EECS 1520 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Apollo Program, Lynn Conway, Computer Appliance

• School: York University
• Department: Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
• Course: EECS 1520
• Professor: John Hofbauer

Document Summary

Dec pdp series: offered mainframe performance at a fraction of the cost, pdp-8 introduced at 10,000 vs 1m for a mainframe. Supercomputers today; ibm blue gene: used for hydrodynamics, quantum chemistry, molecular dynamics, climate modeling and financial modeling. Intel 4004 microprocessor: first commercially available microprocessor, first used in a programmable calculator, made the personal computer possible, contained 2300 transistors and ran at 100 khz. Desktop and portable computers (1975-: used microprocessors, all in one designs, performance/price trade-offs, aimed at mass audience, aimed at individuals. It is difficult to use: personal computers, workstations. Steve wozniak and steve jobs with the first apple computer. Radio shack trs-80: first plug and play personal computer available at retail, very successful, very affordable, programmed in basic, limited commercial software, created a cottage industry. Initially sold to wall st bankers who wanted the spreadsheet program called visicalc: ran on apple ii, put apple on the map.