The programming mania.

Do you own an intel 80x86 family based processor ? Do you wish to understand the functioning and the interfacing of your microprocessor? Are you eager to command your pc through some of your own hand written code ? ....that too from the scratch ? Then you have arrived at the right place!!! The interaction with your PC's hardware , can be established through a set of commands defined by a versatile low level language known as an ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE.You would be amazed by this enchanting world of the computer programming.Yes !!! you are here to learn programming , but wait....won't you like to know a bit about the latest developments of these multifaceted electronic marvels.

 The PC today.

 The CPUs

Pentium IV chip photo courtesy: www.anandtech.com Pentium III chip.

   Today we observe the emergence of these splendid machines touching the coveted benchmark of the 4GHz.These machines have been harnessed in the every descipline of our lives. This has played a vital role in the faster and the reliable global communications.The latest microprocessors to create a stir in the market are AMD's Athlon 64 bit Hammer (Barton core) and Opteron. Hammer is the world's first 64 bit microprocessor. It's competitor the Intel's Prescott(3.6 GHz with Hyper threading technology) is no less far behind . Infact Intel's simultaneous multi threading technology (SMT) and the Hyperthreading technology (HT) ; with extended pipelines and low latency cache memory, makes your work much faster and is the latest trend in the Home PC market . With the release of Itanium, the crew at the intel corporation have ensured their firm hold over the chip market across the globe.

 The chipsets and the motherboards

photo courtesy: www.anandtech.com

   To boost their business the Intel corporation has recently entered the chipset market , much to the dismay of it's rivals including SIS, VIA, NVIDIA and ATI.The two dual channel DDR chipsets springdale(865) and Canterwood(875P) have arrived as the successors to 845 chipset , after it gained a huge popularity amongst the pc users.Equipped with 800 MHz FSB(Front Side Bus),dual channel DDR400,an 4X AGP (Accelerated Graphic Port) card slot (for high speed 3d graphics), these chipsets are set to give the end users the all new thrilling experience.The 875P chipset has been designed specifically for the Gigabit Ethernet.SIS has been pushing it's 655FX and 648FX chipsets in the market to compete with Intel. VIA's KT400A is bound to give Intel's 875P , NVIDIA's nForce2 and ATI's Radeon IGP a tough time with it's lower price tag. Abit,Asus,Biostar, Chaintech,DFI,Epox,VIA are some of the best motherboard brands.

 The Display Tools

video cards logos photo courtesy: www.anandtech.com

LCD color monitor. photo courtesy: www.anandtech.com

   The video cards are imperative for the hardcore 3D gamers , Movie scenes rendering special effect artists and the high-end users.The popular video cards available in the market are NVIDIA 's range of NV35-GeForce 5900 Ultra, NV30,FX 5800 Ultra and ATI's range of Radeon-9600 Pro , 9800 ,9200;Asus' range of GF4 Ti4800SE , GF4 MX440 ,GF4 Ti4200.Other brands include Creative,ELSA,Matrox,MSI,Visiontek,Gainward,Leadtek....However these are a luxurious commodity for a common PC user as they are too expensive.The normal external display card serve our purpose as few of them, like Intel's 845 IEG(Intel Extreme Graphics) have an onboard AGP card.Today a vast range of flat screen monitors with SVGA (Super Visual Graphic Adapter) are available such as LG , Samsung, Microtech , Daewoo etc.They come in sizes of 15",17"and 19".The Price roughly doubles from 15" to 17" and from 17" to 19".A 17" flat monitor is a good deal ( value for the money).

 The Data Storage Drives

THE DVD DRIVE THE RAM CHIP THE ROM CHIP photo courtesy: www.howstuffworks.com

   Various Brands including SONY, LG, ASUS, SAMSUNG, CREATIVE etc...have established their names in the optical storage technology. It seems that the conventional 3 and 1/2" floppy is getting outdated rapidly.Today the CD(Compact Disc) 52X and the DVD(Digital Video Disc) seem to carry the momentum of the data storage field. A CD can store upto 750 MB - 900 MB of data which is much more than the capacity of the floppy disc (1.44 MB).Now-a-days ZIP drives are also available which can store the data upto 250 MB.In the writable/re-writable CDs , a special type of "dye" is used .A special laser beam of the specific intensity is employed to engrave on this "dye" resulting in the storage of the information.The 512 MB memory is a dream date for the computer, though 256 MB memory is sufficient for most of the high speed demanding applications.Corsair LL (Low Latency) TwinX DDR400, Crucial DDR400, OCZ EL DDR400, TwinMOS DDR400, and Kingston HyperX DDR433 (running at 400MHz DDR) are some of the best brands available in the market. The Hard Disk drives available in the range of 40 GB, 80 GB,120 GB are worth their cost.These 7200 rpm/ 10,400 rpm storage devices are in the great demand in the market as the size of the applications are growing rapidly.The SEAGATE and SAMSUNG have been at the forefront in this sector.Other companies, not far behind, are IBM, Maxtor,Western Digital.

 The Input / Output Devices

The printer

    The Ps/2 scroll mouse and the optical mouse are a common sight amongst the pc users.Now-a-days nobody prefer the simple, same old three button mouse.The Ergonomics has not only made it possible to prevent the strain in your hands , but it also delivers the free mobility while working on a PC.The same idea holds true for the Keyboard Design.The standard (101/102 keys) Keyboards have been modified for the internet and the multimedia support.Logitech and many other companies have been encouraging R & D in this field. Let us not forget the acoustics which has become an integral part of the multimedia PC in the recent years. The new speakers with 3D sub-woofers (inclusive of the mindblowing tweeters) and 3D stereo surround technology has changed the face of the conventional PC usage.The leading manufacturers are Bose (companion 3), Creative (Inspire 5.1), Klipsch (ProMedia 5.1 THX), Logitech (Z680 5.1 THX), Altec Lansing (5.1 251). The technology behind the printer and the scanner is constantly improving.The laser printer offers you with an amazing crystal clear high resolution image. HP ,CANON, EPSON,etc...are the few but the most well known brand names in this sector.The Webcams are gaining impetus in the PC market.They have proved to be extremely useful for long distance global communications such as the video conferencing.The game users also purchase the tools such as the Force-feedback and the joystick.The Microsoft's sidewinger is a popular Force-feedback system.

 The Software

photo courtesy: Windows ® XP

   The power of a processor can't be harnessed completely , without the aid of the versatile and the user-friendly software applications.UNIX , PC-DOS and MS-DOS are the fundamental operating systems ; required to run most of the software applications. Windows-XP and LINUX are the most reliable and the powerful GUI (Graphical User Interface ) computer softwares available today.The latest version of Red Hat LINUX and Windows-XP support the Pentium IV's Hyperthreading Technology (HT).Apple Machintosh is an operating system written specifically for the Motorola's 6800 family of the microprocessors.Apart from them , in the multimedia sector Kinetix 3D studio Max , Maya , Softimage , Lightwave etc...are the well known softwares for the 3D image rendering. WinAmp and Real Player have been creating waves in the music sector (especially MP3s).Various educational and the entertainment softwares are available on the internet for download.Most of these are the Shareware , although some are a freeware too.

Reference: www.anandtech.com , www.pcmech.com

 A journey through the time.

The revolution began in 1971 with the electronic chip gaint Intel corporation announcing the release of the world's first microprocessor : The Intel 4004. Eversince it's release in the market , the chip industry has not looked behind. Many companies like the AMD, Zilog Inc, Cyrix corporation entered into the competition.The race to stay in the competition produced faster and the better chips, from a small 4 bit microprocessor to a large 32/64 bit microprocessors. The evolution of the Intel microprocessor is listed below.

 The Intel's foundation.

Intel Logo

   Intel is an abbreviation of the "Integrated Electronics" . Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore , popularly known as the "Fairchildren" led the foundation of this organization. They worked for Fairchild Semiconductor Company and decided to quit and form their own company. With the financial assistance from the San Francisco tycoon Art Rock who raised $2.5 million dollars within a span of 2 days, the Intel corporation as we know today was formed at Santa Clara(USA).Intel's first product marketed was the 64 bit, 3101 Schottky Bipolar static RAM(SRAM). In 1969 Intel's client BUSICOM, a Japanese firm demanded 12 seperate special purpose chips to be made as per their requirements. However Intel promised them, that all the 12 functions would be fabricated on a single chip rather than shipping them individually.This gave birth to the Intel's 4004.
   The success of 4004 inspired the further developments in Intel corporation. Later Intel bought the marketing rights of 4004 from BUSICOM for $ 60K. This thoughtful move by the Intel led to the bankruptcy of the BUSICOM. However Intel corporation could reap the benefit from their product and their clever marketing strategies.

4004

4004 chip photo courtesy: www.howstuffworks.com IC 4004: Internal structure photo courtesy:  Intel museum

Date of the release :   Nov 1971.

   In 1960's the idea of the first microprocessor was proposed. In the early 70's this became a reality. Intel's 4000 family is formed (later renamed MCS-4, Micro Computer System 4 bit). The members were 4001 (2k ROM), the 4002 (320-bit RAM), the 4003 (10-bit I/O shift-register) and then..!!! .This tiny attractive chip was the world's first single integrated chip microprocessor( U.S. patent no # 3,821,715). It comprised of a 16 pin dual inline package. The chip was designed by the Intel's team of the three engineers Federico Faggin, Ted Hoff (intel's 12th employee) and Stan Mazor.It was the first major breakthrough in the semiconductor MOS(Metal Oxide Semiconductor) technology and it opened the platform for the today's most advanced microprocessors.With just 2300 transistors embedded in an area of 3-4 millimeters, a 4 bit cpu, an instruction set of 45 , 4096 memory locations and a processing speed of 50 KBps (Kilo bytes per second); this processor was the first to power the world's first portable calculator. Infact some of the early space expeditions also incorporated this chip including Pioneer(1972).
    Faggin later worked on 8008 (1972). However he resigned from his service at Intel corporation to establish his own company Known as Zilog Inc(1974).

Reference: Inventors: Mary Bellis, Dr Sandra I. Woolley.

  Next : An Evolution Of Intel Microprocessors .

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