On 01/06/2017 12:30 PM, Jack Rubin via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
Nice summary and history, thank you, and too easy to forget that many people today aren't aware of it.
I view it from a slightly different perspective, as a history of engineering progress - solving problems, advancing to the next plateau, chasing bottlenecks and moving on. There's a cyclical nature to the process but line of development in terms of overall ability to solve problems generally moves in a forward direction. At any given moment, the next challenge may be hardware, software or analytical approach. The last piece - the science part of computer science - is something that is often underexplored in popular presentations. While a multi-million transistor CPU is mind boggling, the mathematical complexity of the great ideas that drive us forward - from Babbage through Shannon and Turing to database structure, image analysis, compiler development, Big Data, etc. is even more daunting.
Also let's not forget how the CPU (and OS's) followed in the footsteps of the mainframe. As patents aged, new innovation suddenly creep-ed into microprocessors and microcontrollers. -- Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry ncherry@linuxha.com http://www.linuxha.com/ Main site http://linuxha.blogspot.com/ My HA Blog Author of: Linux Smart Homes For Dummies