Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
2006 Microsoft releases the long-awaited Windows Vista to business users. The PC
OEM and consumer market releases would follow in early 2007.
2007 Intel releases the 3x series chipsets with support for DDR3 memory and PCI Ex-
press 2.0, which doubles the available bandwidth.
2007 AMD releases the Phenom processors, the first quad-core processors for PCs with
all four cores on a single die.
2008 IntelreleasestheCorei-Series(Nehalem)processors,whicharedual-orquad-core
chips with optional Hyper-Threading (appearing as four or eight cores to the OS)
that include an integrated memory controller.
2008 Intel releases the 4x and 5x series chipsets, the latter of which supports Core i-Ser-
ies processors with integrated memory controllers.
2009 Microsoft releases Windows 7, a highly anticipated successor to Vista.
2009 AMD releases the Phenom II processors in 2-, 3-, and 4-core versions.
2010 Intel releases six-core versions of the Core i-Series processor (Gulftown) and a
dual-core version with integrated graphics (Clarkdale). The Gulftown is the first
PC processor with more than 1 billion transistors.
2010 AMD releases six-core versions of the Phenom II processor.
2011 Intel releases the second-generation Core i-Series processors along with new
6-Series motherboard chipsets. The chipsets and motherboards are quickly re-
calledduetoabugintheSATAhostadapter.TherecallcostsIntelnearlyabillion
dollars and results in a several month delay in the processors and chipsets reach-
ing the market.
Electronic Computers
A physicist named John V. Atanasoff (with associate Clifford Berry) is officially credited
with creating the first true digital electronic computer from 1937 to 1942, while working
at Iowa State University. The Atanasoff-Berry Computer (called the ABC) was the first
to use modern digital switching techniques and vacuum tubes as switches, and it intro-
duced the concepts of binary arithmetic and logic circuits. This was made legally official
onOctober19,1973when,followingalengthycourttrial,U.S.FederalJudgeEarlR.Lar-
sonvoidedtheENIACpatentofEckertandMauchlyandnamedAtanasoffastheinventor
of the first electronic digital computer.
Military needs during World War II caused a great thrust forward in the evolution of
computers. In 1943, Tommy Flowers completed a secret British code-breaking computer
called Colossus, which was used to decode German secret messages. Unfortunately, that
