Let's understand what is going on with computers right now as I write this article. Up until a short while ago, computers had one central processing unit. That is the brain of the computer. This is where all your programs are translated into the code that your computer understands. That chip processes everything with the help of the other different types of chips that allow the computer to do it's job. When the home computer first came out, all the programs that were run on it were only a fraction of the size that they are today. One of the reasons for this was the central processing unit was much slower and the available memory was much smaller. There were also other reasons, but I won't go into those here. The central processing unit and the memory chips were among the most important part of the computer system. There wasn't much in the way of graphics in those days. As time went on, the companies kept improving the speed of the central processing chip. It was thought that the faster it was, the better it was for the home and office user, because programs ran faster that way.

Central Processing Unit

Complex operating systems began to control the way programs were accessed. These operating systems kept growing in size. As they grew bigger, more storage and memory was required. At first about 256 K of memory was enough to run a home computer. That requirement kept increasing and more bloated versions of Microsoft Windows came out. Other operating systems also required more memory to run. It is being said that when the newest version of Windows comes out, it is due in 2010, it will require at least 4 gigs of memory to run. As all this was going on, the central processing unit just kept increasing in speed and mostly they were manufactured by Intel. AMD then came out with a competitive chip and this duel between the two companies is still going on today. The lead has gone back and forth and right now Intel seems to be ahead. AMD's philosophy is not to have the fastest chip, but to have the most efficient one, which will allow the computer to process programs faster.

Somewhere along the way, graphics kept getting better and better. Something came out that was called a GUI. This is a Graphical User Interface, that is what we see today when we power up our computers. The older computers didn't have one and you had to type everything line by line to get anything done, such as getting a program to run. Today we just use our mouse to click on an icon, which in turn runs our software program. As graphics capabilities increased, graphic cards came out that went into the card slot of our computers. These graphics cards advanced to the point where they had their own graphics processing chip and onboard memory of varying amounts, to take the burden off of the computer memory, when graphics were run. These cards have become quite efficient and sometimes quite expensive. A trend came along that included graphics and sound chips on the mother board. The mother board is the part of the computer that all the other chips are on and where all devices and cards are attached to in one way or another. The graphics chips on the mother boards are getting better and better, but are still not anywhere as powerful as those on the high end graphics cards. As far as sound goes, in all honesty I am not the best one to ask, because the sound chips on the mother board sound fine to me.

The trend in central processing units began to change a couple of years ago. As computer chips became smaller and smaller, it became possible to put more than one central processing unit on a single die. This led to the birth of the dual core chip. This meant that theoretically it was like having two computers in one box. Unfortunately it usually doesn't work that way, because the software we use has to be written to take advantage of the two central processing units. Well the dual core chip kept shrinking and soon we had the quad core chip. This was 4 central processors on one die. As this trend accelerates, we can only guess where this trend will lead to. I haven't verified this, but I was told that the new Microsoft operating system will accept an 8 core central processing unit. All this is well and good, but will our favorite programs be able to take advantage of this? The other question is, do we need this for most of the things that we use? We certainly don't for things like word processing, that is for sure. Sometimes things have come along that we haven't been able to use for years. Our home computer systems are mostly what is known as 32 bit. Many computers today are capable of running 64 bit programs and there is even a version of Windows that is 64 bit. The problem is where do we get 64 bit software?

One of the lucky aspects of all this, is that computers have not gone up in price and there are some really low end ones out there that are fine for surfing the internet, or doing all your office chores on and even sending and reading email. Indeed this is all some people need. When we look at the technical side of things, it certainly seems that we have been held back by our operating systems. I am talking about all the versions of Windows so far. The worst by far is the newest, Vista. I refused to use it on any of my new computers and have Windows XP on them all. Why would I want a bloated Vista operating system that not only runs much slower than Windows XP, but is incompatible with some of my software and devices? It is so bad that Microsoft faces a rebellion by many in big business, who are refusing to buy it. Microsoft has moved up the release date of their next operating system know now as Windows 7, because of this.

What does Windows 7 hold in store for us? A copy was said to have been leaked and was recently reviewed on Wepokers Blogspot. After looking at it, I couldn't help but get the feeling that Microsoft was concentrating more on making it look different that improving it's speed and efficiency. I really have no reason to say this, except for the fact that it just reminded me of Vista for some reason. It seemed to be doing away with the menus that we have gotten used to and instead of these there are screens with choices in the form of fancy icons on them. some are arranged in a circle around a central point. I don't know if I like this or not. There is something to be said for menus, they are usually there when you want them and you don't have to go screen hopping to find what you want to do. Before I discuss this any further, I want to make it perfectly clear that none of the things that I have seen are written in stone and some, none or all of the items seen may be in the final version.

It is being said that the new operating system will include, what is know as a virtual machine to run all older software. For those that don't know what I am talking about, it is like having an older machine built into the operating system. Sometimes these are called emulators and you can find many different ones available on the internet that imitate all different types of older computers and even run the software from them. One famous one is the Amiga emulator. Amiga was a very famous computer in the 1980s into part of the 1990s. There is talk that such a virtual machine might run on just one of the cores of your central processor leaving all the others available for other tasks. Another thing that was spoken about was a new approach for building software. It would use a tool that strips off everything except the basic parts that are needed. Could this be the end of bloated software from Microsoft? Nah, that is too much to hope for. Another rumor states that Windows 7 will just about run the same software as Vista. I certainly hope that this isn't true, I want to see improvements in that area.

Another thing that is important and that has really come down in price is your hard drive. It used to cost over $10,000 dollars for a 10 meg hard drive, but it now costs about 59 dollars for a 160 gig one. The same thing has happened with printers. Not only are they cheap, but sometimes they are free when you buy a computer. The reason for this is that the manufacturers make their money on the ink, which is way overpriced. I buy my ink on line from an ink dealer. Instead of paying about 15 dollars for a brand name product, I pay about 2 dollars and the ink is every bit as good.

There are all different ways of hooking up devices to your computer. In the old days we had what were called serial and parallel ports. The parallel ports were mostly for hooking up printers and the serial ports were for storage devices. These are mostly gone and today we use what is known as USB and sometimes Firewire. The newest USB connection is USB 2.1. The connection is pretty fast and devices can be connected and disconnected while the computer is on. The same is true for Firewire. Well over 100 devices can be connected at once to the USB 2.1 port, but at some point they will need their own power supply. You can even get a television card built into a USB device that is very small, I have one. These connections are for external devices and when an internal device is hooked up to the computer such as a hard drive or dvd player, it is usually hooked up through the connection on the motherboard which is either a IDE connection or the newer SATA connection. There is a place to plug in these cables internally.

If you intend to get on the internet and who doesn't, then you need a way to hook up. If you plan to use a phone, you need a telephone modem. If you have cable, you need a cable modem. Network cards are required for most hook ups and what is known as a router. Sometimes these cards are already built onto the mother board. The router is plugged into the modem and the computer into the router. Usually several computers can be plugged into the router, because most have at least four ports. At this point you have to make a choice. Go wireless or use wires? If you go wireless, a wireless router is needed and a wireless card is needed for the computer.

Most monitors will work just fine. I only use flat screen monitors now. They are much easier to move around. As far as the mouse and keyboard go, I prefer the wired type as I have used wireless in the past and sometimes the mouse didn't work properly from some positions, depending on where the infrared receiver is. I do use an optical mouse. Lastly you will need a good cd/dvd recorder and player. A dual layer is best. They read through two layers on one side and record on them. There is really no use for floppy disks anymore.

Personal computers are getting so powerful that they will probably gain intelligence one of these days. I am not talking about human intelligence, but intelligence never the less.