Ok so i'm a little behind due to the various personal issues i've discussed with you. I'm hoping to get caught up this weekend. Here is the second half of the computers book:
-Microcomputers, the type of computers that we use everyday, were only possible with the Intel creation of the "central processing unit" or CPU. However due to Intel's business model, they didn't want to work directly with the customers so they, in essence, failed to possibly the become the largest computer manufacturer (84). Up until the CPU was implemented and utilized to condense the size of the computer, the enormous tape-type computers that filled up entire buildings were still the most powerful and normal type of computer.
-The dream of Gary Kildall to "create a 'desktop' computer-- a singular computer for [his] own personal use" (85) was revolutionary, and only now possible with the invention of the CPU. Having personal computers would, being repetitious here, legitimately revolutionize computing on the whole. If people could have this so called "desktop" computer, there could be multiple computers in a single room with multiple people all working independently on separate things. Productivity would skyrocket, innovation as well. I don't truly believe that Kildall could ever imagine that his original desktop concept would be carried so far, however since he died in 1994, he invariably saw a dramatic evolution of the PC. Kildall also worked on development of the optical disk drive, which are now CD-ROMs. So what Edward Roberts created was in fact the first desktop computer named the Altair 8800.
-Roberts had intended the computer for hobbyists because it was fairly expensive, $397 and the base model came unassembled (86). You had to like computers to spend this amount of money, and you had to have the tech knowledge to build it. It was also excessively brilliant because it came with accessory slots to add different pieces of hardware later like keyboards and monitors (86). So what was originally designed for a limited amount of people, in some years time was in every household in America and many households throughout the world. If it had not been for Roberts' Altair, according to Swedin and Ferro, Microsoft would never have launched (88).
-Bill Gates and Paul Allen wrote the first software code which they had already developed on their own for the Altair 8800. It was a huge improvement in the functionality of the machine and opened limitless doors for Gates and Allen.
- On a side note here, the Commodore 64 was one of the first gaming platforms. Not many people had one, but I remember years ago my uncle who is a huge tech nerd and lawyer, was telling me about the first games he ever played at home at they were on the Commodore 64. I can't remember what they were but he said it was absolutely mind blowing. The book says in 1982 that annual sales of games stood at $1.2 billion (103). This doesn't make a whole lot of sense unless their definition of what "gaming sales" is is different from our current one. In 2009, U.S. game retail sales totaled $19.66 billion with only $538 million coming from PC games (http://www.gamespot.com/news/6246425.html). I know that with the creation and evolution of gaming consoles thats where the money and the excellent gaming experience is, so I'm wondering back in 1982 if in that 1.2 billion was arcade games which also count as "total game sales". I feel the book is using some fuzzy numbering on this one, attempting to give more credit to computer game sales than actually took place.
-Starting in 1977 with the Apple II, it represented a shift in the technological computing universe. Hobbyists with skills and money could create pretty good machines with enormous potential for use and for making a profit. IBM got in the game a bit late in 1981, but it was still early in terms of the products circulation for at that time, not many people had one of these PCs.
-This reading was about the PC and the rise of the desktop and later laptop computing. What we have today is all due to the creation of the CPU by Intel and a man named Ted Hoff.
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