Fifth Generation Computers :: Technology Computer Essays

Fifth Generation Computers   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ever since computers first came into production, they have been evolving. The Commodore 64 and Apple computers have dominated the very first computer market. Today, there are many companies in the computer industry fighting for technology supremacy. And since the beginning, every new generation of computers has dominatedover the old ones. When they first came out, each jump in technology took awhile, but nowadays, the technology changes daily. Fifth generation computers are overall much better than the previous generation. The computer has progressed in many ways, but the most important improvement is the speed and operating capabilities. It was only around 6 years ago when a 386 DX2 processor was the fastest and most powerful CPU in the market. This processor could do a plethora of small tasks and still not be working to hard. Around 2-3 years ago, the Pentium came out, paving the way for new and faster computers. Intel was the most proficient in this area and came out with a range of processors from 66 MHz-166 Mhz. These processors are also now starting to become obsolete. Todays computers come equipped with 400-600 Mhz processors that can multi-task at an alarming rate. Intel has just started the release phase of it’s new Pentium III-800MHz processor. Glenn Henry is quoted to say â€Å"Megahertz is all people care about† and this is too true. Sys Technology recently came out with what they claim as the â€Å"fastest commercially available PC†. This computer runs at an astonishing 1000 Mhz or 1 Ghz. This computer is appropriately named the Cold-Fusion 1000 due to the KryoTech refrigeration unit that runs coolant through a pipe over the CPU to keep it at a cool -40 degrees Celsius. This computer is made for graphics creators and â€Å"ultra serious gamers†. This super computer will be available at the end of November for a steep price of $4299 American. Even as we speak, a new form opf processor is coming out that uses an Itanium chip made by Intel. But don’t expect it anytime soon, â€Å"Itanium won’t be relevant for PC’s until 2003 at the earliest, more likely 2005.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The next major improvement is the memory of a computer. This includes the hard drive and the RAM. During the same generation as the 386, there was also the hard drive and RAM. But these two components were not much then. The hard drive was about 100-300 megabytes and the RAM was about 4 megabytes.