First personal computer based on ibm technology. The main blocks of the IBM PC. The main averaged characteristics of modern computers ibm pc

The most popular at present are personal computers from IBM, the first models of which appeared in 1981. PCs from Apple and DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) and their counterparts occupy the second place in popularity.

Abroad, the most common computer models are currently the IBM PC with Pentium microprocessors.

The main averaged characteristics of modern computers IBM PC are presented in table. 1.

At present, numerous computer companies in Russia are engaged in assembling mainly IBM-compatible personal computers from foreign components.

For generations, personal computers are divided into:

1st generation PC: Uses 8-bit microprocessors;

2nd generation PC: uses 16-bit microprocessors;

3rd generation PC: uses 32-bit microprocessors;

4th generation PCs: use 64-bit microprocessors;

5th Generation PC: Uses 128-bit microprocessors.

Table 1.

The main averaged characteristics of modern computers ibm pc

Specifications
Clock frequency, MHz
Bit depth
The amount of RAM,		8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256	8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256	32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024
Cache memory, KB		512, 1024, 2048	512, 1024, 2048	512, 1024, 2048
Capacity of NMD, MB

Functional and structural organization of a personal computer

The main blocks of a personal computer and their purpose

A personal computer contains the following basic elements:

microprocessor;

system bus;

main memory;

external memory;

ports of input-output of external devices;

device adapters;

external devices.

The block diagram of a personal computer is shown in Fig. 2.

Rice. 2. Typical block diagram of a personal computer

Microprocessor

Microprocessor (MP) - the central unit of the PC, designed to control the operation of all units of the machine and to perform arithmetic and logical operations on information.

The microprocessor includes the following devices.

Control device(UU), ensuring the implementation of the following functions:

generates and sends certain control signals (control impulses) to all blocks of the machine at the right times, due to the specifics of the operation being performed and the results of previous operations;

generates addresses of memory cells used by the operation being performed, and transfers these addresses to the corresponding computer blocks;

generates a reference sequence of pulses received from the clock pulse generator.

Arithmetic logic unit(ALU) is designed to perform all arithmetic and logical operations on numeric and symbolic information.

Interface (interface) - a set of means of interfacing and communication of computer devices, ensuring their effective interaction.

I / O port - interface equipment that allows you to connect another device to the microprocessor.

The clock generator generates a sequence of electrical pulses; the frequency of the generated pulses determines the clock frequency of the machine.

The time interval between adjacent pulses determines the time of one cycle of the machine, or simply, the cycle of the machine.

The frequency of the clock pulse generator is one of the main characteristics of a personal computer and largely determines the speed of its operation, since each operation in the machine is performed in a certain number of cycles.

IBM is known to many today. She left a huge imprint in computer history and even today its pace in this difficult matter has not slowed down. The most interesting thing is that not everyone knows what IBM is so famous for. Yes, everyone has heard about the IBM PC, about the fact that it made laptops, that it once seriously competed with Apple. However, among the merits of the blue giant there is a huge number of scientific discoveries, as well as the introduction of various inventions into everyday life. Sometimes many people wonder where this or that technology came from. And everything from there is from IBM. Five Nobel laureates in physics received their prizes for inventions made within the walls of this company.

This material is intended to shed light on the history of the formation and development of IBM. At the same time, we will talk about her key inventions, as well as future developments.

Formation time

The origins of IBM go back to 1896, when, decades before the appearance of the first electronic computers, the outstanding engineer and statistician Herman Hollerith founded a company for the production of calculating machines, christened TMC (Tabulating Machine Company). To this, Mr. Hollerith, a descendant of German émigrés, who was openly proud of his roots, was prompted by the success of his first calculating machines of his own production. The essence of the invention of the grandfather of the "blue giant" was that he developed an electrical switch that allows data to be encoded in numbers. In this case, the carriers of information were cards in which holes were punched in a special order, after which the punched cards could be sorted mechanically. This development, patented by Herman Hollerith in 1889, created a sensation, which allowed the 39-year-old inventor to receive an order for the supply of his unique machines to the US Department of Statistics, which was preparing for the 1890 census.

The success was overwhelming: processing the collected data took only one year, as opposed to the eight years that it took statisticians from the US Census Bureau to obtain the results of the 1880 census. It was then that the advantage of computing mechanisms in solving such problems was demonstrated in practice, which largely predetermined the future "digital boom". The funds earned and the contacts established helped Mr. Hollerith in 1896 to create the TMC company. At first, the company tried to produce commercial cars, but on the eve of the 1900 census, it was redesigned to produce calculating and analytical machines for the US Census Bureau. However, three years later, when the state "trough" was closed, Herman Hollerith again turned his attention to the commercial application of his developments.

Although the company was going through a period of rapid growth, the health of its creator and mastermind steadily deteriorated. This prompted him in 1911 to accept the offer of the millionaire Charles Flint (Charles Flint) to buy TMC. The deal was valued at $ 2.3 million, of which Hollerith received $ 1.2 million. In fact, it was not about a simple purchase of shares, but about the merger of TMC with ITRC (International Time Recording Company) and CSC (Computing Scale Corporation), as a result of which the CTR (Computing Tabulating Recording) corporation was born. She became the prototype of modern IBM. And if Herman Hollerith is called by many the grandfather of the "blue giant", then it is Charles Flint who is considered to be his father.

Mr. Flint was undeniably a financial genius with a knack for anticipating strong corporate alliances, many of which have outlived their creators and continue to play a defining role in their respective fields. He took an active part in the creation of the Pan American rubber manufacturer U. S. Rubber, one of the once leading world manufacturers of American Chicle chewing gum (since 2002, already called Adams, it is part of Cadbury Schweppes). For his success in consolidating US corporate power, he was called the "father of trusts." However, for the same reason, the assessment of its role, from the point of view of positive or negative impact, but never from the point of view of significance, is very ambiguous. Paradoxically, Charles Flint's organizational skills were highly valued in government departments, and he always found himself where ordinary officials could not act openly or their work was less effective. In particular, he is credited with participating in a secret project to buy ships around the world and convert them into warships during the Spanish-American War of 1898.

Created by Charles Flint, CTR Corporation in 1911 produced a wide range of unique equipment, including time tracking systems, scales, automatic meat cutters and, which turned out to be especially important for creating a computer, punch card equipment. In 1914 the post general director is occupied by Thomas J. Watson Sr., and in 1915 he becomes president of the CTR.

The next major event in the history of CTR was the change of name to International Business Machines Co., Limited, or IBM for short. This happened in two stages. First, in 1917, the company entered the Canadian market under this brand. Apparently, by this she wanted to emphasize the fact that she is now a real international corporation. In 1924, IBM became known as the American division.

The time of the Great Depression and World War II

The next 25 years in the history of IBM were more or less stable. Even during the Great Depression in the United States, the company continued its activities at the same pace, with almost no layoffs, which could not be said about other firms.

During this period, several important events can be noted for IBM. In 1928 the company introduced a new type of punch card with 80 columns. It was called the IBM Card and has been used by the company's calculating machines over the past few decades, and then by its computers. Another significant event for IBM during this time was a large government order to systematize data on jobs for 26 million people. The company itself recalls it as "the largest settlement transaction of all time." It also opened the doors for the blue giant to other government orders, just like in the early days of TMC.

Book "IBM and the Holocaust"

There are several references to IBM's collaboration with the Nazi regime in Germany. The data source here is the book "IBM and the Holocaust" by Edwin Black. Its name unambiguously says for what purpose the calculating machines of the blue giant were used. They kept statistics on the Jews imprisoned. There are even codes that were used to organize the data: Code 8 - Jews, Code 11 - Gypsies, Code 001 - Auschwitz, Code 001 - Buchenwald, and so on.

However, according to the IBM leadership, the company only sold equipment to the Third Reich, and how it was used further does not concern them. This, by the way, has been the practice of many American companies. IBM even opened a plant in Berlin in 1933, when Hitler came to power. However, there are back side in the use of IBM equipment by the Nazis. After the defeat of Germany, thanks to the machines of the blue giant, it was possible to trace the fate of many people. However, this did not stop various groups of people affected by the war and the Holocaust in particular from demanding an official apology from IBM. The company refused to bring them. Even in spite of the fact that during the war its employees, who remained in Germany, continued their work, even communicating with the management of the company through Geneva. However, IBM itself disclaimed any responsibility for the activities of its enterprises in Germany during the war from 1941 to 1945.

In the United States, during the war period, IBM worked for the government and not always in its direct line of business. Its manufacturing facilities and workers were busy producing rifles (notably the Browning Automatic Rifle and M1 Carbine), bomb scopes, engine parts, etc. Thomas Watson, who was still at the head of the company, set a nominal profit margin for this product at 1%. And even this minuscule was sent not to the piggy bank of the blue giant, but to the foundation of a fund to help widows and orphans who lost their loved ones in the war.

It was also used for calculating machines located in the States. They were used for various mathematical calculations, logistics and other needs of the war. They were no less actively used when working on the Manhattan project, within the framework of which the atomic bomb was created.

Time of large mainframes

The beginning of the second half of the last century was of great importance for the modern world. Then the first digital computers began to appear. And IBM took an active part in their creation. The very first American programmable computer was the Mark I (full name Aiken-IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator Mark I). The most amazing thing is that it was based on the ideas of Charles Babbage, the inventor of the first computing machine. By the way, he never finished building it. But in the 19th century, this was difficult to do. IBM took advantage of his calculations, shifted them to the technologies of that time, and the Mark I saw the light. It was built in 1943, and a year later it was officially put into operation. The history of "Markov" did not last long. In total, four modifications were released, the last of which, the Mark IV, was introduced in 1952.

In the 1950s, IBM received another major order from the government to develop computers for the SAGE (Semi Automatic Ground Environment) system. It is a military system designed to track and intercept potential enemy bombers. This project allowed the blue giant to gain access to research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Then he worked on the first computer, which could easily serve as prototypes modern systems... So it included a built-in screen, a magnetic memory array, supported digital-to-analog and analog-to-digital conversions, had a kind of computer network, could transmit digital data over a telephone line, and supported multiprocessing. In addition, it was possible to connect to it the so-called "light pistols", which were previously widely used as an alternative to the joystick for consoles and slot machines. There was even support for the first algebraic computer language.

IBM built 56 computers for the SAGE project. Each was worth $ 30 million at 50s prices. 7000 employees of the company worked on them, which at that time was 20% of the entire staff of the company. In addition to large profits, the blue giant was able to gain invaluable experience, as well as access to military developments. Later, all this was applied in the creation of computers of the next generations.

The next major milestone for IBM was the release of the System / 360 computer. It is associated with almost the change of an entire era. Before him, the blue giant produced systems based on vacuum tubes. For example, after the aforementioned Mark I in 1948, the Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator (SSEC) was introduced, consisting of 21,400 relays and 12,500 vacuum tubes, capable of performing several thousand operations per second.

In addition to computers, SAGE IBM has worked on other projects for the military. Thus, the Korean War required the use of faster means of calculation than a large programmable calculator. So it was already fully developed electronic computer(not from relays, but from lamps) IBM 701, which worked 25 times faster than SSEC, and at the same time took up four times less space. Over the next few years, the modernization of tube computers continued. For example, the IBM 650 became famous, which produced about 2000 units.

No less significant for today's computer technology was the invention in 1956 of a device called the RAMAC 305. It became the prototype of what today bears the abbreviation HDD or just a hard disk. The first hard drive weighed about 900 kilograms, and its capacity was only 5 MB. The main innovation was the use of 50 aluminum circular continuously rotating plates, on which the information carriers were magnetized elements. This made it possible to provide random access to files, which at the same time significantly increased the speed of data processing. But this pleasure was not cheap - it cost $ 50,000 at the prices of that time. For 50 years, progress has reduced the cost of one megabyte of data on HDD from $ 10,000 to $ 0.00013, if we take the average cost hard disk with a capacity of 1 TB.

The middle of the last century was also marked by the arrival of transistors to replace lamps. The blue giant began its first attempts to use these elements in 1958 with the announcement of the IBM 7070 system. Somewhat later, computers of the 1401 and 1620 models appeared. The first was intended to perform various business tasks, and the second was a small scientific computer used to develop the design of highways and bridges. That is, both more compact specialized computers and more bulky, but with a much higher system speed were created. An example of the former is the model 1440, developed in 1962 for small and medium-sized businesses, and an example of the latter is the 7094 - in fact, a supercomputer of the early 60s, used in the aerospace industry.

Another building block on the way to the creation of System / 360 was the creation of terminal systems. Users were allocated a separate monitor and keyboard, which were connected to one central computer. Here's a prototype of a client / server architecture coupled with multiuser operating system.

As is often the case for the most effective use of innovations, you have to take all previous developments, find their points of contact, and then design a new system that uses the best aspects of new technologies. The IBM System / 360, introduced in 1964, became such a computer.

It is somewhat reminiscent of modern computers, which, if necessary, can be updated and to which various external devices... A new range of 40 peripherals has been developed for the System / 360. These included hard drives IBM 2311 and IBM 2314, IBM 2401 and 2405 tape drives, punch card equipment, text recognition devices, and various communication interfaces.

Another important innovation is unlimited virtual space. Prior to System / 360, this kind of thing cost a lot of money. Of course, for this innovation, something had to be reprogrammed, but the result was worth it.

Above we wrote about specialized computers for science, for business. Agree, this is somewhat inconvenient for both the user and the developer. System / 360 became a versatile system that could be used for most tasks. Moreover, a much larger number of people could now use it - it supported the simultaneous connection of up to 248 terminals.

Building the IBM System / 360 wasn't all that cheap. The computer was only designed for three quarters, on which about a billion dollars was spent. Another $ 4.5 billion was spent on investment in factories, new equipment for them. In total, five factories were opened and 60 thousand employees were hired. Thomas Watson Jr., who succeeded his father as president in 1956, called the project "the most expensive private commercial project in history."

The 70s and the era of the IBM System / 370

The next decade in the history of IBM was not so revolutionary, but several important events took place. The 70s opened with the release of System / 370. After several System / 360 modifications, this system has become a more complex and serious rework of the original mainframe.

The most important innovation of System / 370 is support for virtual memory, that is, in fact, this is an expansion of RAM at the expense of constant. Today this principle is actively used in modern operating systems of the Windows and Unix families. However, in the first versions of System / 370, its support was not included. IBM made virtual memory widely available in 1972 with the introduction of the System / 370 Advanced Function.

Of course, the list of innovations does not end there. The System / 370 series of mainframes supported 31-bit addressing instead of 24-bit. By default, dual-processor support was supported, and there was also compatibility with 128-bit fractional arithmetic. Another important feature of System / 370 is full backward compatibility with System / 360. Software, of course.

The next mainframe of the company was System / 390 (or S / 390), introduced in 1990. It was a 32-bit system, although it retained compatibility with System / 360 24-bit addressing and System / 370 31-bit addressing. In 1994, it became possible to combine multiple System / 390 mainframes into a single cluster. This technology is called Parallel Sysplex.

After System / 390, IBM introduced the z / Architecture. Its main innovation is support for 64-bit address space. At the same time, new mainframes were released with a large number of processors (first 32, then 54). The appearance of z / Architecture falls on the year 2000, that is, this development is completely new. Today, System z9 and System z10 are available within its framework and continue to enjoy steady popularity. What's more, they continue to maintain backward compatibility with System / 360 and later mainframes, which is a record of its kind.

That's where we close the topic of large mainframes, for which we talked about their history up to the present day.

Meanwhile, IBM is facing a conflict with the authorities. It was preceded by the departure of the main competitors of the blue giant from the market of large computer systems. In particular, NCR and Honeywall decided to focus on more profitable niche market segments. And System / 360 was so successful that no one could compete with it. As a result, IBM effectively became a monopoly in the mainframe market.

All this on January 19, 1969 spilled over into legal proceedings. As expected, IBM was accused of violating section 2 of the Sherman Act, which provides for liability for monopolization, or an attempt to monopolize the market for electronic computer systems, especially systems intended for use in business. The litigation lasted until 1983 and ended for IBM with the fact that it seriously reconsidered its way of doing business.

It is possible that the antitrust proceedings influenced the "Future Systems project", in which it was supposed to once again combine all the knowledge and experience on past projects (just like in the days of System / 360) and create a new type of computer that will once again surpass everything previously. systems made. Work on it was carried out between 1971 and 1975. The reasons for its closure are called economic inexpediency - according to analysts, it would not have fought back the way it happened with System / 360. Or maybe IBM really decided to hold back a bit because of the ongoing litigation.

Another very important event in the computer world is credited to the same decade, although it happened in 1969. IBM began to sell manufacturing services software and the software itself is separate from the hardware. Today, this hardly surprises anyone - even the modern generation of domestic users of pirated software are accustomed to the fact that programs have to be paid for. But then numerous complaints, press criticism, and at the same time lawsuits began to pour in on the heads of the blue giant. As a result, IBM began to separately sell only application applications, while the software for controlling the operation of the computer (System Control Programming), in fact the operating system, was free.

And at the very beginning of the 80s, a certain Bill Gates from Microsoft proved that an operating system can also be paid.

The time of small personal computers

Until the 1980s, IBM was very active on large orders. Several times they were made by the government, several times by the military. She supplied her mainframes as a rule to educational and scientific institutions, as well as to large corporations. It is unlikely that anyone bought a separate System / 360 or 370 cabinet for themselves at home and a dozen of magnetic tape-based storage cabinets and already reduced a couple of times compared to the RAMAC 305 hard drives.

The blue giant was above the needs of the average consumer, who needs much less to be completely happy than NASA or another university. This gave a chance to stand on the feet of a semi-basement Apple company with the logo in the form of Newton holding an apple, soon replaced by a simply bitten apple. And Apple came up with a very simple thing - a computer for everyone. This idea was not supported by either Hewlett-Packard, where it was presented by Steve Wozniak, or other large IT companies of the time.

By the time IBM realized it, it was too late. The world has already admired the Apple II - the most popular and successful Apple computer in its history (not the Macintosh, as many believe). But it's better late than never. It was not difficult to guess that this market is at the very beginning of its development. The result was the IBM PC (Model 5150). It happened on August 12, 1981.

Most strikingly, this was not the first IBM personal computer. The title of the first belongs to the 5100 model, released back in 1975. It was much more compact than mainframes, with a separate monitor, data storage and keyboard. But it was intended to solve scientific problems. For businessmen and just fans of technology, he was not suitable. And not least because of the price, which was around $ 20,000.

The IBM PC changed not only the world, but also the company's approach to building computers. Prior to that, IBM made any computing machine inside and out on its own, without resorting to the help of third parties. It turned out differently with the IBM 5150. At that time, the personal computer market was split between the Commodore PET, the Atari family of 8-bit systems, the Apple II, and the Tandy Corporation's TRS-80s. Therefore, IBM was in a hurry to seize the moment.

A 12-person team based in Boca Raton, Florida, led by Don Estrige, was assigned to work on Project Chess. They completed the task in about a year. One of their key decisions was the use of third-party developments. This simultaneously saved a lot of money and time on our own scientific personnel.

Initially, Don chose the IBM 801 and a specially designed operating system for his processor. But a little earlier, the blue giant released the Datamaster microcomputer (full name System / 23 Datamaster or IBM 5322), which was based on the Intel 8085 processor (a slightly simplified modification of Intel 8088). This was the reason for the choice for the first IBM PC. Intel processor 8088. Even the expansion slots of the IBM PC were identical to those of the Datamaster. Well, Intel 8088 demanded a new DOS operating system, very timely proposed by a small company from Redmond called Microsoft. They did not make a new design for the monitor and printer. The monitor, previously created by the Japanese division of IBM, was chosen as the first one, and the printer made by Epson became the printing device.

The IBM PC was sold in various configurations. The most expensive one cost $ 3005. It was equipped with an Intel 8088 processor running at 4.77 MHz, which, if desired, could be supplemented with an Intel 8087 coprocessor, which made floating point calculations possible. The amount of RAM was 64 KB. As a device for permanent data storage, it was supposed to use 5.25-inch floppy drives. One or two of them could be installed. Later, IBM began to supply models that allowed the connection of cassette storage media.

The hard disk could not be installed in the IBM 5150 due to insufficient power supply. However, the company has a so-called "Expansion Unit" or Expansion Unit (also known as the IBM 5161 Expansion Chassis) with a 10 MB hard drive. He required a separate power source. In addition, a second HDD could be installed in it. It also had 5 expansion slots, while the computer itself had 8 more. But to connect the Expansion Unit, it was required to use the Extender Card and Receiver Card, which were installed in the module and in the case, respectively. The other expansion slots of the computer were usually occupied by a video card, cards with I / O ports, etc. It was also possible to increase the amount of RAM up to 256 KB.

"Home" IBM PC

The cheapest configuration cost $ 1,565. Together with it, the buyer received the same processor, but the RAM was only 16 KB. There was no floppy drive included with the computer, and there was no standard CGA monitor. But there was an adapter for cassette drives and a video card focused on connecting to a TV. Thus, an expensive modification of the IBM PC was created for business (where, by the way, it became quite widespread), and a cheaper modification was created for the home.

But there was another novelty in the IBM PC - the basic input / output system or BIOS (Basic Input / Output System). It is still used in modern computers today, albeit in a slightly modified form. Newer motherboards already contain newer EFIs or even simplified Linux flavors, but it will definitely be a few years before BIOS disappears.

The architecture of the IBM PC has been made open and publicly available. Any manufacturer could make peripherals and software for an IBM computer without purchasing any license. At the same time, the blue giant was selling the IBM PC Technical Reference Manual, where the complete source BIOS. As a result, a year later, the world saw the first "IBM PC compatible" computers from Columbia Data Products. Compaq and other companies followed. The ice has broken.

IBM Personal Computer XT

In 1983, when the entire USSR celebrated International Women's Day, IBM released its next "male" product - IBM Personal Computer XT (short for eXtended Technology) or IBM 5160. The novelty replaced the original IBM PC, presented two years earlier. It represented the evolutionary development of personal computers. The processor was still the same, but the basic configuration already had 128 KB of RAM, and later 256 KB. The maximum size has grown to 640 KB.

The XT was shipped with one 5.25-inch floppy drive, hard disk Seagate ST-412 with 10MB capacity and 130W PSU. Later, models with a 20 MB hard drive appeared. Well, PC-DOS 2.0 was used as the base OS. To expand the functionality, a new at that time 16-bit ISA bus was used.

IBM Personal Computer / AT

The AT case standard is probably remembered by many old-timers of the computer world. They were used until the end of the last century. It all started again with IBM and its IBM Personal Computer / AT or model 5170. AT stands for Advanced Technology. New system was the second generation of the blue giant's personal computers.

The most important innovation of the novelty was the use of an Intel 80286 processor with a frequency of 6, and then 8 MHz. Many new features of the computer were associated with it. In particular, it was a complete transition to a 16-bit bus and support for 24-bit addressing, which made it possible to bring the amount of RAM up to 16 MB. The motherboard now has a battery for powering the CMOS microcircuit with a capacity of 50 bytes. Before that, she was not there either.

For data storage, 5.25-inch drives with support for 1.2 MB floppy disks were now used, while the previous generation provided a volume of no more than 360 KB. The hard drive now had a permanent capacity of 20MB and was twice as fast as its predecessor. The monochrome video card and monitors were replaced by adapters that support the EGA standard, capable of displaying up to 16 colors at a resolution of 640x350. Optionally, for professional work with graphics, it was possible to order a PGC video card (Professional Graphics Controller), worth $ 4290, capable of displaying up to 256 colors on a screen with a resolution of 640x480, and at the same time supporting 2D and 3D acceleration for CAD applications.

To support all this variety of innovations, the operating system had to be seriously modified, which came out under the name PC-DOS 3.0.

Not ThinkPad yet, not IBM PC

We believe that many people know that the first portable computer in 1981 was the Osborne 1, developed by the Osborne Computer Corporation. It was such a suitcase weighing 10.7 kg and costing $ 1795. The idea of ​​such a device was not unique - its first prototype was developed back in 1976 at the Xerox PARC research center. However, by the mid-80s, sales of the Osborns had come to naught.

Of course, other companies quickly picked up the successful idea, which, in principle, is in the order of things - just remember what other ideas were "stolen" from Xerox PARC. In November 1982, Compaq announced plans to release a laptop. January saw the release of Hyperion, an MS-DOS computer somewhat reminiscent of Osborne 1. But it was not fully compatible with the IBM PC. This title was awarded to Compaq Portable, which appeared a couple of months later. In fact, it was an IBM PC combined in one case with a small screen and an external keyboard. The "suitcase" weighed 12.5 kg and was valued at over $ 4000.

IBM, clearly noticing that it was missing something, quickly got down to creating its primitive laptop. As a result, the IBM Portable Personal Computer or IBM Portable PC 5155 saw the light in February 1984. The novelty also resembled the original IBM PC in many ways, with the only exception that it had 256 KB of RAM. In addition, it was $ 700 cheaper than its Compaq counterpart, and at the same time it had improved anti-theft technology - a weight of 13.5 kg.

Two years later, progress has moved a couple more steps forward. IBM did not hesitate to take advantage of this, deciding to make its portable computers something more justifying its title. So in April 1986 the IBM Convertible or IBM 5140 appeared. The Convertible no longer looked like a suitcase, but a large case weighing only 5.8 kg. It cost about half the price - about $ 2,000.

The good old Intel 8088 (or rather its updated version 80c88), clocked at 4.77 MHz, was used as a processor. But instead of 5.25-inch drives, 3.5-inch drives were used, capable of working with 720 KB disks. The amount of RAM was 256 KB, but it could be increased to 512 KB. But a much more important innovation was the use of a monochrome LCD display capable of 80x25 for text or 640x200 and 320x200 for graphics.

The Convertible's expandability, on the other hand, was much more modest than that of the IBM Portable. There was only one ISA slot, while the first generation of the blue giant's portable PCs allowed installing almost as many expansion cards as a regular desktop computer (it still would not allow for such and such dimensions). This circumstance, as well as a passive screen without backlighting and the availability of more productive (or models with the same configuration, but available at a significantly lower price) analogs from Compaq, Toshiba and Zenith on the market did not make the IBM Convertible a popular solution. But it was manufactured until 1991, when it was replaced by the IBM PS / 2 L40 SX. Let's talk about PS / 2 in more detail.

IBM Personal System / 2

Until now, many of us use keyboards and even sometimes mice with PS / S interface. However, not everyone knows where he came from and how this abbreviation stands. PS / 2 is Personal System / 2, a computer introduced by IBM in 1987. He belonged to the third generation of the blue giant's personal computers, whose purpose was to reclaim the lost ground in the PC market.

The IBM PS / 2 has failed. Its sales were supposed to be high, but the system was very innovative and closed, which automatically raised its final cost. Consumers have opted for the more affordable clones of the IBM PC. However, the PS / 2 architecture has left a lot behind.

The main PS / 2 operating system was IBM OS / 2. For her, new PCs were equipped with two BIOSes at once: ABIOS (Advanced BIOS) and CBIOS (Compatible BIOS). The former was required to boot OS / 2, and the latter was required for backward compatibility with IBM PC / XT / AT software. However, for the first few months the PS / 2 came with PC-DOS. Later, Windows and AIX (one of the Unix variants) could be installed as an option.

Together with PS / 2, a new bus standard was introduced to expand the functionality of computers - MCA (Micro Channel Architecture). It was supposed to replace ISA. The speed of MCA corresponded to the PCI introduced a few years later. In addition, it had many interesting innovations, in particular, it supported the ability to exchange data directly between expansion cards, or simultaneously between multiple cards and the processor via a separate channel. All this later found application in the server room. PCI-X bus... The MCA itself never became widespread due to IBM's refusal to license it, so that clones would not appear again. Besides new interface was not ISA compliant.

In those days, a DIN connector was used to connect a keyboard, and a COM connector for a mouse. New IBM personal computers offered to replace them with more compact PS / 2. Today these connectors are disappearing from modern motherboards, but then they were also available only to IBM. Only a few years later they "went to the masses." The point here is not only the closed nature of the technology, but also the need to update the BIOS to provide full support for this interface.

PS / 2 made an important contribution to the video card market as well. Before 1987, there were several types of monitor connectors. They often had many contacts, the number of which was equal to the number of displayed colors. IBM decided to replace them all with one universal D-SUB connector. Through it, information about the depth of red, green and blue colors was transmitted, bringing the number of displayed shades to 16.7 million. In addition, it has become easier for software to work with one type of connector than to support several.

Another new product from IBM is video cards with a built-in frame buffer (Video Graphics Array or VGA), which today is called video card memory. Then its volume in PS / 2 was 256 KB. This was enough for a resolution of 640x480 with 16 colors, or 320x200 and 256 colors. The new video cards worked with the MCA interface, so they were only available for PS / 2 computers. Nevertheless, the VGA standard has become widespread over time.

Instead of the large and not very reliable 5.25-inch floppy disks, IBM decided to use 3.5-inch drives. The company was the first to use them as the main standard. The main novelty of the new computers is the doubled capacity of floppy disks - up to 1.44 Mbytes. And by the end of PS / 2, it had doubled to 2.88 MB. By the way, PS / 2 drives had one pretty serious mistake... They could not tell the difference between a 720K floppy disk and a 1.44 MB floppy disk. Thus, it was possible to format the first as the second. In principle, it worked, but it threatened with the danger of data loss, and even after such an operation, only another PS / 2 computer could read information from the floppy disk.

And another novelty PS / 2 - 72-pin RAM modules SIMM instead of the outdated SIPP. A few years later, they became the standard for all personal and not so computers, until they were replaced by DIMM strips.

So we come to the end of the 80s. IBM has done much more for the average consumer in these 10 years than in all the years prior to this. Thanks to her personal computers, we can now independently assemble a computer for ourselves, and not buy a ready-made one as Apple would like it to be. Nothing prevents us from installing any operating system on it, except for Mac OS, which, again, is available only to owners Apple computers... We got freedom, and IBM lost the market, but earned the reputation of a pioneer.

By the early 90s, the blue giant was no longer the dominant player in the computer world. Intel then ruled the ball in the processor market, Microsoft dominated the application software segment, Novell succeeded in networking, Hewlett-Packard in printers. Even the hard drives invented by IBM began to be produced by other companies, as a result of which Seagate was able to come out on top (already in the late 80s and retains this leadership to this day).

In the corporate sector, not everything went well. Invented by IBM employee Edgar Codd in 1970, the concept of relational databases (in a nutshell, it is a way of displaying data in the form of two-dimensional tables) began to gain widespread popularity in the early 80s. IBM even helped create the language SQL queries... And so the payment for labor - number one in the field of DBMS by the beginning of the 90s became Oracle.

Well, in the personal computer market, it was ousted by Compaq, and over time also by Dell. Eventually, IBM President John Akers began the process of reorganizing the company, dividing it into autonomous divisions, each of which focused on one specific area. Thus, he wanted to improve production efficiency and reduce costs. This is how IBM met the last decade of the 20th century.

Time of crisis

The nineties started off pretty well for IBM. Despite the decline in popularity of its personal computers, the company still made big profits. The largest in its history. It is a pity that it was only at the end of the 80s. Later, the blue giant simply failed to grasp the main trends in the computer world, which led to not very pleasant consequences.

Despite the success of personal computers in the penultimate decade of the last century, IBM continued to generate the majority of its revenue from mainframe sales. But the development of technology made it possible to switch to the use of more compact personal computers, and with them to large computers based on microprocessors. In addition, the regular ones sold at lower margins than the mainframes.

Now it is enough to add up the drop in sales of the main profitable product, the loss of its position in the personal computer market, and at the same time the failures in the network technologies market, which Novell successfully occupied, so as not to be surprised at the losses of $ 1 billion in 1990 and 1991. And 1992 turned out to set a new record - $ 8.1 billion in losses. It was the largest corporate annual loss in US history.

Is it any wonder that the company has started to "move"? In 1993, Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. took over as President. His plan was to change the current situation, for which he radically restructured the company's policy, focusing the main division on the provision of services and software development. On the hardware side, IBM certainly had a lot to offer, but due to the multitude of computer manufacturers and the presence of other technology companies, it didn’t. Anyway, there will be someone who will offer a cheaper and no less functional product.

As a result, in the second half of the decade, IBM expanded its portfolio software products applications from Lotus, WebSphere, Tivoli, and Rational. She also continued to develop her own relational DBMS, DB2.

ThinkPad

Despite the crisis of the 90s, the blue giant presented one popular product. It was the ThinkPad line of laptops that still exist today, albeit under the patronage of Lenovo. It was introduced in the face of three models 700, 700C and 700T in October 1992. Mobile computers were equipped with a 10.4-inch screen, a 25 MHz Intel 80486SLC processor, a 120 MB hard drive, an operating Windows system 3.1. At the same time, their cost was $ 4350.

IBM ThinkPad 701 butterfly keyboard

A little about the origin of the series name. The word "Think" was printed on leather-bound IBM corporate notebooks. One of the participants in the new generation mobile PC project suggested adding a "Pad" (keyboard, keypad) to it. At first, not everyone accepted the ThinkPad, arguing that until now the name of all IBM systems was numerical. However, in the end, ThinkPad went as the official name of the series.

The first ThinkPad notebooks became very popular. In a fairly short time, they have collected more than 300 awards from various publications for high quality workmanship and multiple design innovations. The latter, in particular, includes the "butterfly keyboard", which lifted slightly and stretched in width to make it easier to work. Later, with the increase in the diagonal of the screen of mobile computers, the need for it disappeared.

TrackPoint was first applied - the new kind manipulator. It is still found in ThinkPad notebooks and many other enterprise-class mobile PCs today. In some models, an LED was installed on the screen to illuminate the keyboard in the dark. For the first time, IBM integrated an accelerometer into a laptop, which detected a fall, after which the hard disk heads were parked, which significantly increased the likelihood of data safety in case of a strong impact. ThinkPad pioneered the use of fingerprint scanners and built-in TPM for data protection. Now all this is used to one degree or another by all laptop manufacturers. But do not forget that IBM should be grateful for all these "delights of life".

While Apple was paying big bucks for Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible to save the world with a new PowerBook, IBM was really pushing human progress towards a brighter future with its ThinkPad laptops. For example, the ThinkPad 750 flew in 1993 on the Endeavor shuttle. Then the main task of the mission was to repair the Hubble telescope. ThinkPad A31p long time used on the ISS.

Today, the Chinese company Lenovo continues to support many of IBM's traditions. But this is already the story of the next decade.

Time of the new century

The company's change of course, which began in the mid-1990s, has reached its climax in the current decade. IBM continued to focus on providing consulting services, creating new technologies for licensing them, and developing software, while not forgetting about expensive equipment - the blue giant has not left this area so far.

The final stage of reorganization took place between 2002 and 2004. In 2002, IBM acquired the consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, and in the process sold its hard drive division to Hitachi. Thus, the blue giant abandoned the further production of hard drives, which he himself had invented half a century earlier.

IBM is not going to leave the business of supercomputers and mainframes yet. The company continues to fight for the first places in the Top500 rating and continues to do so with a fairly high degree of success. In 2002, a special $ 10 billion program was even launched, according to which IBM created the necessary technologies to be able to provide access to supercomputers to any company almost immediately upon request.

While the blue giant's big computers are doing fine so far, small PCs have not been doing well. As a result, 2004 is marked as the year of the sale of the IBM computer business to the Chinese company Lenovo. All developments on personal systems including the popular ThinkPad series. Lenovo even won the right to use the IBM brand for five years. IBM itself received $ 650 million in cash and $ 600 million in shares in return. It now owns 19% of Lenovo. At the same time, the blue giant also continues to sell servers. Still not to continue being in the top three largest players in this market.

So what happened in the end? In 2005, about 195 thousand employees worked for IBM, among whom 350 were recognized by the company as "outstanding engineers", and 60 people bore the honorary title of IBM Fellow. This title was introduced in 1962 by then President Thomas Watsan to highlight the best people in the company. Typically, an IBM Fellow received no more than 4-5 people a year. Since 1963, there have been about 200 such employees. 70 of them worked in May 2008.

With such a serious scientific potential, IBM has become one of the leaders in innovation. Between 1993 and 2005, the blue giant received 31,000 patents. Moreover, in 2003 he set a record for the number of patents received by one company per year - 3415 pieces.

Ultimately, today IBM has become less accessible to the general consumer. In fact, it was the same before the 80s. The company has been working with retail products for 20 years, but still returned to its origins, albeit in a slightly different guise. But all the same, its technologies and developments reach us in the form of devices from other manufacturers. So the blue giant stays with us further.

Afterword time

At the end of this article, we would like to provide a short list of the most significant discoveries made by IBM during its existence, but not mentioned above. After all, it is always pleasant to be amazed once again that this or that well-known company is behind the creation of your next favorite electronic toy.

The beginning of the era of high-level programming languages ​​is attributed to IBM. Well, maybe not for her personally, but she took a very active part in this process. In 1954, the IBM 704 computer was introduced, one of the main "chips" of which was support for the Fortran language (short for Formula Translation). Its main goal was to replace low-level assembly language with something more human readable.

In 1956, the first Fortran reference manual appeared. And in the future, his popularity continued to grow. Mainly due to the inclusion of a language translator in the standard software package for IBM computer systems. This language became the main language for scientific applications for many years, and also gave impetus to the development of other high-level programming languages.

We have already mentioned IBM's contribution to the development of databases. In fact, thanks to the blue giant, most of the sites on the Internet that use relational DBMSs operate today. They do not hesitate to use the SQL language, which also came out of the depths of IBM. It was introduced in 1974 by Donald D. Chamberlin and Raymond F. Boyce. It was called then SEQUEL (Structured English Query Language), and then the abbreviation was shortened to SQL (Structured Query Language), since "SEQUEL" was a trademark of the British airline Hawker Siddeley.

Probably, some still remember how they ran games from cassette recorders on their home (or not home) EU computer. But IBM was one of the first to use magnetic tape for data storage. In 1952, she and the IBM 701 introduced the first magnetic tape drive that could write and read data.

Floppy disks. Left to right: 8 ", 5.25", 3.5 "

Floppy disks also came from IBM. In 1966, she introduced the first drive with a metal recording head. Five years later, she announced the beginning of the mass distribution of floppy disks and drives for them.

IBM 3340 "Winchester"

The slang word "hard drive" for hard drive also comes from the depths of IBM. In 1973, the company introduced the IBM 3340 "Winchester" hard drive. It got its name from the head of the development team Kenneth Haughton, who gave the IBM 3340 the internal name "30-30", derived from the Winchester 30-30 rifle. "30-30" directly indicated the capacity of the device - two plates of 30 MB each were installed in it. By the way, this particular model was the first to receive great commercial success in the market.

We should also thank IBM for our modern memory. It was she who in 1966 invented the production technology dynamic memory where only one transistor was allocated for one data bit. As a result, it was possible to significantly increase the data recording density. Probably, this discovery prompted the company's engineers to create a special ultra-fast data buffer or cache. In 1968, this was first implemented in the System / 360 Model 85 mainframe and could store up to 16 thousand characters.

The architecture of the PowerPC processors also originated largely from IBM. Although it was developed jointly by Apple, IBM and Motorola, it was based on the IBM 801 processor, which the company planned to install in its first personal computers in the early 1980s. The architecture was initially supported by Sun and Microsoft. However, other developers were reluctant to write programs for it. As a result, Apple remained its only user for almost 15 years.

In 2006, Apple ditched the PowerPC in favor of the x86 architecture, specifically Intel processors. Motorola left the alliance in 2004. Well, IBM still did not curtail its development, but directed them in a slightly different direction. A few years ago, so much text was written about the Cell processor that it would be enough for several books. Today it is used in the Sony PlayStation 3, and Toshiba has also installed a simplified version of it in its flagship Qosmio Q50 multimedia laptop.

On this, perhaps, we will round off. If you wish, you can find many other amazing discoveries of IBM, and at the same time write a lot of words about its future projects, but then you should feel free to start making a separate book. After all, the company conducts research in various fields. She has hundreds of active projects, including such as nanotechnology and holographic data carriers, speech recognition, communicating with a computer using thoughts, new ways of controlling a computer, and so on - one listing will take several pages of text. So we put an end to this.

P.S. And at the very end, a little about the origin of the term "blue giant" (or "Big Blue"), as IBM is often called. As it turned out, the company itself has nothing to do with him. Products with the word "Blue" in their name appeared only in the 90s (in particular in a series of supercomputers), and the press has called it "blue giant" since the early 80s. IBM officials speculate that this may have come from the blue cover of its mainframes, which were produced in the 60s.

IBM is a large corporation that develops and supplies software and other high-tech products today. Over its more than 100-year history, it has brought many new products to the market. It was thanks to IBM that computers appeared in almost every home.

Start

IBM appeared at a time when the personal computer was difficult to imagine. In 1896 it was founded by the name of the company then received TMC and was engaged in the production of calculating machines, which were sold mainly to government organizations.

At the beginning of its history, the company received a huge order from the Ministry of Statistics, and thanks to this, it immediately took a significant position in the market. However, due to health problems, the founder and owner still had to sell the company to the famous financial genius Charles Flint. The millionaire paid a whopping $ 2.3 billion for the company at the time.

The emergence of IBM

After gaining control of TMC, Charles Flint immediately began merging with other assets such as ITRC and CSC. As a result, the prototype of the modern "blue giant" was created - the CTR corporation.

The formed company started producing a wide variety of equipment corresponding to that time. Among them were scales, time tracking systems and, most importantly, punch card equipment. It was the latter that played a big role in the company's transition to the production of computers.

The IBM brand first appeared in the Canadian market in 1917. This is how the company decided to show that it had become an international corporation. After the sufficient success of the new name, the American division also changed its name to IBM in 1924.

Over the next several years, the company actively continues to improve its own technologies, creating a new type of punched cards called the IBM Card. Also, the corporation again gains access to large government orders, which allows it to practically not carry out reductions even during the Great Depression.

IBM and World War II

The IBM company actively cooperated with the fascist regime in Germany. In 1933, after in Germany, the corporation even launched its own plant. However, the company, like most other American firms, only announces the sale of cars and does not consider this to be support for the regime.

On the territory of the United States during the war years, the corporation was mainly engaged in supplying the front on a government order. She was engaged in the production of sights for throwing bombs, rifles, engine parts and other items necessary for the military. At the same time, the head of the corporation then set a nominal profit of 1%, which was sent not to shareholders, but to the needs of aid funds.

The beginning of the era of computers

The first IBM-computer was released in 1941-1943 and was named "Mark-I". The car weighed an impressive 4.5 tons. After testing, its official launch took place only in 1944, after being transferred to Harvard University.

In fact, "Mark-I" was a very much improved adding machine, but due to its automation and programmability, it is the first electronic computer.

The collaboration between the international corporation and the main developer was extremely unsuccessful. IBM computers continued to develop without him. As a result, in 1952 the company released the first tube computer.

In the late 1950s, the first transistor-based IBM computers were created. It was thanks to this improvement that it was possible to increase the reliability of computers and create on their basis the first defense system against a missile strike. At the same time, the first mass-produced IBM computer with a hard disk appeared. True, the drive, shown to the Soviet leader in 1958, occupied two large cabinets and was 5 MB in size. IBM set prices for it, too, rather big. The first hard drive prototype cost about $ 50,000 at the prices of the time. But that was only the beginning.

First appearance of the IBM System

In 1964, new IBM computers were introduced. They have changed significantly and set the standard for many years to come. The family was named IBM System / 360. These were the first machines that allowed you to gradually increase computing power by changing the model without changing the software. It was in these mainframes that microcode technology was first introduced.

The computers created by IBM received a very successful architecture that became the de facto standard for many years. And today the System Z series, which is a logical continuation of the System / 360 line, is very actively used.

First PC

IBM did not see personal computers as a promising market. However, in 1976, the first desktop computer of the IBM 5100 series was introduced. It was intended more for engineers and was not suitable for office work or personal use.

The first mass personal computer "blue giant" was presented only in 1981. As a matter of fact, the company did not really hope for its success. That is why most of its components were purchased from other companies. The new computer was included in the IBM 5150 family and received the name PC.

The popularity of the IBM PC

New processor from Intel demanded and very well proposed by a young company founded by Bill Gates.

The most important factor that brought the popularity of the PC was the openness of the architecture. For the first time, the corporation abandoned long-term principles and did not license the components or BIOS used. This allowed many third-party companies to quickly build "clones" based on the published specifications.

The open architecture provided other advantages, such as the ability to repair and self-upgrade computers. In the future, this gave rise to the development of personal computers.

However, IBM itself practically did not hit the home computer market. The original IBM PC was quite expensive. In addition to this basic kit, it was required to purchase a floppy disk controller and the drives themselves. Competitors looked more promising against this background.

Nevertheless, the company tried to launch a number of models for home users as well. One of them called IBM PCjr was among the 25 worst computer devices... But the production of this model was quickly discontinued.

In the business segment, IBM traditionally felt excellent, including in the personal computer market. This was achieved by high brand awareness and well-thought-out marketing. Success has resulted in the introduction of the IBM PC / XT and IBM PC / AT.

First laptop

Despite the rather bad initial attitude towards personal computers, the giant was forced to think. First of all, this was influenced by the overwhelming success of the IBM PC. By the way, the six-month sales target for the first personal computer was completed in less than 30 days.

The IBM Convertible went on sale in early 1986 and, despite its rather modest characteristics, was produced until 1991. Among the innovations, this device was the first PC from the giant corporation equipped with a 3.5 ”floppy drive.

90s

By the 90s, the giant corporation was rapidly losing its position in the personal computer market, but for a long time it continued to produce new models of stationary and mobile computers.

IBM first introduced to the market in 1990 new computer, which has a completely new architecture and is incompatible in hardware and software with previous generations.

The new computer received a modern data bus, and many of the components were changed in such a way that it was almost impossible to reproduce them by small companies from Asia for technological and licensing reasons. But the architecture turned out to be a failure. Although some of the innovations applied to these PCs have been around for a long time, for example, PS / 2 mouse and keyboard connectors are sometimes used even in modern machines.

At the same time, the company produced a series of computers compatible with the previous generation called PS / 1, and later - Aptiva.

These were the last personal computers produced by the blue giant. By 1996-1997, the production of cars for this market segment was phased out.

2000s and the final exit from the PC market

IBM, despite the termination of the development and production of desktop PCs, continued to produce and quite successfully sell on the market laptops. Some users even continued to regard IBM computers as benchmarks.

In 2004, the corporation made a difficult decision, as a result of which the entire business of the production of personal computers and laptops was sold to the Chinese company Lenovo. The company itself has focused on a much more interesting server and support market for the giant. Later, IBM sold other divisions that linked it to the PC production, for example, the division that was engaged in the production of hard drives came under the control of HITACHI.

The long history of IBM has allowed the company to accumulate vast experience in the creation of computer hardware and software. Today, even despite the withdrawal from the PC market, the company has a fairly strong influence on the development of the entire industry.

The world's first microprocessor appeared in 1971. It was the four-bit Intel 4004 microprocessor. Then, in 1973, the eight-bit Intel 8080 was released. On the basis of this processor, the very first microcomputers were created. These machines had very little capacity and were seen as simply amusing, but of little use, toys. In 1979, the first 16-bit Intel 8086 and Intel 8088 microprocessors were released. Intel 8086 personal computer was released by IBM in 1981 IBM PC(PC -Personal Computer - personal computer), which in its capabilities has already approached the then existing mini-computers. Very quickly, these computers gained immense popularity all over the world due to their low cost and ease of use. A little later, a personal computer appeared IBM PC / XT(XT - extended Technology) with the maximum possible amount of RAM up to 1 MB. The next major step in the development of microprocessor technology was the release of personal computers in 1983. IBM PC / AT(AT - Advanced Technology - advanced technology) based on the Intel 80286 microprocessor with expanded up to 16 MB of the maximum possible amount of RAM. And by the end of the 80s, the 32-bit Intel 80386 was released with the maximum possible memory capacity of 4 GB. In the early nineties, a more powerful also thirty-two-bit Intel 80486 microprocessor appeared, which united more than a million transistor elements on one die. The Intel family continues to evolve, and in 1994 personal computers based on a microprocessor named Pentium, which in the course of development was marked as Intel 80586. Currently, several models with the Pentium brand are already in use - Pentium II, Pentium MMX (with advanced multimedia capabilities), Pentium III and Pentium IV. Each subsequent model differs from the previous one by the expansion of the instruction set, the increasing clock frequency, the possible amount of RAM and hard disks, and an increase in overall efficiency. New, more advanced models are constantly being developed.

Computers of the IBM PC family were so successful that they began to be duplicated in almost all countries of the world. At the same time, computers turned out to be the same in terms of data encoding methods and command systems, but different in technical characteristics, appearance and cost. Such machines are called IBM-compatible personal computers. Programs written to run on an IBM PC can run just as well on IBM-compatible computers. In such cases, it is said that software compatibility.

Other architectures

IBM PC family machines belong to the so-called CISC-architecture of computers (CISC - Complete Instruction Set Computer - a computer with a full set of instructions). In processor instruction systems based on this architecture, a separate instruction is provided for each possible action. For example, the Intel Pentium processor instruction set consists of over 1000 different instructions. The wider the instruction set, the more memory bits are required to encode each individual instruction. If, for example, a command system consists of only four actions, then only two memory bits are required to encode them, three memory bits are required for eight possible actions, four for sixteen, etc. Thus, the expansion of the command system entails an increase the number of bytes allocated for one machine instruction, and, consequently, the amount of memory required to write the entire program as a whole. In addition, the average execution time of one machine instruction increases, and hence the average execution time of the entire program.

In the mid-80s, the first processors with a reduced instruction system appeared, built according to the so-called RISC-architecture (RISC - Reduce Instruction Set Computer - a computer with a truncated instruction set). Instruction systems of processors with this architecture are much more compact, therefore programs consisting of instructions included in this system require significantly less memory and execute faster. However, for many complex actions, separate commands are not provided in such systems. When the need arises for such actions, they emulated through existing teams. Generally speaking, emulation is called the execution of actions of one device using the means of another, carried out without loss of functionality. V this case we are talking about performing the necessary complex actions for which the commands in the truncated system not provided, using a sequence of commands available in the system. Naturally, there is a certain loss of processor efficiency.

The RISC architecture includes fairly well-known machines of the company Apple Macintosh, which have a command system that in some cases provides them with higher performance than machines of the IBM PC family. Another important difference between these machines is that many of the capabilities that are provided in the IBM PC family by purchasing, installing and configuring additional equipment are built-in in the Macintosh family and do not require any hardware configuration. True, Macintosh machines are more expensive than similar machines in the IBM family.

Machines of the families are often used as high-performance servers. Sun Microsystems, Hewlett Packard and Compaq which are also related to RISC architecture. As representatives of other architectures, we can also mention the families of portable computers of classes Notebook(portable) and Handheld(manual), which are small in size, light in weight and self-powered. These qualities make it possible to use these machines on business trips, at business meetings, scientific conferences, etc., in a word, in cases where access to a stationary installed computers limited or not possible, such as on a train or plane.

Control questions

1. Give a definition to the concept of "computer architecture".

2. What are the three main groups of computer devices.

3. What is a number system and what number systems are used in personal computers to encode information?

4. What is the difference and what are the similarities between a bit and a byte?

5. How is it encoded in a PC text information?

6. How is graphic information encoded in a PC?

7. Give definitions to the concepts "pixel", "raster", "resolution", "scanning".

8. What is the amount of memory, in what units is it measured?

9. What are the similarities and differences between operational and external memory?

10. Give definitions to the concepts of "loading" and "start" of the program.

11. Describe the floppy disk drives.

13. Describe the basic rules for handling floppy disks.

14. Give definitions to the concepts "work surface", "track", "sector", "cluster".

15. How to determine the size of the disk storage media?

16. What is the purpose of formatting magnetic disks?

17. Describe the hard disk drives.

18. Describe the drives on optical and magneto-optical disks.

19. Compare floppy disks, magnetic disks, optical disks, and magneto-optical disks.

20. How many disk devices can there be in personal computers? How are they designated?

21. Describe the main functions of the processor.

22. Give definitions to the concepts of "instruction system", "machine instruction", "machine program".

23. Indicate the main specifications processors.

24. What is a translator and what is it for?

25. What is a tire for? What is determined by its bit depth?

26. What is motherboard?

27. What computer devices are in the system unit?

28. Give the classification of displays and indicate their basic models.

29. What are adapters for?

30. What are the main modes of the keyboard.

30. What are the function keys for?

31. What is a keyboard shortcut?

32. What is a text cursor?

33. Explain how the text scrolls.

34. What is a screen text page?

35. Describe the main ways to move the text cursor.

36. What is a mouse for?

37. Specify the basic parameters and types of printers.

38. What is a scanner for? What other devices, similar in purpose, do you know?

39. What devices must be included in the computer in order for it to work in a multimedia environment?

40. What are modems for?

41. What is a family of computers?

42. What computers are considered software-compatible?

43. What are the basic models of the IBM PC family. How do they differ from each other?

Computers

system unit;

keyboards

monitor

electronic circuits

power unit

drives

hard drive

The main peripherals personal computers.

Additional devices

Various input-output devices can be connected to the system unit of an IBM PC, thereby expanding it functionality... Many devices are connected through special sockets (connectors), usually located on the back of the computer system unit. In addition to the monitor and keyboard, such devices are:

a printer- for printing text and graphic information;

mouse- a device that facilitates the input of information into a computer;

joystick- a manipulator in the form of a handle with a button fixed on a hinge, used mainly for computer games;

As well as other devices.

These devices are connected using special wires (cables). To protect against errors ("fool-proof"), the connectors for inserting these cables are made different, so that the cable simply does not stick into the wrong socket.

Some devices can be inserted inside the computer system unit, for example:

modem- to exchange information with other computers via telephone network;

fax modem- combines the capabilities of a modem and telefax;

streamer- for storing data on magnetic tape.

Some devices, for example, many types of scanners (devices for entering pictures and texts into a computer), use a mixed connection method: only an electronic board (controller) is inserted into the computer's system unit, work manager device, and the device itself is connected to this board with a cable.

The main classes of software for personal computers and their purpose. The concept of installing and uninstalling programs.

Programs running on a computer can be divided into three categories:

applied programs, directly ensuring the performance of the work necessary for users: editing texts, drawing pictures, processing information arrays, etc.;

systemic programs, performing various auxiliary functions, for example, making copies of the information used, issuing reference information about a computer, checking the performance of computer devices, etc.;

instrumental systems(programming systems), providing the creation of new programs for the computer.

It is clear that the boundaries between these three classes of programs are rather arbitrary, for example, a text editor may be included in a program of a systemic nature, i.e. an applied program.

Installing programs- installation of the program on a PC. In this case, information about the program is often recorded in the PC register.

Uninstalling programs- the reverse procedure of the installation, that is, Removing the program from the PC.

Drivers. An important class of system programs are driver programs. They extend DOS's capabilities to control computer input / output devices (keyboard, hard disk, mouse, etc.), RAM, etc. With the help of drivers, it is possible to connect new devices to the computer or non-standard use of existing devices.

Purpose and main functions of the Total Commander program.

File manager Total Commander provides another way to work with files and folders in the Windows environment. The program, in a simple and intuitive form, provides the execution of such operations with the file system as moving from one directory to another, creating, renaming, copying, moving, searching, viewing and deleting files and directories, and much more.

Total Commander is not standard program Windows i.e. is not installed on the computer along with the installation of Windows itself. Total Commander is installed separately after installing Windows.

The working area of ​​the Total Commander window differs from many others in that it is divided into two parts (panels), in each of which the contents of various disks and directories can be displayed.

For example, the user can display the contents of the D: drive in the left pane, and enter one of the directories of the C: drive in the right pane. Thus, it becomes possible to simultaneously work with files and folders in both parts of the window.

Working with files and folders in Total Commander:

· Switching from catalog to catalog

Allocation of files and directories

Copy files and directories

Moving files and directories

Creation of directories

Deleting files and directories

Renaming files and directories

Fast directory search

The concept of archiving and unzipping files. Basic methods of working with the ARJ archiver program.

As a rule, programs for packing (archiving) files allow you to put compressed copies of files on disk into an archive file (archiving), extract files from the archive (unzip), view the contents of the archive, etc. Different programs differ in the format of archive files, the speed of work, the degree of compression of the files when placed in the archive, and the ease of use.

Setting ARJ functions is carried out by setting the command code and modes. The command code is one letter, it is indicated in command line immediately following the program name and specifies the type of activity that the program should perform. For example, A - adding files to the archive, T - testing (checking) the archive, E - extracting files from the archive, etc.

Modes can be set to clarify exactly what actions are required from the ARJ program. Modes can be specified anywhere on the command line after the command code, they are specified either with a preceding "-" sign: -V, -M, etc., or with a preceding "/" sign: / V, / M, etc. ... (however, you cannot mix the two on the same command line).

Modes for selecting archived files. ARJ has three main modes for putting files into an archive:

Add - add all files to the archive;

Update - adding new files to the archive;

Freshen - adding new versions of files in the archive.

Extracting files from the archive. ARJ itself extracts files from its archives. Call format: command mode archive name (directory \) (file names).

Network structure

Nodes and backbones of the Internet are its infrastructure, and on the Internet there are several services or services (E-mail, USENET, TELNET, WWW, FTP, etc.), one of the first services is e-mail E-mail. Currently, most of the traffic on the Internet comes from the World Wide Web (World Wide Web) service.

The principle of operation of the WWW service was developed by physicists Tim Bernes-Lee and Robert Kayo at the European research center CERN (Geneva) in 1989. Currently, the Internet Web service contains millions of pages of information with various types of documents.

The components of the structure of the Internet are combined into a common hierarchy. The Internet brings together many different computer networks and individual computers that exchange information with each other. All information on the Internet is stored on Web servers. The exchange of information between Web servers is carried out over high-speed highways.

These highways include: dedicated telephone analog and digital lines, optical communication channels and radio channels, including satellite communication lines. Servers connected by high-speed backbones make up the basic part of the Internet.

Users connect to the network through the routers of local Internet service providers or ISPs that have permanent connection to the Internet through regional providers. Regional provider, connects to a larger national-scale provider with nodes in different cities of the country.

The networks of national providers are united in the networks of transnational providers or first-tier providers. The united networks of first-level providers make up the global Internet.

Searching for information on the Internet

The main task of the Internet is to provide the necessary information. The Internet is an information space where you can find the answer to almost any question of interest to the user. This is huge global network, into which streams of smaller networks flow like information streams. Any user with a PC and appropriate programs will be able to connect to the network using its capabilities for a variety of purposes - leisure, learning, reading scientific works, sending email, etc.

Basic methods of finding information on the Internet:

1. Direct search using hypertext links.

Since all sites in the WWW are actually linked to each other, information can be retrieved by sequentially viewing linked pages using a browser. Although this completely manual search method looks like a complete anachronism on a Web of more than 60 million sites, "manual" Web browsing is often the only option in the final stages of information retrieval, when mechanical "digging" gives way to deeper analysis. The use of catalogs, classified and thematic lists and all kinds of small reference books also applies to this type of search.

2. Usage search engines. Today this method is one of the main and, in fact, the only one in conducting a preliminary search. The latter may result in a list of Network resources to be considered in detail.

As a rule, the use of search engines is based on the use of keywords that are passed to search engines as search arguments: what to look for. If done correctly, the formation of a list of keywords requires preliminary work on the preparation of a thesaurus.

3. Search using special tools. This fully automated method can be very effective for conducting initial searches. One of the technologies of this method is based on the use of specialized programs - spiders, which in automatic mode browse Web pages looking for the information they are looking for. In fact, this is the automated hypertext link browsing described above (search engines use similar techniques to build their index tables). Needless to say, the results automatic search necessarily require post-processing.

Application this method it is advisable if the use of search engines cannot give the necessary results (for example, due to a non-standard query that cannot be adequately specified by the existing means of search engines). In some cases, this method can be very effective. The choice between using a spider or search engines is a variant of the classic choice between using general-purpose or specialized tools.

4. Analysis of new resources. Search for newly formed resources may be necessary when conducting repeated search cycles, searching for the most recent information or for analyzing trends in the development of the research object in dynamics. possible reason it can be that most search engines update their indexes with a significant delay due to the enormous amounts of data being processed, and this delay is usually the greater, the less popular the topic of interest. This consideration can be very important when conducting a search in a highly specialized subject area.

Basic concepts of ET

Spreadsheet working window Microsoft Excel contains the following controls: title bar, menu bar, toolbars, formula bar, working field, status bar.

The Excel document is called a workbook. A workbook is a collection of worksheets. The current worksheet is displayed in the Excel document window. Each worksheet has a title that appears on the sheet tab.

Interface structure

After launch Microsoft programs Excel, its window will be displayed on the screen.

working window of the program:

Title bar, which includes: the system menu, the title itself, and window control buttons.

Menu bar.

Toolbars: formatting and standard

· Status bar.

· A line of formulas, which includes: a name field; enter, cancel and function wizards; and a line of functions.

Context menu

In addition to the main menu permanently on the screen in all Windows applications, in Excel, as in other MS Office programs, it is actively used context menu... The context menu provides quick access to the commands that are frequently used for a given object in a given situation.

When you right-click an icon, a cell, a selected group of cells, or an embedded object, a menu with basic functions opens near the mouse pointer. The commands included in the context menu always refer to the active (selected) object.

Toolbars

Ways to show / hide toolbars:

First way:

1.Click on any toolbar Right Button Mice ( RMB). The context menu of the list of toolbars appears.

2.Select or uncheck the box next to the name of the required toolbar by clicking on the name of the required toolbar in the list.

Second way:

1.Select the command from the menu bar View. The View command bar appears.

2.Move cursor to line Toolbars. The Toolbars command menu appears.

3.Select or uncheck the box next to the name of the desired toolbar.

Formula bar

The formula bar is used to enter and edit values ​​or formulas in cells or charts, and to display the address of the current cell.

Workbook, sheet

A workbook is a document containing several sheets, which can include tables, charts, or macros. All worksheets are saved in one file.

Cell block

As a block of cells can be considered a row or part of a row, a column or part of a column, as well as a rectangle consisting of several rows and columns or their parts. The address of a block of cells is specified by specifying references to its first and last cells, between which a separating character is placed - a colon (for example, B1: D6).

Data types in MS Excel

There are two types of data that can be entered into cells of an Excel worksheet - constants and formulas.

Constants in turn are subdivided into: numeric values, text values, date and time values, boolean values, and erroneous values.

Numerical values

Numeric values ​​can contain numbers from 0 to 9, as well as special characters: + - E e (). , $% /

To enter a numerical value in a cell, you must select the desired cell and enter the required combination of numbers from the keyboard. The numbers you enter appear both in the cell and in the formula bar. Upon completion of the entry, press the Enter key. After that, the number will be written into the cell. By default, after pressing Enter, the cell located one row below becomes active, but using the "Service" - "Options" command, on the "Edit" tab, you can set the required direction of transition to the next cell after entering, or exclude the transition altogether. If, after entering a number, press any of the cell navigation keys (Tab, Shift + Tab ...), the number will be fixed in the cell, and the input focus will go to the adjacent cell.

Sometimes it becomes necessary to enter long numbers. At the same time, to display it in the formula bar, an exponential notation with no more than 15 significant digits is used. The precision of the value is chosen so that the number can be displayed in the cell.

In this case, the value in the cell is called the input or display value.

The value in the formula bar is called the stored value.

The number of digits to be entered depends on the width of the column. If the width is not wide enough, Excel either rounds the value or prints ### characters. In this case, you can try increasing the cell size.

Text values

Entering text is completely similar to typing numerical values... You can enter almost any character. If the text is longer than the width of the cell, then the text is superimposed on the adjacent cell, although in fact it is in the same cell. If there is also text in an adjacent cell, then it overlaps the text in the adjacent cell.

To adjust the width of the cell for the longest text, you need to click on the border of the column in its header. So if you click on the line between the headings of columns A and B, then the cell width will be automatically adjusted to the longest value in this column.

If it becomes necessary to enter a number like text value, then the number must be preceded by an apostrophe, or the number must be enclosed in quotation marks - "123" 123 ".

You can distinguish which value (numeric or text) is entered in a cell by the alignment attribute. By default, text is left-aligned, while numbers are right-aligned.

As you enter values ​​into a range of cells, the input will be left-to-right and top-to-bottom. Those. When entering values ​​and completing the entry by pressing Enter, the cursor will jump to the adjacent cell to the right, and upon reaching the end of a block of cells in a row, it will jump to the line below to the leftmost cell.

Changing values ​​in a cell

To change the values ​​in a cell before fixing the input, you must use, as in any text editor, the Del and Backspace keys. If you need to change an already fixed cell, you need to double-click on the desired cell, and the cursor will appear in the cell. After that, you can edit the data in the cell. You can simply select the cell you want, then position the cursor in the formula bar where the cell's contents are displayed, and then edit the data. After finishing the revision, press Enter to commit the changes. In case of erroneous editing, the situation can be "rewound" back using the "Undo" button (Ctrl + Z).

26. Creation of charts in MS Excel.

To create a chart, you must first enter the data for the chart into an Excel sheet. Select the data and then use the Chart Wizard to step through the process of choosing the chart type and various chart options for the chart. The Chart Wizard - Step 1 of 4: Chart Type dialog box, specify the chart type that you want to use for the chart. The Chart Wizard - Step 2 of 4- Chart data source dialog box, you can specify the data range and how the series are displayed on the chart. V Chart Wizard - Step 3 of 4: Chart Options dialog box, you can change the appearance of the chart more by selecting the chart options on the six tabs. How to change these parameters, review the sample chart to make sure the chart looks as it should ... The Chart Wizard - Step 4 of 4: Place Diagram dialog box, select a folder to place on the diagram by doing one of the following:

Click the On New Sheet button to display the chart in a new sheet.

Click the As object in button to display it on the diagram as an object in a sheet.

Click the Finish button.

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MS PowerPoint. Possibilities of the presentation program. Basic concepts.

PowerPoint XP is an application for preparing presentations, the slides of which are submitted to the public in the form of printed graphic materials or through the demonstration of an electronic slide film. Having created or imported the content of the report, you can quickly decorate it with drawings, add diagrams and animation effects. Navigation elements make it possible to generate interactive presentations controlled by the viewer himself.

PowerPoint files are named presentations and their elements are slides.

DESIGN TEMPLATES

Microsoft PowerPoint gives you the ability to create design templates,

that can be used in a presentation to give it a finished, professional look.

Design template - it is a template that you can use to prepare other presentations.

Purpose and characteristics of the main devices of a personal computer such as IBM PC.

Computers are tools used to process information. The main blocks of the IBM PC

Usually personal IBM computers PCs consist of three parts (blocks):

system unit;

keyboards that allows you to enter characters into a computer;

monitor(or display) - for displaying text and graphic information.

Although of these parts of the computer, the system unit looks the least impressive, it is he who is the "main" one in the computer. It contains all the main components of the computer:

electronic circuits that control the operation of the computer (microprocessor, RAM, device controllers, etc., see below);

power unit converting the mains power supply into direct current low voltage supplied to the electronic circuits of the computer;

drives(or disk drives) for floppy disks, used to read and write to floppy disks (floppy disks);

hard drive magnetic disk, designed for reading and writing to a non-removable hard magnetic disk (hard drive).