Introduction - Computer Busses - page 41

one computer is much like the next. There's the processor, there's the memory, that's a
bridge chip, and, oh, there's the busses, that's it.
As we move to computers on a chip, they will, in terms of hardware, become even more
boring to look at. But, maybe I'm just biased. Oh, and before the IBM PC, it was people who
made things happen in the computer industry, such as William Shockley, Steve Jobs, Kenneth
Olson, Sir Clive Sinclair, Bill Gates, and so on. These days it is large teams of software and
hardware engineers who move the industry. Well, enough of this negative stuff. The PC is an
extremely exciting development, which has changed the form of modern life. Without its
flexibility, its compatibility, and, especially, its introduction into the home, we would not
have seen the fast growth of the Internet.

Here are my Top 15 successes in the computer industry:

1. IBM PC (for most), which was a triumph of design and creativity. One of the few com-

puter systems to ever to be released on time, within budget, and within specification. Bill
Gates must take some credit in getting IBM to adopt the 8088 processor, rather than
8080. After its success, every man and his dog had a say in what went into it. The rise of
the bland IBM PC was a great success of an open system over closed systems. Compa-
nies who have quasimonopolies are keen on keeping their systems closed, while compa-
nies against other competitors prefer open systems. The market, and thus, the user, pre-
fers open systems.

2. TCP/IP , which is the standard protocol used by computers communicating over the

Internet. It has been designed to be computer independent to any type of computer, can
talk to any other type. It has withstood the growth of the Internet with great success. Its
only problem is that we are now running out of IP addresses to grant to all the com-
puters that connect to the Internet. It is thus a victim of its own success.

3. Electronic mail , which has taken the paperless office one step nearer. Many mourned

the death of the letter writing. Before email, TV and the telephone had suppressed the
art of letter writing, but with email it is back again, stronger than ever. It is not without
its faults, though. Many people have sent emails in anger, or ignorance, and then regret-
ted them later. It is just too quick, and does not allow for a cooling off period. My motto
is: 'If you are annoyed about something sleep on it, and send the email in the morning'.
Also, because email is not a face-to-face communication, or a voice-to-voice communi-
cation, it is easy to take something out of context. So another motto is: 'Carefully read
everything that you have written, and make sure there is nothing'. Only on the Internet
could email address format be accepted, worldwide, in such a short time.

4. Microsoft , who made sure that they could not lose in the growth of the PC, by teaming

up with the main computer manufacturers, such as IBM (for DOS and OS/2), Apple (for
Macintosh application software) and for their own operating system: Windows. Luckily
for them it was their own operating system which became the industry standard. With
the might of having the industry-standard operating system, they captured a large mar-
ket for industry-standard application programs, such as Word and Excel.

5. Intel , who was presented with an enormous market with the development of the IBM PC,

but have since invested money in enhancing their processors, but still keeping compati-
bility with their earlier ones. This has caused a great deal of hassle for software devel-
opers, but is a dream for users. With processors, the larger the market you have, the
more money you can invest in new ones, which leads to a larger market, and so on. Un-
fortunately, the problem with this is that other processor companies can simply copy
their designs, and change them a little so that they are still compatible. This is some-
thing that Intel have fought against, and, in most cases have succeed in regaining their