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3TRY.DOC
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1994-03-02
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(Advanced versions of the early computer also used, for a time,
thermionic valves, which added the extra hazard of heat to the
operating area, overcome beautifully with the introduction of
the semi-conducting transistor.)
A huge leap forward in computer technology was the discovery
that the circuit layout of many electrical devices, including
the transistor, could be etched out in miniature on a micro-thin
wafer of silicon.
Many of these wafers, joined together, could hold the equivalent
of the circuits that once needed huge buildings.
These integrated circuits required almost no power by comparison
to the early days, and could be mass produced cheaply.
The simplest and earliest of the silicon based integrated
circuit chips were capable of holding, in the miniature world of
less than 25mm square, not only many thousands of transistors,
but resistors, diodes, switches and other electronic current
control devices.
The CPU
───────
The CPU chip itself has the primary function of number
crunching, that is as mentioned earlier, doing all of the
additions, subtractions, divisions and multiplication to the
binary numbers it receives.
These calculations occur in a part of the chip called the ALU,
or Arithmetic Logic Unit.
The CPU, of itself, cannot store much more information than
instructions on how to do things, but must send all processed
information to an address in other chips called the Random
Access Memory (RAM) chips along a series of connections
called a DATA BUS.
RAM chips are called the PRIMARY storage device.
Computer processing ability is determined by the serial number
of the CPU chip.
Most IBM compatible personal computers have CPU chips ranging
from the 8088, 8086, 80286, 80386 and 80486 processors, each
faster at the task of calculation than their predecessor.
Recently there has been the release of the "PENTIUM", or 80586
chip, but at the opening of 1994 very few home users are in a
position to purchase machines with the capabilities of this
newer processor.
In both the '386 and '486 configured machines there is a
distinction between the chips using a 16 bit BUS and a 32 bit
DATA BUS.
The SX types of these chips are the cheaper and less powerful.
The DX series, for the 32 bit BUS, are the more efficient.