The IT Revolution
The growth in electronics over the past decade has been phenomenal. What we have seen is not an evolution in technology but a revolution. Our society, our businesses, our home and our leisure activities are being transformed.
Modern electronics is based upon the microprocessor, one form of microchip, which consists of miniature logic circuits etched onto the surface of a silicon chip. These tiny circuits replace the enormous banks of glass valves used in the earliest computer of the 1940s and 1950s.
A computer that uses a microprocessor as its processing unit is known as microcomputer or personal computer (PC). A microprocessor controls the entire operation of a microcomputer. Thus, it is the brain of the microcomputer.
The early computers processed information in the form of data. Modern computers are more powerful and can handle information in other forms, including graphics and speech. However, they work on the same principles as the early models. The main difference between the computer of 30 years ago and the microchips of today lies in the fact that the latter are very small, very cheap, very reliable and very powerful. In fact, ever since the first chips were made in the early 1960s, their power has increased every year while their cost has decreased. It is the fact, continued over a quarter of a decade that has caused the information revolution.
Microprocessors are now incorporated not just into computers, but also into a wide range of other products, from cameras to washing machine and cars. But what has an information processing device to do with a camera, washing machine or car? The answer is that the microprocessor is used as a control mechanism in many of these products.
Microprocessors are now so cheap and so small that they can be incorporated into any device that can benefit from the power of the computer. What this means is that to an increasing extent, appliances are able to control themselves, so that the minimum of human intervention is required. This has had an obvious impact on our lives as it has brought large improvements in efficiency and productivity as well as it has affected our daily life patterns of work and leisure.
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