A Long Way From Univac

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Term Paper Title	A Long Way From Univac
# of Words	1489
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	5.96

A Long Way From Univac

A Long Way From Univac

Adv. Eng. 9
Computers

     Can you imagine a world without computers?  You most probably interact
with some form of a computer every day of your life.  Computers are the most
important advancement our society has ever seen.  They have an interesting
history, many interesting inner components, they are used nearly everywhere, and
continue to advance incredibly fast.  Because the field of computers is so broad,
this paper will focus mainly on personal computers.

     Although computers have been evolving for quite some time, they really
didn¹t gain popularity until the introduction of the personal computer.  In 1977,
Steve Jobs, co-founder of  the Apple Computer Company, unveiled what is
generally considered to be the first personal computer, the Apple II.  This
computer was introduced on April 16, 1977, at the First West Coast Computer
Faire, in San Francisco.  In 1981, the International Business Machines Company
introduced the first IBM PC.  Unlike Apple, IBM used a policy of open
architecture for their computer.  They bought all of their components from the
lowest bidder, such as the 8086 and 8088 microprocessor chips, made by a Intel,
a Hillsboro, Oregon company.   When IBM¹s computer¹s design had been finalized,
they shared most of the inner workings of the computer with everyone.  IBM hoped
that this would encourage companies to manufacture computers that were
compatible with theirs, and that in turn, would cause software companies to
create operating systems, or OS, and other programs for the ³IBM Compatible²
line of computers.  One of the computer manufacturers was a Texas company called
Compaq.  A company called Dell Computers was the first ³factory direct² computer
seller.  A small Redmond, Washington company called Microsoft made a large
amount of software for the ³IBM Compatible² line of computers.  This open
architecture policy of IBM was not without it¹s flaws, however.  IBM lost some
business to the ³clones² who could offer more speed, more memory, or a smaller
price tag.  IBM had considered this an acceptable loss.  One of the few
components of the IBM PC that was kept from the clone manufacturers was the
Basic Input Output System, or BIOS.  This program, which was usually etched
permanently on a chip, controlled the interactions between the internal hard and
floppy drives, the external drives, printers, and monitors, etc.  Clone
manufactures had to make their own versions of an input output system. ...

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