diff --git a/.zk/notebook.db b/.zk/notebook.db index 776354a..58760af 100644 Binary files a/.zk/notebook.db and b/.zk/notebook.db differ diff --git a/zk/The_History_of_Computing_Swade.md b/zk/The_History_of_Computing_Swade.md index 5c63d73..0bd8cc6 100644 --- a/zk/The_History_of_Computing_Swade.md +++ b/zk/The_History_of_Computing_Swade.md @@ -652,3 +652,38 @@ with no required startup time, they were power efficient and small. The actual period where transistors alone were supreme in the form of a transistor board was relatively short-lived and rapidly gave way to ICs. + +Computers of the transistor era had the following components separate from each +other: the transistors, wired connections, resistors and capacitors. Integrated +circuits put these all on the same piece of silicon. + +They were first manufactured by Fairchild Semiconductor which was an offshoot of +Shockley's Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory. + +The initial marked for ICs was military and scientific: the Minuteman ICBM and +computers of the Apollo spacecraft. This laid the groundworkd for later +commercial use and the personal computer revolution. + +## Mini-computers + +Mini computers did not threaten mainframes but they opened up a new class of +user. They were vastly cheaper than a mainframe and only the size of a small +fridge. + +The main player was DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) starting in the +mid-1960s. The introduced the PDP-8 in 1965 (Programmed Data Processor). The +PDP-8 used transisotrs and magnetic core memory. It was affordable to smaller +businesses if not yet, consumers. + +![The PDP-8](<../img/540px-PDP-8_(1).jpg>) + +The internals were made public and DEC encouraged making the machine extensible +by users being permitted to create their own programs and specialised +applications. This was a very different culture to IBM where technicians were +required and machines were typically leased. + +By 1988, DEC was the second largest computer company after IBM. This led to +additional companies entering the mini-computer market: Data General, Honeywell, +Hewlett-Packard. + +Mini-computers died as a category in the mid-1990s in the wake of the PC.