disks to pick up motion, two each for the X and Y directions. When the ball was rolled, the pickup discs spun and contacts on their outer rim made periodic contact with wires, by counting the pulses, the physical movement of the ball could be determined. A digital computer calculated the tracks and sent the data to other ships in a task force using pulse-code modulation radio signals. This trackball used a standard Canadian five-pin bowling ball and it was not patented, since it was a secret military project. Douglas Engelbart of the Stanford Research Institute has been credited in published books by Thierry Bardini, Paul Ceruzzi, Howard Rheingold, Engelbart was also recognized as such in various obituary titles after his death in July 2013. That November, while attending a conference on computer graphics in Reno, Nevada, Engelbart began to ponder how to adapt the underlying principles of the planimeter to X-Y coordinate input
15.
Portable media player
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A portable media player or digital audio player is a portable consumer electronics device capable of storing and playing digital media such as audio, images, and video files. The data is stored on a CD, DVD, flash memory, microdrive. Most portable media players are equipped with a 3.5 mm headphone jack, in contrast, analog portable audio players play music from non-digital media that use analog signal storage, such as cassette tapes or vinyl records. Often mobile digital audio players are marketed and sold as portable MP3 players, even if they support other file formats. Portable DVD players are still manufactured by brands across the world and this article focuses on portable devices that have the main function of playing media. The immediate predecessor in the place of the digital audio player was the portable CD player and prior to that. British scientist Kane Kramer invented the first digital audio player, which he called the IXI and his 1979 prototypes were capable of approximately one hour of audio playback but did not enter commercial production. His UK patent application was not filed until 1981 and was issued in 1985 in the UK and 1987 in the US. However, in 1988 Kramers failure to raise the £60,000 required to renew the patent meant it entering the public domain, but he still owns the designs. Apple Inc. hired Kramer as a consultant and presented his work as an example of art in the field of digital audio players during their litigation with Burst. com almost two decades later. At about the same time AT&T also developed an internal Web based music streaming service that had the ability to download music to FlashPAC, AAC and such music downloading services later formed the foundation for the Apple iPod and iTunes. The first portable MP3 player was launched in 1997 by Saehan Information Systems, in mid-1998, the South Korean company licensed the players for North American distribution to Eiger Labs, which rebranded them as the EigerMan F10 and F20. The flash-based players were available in 32 MB or 64 MB storage capacity and had a LCD screen to tell the user the song currently playing. The first production-volume portable digital audio player was The Audible Player from Audible. com available for sale in January 1998 and it only supported playback of digital audio in Audibles proprietary, low-bitrate format which was developed for spoken word recordings. Capacity was limited to 4 MB of internal memory, or about 2 hours of play. The unit had no display and rudimentary controls, the Rio PMP300 from Diamond Multimedia was introduced in September 1998, a few months after the MPMan, and also featured a 32 MB storage capacity. It was a success during the season, with sales exceeding expectations. Interest and investment in digital music were subsequently spurred from it, because of the players notoriety as the target of a major lawsuit, the Rio is erroneously assumed to be the first digital audio player
16.
Disk storage
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Disk storage is a general category of storage mechanisms where data are recorded by various electronic, magnetic, optical, or mechanical changes to a surface layer of one or more rotating disks. A disk drive is a device implementing such a storage mechanism, notable types are the hard disk drive containing a non-removable disk, the floppy disk drive and its removable floppy disk, and various optical disc drives and associated optical disc media. Audio information was recorded by analog methods. Similarly the first video disc used a recording method. In the music industry, analog recording has mostly replaced by digital optical technology where the data are recorded in a digital format with optical information. The first commercial digital disk storage device was the IBM350 which shipped in 1956 as a part of the IBM305 RAMAC computing system, the random-access, low-density storage of disks was developed to complement the already used sequential-access, high-density storage provided by tape drives using magnetic tape. Disk storage is now used in computer storage and consumer electronic storage, e. g. audio CDs and video discs. Digital disk drives are block storage devices, each disk is divided into logical blocks. Blocks are addressed using their logical block addresses, read from or writing to disk happens at the granularity of blocks. Originally the disk capacity was low and has been improved in one of several ways. Improvements in mechanical design and manufacture allowed smaller and more precise heads, advancements in data compression methods permitted more information to be stored in each of the individual sectors. The drive stores data onto cylinders, heads, and sectors, the sectors unit is the smallest size of data to be stored in a hard disk drive and each file will have many sectors units assigned to it. The smallest entity in a CD is called a frame, which consists of 33 bytes, the other nine bytes consist of eight CIRC error-correction bytes and one subcode byte used for control and display. The information is sent from the processor to the BIOS into a chip controlling the data transfer. This is then sent out to the drive via a multi-wire connector. Once the data are received onto the board of the drive. The data are passed to a chip on the circuit board that controls the access to the drive. The drive is divided into sectors of data stored onto one of the sides of one of the internal disks, an HDD with two disks internally will typically store data on all four surfaces
17.
Network interface controller
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A network interface controller is a computer hardware component that connects a computer to a computer network. Early network interface controllers were commonly implemented on expansion cards that plugged into a computer bus, the low cost and ubiquity of the Ethernet standard means that most newer computers have a network interface built into the motherboard. The network controller implements the electronic circuitry required to communicate using a physical layer and data link layer standard such as Ethernet, Fibre Channel. The NIC allows computers to communicate over a network, either by using cables or wirelessly. Although other network technologies exist, IEEE802 networks including the Ethernet variants have achieved near-ubiquity since the mid-1990s, newer server motherboards may even have dual network interfaces built-in. The Ethernet capabilities are integrated into the motherboard chipset or implemented via a low-cost dedicated Ethernet chip. A separate network card is not required unless additional interfaces are needed or some type of network is used. The NIC may use one or more of the techniques to indicate the availability of packets to transfer. Interrupt-driven I/O is where the peripheral alerts the CPU that it is ready to transfer data, also, NICs may use one or more of the following techniques to transfer packet data, Programmed input/output is where the CPU moves the data to or from the NIC to memory. Direct memory access is where some other device other than the CPU assumes control of the bus to move data to or from the NIC to memory. This removes load from the CPU but requires more logic on the card, in addition, a packet buffer on the NIC may not be required and latency can be reduced. There are two types of DMA, third-party DMA in which a DMA controller other than the NIC performs transfers, an Ethernet network controller typically has an 8P8C socket where the network cable is connected. Older NICs also supplied BNC, or AUI connections, a few LEDs inform the user of whether the network is active, and whether or not data transmission occurs. Ethernet network controllers typically support 10 Mbit/s Ethernet,100 Mbit/s Ethernet, such controllers are designated as 10/100/1000, meaning that they can support a notional maximum transfer rate of 10,100 or 1000 Mbit/s. 10 Gigabit Ethernet NICs are also available, and, as of November 2014, are beginning to be available on computer motherboards, multiqueue NICs provide multiple transmit and receive queues, allowing packets received by the NIC to be assigned to one of its receive queues. The hardware-based distribution of the interrupts, described above, is referred to as receive-side scaling, purely software implementations also exist, such as the receive packet steering and receive flow steering. Examples of such implementations are the RFS and Intel Flow Director, with multiqueue NICs, additional performance improvements can be achieved by distributing outgoing traffic among different transmit queues. By assigning different transmit queues to different CPUs/cores, various operating systems internal contentions can be avoided and those NICs support, Accessing local and remote memory without involving the remote CPU
18.
Personal computer
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A personal computer is a multi-purpose electronic computer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. PCs are intended to be operated directly by a end-user, rather than by an expert or technician. In the 2010s, PCs are typically connected to the Internet, allowing access to the World Wide Web, personal computers may be connected to a local area network, either by a cable or a wireless connection. In the 2010s, a PC may be, a multi-component desktop computer, designed for use in a location a laptop computer, designed for easy portability or a tablet computer. In the 2010s, PCs run using a system, such as Microsoft Windows, Linux. The very earliest microcomputers, equipped with a front panel, required hand-loading of a program to load programs from external storage. Before long, automatic booting from permanent read-only memory became universal, in the 2010s, users have access to a wide range of commercial software, free software and free and open-source software, which are provided in ready-to-run or ready-to-compile form. Since the early 1990s, Microsoft operating systems and Intel hardware have dominated much of the computer market, first with MS-DOS. Alternatives to Microsofts Windows operating systems occupy a minority share of the industry and these include Apples OS X and free open-source Unix-like operating systems such as Linux and Berkeley Software Distribution. Advanced Micro Devices provides the alternative to Intels processors. PC is an initialism for personal computer, some PCs, including the OLPC XOs, are equipped with x86 or x64 processors but not designed to run Microsoft Windows. PC is used in contrast with Mac, an Apple Macintosh computer and this sense of the word is used in the Get a Mac advertisement campaign that ran between 2006 and 2009, as well as its rival, Im a PC campaign, that appeared in 2008. Since Apples transition to Intel processors starting 2005, all Macintosh computers are now PCs, the “brain” may one day come down to our level and help with our income-tax and book-keeping calculations. But this is speculation and there is no sign of it so far, in the history of computing there were many examples of computers designed to be used by one person, as opposed to terminals connected to mainframe computers. Using the narrow definition of operated by one person, the first personal computer was the ENIAC which became operational in 1946 and it did not meet further definitions of affordable or easy to use. An example of an early single-user computer was the LGP-30, created in 1956 by Stan Frankel and used for science and it came with a retail price of $47, 000—equivalent to about $414,000 today. Introduced at the 1965 New York Worlds Fair, the Programma 101 was a programmable calculator described in advertisements as a desktop computer. It was manufactured by the Italian company Olivetti and invented by the Italian engineer Pier Giorgio Perotto, the Soviet MIR series of computers was developed from 1965 to 1969 in a group headed by Victor Glushkov
19.
Electric power
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Electric power is the rate, per unit time, at which electrical energy is transferred by an electric circuit. The SI unit of power is the watt, one joule per second, Electric power is usually produced by electric generators, but can also be supplied by sources such as electric batteries. It is usually supplied to businesses and homes by the power industry through an electric power grid. Electric power is sold by the kilowatt hour which is the product of power in kilowatts multiplied by running time in hours. Electric utilities measure power using an electricity meter, which keeps a total of the electric energy delivered to a customer. Electrical power provides a low form of energy and can be carried long distances and converted into other forms of energy such as motion. Electric power, like power, is the rate of doing work, measured in watts. The term wattage is used colloquially to mean electric power in watts, the potential energy of the charges due to the voltage between the terminals is converted to kinetic energy in the device. These devices are called passive components or loads, they consume electric power from the circuit, converting it to other forms of such as mechanical work, heat, light. Examples are electrical appliances, such as bulbs, electric motors. In alternating current circuits the direction of the voltage periodically reverses, devices in which this occurs are called active devices or power sources, such as electric generators and batteries. Some devices can be either a source or a load, depending on the voltage, for example, a rechargeable battery acts as a source when it provides power to a circuit, but as a load when it is connected to a battery charger and is being recharged. Since electric power can flow either into or out of a component, Electric power flowing out of a circuit into a component is arbitrarily defined to have a positive sign, while power flowing into a circuit from a component is defined to have a negative sign. Thus passive components have positive power consumption, while power sources have negative power consumption and this is called the passive sign convention. In alternating current circuits, energy storage such as inductance and capacitance may result in periodic reversals of the direction of energy flow. The portion of power flow that, averaged over a cycle of the AC waveform. That portion of power due to stored energy, that returns to the source in each cycle, is known as reactive power. Real power is represented as a vector and reactive power is represented as a vertical vector
20.
Battery charger
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A battery charger, or recharger, is a device used to put energy into a secondary cell or rechargeable battery by forcing an electric current through it. The charging protocol depends on the size and type of the battery being charged, some battery types have high tolerance for overcharging and can be recharged by connection to a constant voltage source or a constant current source, depending on battery type. Other battery types cannot withstand over-charging, being damaged or overheating or even exploding, a trickle charger provides a relatively small amount of current, only enough to counteract self-discharge of a battery that is idle for a long time. Slow battery chargers may take hours to complete a charge, high-rate chargers may restore most capacity much faster. Such batteries require active monitoring of the battery to protect it from overcharge, Electric vehicles ideally need high-rate chargers, for public access, installation of such chargers and the distribution support for them is an issue in the proposed adoption of electric cars. Charge and discharge rates are often denoted as C or C-rate, any battery has an energy capacity which is given in amp-hours or milliamp-hours. The C-rate is amp or milliamp figure when charging a battery, for example, for a battery with a capacity of 500mAh, the current corresponding to a C-rate of 10 is a charge rate of 5000mA, while the current corresponding to a C-rate of 1/2 is 250mA. Such high charging rates are only with some battery types. Others will be damaged or possibly overheat or catch fire, for example, an automobile SLI lead-acid battery carries several risks of explosion. A simple charger works by supplying a constant DC or pulsed DC power source to a battery being charged, a simple charger typically does not alter its output based on charging time or the charge on the battery. This simplicity means that a simple charger is inexpensive, but there are tradeoffs, typically, a carefully designed simple charger takes longer to charge a battery than otherwise because it is set to use a lower charging rate to prevent damage. Even so, many batteries left on a charger for too long will be weakened or destroyed due to over-charging. These chargers also vary in that they can supply either a constant voltage, or a constant current, simple AC-powered battery chargers usually have much higher ripple current and ripple voltage than other kinds of battery chargers because they are inexpensively designed and built. Generally, when the current is within a batterys manufacturer recommended level. The maximum ripple current for a typical 12 V100 Ah VRLA lead acid battery is 5 amps, as long as the ripple current is not excessive, the expected life of a ripple-charged VRLA battery will be within 3% of the life of a constant DC-charged battery. Fast chargers make use of control circuitry to charge the batteries without damaging any of the cells in the battery. The control circuitry can be built into the battery or in the charging unit. Most such chargers have a fan to help keep the temperature of the cells at safe levels
21.
Interrupt
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In system programming, an interrupt is a signal to the processor emitted by hardware or software indicating an event that needs immediate attention. An interrupt alerts the processor to a high-priority condition requiring the interruption of the current code the processor is executing, the processor responds by suspending its current activities, saving its state, and executing a function called an interrupt handler to deal with the event. This interruption is temporary, and, after the interrupt handler finishes, there are two types of interrupts, hardware interrupts and software interrupts. Hardware interrupts are used by devices to communicate that they require attention from the operating system, for example, pressing a key on the keyboard or moving the mouse triggers hardware interrupts that cause the processor to read the keystroke or mouse position. Unlike the software type, hardware interrupts are asynchronous and can occur in the middle of instruction execution, the act of initiating a hardware interrupt is referred to as an interrupt request. A software interrupt is caused either by a condition in the processor itself. The former is called a trap or exception and is used for errors or events occurring during program execution that are exceptional enough that they cannot be handled within the program itself. For example, an exception will be thrown if the processors arithmetic logic unit is commanded to divide a number by zero as this instruction is in error. The operating system will catch this exception, and can choose to abort the instruction, each interrupt has its own interrupt handler. The number of interrupts is limited by the number of interrupt request lines to the processor. Interrupts are a commonly used technique for computer multitasking, especially in real-time computing, such a system is said to be interrupt-driven. Hardware interrupts were introduced as an optimization, eliminating unproductive waiting time in polling loops and they may be implemented in hardware as a distinct system with control lines, or they may be integrated into the memory subsystem. If implemented as part of the controller, interrupts are mapped into the systems memory address space. Interrupts can be categorized into different types, Maskable interrupt. Non-maskable interrupt, an interrupt that lacks an associated bit-mask. NMIs are used for the highest priority tasks such as timers, inter-processor interrupt, a special case of interrupt that is generated by one processor to interrupt another processor in a multiprocessor system. Software interrupt, an interrupt generated within a processor by executing an instruction, software interrupts are often used to implement system calls because they result in a subroutine call with a CPU ring level change. Spurious interrupt, an interrupt that is unwanted
22.
USB On-The-Go
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Use of USB OTG allows those devices to switch back and forth between the roles of host and device. For instance, a phone may read from removable media as the host device. The device controlling the link is called the master or host, standard USB uses a master/slave architecture, a host acts as the master device for the entire bus, and a USB device acts as a slave. If implementing standard USB, devices must assume one role or the other, with computers generally set up as hosts, in the absence of USB OTG, cell phones often implemented slave functionality to allow easy transfer of data to and from computers. Such phones, as slaves, could not readily be connected to printers as they implemented the slave role. USB OTG directly addresses this issue, when a device is plugged into the USB bus, the master device, or host, sets up communications with the device and handles service provisioning. That allows the devices to be greatly simplified compared to the host, for example, the host controls all data transfers over the bus, with the devices capable only of signalling that they require attention. To transfer data between two devices, for example from a phone to a printer, the host first reads the data from one device, then writes it to the other. While the master-slave arrangement works for some devices, many devices can act either as master or as slave depending on what else shares the bus, USB OTG recognizes that a device can perform both master and slave roles, and so subtly changes the terminology. With OTG, a device can be either a host when acting as a link master, the choice between host and peripheral roles is handled entirely by which end of the cable the device is connected to. The device connected to the A end of the cable at start-up, known as the A-device, acts as the default host, while the B end acts as the default peripheral, known as the B-device. After initial startup, setup for the bus operates as it does with the normal USB standard, with the A-device setting up the B-device, however, when the same A-device is plugged into another USB system or a dedicated host becomes available, it can become a slave. Role swapping does not work through a hub, as one device will act as a host. USB OTG is a part of a supplement to the Universal Serial Bus 2.0 specification originally agreed upon in late 2001, the latest version of the supplement also defines behavior for an Embedded Host which has targeted abilities and the same USB Standard-A port used by PCs. SuperSpeed OTG devices, Embedded Hosts and peripherals are supported through the USB OTG, the USB OTG and Embedded Host Supplement to the USB2. It does so by measuring the capacitance on the USB port to determine whether there is another device attached. When a large change in capacitance is detected to indicate device attachment. At the same time, a B-device will generate SRP and wait for the USB bus to become powered, session Request Protocol Allows both communicating devices to control when the links power session is active, in standard USB, only the host is capable of doing so
23.
Compaq
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Compaq was a company founded in 1982 that developed, sold, and supported computers and related products and services. Compaq produced some of the first IBM PC compatible computers, being the first company to reverse engineer the IBM Personal Computer. It rose to become the largest supplier of PC systems during the 1990s before being overtaken by HP in 2001, struggling in the aftermath of the dot-com bubble bust, as well as with a risky acquisition of DEC, Compaq was acquired for US$25 billion by HP in 2002. The Compaq brand remained in use by HP for lower-end systems until 2013 when it was discontinued, the company was formed by Rod Canion, Jim Harris and Bill Murto—former Texas Instruments senior managers. Murto departed Compaq in 1987, while Canion and Harris left under a shakeup in 1991, prior to its takeover the company was headquartered in a facility in northwest unincorporated Harris County, Texas, that now continues as HPs largest United States facility. Compaq was founded in February 1982 by Rod Canion, Jim Harris and Bill Murto, the three of them had left due to lack of faith and loss of confidence in TIs management, and initially considered but ultimately decided against starting a chain of Mexican restaurants. Each invested $1,000 to form the company, which was founded with the temporary name Gateway Technology, the name COMPAQ was said to be derived from Compatibility and Quality but this explanation was an afterthought. The name was chosen from many suggested by Ogilvy and Mather, the first Compaq PC was sketched out on a placemat by Canion while dining with the founders in a Houston pie shop. Their first venture came from Benjamin M. Rosen and Sevin Rosen Funds who helped the fledgling company secure $1.5 million to produce their initial computer. Overall, the managed to raise $25 million from venture capitalists. In contrast to Dell Computer and Gateway 2000, Compaq hired veteran engineers with an average of 15 years experience, under Canions direction, Compaq sold computers only through dealers to avoid potential competition that a direct sales channel would foster, which helped foster loyalty among resellers. By giving dealers considerable leeway in pricing Compaqs offerings, either a significant markup for more profits or discount for more sales, dealers had a major incentive to advertise Compaq. During its first year of sales, the company sold 53,000 PCs for sales of $111 million, Compaq went public in 1983 on the NYSE and raised $67 million. In 1986, it enjoyed record sales of $329 million from 150,000 PCs, in 1987, Compaq hit the $1 billion revenue mark, taking the least amount of time to reach that milestone. By 1991, Compaq held the fifth spot in the PC market with $3 billion in sales that year. Two key marketing executives in Compaqs early years, Jim DArezzo, other key executives responsible for the companys meteoric growth in the late 80s and early 90s were Ross A. In the United States, Brendan A. Mac McLoughlin led the companys sales organization after starting up the Western U. S. The soft-spoken Canion was popular with employees and the culture that he built helped Compaq to attract the best talent, at semi-annual meetings, turnout was high as any employee could ask questions to senior managers
24.
Digital Equipment Corporation
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Digital Equipment Corporation, also known as DEC and using the trademark Digital, was a major American company in the computer industry from the 1950s to the 1990s. DEC was a vendor of computer systems, including computers, software. Their PDP and successor VAX products were the most successful of all minicomputers in terms of sales, DEC was acquired in June 1998 by Compaq, in what was at that time the largest merger in the history of the computer industry. At the time, Compaq was focused on the market and had recently purchased several other large vendors. DEC was a major player overseas where Compaq had less presence, however, Compaq had little idea what to do with its acquisitions, and soon found itself in financial difficulty of its own. The company subsequently merged with Hewlett-Packard in May 2002, as of 2007 some of DECs product lines were still produced under the HP name. From 1957 until 1992, DECs headquarters were located in a wool mill in Maynard. DEC was acquired in June 1998 by Compaq, which merged with Hewlett-Packard in May 2002. Some parts of DEC, notably the business and the Hudson. Initially focusing on the end of the computer market allowed DEC to grow without its potential competitors making serious efforts to compete with them. Their PDP series of machines became popular in the 1960s, especially the PDP-8, looking to simplify and update their line, DEC replaced most of their smaller machines with the PDP-11 in 1970, eventually selling over 600,000 units and cementing DECs position in the industry. Originally designed as a follow-on to the PDP-11, DECs VAX-11 series was the first widely used 32-bit minicomputer and these systems were able to compete in many roles with larger mainframe computers, such as the IBM System/370. The VAX was a best-seller, with over 400,000 sold, at its peak, DEC was the second largest employer in Massachusetts, second only to the Massachusetts State Government. The rapid rise of the business microcomputer in the late 1980s, DECs last major attempt to find a space in the rapidly changing market was the DEC Alpha 64-bit RISC instruction set architecture. DEC initially started work on Alpha as a way to re-implement their VAX series, DEC was acquired in June 1998 by Compaq, in what was at that time the largest merger in the history of the computer industry. At the time, Compaq was focused on the market and had recently purchased several other large vendors. DEC was a major player overseas where Compaq had less presence, however, Compaq had little idea what to do with its acquisitions, and soon found itself in financial difficulty of its own. The company subsequently merged with Hewlett-Packard in May 2002, as of 2007 some of DECs product lines were still produced under the HP name
25.
IBM
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International Business Machines Corporation is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States, with operations in over 170 countries. The company originated in 1911 as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company and was renamed International Business Machines in 1924, IBM manufactures and markets computer hardware, middleware and software, and offers hosting and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology. IBM is also a research organization, holding the record for most patents generated by a business for 24 consecutive years. IBM has continually shifted its business mix by exiting commoditizing markets and focusing on higher-value, also in 2014, IBM announced that it would go fabless, continuing to design semiconductors, but offloading manufacturing to GlobalFoundries. Nicknamed Big Blue, IBM is one of 30 companies included in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and one of the worlds largest employers, with nearly 380,000 employees. Known as IBMers, IBM employees have been awarded five Nobel Prizes, six Turing Awards, ten National Medals of Technology, in the 1880s, technologies emerged that would ultimately form the core of what would become International Business Machines. On June 16,1911, their four companies were amalgamated in New York State by Charles Ranlett Flint forming a fifth company, the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company based in Endicott, New York. The five companies had 1,300 employees and offices and plants in Endicott and Binghamton, New York, Dayton, Ohio, Detroit, Michigan, Washington, D. C. and Toronto. They manufactured machinery for sale and lease, ranging from commercial scales and industrial time recorders, meat and cheese slicers, to tabulators and punched cards. Thomas J. Watson, Sr. fired from the National Cash Register Company by John Henry Patterson, called on Flint and, Watson joined CTR as General Manager then,11 months later, was made President when court cases relating to his time at NCR were resolved. Having learned Pattersons pioneering business practices, Watson proceeded to put the stamp of NCR onto CTRs companies and his favorite slogan, THINK, became a mantra for each companys employees. During Watsons first four years, revenues more than doubled to $9 million, Watson had never liked the clumsy hyphenated title of the CTR and in 1924 chose to replace it with the more expansive title International Business Machines. By 1933 most of the subsidiaries had been merged into one company, in 1937, IBMs tabulating equipment enabled organizations to process unprecedented amounts of data, its clients including the U. S. During the Second World War the company produced small arms for the American war effort, in 1949, Thomas Watson, Sr. created IBM World Trade Corporation, a subsidiary of IBM focused on foreign operations. In 1952, he stepped down after almost 40 years at the company helm, in 1957, the FORTRAN scientific programming language was developed. In 1961, IBM developed the SABRE reservation system for American Airlines, in 1963, IBM employees and computers helped NASA track the orbital flight of the Mercury astronauts. A year later it moved its headquarters from New York City to Armonk. The latter half of the 1960s saw IBM continue its support of space exploration, on April 7,1964, IBM announced the first computer system family, the IBM System/360
26.
Intel
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Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California that was founded by Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce. It is the worlds largest and highest valued semiconductor chip makers based on revenue, and is the inventor of the x86 series of microprocessors, Intel supplies processors for computer system manufacturers such as Apple, Lenovo, HP, and Dell. Intel Corporation was founded on July 18,1968, by semiconductor pioneers Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, the companys name was conceived as portmanteau of the words integrated and electronics. The fact that intel is the term for intelligence information made the name appropriate. Intel was a developer of SRAM and DRAM memory chips. Although Intel created the worlds first commercial microprocessor chip in 1971, during the 1990s, Intel invested heavily in new microprocessor designs fostering the rapid growth of the computer industry. The Open Source Technology Center at Intel hosts PowerTOP and LatencyTOP, and supports other projects such as Wayland, Intel Array Building Blocks, and Threading Building Blocks. Client Computing Group – 55% of 2016 revenues – produces hardware components used in desktop, data Center Group – 29% of 2016 revenues – produces hardware components used in server, network, and storage platforms. Internet of Things Group – 5% of 2016 revenues – offers platforms designed for retail, transportation, industrial, buildings, non-Volatile Memory Solutions Group – 4% of 2016 revenues – manufactures NAND flash memory products primarily used in solid-state drives. Intel Security Group – 4% of 2016 revenues – produces software, particularly security, programmable Solutions Group – 3% of 2016 revenues – manufactures programmable semiconductors. In 2016, Dell accounted for 15% of Intels total revenues, Lenovo accounted for 13% of total revenues, in the 1980s, Intel was among the top ten sellers of semiconductors in the world. In 1991, Intel became the biggest chip maker by revenue and has held the position ever since, other top semiconductor companies include TSMC, Advanced Micro Devices, Samsung, Texas Instruments, Toshiba and STMicroelectronics. Competitors in PC chip sets include Advanced Micro Devices, VIA Technologies, Silicon Integrated Systems, however, the cross-licensing agreement is canceled in the event of an AMD bankruptcy or takeover. Some smaller competitors such as VIA Technologies produce low-power x86 processors for small factor computers, however, the advent of such mobile computing devices, in particular, smartphones, has in recent years led to a decline in PC sales. Since over 95% of the worlds smartphones currently use processors designed by ARM Holdings, ARM is also planning to make inroads into the PC and server market. Intel has been involved in disputes regarding violation of antitrust laws. Intel was founded in Mountain View, California in 1968 by Gordon E. Moore, a chemist, and Robert Noyce, arthur Rock helped them find investors, while Max Palevsky was on the board from an early stage. Moore and Noyce had left Fairchild Semiconductor to found Intel, Rock was not an employee, but he was an investor and was chairman of the board
27.
Microsoft
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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
28.
NEC
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NEC Corporation is a Japanese multinational provider of information technology services and products, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. NEC provides IT and network solutions to enterprises, communications services providers and to government agencies. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited and its NEC Semiconductors business unit was one of the worldwide top 20 semiconductor sales leaders before merging with Renesas Electronics. NEC is a member of the Sumitomo Group, kunihiko Iwadare and Takeshiro Maeda established Nippon Electric Limited Partnership on August 31,1898 by using facilities that they had bought from Miyoshi Electrical Manufacturing Company. Iwadare acted as the partner, Maeda handled company sales. Western Electric, which had an interest in the Japanese phone market, was represented by Walter Tenney Carleton, Carleton was also responsible for the renovation of the Miyoshi facilities. It was agreed that the partnership would be reorganized as a company when treaty would allow it. On July 17,1899, the treaty between Japan and the United States went into effect. Nippon Electric Company, Limited was organized the day with Western Electric Company to become the first Japanese joint-venture with foreign capital. Ernest Clement and Carleton were named as directors, Maeda and Mototeru Fujii were assigned to be auditors. Iwadare, Maeda and Carleton handled the overall management, the company started with the production, sales and maintenance of telephones and switches. NEC modernized the facilities with the construction of the Mita Plant in 1901 at Mita Shikokumachi. It was completed in December 1902, the Japanese Ministry of Communications adopted a new technology in 1903, the common battery switchboard supplied by NEC. The common battery switchboards powered the subscriber phone, eliminating the need for a permanent magnet generator in each subscribers phone, the switchboards were initially imported, but were manufactured locally by 1909. NEC started exporting telephone sets to China in 1904, in 1905, Iwadare visited Western Electric in the U. S. to see their management and production control. On his return to Japan he discontinued the system of sub-contracting and replaced it with a new system where managers. Inefficiency was also removed from the production process, the company paid higher salaries with incentives for efficiency. New accounting and cost controls were put in place, and time clocks installed, between 1899 and 1907 the number of telephone subscribers in Japan rose from 35,000 to 95,000
29.
Nortel
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It was founded in Montreal, Quebec in 1895 as the Northern Electric and Manufacturing Company. At its height, Nortel accounted for more than a third of the valuation of all the companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Nortel had filed for protection from its creditors in the United States, Canada, in June 2009, the company announced it would cease operations and sell off all of its business units. The period of protection was extended to February 2,2013. As part of the proceedings in the United States, Nortel Networks Inc. publishes monthly operating reports outlining cash receipts and disbursements. By 2016 Nortel had sold billions of dollars worth of assets and he later refined its design at Brantford after producing his first working prototype in Boston. In addition to phones, four years later, the department started manufacturing its first switchboard, the small manufacturing department expanded yearly with the growth and popularity of the telephone to 50 employees in 1888. By 1890 it had transformed into its own branch of operations with 200 employees. As the manufacturing branch expanded, its production ability increased beyond the demand for phones and this was a problem because the Bell Telephone Company of Canadas charter would not allow them to build other products. This company was incorporated as the Northern Electric and Manufacturing Company Limited, Northern Electric and Manufacturing Company Limited was incorporated on 7 December 1895, by the following corporate members, Charles Fleetford Sise Sr. McFarlane, manager, all of the city and district of Montreal, the initial stock capital was $50,000 at $100 per share, with 93 percent held by the Bell Telephone Company of Canada and the remainder held by the seven corporate members above. The first general meeting was held on March 24,1896. In December 1899, The Bell Telephone Company of Canada bought a company for $500,000. Northern Electric and Manufacturing further expanded its line in 1900. In 1911 the Wire and Cable company changed its name to the Imperial Wire, the construction of a new manufacturing plant started in 1913 at Shearer Street in Montreal, Canada, as preparations began for the two manufacturing companies integration. This facility at Shearer Street was the manufacturing centre until the mid-1950s. Edward Fleetford Sise was the president and his brother Paul Fleetford Sise was the vice-president, during the First World War Northern Electric manufactured the Portable Commutator, a one-wire telegraphic switchboard for military operations in the field. In 1922, Northern started to produce, for $5, the Peanut vacuum tube, the use of alternating current was still under development during this time
30.
Ajay Bhatt
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Ajay V. Ajay Bhatt rose to global celebrity as the co-inventor of USB through an Intel 2009 TV advertisement, where he was portrayed by actor Sunil Narkar. After completing his graduation from the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, India, Bhatt received his masters degree from The City University of New York, Bhatt joined Intel in 1990 as a senior staff architect on the chipset architecture team in Folsom. He holds one hundred and thirty-two U. S. and international patents, in 1998,2003 and 2004, Bhatt was nominated to take part in a Distinguished Lecture Series at leading universities in the United States and Asia. Intel Fellows are selected for their leadership and outstanding contributions to the company. On October 9,2009, The Tonight Show with Conan OBrien did a sketch featuring him that parodied Intels Rockstar commercials. Ajay Bhatt was featured in the July 2010 issue of GQ India, in April 2013 he was awarded the Outstanding Achievement in Science & Technology Award at The Asian Awards in London
31.
Integrated circuit
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An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit is a set of electronic circuits on one small flat piece of semiconductor material, normally silicon. The ICs mass production capability, reliability and building-block approach to circuit design ensured the rapid adoption of standardized ICs in place of using discrete transistors. ICs are now used in all electronic equipment and have revolutionized the world of electronics. Computers, mobile phones, and other home appliances are now inextricable parts of the structure of modern societies, made possible by the small size. These advances, roughly following Moores law, allow a computer chip of 2016 to have millions of times the capacity, ICs have two main advantages over discrete circuits, cost and performance. Cost is low because the chips, with all their components, are printed as a unit by photolithography rather than being constructed one transistor at a time, furthermore, packaged ICs use much less material than discrete circuits. Performance is high because the ICs components switch quickly and consume little power because of their small size, the main disadvantage of ICs is the high cost to design them and fabricate the required photomasks. This high initial cost means ICs are only practical when high production volumes are anticipated, Circuits meeting this definition can be constructed using many different technologies, including thin-film transistor, thick film technology, or hybrid integrated circuit. However, in general usage integrated circuit has come to refer to the single-piece circuit construction originally known as a integrated circuit. Jacobi disclosed small and cheap hearing aids as typical industrial applications of his patent, an immediate commercial use of his patent has not been reported. The idea of the circuit was conceived by Geoffrey Dummer. Dummer presented the idea to the public at the Symposium on Progress in Quality Electronic Components in Washington and he gave many symposia publicly to propagate his ideas, and unsuccessfully attempted to build such a circuit in 1956. A precursor idea to the IC was to create small ceramic squares, Components could then be integrated and wired into a bidimensional or tridimensional compact grid. This idea, which seemed very promising in 1957, was proposed to the US Army by Jack Kilby, however, as the project was gaining momentum, Kilby came up with a new, revolutionary design, the IC. In his patent application of 6 February 1959, Kilby described his new device as a body of semiconductor material … wherein all the components of the circuit are completely integrated. The first customer for the new invention was the US Air Force, Kilby won the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics for his part in the invention of the integrated circuit. His work was named an IEEE Milestone in 2009, half a year after Kilby, Robert Noyce at Fairchild Semiconductor developed his own idea of an integrated circuit that solved many practical problems Kilbys had not. Noyces design was made of silicon, whereas Kilbys chip was made of germanium, Noyce credited Kurt Lehovec of Sprague Electric for the principle of p–n junction isolation, a key concept behind the IC
32.
Windows 95
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Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released on August 24,1995, and was a significant improvement over the companys previous DOS-based Windows products, Windows 95 merged Microsofts formerly separate MS-DOS and Windows products. It featured significant improvements over its predecessor, Windows 3.1, most notably in the user interface. It was also suggested that Windows 95 had an effect of driving other major out of business. Three years after its introduction, Windows 95 was succeeded by Windows 98, Microsoft ended support for Windows 95 on December 31,2001. The initial design and planning of Windows 95 can be traced back to around March 1992, at this time, Windows for Workgroups 3.11 and Windows NT3.1 were still in development and Microsofts plan for the future was focused on Cairo. Cairo would be Microsofts next-generation operating system based on Windows NT and featuring a new interface and an object-based file system. However, Cairo would partially ship in July 1996 in the form of Windows NT4.0, but without the object-based file system, simultaneously with Windows 3. 1s release, IBM started shipping OS/22.0. Microsoft realized they were in need of a version of Windows that could support 32-bit applications and preemptive multitasking. So the development of Windows Chicago was started and, as it was planned for a late 1993 release, became known as Windows 93. Initially, the decision was not to include a new user interface, as this was planned for Cairo, and only focus on making installation, configuration. Windows 93 would ship together with MS-DOS7.0, offering an integrated experience to the user. The first version of Chicagos feature specification was finished on September 30,1992, cougar was to become Chicagos kernel. Prior to Windows 95s official release, users in the United States had an opportunity to preview it in the Windows 95 Preview Program. For US$19.95, users would receive several 3. 5-inch floppy disks that would be used to install Windows 95 either as an upgrade from Windows 3. 1x or as a fresh installation. Participants were also given a preview of The Microsoft Network. The preview versions expired in November 1995, after which the user would have to purchase their own copy of the version of Windows 95. Windows 95 was designed to be compatible with existing MS-DOS and 16-bit Windows programs and device drivers, while offering a more stable
33.
Joystick
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A joystick is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. A joystick, also known as the column, is the principal control device in the cockpit of many civilian and military aircraft. It often has supplementary switches to control aspects of the aircrafts flight. Joysticks are often used to video games, and usually have one or more push-buttons whose state can also be read by the computer. A popular variation of the used on modern video game consoles is the analog stick. Joysticks are also used for controlling machines such as cranes, trucks, underwater unmanned vehicles, wheelchairs, surveillance cameras, miniature finger-operated joysticks have been adopted as input devices for smaller electronic equipment such as mobile phones. The name joystick is thought to originate with early 20th century French pilot Robert Esnault-Pelterie, there are also competing claims on behalf of fellow pilots Robert Loraine, James Henry Joyce, and A. E. George. Loraine is cited by the Oxford English Dictionary for using the joystick in his diary in 1909 when he went to Pau to learn to fly at Bleriots school. George was an aviator who with his colleague Jobling built. He is alleged to have invented the George Stick which became popularly known as the joystick. The George and Jobling aircraft control column is in the collection of the Discovery Museum in Newcastle upon Tyne, Joysticks were present in early planes, though their mechanical origins are uncertain. The coining of the term joystick may actually be credited to Loraine, as his is the earliest known usage of the term, the electrical two-axis joystick was invented by C. B. Mirick at the United States Naval Research Laboratory and patented in 1926, NRL was actively developing remote controlled aircraft at the time and the joystick was possibly used to support this effort. In the awarded patent, Mirick writes, My control system is applicable in maneuvering aircraft without a pilot. The Germans developed an electrical two-axis joystick around 1944, here, the joystick of the Kehl transmitter was used by an operator to steer the missile towards its target. This joystick had on-off switches rather than analogue sensors, both the Hs 293 and Fritz-X used FuG230 Straßburg radio receivers in them to send the Kehls control signals to the ordnances control surfaces. A comparable joystick unit was used for the contemporary American Azon steerable munition and this German invention was picked up by someone in the team of scientists assembled at the Heeresversuchsanstalt in Peenemünde. Here a part of the team on the German rocket program was developing the Wasserfall missile, a variant of the V-2 rocket, the Wasserfall steering equipment converted the electrical signal to radio signals and transmitted these to the missile
34.
Apple Inc.
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Apple is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California that designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software, and online services. Apples consumer software includes the macOS and iOS operating systems, the media player, the Safari web browser. Its online services include the iTunes Store, the iOS App Store and Mac App Store, Apple Music, Apple was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne in April 1976 to develop and sell personal computers. It was incorporated as Apple Computer, Inc. in January 1977, Apple joined the Dow Jones Industrial Average in March 2015. In November 2014, Apple became the first U. S. company to be valued at over US$700 billion in addition to being the largest publicly traded corporation in the world by market capitalization. The company employs 115,000 full-time employees as of July 2015 and it operates the online Apple Store and iTunes Store, the latter of which is the worlds largest music retailer. Consumers use more than one billion Apple products worldwide as of March 2016, Apples worldwide annual revenue totaled $233 billion for the fiscal year ending in September 2015. This revenue accounts for approximately 1. 25% of the total United States GDP.1 billion, the corporation receives significant criticism regarding the labor practices of its contractors and its environmental and business practices, including the origins of source materials. Apple was founded on April 1,1976, by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, the Apple I kits were computers single-handedly designed and hand-built by Wozniak and first shown to the public at the Homebrew Computer Club. The Apple I was sold as a motherboard, which was less than what is now considered a personal computer. The Apple I went on sale in July 1976 and was market-priced at $666.66, Apple was incorporated January 3,1977, without Wayne, who sold his share of the company back to Jobs and Wozniak for $800. Multimillionaire Mike Markkula provided essential business expertise and funding of $250,000 during the incorporation of Apple, during the first five years of operations revenues grew exponentially, doubling about every four months. Between September 1977 and September 1980 yearly sales grew from $775,000 to $118m, the Apple II, also invented by Wozniak, was introduced on April 16,1977, at the first West Coast Computer Faire. It differed from its rivals, the TRS-80 and Commodore PET, because of its character cell-based color graphics. While early Apple II models used ordinary cassette tapes as storage devices, they were superseded by the introduction of a 5 1/4 inch floppy disk drive and interface called the Disk II. The Apple II was chosen to be the platform for the first killer app of the business world, VisiCalc. VisiCalc created a market for the Apple II and gave home users an additional reason to buy an Apple II. Before VisiCalc, Apple had been a distant third place competitor to Commodore, by the end of the 1970s, Apple had a staff of computer designers and a production line
35.
IMac
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IMac is a range of all-in-one Macintosh desktop computers designed and built by Apple Inc. It has been the part of Apples consumer desktop offerings since its debut in August 1998. The second major revision, iMac G4, moved the design to a base containing all the main components. The fifth major revision shared the same form as the model, but was thinner and used anodized aluminum. The sixth major revision uses a different display unit, omits the SuperDrive and this allows it to be thinner at the edge than older models, with an edge thickness of 5. 9mm. It also includes a dual microphone setup, and includes solid-state drive or hard disk storage, or an Apple Fusion Drive, a hybrid of solid state and hard disk drives. In October 2014, the major revision of the 27-inch iMac was announced. The new model includes a new processor, graphics chip. The seventh major revision of the 21. 5-inch iMac was announced in October 2015 and its main feature is a Retina 4K display at a resolution of 4096 ×2304 pixels. It has the new processor, graphics chip, and IO as the 27-inch iMac. The announcement of iMac in 1998 was a source of controversy and anticipation among commentators, Mac fans, opinions were divided over Apples drastic changes to the Macintosh hardware. At the time, Apple had suffered a series of setbacks as consumers increasingly opted for Wintel machines instead of Apples Performa models. As these stores developed, however, they became a detriment to Apple sales, as CompUSA employees were unfamiliar with the Macintosh, the designer behind iMacs case was Jonathan Ive. Ken Segall was an employee at an L. A. ad agency handling Apples account who came up with the name iMac, Jobs wanted the product to be called MacMan, but eventually warmed to Segalls suggestion. Segall says that the i stands for Internet, but also represents the product as a personal, attention was given to the out-of-box experience, the user needed to go through only two steps to set up and connect to the Internet. Theres no step 3. was the catch-phrase in a popular iMac commercial narrated by actor Jeff Goldblum, johann and Brodie finished in 8 minutes and 15 seconds, whereas Adam was still working on it by the end of the commercial. By 2005, it had more and more apparent that IBMs development for the desktop implementation of PowerPC was grinding to a halt. Apple announced at the Worldwide Developers Conference that it would be switching the Macintosh to the x86 architecture, the first Intel-equipped Macs were unveiled on January 10,2006, the Intel iMac and the introductory MacBook Pro
36.
Hewlett-Packard
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The Hewlett-Packard Company or shortened to Hewlett-Packard was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. The company was founded in a garage in Palo Alto by William Bill Redington Hewlett and David Dave Packard. HP was the worlds leading PC manufacturer from 2007 to Q22013 and it specialized in developing and manufacturing computing, data storage, and networking hardware, designing software and delivering services. HP also had services and consulting business around its products and partner products.4 billion in 2008, in November 2009, HP announced the acquisition of 3Com, with the deal closing on April 12,2010. On April 28,2010, HP announced the buyout of Palm, on September 2,2010, HP won its bidding war for 3PAR with a $33 a share offer, which Dell declined to match. On October 6,2014, Hewlett-Packard announced plans to split the PC and printers business from its enterprise products, the split closed on November 1,2015, and resulted in two publicly traded companies, HP Inc. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. William Redington Hewlett and David Packard graduated with degrees in engineering from Stanford University in 1935. The company originated in a garage in nearby Palo Alto during a fellowship they had with a past professor, Terman was considered a mentor to them in forming Hewlett-Packard. In 1939, Packard and Hewlett established Hewlett-Packard in Packards garage with a capital investment of US$538. Hewlett and Packard tossed a coin to decide whether the company they founded would be called Hewlett-Packard or Packard-Hewlett, HP incorporated on August 18,1947, and went public on November 6,1957. Of the many projects they worked on, their very first financially successful product was an audio oscillator. This allowed them to sell the Model 200A for $54.40 when competitors were selling less stable oscillators for over $200, the Model 200 series of generators continued until at least 1972 as the 200AB, still tube-based but improved in design through the years. They worked on technology and artillery shell fuses during World War II. Hewlett-Packards HP Associates division, established around 1960, developed semiconductor devices primarily for internal use, instruments and calculators were some of the products using these devices. HP partnered in the 1960s with Sony and the Yokogawa Electric companies in Japan to develop several high-quality products, the products were not a huge success, as there were high costs in building HP-looking products in Japan. HP and Yokogawa formed a joint venture in 1963 to market HP products in Japan, HP bought Yokogawa Electrics share of Hewlett-Packard Japan in 1999. HP spun off a company, Dynac, to specialize in digital equipment. The name was picked so that the HP logo hp could be turned upside down to be a reverse image of the logo dy of the new company
37.
Lucent
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Lucent Technologies, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications equipment company headquartered in Murray Hill, New Jersey, in the United States. It was established on September 30,1996, through the divestiture of the former AT&T Technologies business unit of AT&T Corporation, Lucent was merged with Alcatel SA of France in a merger of equals on December 1,2006, forming Alcatel-Lucent. Alcatel-Lucent was absorbed by Nokia in January 2016, the name was applied in 1996 at the time of the split from AT&T. The name was criticised, as the logo was to be. This same linguistic root also gives Lucifer, the light bearer, shortly after the Lucent renaming in 1996, Lucents Plan 9 project released a development of their work as the Inferno OS in 1997. This extended the Lucifer and Dante references as a series of punning names for the components of Inferno - Dis, Limbo, Charon, when the rights to Inferno were sold in 2000, the company Vita Nuova Holdings was formed to represent them. This continues the Dante theme, although moving away from his Divine Comedy to the poem La Vita Nuova, the Lucent logo, the Innovation Ring, was designed by Landor Associates, a prominent San Francisco-based branding consultancy. One source inside Lucent says that the logo is actually a Zen Buddhist symbol for eternal truth, another source says it represents the mythic ouroboros, a snake holding its tail in its mouth. Lucents logo also has said to represent constant re-creating and re-thinking. Carly Fiorina picked the logo because her mother was a painter, a telecommunication commentator referred to the logo as a big red zero and predicted financial losses. Bell Labs brought prestige to the new company, as well as the revenue from thousands of patents, Lucent also operated from 666 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, New York City. At the time of its spinoff, Lucent was placed under the leadership of Henry Schacht, richard McGinn, who was serving as President and COO, succeeded Schacht as CEO in 1997 while Schacht remained chairman of the board. Lucent became a stock of the investment community in the late 1990s. Its market capitalization reached a high of $258 billion, and it was at the time the most widely held company with 5.3 million shareholders. In 1997, Lucent acquired Milpitas-based voice mail market leader Octel Communications Corporation for $2.1 billion, by 1999 Lucent stock continued to soar and in that year Lucent acquired Ascend Communications, an Alameda, California–based manufacturer of communications equipment for US$24 billion. Lucent held discussions to acquire Juniper Networks but decided instead to build its own routers internally, in 1995, Carly Fiorina led corporate operations. In that capacity, she reported to Lucent chief executive Henry B and she played a key role in planning and implementing the 1996 initial public offering of a successful stock and company launch strategy. Under her guidance, the spin-off became one of the most successful IPOs in U. S. history, later in 1996, Fiorina was appointed president of Lucents consumer products sector, reporting to president and chief operating officer Rich McGinn
38.
Philips
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Koninklijke Philips N. V. is a Dutch technology company headquartered in Amsterdam with primary divisions focused in the areas of electronics, healthcare and lighting. It was founded in Eindhoven in 1891, by Gerard Philips and it is one of the largest electronics companies in the world and employs around 105,000 people across more than 60 countries. Philips is organized into three divisions, Philips Consumer Lifestyle, Philips Healthcare and Philips Lighting. As of 2012, Philips was the largest manufacturer of lighting in the world measured by applicable revenues, Philips said it would seek damages for breach of contract in the US$200-million sale. In April 2016, the International Court of Arbitration ruled in favour of Philips, Philips has a primary listing on the Euronext Amsterdam stock exchange and is a component of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index. It has a listing on the New York Stock Exchange. The Philips Company was founded in 1891, by Gerard Philips and this first factory has been adapted and is used as a museum. In 1895, after a difficult first few years and near bankruptcy, though he had earned a degree in engineering, Anton started work as a sales representative, soon, however, he began to contribute many important business ideas. After Gerard and Anton Philips changed their business by founding the Philips corporation. In the 1920s, the company started to other products. In 1939, they introduced their electric razor, the Philishave, the Chapel is a radio with built-in loudspeaker, which was designed during the early 1930s. On 11 March 1927, Philips went on the air with shortwave radio station PCJJ which was joined in 1929 by sister station PHOHI, PHOHI broadcast in Dutch to the Dutch East Indies while PCJJ broadcast in English, Spanish and German to the rest of the world. The international program on Sundays commenced in 1928, with host Eddie Startz hosting the Happy Station show, broadcasts from the Netherlands were interrupted by the German invasion in May 1940. The Germans commandeered the transmitters in Huizen to use for pro-Nazi broadcasts, some originating from Germany, Philips Radio was absorbed shortly after liberation when its two shortwave stations were nationalised in 1947 and renamed Radio Netherlands Worldwide, the Dutch International Service. Some PCJ programs, such as Happy Station, continued on the new station, by the late 1940s, the Type 10 was ready to be handed over to Philips subsidiary Johan de Witt in Dordrecht to be produced and incorporated into a generator set as originally planned. The result, rated at 180/200 W electrical output from a bore, approximately 150 of these sets were eventually produced. However, they filed a number of patents and amassed a wealth of information. The first Philips shaver was introduced in the 1930s, and was simply called “The Philishave”, in the USA, it was called the “Norelco”, which remains a part of their product line today
39.
USB 3.0
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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
40.
USB-C
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USB Type-C, commonly known as simply USB-C, is a 24-pin, fully reversible plug USB connector system allowing transport of data and energy. The USB Type-C Specification 1.0 was published by the USB Implementers Forum and was finalized in August 2014 and it was developed at roughly the same time as the USB3.1 specification. A device that implements USB-C does not necessarily support USB3.1 or USB Power Delivery, the USB-C connectors connect to both hosts and devices, replacing various USB-B and USB-A connectors and cables with a standard meant to be future-proof. The 24-pin double-sided connector is slightly larger than the micro-B connector, connecting an older device to a host with a USB-C receptacle requires a cable or adapter with a USB-A or USB-B plug or receptacle on one end and a USB-C plug on the other end. Legacy adapters with a USB-C receptacle are not defined or allowed by the specification because they can create many invalid, devices may be hosts or peripherals. Some, such as phones, can take either role depending on what kind is detected on the other end. These types of ports are called Dual-Role-Data, when two such devices are connected, the roles are randomly assigned but a swap can be commanded from either end. Furthermore, dual-role devices that support USB Power Delivery may independently and dynamically swap data and this allows for charge-through hub or docking station applications where the Type-C device acts as a USB data host while acting as a power consumer rather than a source. USB-C devices may optionally support bus power currents of 1.5 A and 3, USB-C3.1 cables are considered full-featured USB-C cables. They are electronically marked cables that contain a chip with an ID function based on the configuration channel, Cable length should be ≤2 m for Gen 1 or ≤1 m for Gen2. USB-C2.0 cables do not have shielded SuperSpeed pairs, sideband use pins, increased cable lengths up to 4 m are supported. All USB-C cables must support 3 A current, cables supporting high-power 5 A current must contain e-marker chips programmed to identify the cable as being 5A capable, USB Charging ports should also be clearly marked with supported power wattage. Full-featured USB-C cables that support USB3.1 Gen 2 can handle up to 10 Gbit/s data rate at full duplex and they are marked with a SuperSpeed+ logo. There are also cables which support only USB2.0 with up to 480 Mbit/s data rate, there are USB-IF certification programs available for USB-C products and end users are recommended to use USB-IF certified cables. USB-C plug supports analog headsets through an audio adapter accessory with a 3.5 mm socket providing four standard analog audio signals, the audio adapter may optionally include a USB-C pass-through plug to allow 500 mA device charging. The engineering specification states that a 3.5 mm analog headset jack should not replace a USB-C plug, analog signals use the USB2.0 positive differential pair and the two side-band use pairs. The presence of the accessory is signalled through the configuration channel. An Alternate Mode dedicates some of the wires in a USB-C3.1 cable for direct device-to-host transmission of alternate data protocols
41.
International Electrotechnical Commission
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The IEC also manages three global conformity assessment systems that certify whether equipment, system or components conform to its International Standards. The first International Electrical Congress took place in 1881 at the International Exposition of Electricity, at that time the International System of Electrical and Magnetic Units was agreed to. The IEC was instrumental in developing and distributing standards for units of measurement, particularly Gauss, Hertz and it also first proposed a system of standards, the Giorgi System, which ultimately became the SI, or Système International d’unités. In 1938, it published a multilingual international vocabulary to unify terminology relating to electrical, electronic and this effort continues, and the International Electrotechnical Vocabulary remains an important work in the electrical and electronic industries. The CISPR – in English, the International Special Committee on Radio Interference – is one of the groups founded by the IEC, originally located in London, the commission moved to its current headquarters in Geneva in 1948. It has regional centres in Asia-Pacific, Latin America and North America, today, the IEC is the worlds leading international organization in its field, and its standards are adopted as national standards by its members. The work is done by some 10,000 electrical and electronics experts from industry, government, academia, test labs, IEC standards have numbers in the range 60000–79999 and their titles take a form such as IEC60417, Graphical symbols for use on equipment. Following the Dresden Agreement with CENELEC the numbers of older IEC standards were converted in 1997 by adding 60000, for example IEC27 became IEC60027. Standards of the 60000 series are also preceded by EN to indicate that the IEC standard is also adopted by CENELEC as a European standard. The IEC cooperates closely with the International Organization for Standardization and the International Telecommunication Union, Standards developed jointly with ISO such as ISO/IEC26300, ISO/IEC27001, and CASCO ISO/IEC17000 series, carry the acronym of both organizations. The use of the ISO/IEC prefix covers publications from ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1 - Information Technology, as well as conformity assessment standards developed by ISO CASCO, other standards developed in cooperation between IEC and ISO are assigned numbers in the 80000 series, such as IEC 82045-1. IEC standards are also being adopted by other certifying bodies such as BSI, CSA, UL & ANSI/INCITS, SABS, SAI, SPC/GB, IEC standards adopted by other certifying bodies may have some noted differences from the original IEC standard. The IEC is made up of members, called national committees, national committees are constituted in different ways. Some NCs are public sector only, some are a combination of public and private sector, about 90% of those who prepare IEC standards work in industry
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