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Calling all pc geeks! - Help needed.
Posted:
Sun Mar 19, 2006 9:15 pmby Cool Hand Luke
I’m doing a piece of research about the technological evolution and the first mover technology strategy of the Personal Computer, so I thought what with the vast amount of knowledge on this forum it may be useful to see if I could start up a discussion on the topic.
Can anyone tell me:
What was the first CPU used in a Personal Computer? What was the speed of this CPU?
Posted:
Sun Mar 19, 2006 9:56 pmby Igor Zidane
what's a CPU ?
Posted:
Sun Mar 19, 2006 10:04 pmby Cool Hand Luke
Igor Zidane wrote:what's a CPU ?
Abbreviation of central processing unit, and pronounced as separate letters. The CPU is the brains of the computer. Sometimes referred to simply as the processor or central processor, the CPU is where most calculations take place. In terms of computing power, the CPU is the most important element of a computer system.
Posted:
Sun Mar 19, 2006 10:05 pmby JBG
Er, is this not what Google is for?
Posted:
Sun Mar 19, 2006 10:08 pmby Igor Zidane
Cool Hand Luke wrote:Igor Zidane wrote:what's a CPU ?
Abbreviation of central processing unit, and pronounced as separate letters. The CPU is the brains of the computer. Sometimes referred to simply as the processor or central processor, the CPU is where most calculations take place. In terms of computing power, the CPU is the most important element of a computer system.
Well even at 36 i'm stll learning . Thanx for that ace. 
Posted:
Sun Mar 19, 2006 10:08 pmby drummerphil
Amstrad,Acorn, bbc,commodore and Sinclair were the early market leaders.......
i had a sinclair zx81,then a spectrum and moved up to a commodore 64......
Posted:
Sun Mar 19, 2006 10:09 pmby Cool Hand Luke
JBG wrote:Er, is this not what Google is for?
I know I could use google. My aim was just to start a discussion.
Posted:
Sun Mar 19, 2006 10:10 pmby drummerphil
the cpu in the spectrum was a Zilog Z80 A.......and this was about 1982
Posted:
Sun Mar 19, 2006 10:11 pmby Igor Zidane
JBG wrote:Er, is this not what Google is for?
What's a google.
only kidding ace even i know it's what scouts use to keep there tie together
Posted:
Sun Mar 19, 2006 10:24 pmby Cool Hand Luke
According to something I was reading, over the year 1999 CPU speeds progressed from 650MHz to 1.2GHz, and over the year 2000 CPU progressed from 1.30GHz, 1.40GHz, 1.50GHz, 1.70GHz, 1.80GHz and the history-making 2GHz.
These years really brought a lot of progression.
Posted:
Sun Mar 19, 2006 10:30 pmby drummerphil
things moved really quickly.....in 1998 i was selling and building pentium 11 200mhz processor machines with the old 72 pin edo memory and these were new.
Posted:
Sun Mar 19, 2006 10:33 pmby Igor Zidane
I've just managed to find my system info and it say's i have 3.00GHz and 512 MB RAM. Impressive or what? Seriously tho ,as you can tell i know nothing about the workings of a P.C ,all i know is that the technology is moving at a vast pace all the time.
Posted:
Sun Mar 19, 2006 11:26 pmby JBG
Clock speed of CPUs no longer matter, efficiency per clock is the big thing now ( a bit like the Mazda RX8 engine, which is only 1.3 litres but is very powerful).
AMD's fastest chip clocks at 2.8GHZ but is much faster than anything Intel currently has available, including Intels high end 4GHZ clocked chips.
CPUs are now becoming dual core, so its even harder for the layman to figure out exactly how good their computer is.
Posted:
Sun Mar 19, 2006 11:29 pmby Cool Hand Luke
It seems as though the Altair, in 1974, was the first commercially available personal computer, and it used the “The Intel 8080” which had a speed of 2MHz.
Posted:
Sun Mar 19, 2006 11:30 pmby Cool Hand Luke
JBG wrote:Clock speed of CPUs no longer matter, efficiency per clock is the big thing now ( a bit like the Mazda RX8 engine, which is only 1.3 litres but is very powerful).
AMD's fastest chip clocks at 2.8GHZ but is much faster than anything Intel currently has available, including Intels high end 4GHZ clocked chips.
CPUs are now becoming dual core, so its even harder for the layman to figure out exactly how good their computer is.
At what point did it change, when was the last point when you could simply compare the MHz or GHz of a personal computer to see which one was faster?