Computer Industry Trends

For over 30 years, steady increases in computer performance, memory and magnetic storage capacity – at the same or lower costs – has been the result of continuing improvements in fabricating semiconductor and magnetic storage components with smaller dimensions.

Historically, dynamic memory devices, with their large, regular structures, have been the first components to realize the benefits of advances in semiconductor process technology, enabling more transistors to be contained in a single part. As the following chart indicates, microprocessors with their more complex layout and design, lag memory chips by roughly five years, in the number of transistors they utilize.

Historically, information storage was accomplished by paper in the form of books. While the cost of paper storage is driven by the price of paper, the cost of semiconductor, magnetic, and optical storage, has steadily decreased over time, due to the previous mentioned trends. From an archival viewpoint, the major issue is that for media that was recorded as recently as twenty years prior, there may no longer be any equipment capable of reading it.

The steady increases in recording density have also enabled continuing decreases in the overall physical size of storage devices. The following graph shows how IBM’s RAMAC disk drives, literally eight feet high by four feet deep and eight feet long, have evolved into components that fit in the palm of your hand, yet contain thousands of times the amount of data.

The first mainframe computers cost millions of dollars, they could only be economically justified if they were shared by an entire organization. With the advent of the integrated circuit, minicomputers costing $50 thousand became feasible, enabling groups and departments within companies to purchase them. But it was not until the first microprocessor in 1974, that PCs for use by individuals became possible.

The first mainframe computers cost millions of dollars, they could only be economically justified if they were shared by an entire organization. With the advent of the integrated circuit, minicomputers costing $50 thousand became feasible, enabling groups and departments within companies to purchase them. But it was not until the first microprocessor in 1974, that PCs for use by individuals became possible.

As computers became more prevalent, it became desirable to interconnect them. The first computers were widely separated, and existing telephone communications lines were the only means by which data could be communicated. The origins of WANs (wide area networks) occurred here. The late 1970s saw the first LANs in which computers were interconnected by cabling dedicated to that purpose. In the late 1990s, a convergence of WAN and LAN technology is occurring, as ATM (asynchronous transfer mechanism) is used to implement both LAN and WAN systems.

The last graph in this page provides a family tree of computer technology, showing how semiconductor technology has enabled various different types of computer systems, and how various computer systems have served as the springboard and inspiration for new types of computer systems.

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