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The State of the Art:
July 22, 2002:
In October of 1999, we produced a book written by me called "The
Anatomy of a PC." It is still an excellent reference for
people who want to build a PC and/or understand computer basics.
These things have not changed at all. However, as often happens
in modern technology, many of the details of the art were changing
even as the book was being published.
Most of these differences are in speed, power, and cost of the hardware. Speed and power have increased dramatically. Prices of hardware have declined just as dramatically. These are rather bizarre phenomena which are unique, I believe, to the electronics industry. Software, of course, has not changed at all. We get version after version, but it is all still junk.
Software aside, I am about to specify and build another computer for myself. Hence, it is time to look closely at what has changed and how much it has changed. For reference, here are the components which I specified for a basic system in 1999. The total cost of this system was around $2,700.00
AMD K6-3 450 MHZ Processor
12V ball bearing Cooling fan
EPoX EP-MVP3GM Motherboard
2 ea. 128 MB SDRAM modules Main memory
Maxtor Diamondmax 7200 20.4 GB Hard drive
LS120 internal Floppy drive
ViewSonic G790 19" Monitor
ATI Rage Fury 32 MB Graphics board
Quetronix Scorpius 98A AT 104 Keyboard
Logitech 2-button serial mouse
Diamond Monster Sound MX300 Sound card
Altec Lansing ACS 45.1 Speaker system
Diamond 56k SP PCI internal Modem
Lynksys 10 Base-T, internal, PCI Ethernet card
Mitsumi 40X IDE CD-ROM drive
Full tower, side open, slide tray 556ATX Computer Cabinet
Adaptec 2910C SCSI interface kit
Teac 32X SCSI, CD-ROM drive, two required
Yamaha CRW-4416E CD-RW drive
Now, what has changed and how much?
One change has been in processor speed. When I specified this system, the fastest processor available was a 500 MHZ processor from Intel. MHZ means megahertz or million cycles per second. We call it the clock speed. This is how the processor speed is measure. Very simply, a cycle is the amount of time it takes a processor to perform a single simple operation.
Now processor speeds are closing in on 2.5 GHZ (gigahertz). That's 2,500 MHZ. That is nearly a fivefold increase in speed. What do we gain from this? Not as much as you might think. Except in certain math or graphics intensive applications, the difference between a 500 MHZ and a 2,500 MHZ processor is not noticeable.
For the computer motherboard there have been some more interesting changes. One big change has been in bus speed. The data bus which carries information around the board has increased from 100 MHZ to up to 400 MHZ. This is very significant for the data transfers between main memory and the processor. Programs and data stored in memory must be transferred to the process before it can act on them. That transfer is via the motherboard bus. Without a faster bus and faster memory, faster processors would not help much. These things must all work together.
Another interesting change has been in the addition of Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) capability to the Motherboard. This capability will not be useful to everyone. Basically, it is the ability to make two or more hard drives act like a single drive. It can also be used to make one drive mirror another drive. For me, it will forever change the way I do backup. In fact, I won't do it. The RAID will. I'll get to the how of this below.
There have been two other changes involving motherboards. One is that the Universal Serial Bus (USB) has become more reliable and faster. There are also more USB devices available. For example, most scanners have a USB version. The other addition, finally being implemented, is the High Performance Serial Bus. This is a very fast bus standard, sometimes called Firewire, which allows fast data transfers from external devices. It will be useful in video data streaming and any other fast data transfers.
As to memory, it has become much faster and much less expensive. Again, memory is measure in the speed at which it can deliver information over the bus. The fastest memory now is called Rambus Dynamic Ram (RDRAM). It can operate at clock speeds of up to 800 MHZ. That is a dramatic increase over 100 MHZ Ram which was available in 1999. Even more stunning is the price. I can now buy 1,000 MB (megabytes or million bytes) of this fast Ram for about the same price that I paid for 256 MB of the old slow Ram. Ouch!
Perhaps the most significant change has been in the IDE standards and in hard drives overall. In 1999 I specified a 20.4 GB hard drive. That was considered a large drive at the time. Now it's a wimp. Hard drives are available in sizes exceeding 100 GB. In addition, data transfer rates have increased from 33 megabits per second (Mbps) up to 133 MBps. The prices have also dropped dramatically. I recently bought an 80 GB hard drive for about 1/3 of what I paid for the 20 GB in 1999. Ouch again!
Another interesting development which has been lurking around will finally be useful to me. This is the idea of a removable hard drive. There is a product which allows a hard drive to be mounted in a removable drawer in the computer. Using Raid, I can set this removable drive to mirror my internal data drive. Then, as I work, my data will be backed up automatically. At the end of the day, I can take the drawer with me.
Because of these developments in IDE, Firewire, USB, and RAID, I visualize the demise of the Small Computer Interchange Standard. (SCSI). The interface and the devices it supports will go the way of the buggy whip and the 5&1/4 inch floppy.
One surprising development is that the ubiquitous 1.2 MB floppy refuses to go away. Instead, the LS120 floppy probably will go away. It never really caught on big time. Although the zip drive did dominate for a time, it too will disappear. Amen! For most of us, the Zip and Jazz disks have pretty much become an unpleasant memory. For me, it was a very expensive mistake.
Digital Versatile Disk (DVD) is finally getting into the act with the advent of DVD+RW, by Hewlett Packard and a few others, but it will probably fall into a narrow niche. I suspect it will fit into the video recording and data archiving arenas and not much else. This standard took so long to develop and shake out that it missed the mainstream market. For data backup, it is too small and too slow. At 4.7 very slow gigabytes, it seems puny. It cannot compete in price or speed with an 80GB, 7200 RPM hard drive. It will have some application in archiving if it proves reliable. Right now the CD-R disks are useful for this. They seem to be reliable.
In processors, AMD and Intel continue to duke it out. Microsoft should have such a competitor. One thing which will probably never change is the reliability of software. It still stinks. I will be installing Windows XP in my new system. I know what the pundits say. They say it's better than a flush toilet or a mistress, but they have always said silly things like that. I will be surprised if it is any more stable than any other Windows OS. I expect it to stink.
Once I build and test my new system, I will have a follow up
report.
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