Smartphone. A smartphone, or smart phone, is a mobile phone with more advanced computing capability and connectivity than basic feature phones.[1][2][3] Early smartphones typically combined the features of a mobile phone with those of another popular consumer device, such as a personal digital assistant (PDA), a media player, a digital camera, or a GPS navigation unit. Modern smartphones include all of those features plus the features of a touchscreen computer, including web browsing, Wi-Fi, and 3rd-party apps.
History[edit] Early years[edit] Devices that combined telephony and computing were first conceptualized in 1973, and were offered for sale beginning in 1993. The term "smartphone" first appeared in 1997, when Ericsson described its GS 88 "Penelope" concept as a Smart Phone.[5][6][7][8][9] Forerunners[edit] The first mobile phone to incorporate PDA features was an IBM prototype developed in 1992 and demonstrated that year at the COMDEX computer industry trade show. PDAs[edit] Mass adoption[edit] Tablet computer. iPad (1st generation), a tablet computer Conceptualized in the mid-20th century and prototyped and developed in the last two decades of that century, the devices became popular in 2010.
As of March 2012[update], 31% of U.S. Internet users were reported to have a tablet, which was used mainly for viewing published content such as video and news.[4] Among tablets available in 2012, the top-selling line of devices was Apple's iPad with 100 million sold by mid October 2012 since its release on April 3, 2010,[5] followed by Amazon's Kindle Fire with 7 million, and Barnes & Noble's Nook with 5 million.[6][7][8] As of May 2013, over 70% of mobile developers were targeting tablets[9] (vs. 93% for smartphones and 18% for feature phones). History[edit] Fictional and prototype tablets[edit] The sci-fi TV series Star Trek The Next Generation featured tablet computers which were designated as "padds". Early devices[edit] Apple Computers launched the Apple Newton stylus based computer in 1993. Laptop. A modern Acer laptop A laptop combines the components and inputs as a desktop computer; including display, speakers, keyboard, and pointing device (such as a touchpad), into a single device.
Most modern-day laptop computers also have a webcam and a mic (microphone) pre-installed. [citation needed] A laptop can be powered either from a rechargeable battery, or by mains electricity via an AC adapter. Laptops are a diverse category of devices, and other more specific terms, such as ultrabooks or netbooks, refer to specialist types of laptop which have been optimised for certain uses. Hardware specifications change vastly between these classifications, forgoing greater and greater degrees of processing power to reduce heat emissions.
Portable computers, originally monochrome CRT-based and developed into the modern laptops, were originally considered to be a small niche market, mostly for specialized field applications such as the military, accountants and sales representatives. History[edit] Supercomputer. The Blue Gene/P supercomputer at Argonne National Lab runs over 250,000 processors using normal data center air conditioning, grouped in 72 racks/cabinets connected by a high-speed optical network[1] A supercomputer is a computer at the frontline of contemporary processing capacity – particularly speed of calculation which can happen at speeds of nanoseconds. The use of multi-core processors combined with centralization is an emerging trend; one can think of this as a small cluster (the multicore processor in a smartphone, tablet, laptop, etc.) that both depends upon and contributes to the cloud.[6][7] History[edit] The CDC 6600, released in 1964, was designed by Cray to be the fastest in the world by a large margin.
While the supercomputers of the 1980s used only a few processors, in the 1990s, machines with thousands of processors began to appear both in the United States and in Japan, setting new computational performance records. Hardware and architecture[edit] Operating systems[edit] Desktop computer. A desktop computer is a personal computer in a form intended for regular use at a single location desk/table due to its size and power requirements, as opposed to a laptop whose rechargeable battery and compact dimensions allow it to be regularly carried and used in different locations. The most common configuration is a computer monitor, keyboard and mouse, and a case that houses the main components of the PC, namely the power supply, motherboard, hard drive, optical drive, and previously the floppy drive. The form factor of the case is typically an upright tower or (horizontal) desktop. All-in-one computers, that integrate the monitor and main PC components in one unit, are often categorized under the desktop computer umbrella, particularly if they require an external power source and separate keyboard/mouse.
The desktop category has also encompassed home computers and workstations. History[edit] Origins[edit] Growth and development[edit] Decline[edit] All-in-one[edit] See also[edit] Mainframe computer. The term originally referred to the large cabinets called "main frames" that housed the central processing unit and main memory of early computers.[2][3] Later, the term was used to distinguish high-end commercial machines from less powerful units.[4] Most large-scale computer system architectures were established in the 1960s, but continue to evolve.
Description[edit] Modern mainframe design is generally less defined by single-task computational speed (typically defined as MIPS rate or FLOPS in the case of floating point calculations), and more by: Redundant internal engineering resulting in high reliability and securityExtensive input-output facilities with the ability to offload to separate enginesStrict backward compatibility with older softwareHigh hardware and computational utilization rates through virtualization to support massive throughput Their high stability and reliability enables these machines to run uninterrupted for decades. Characteristics[edit] Market[edit] History[edit]