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BIG(TM) : The Basic Internet Guide
A Sourcebook for Learning Web Essentials
in the School, the Home and the Office
by Andis Kaulins, J.D. Stanford University
Lecturer a.D. University of Trier, Author Langenscheidt Fachverlag
(in collaboration with Chris Loehr, Erlangen)
Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2004 by Andis Kaulins. All rights reserved.
PART 1
Essential Internet Knowledge
Chapter 1
The Origins of the Digital Revolution
Page 2 - First Computers, Transistor, IC, Sputnik
The First Computers
The first computers such as ENIAC used primitive electronic circuits made up of thousands of vacuum tubes (invented by Lee de Forest) resembling light bulbs, so that these computers took up as much space as a small house, and at that time cost millions of dollars, even though they had far less capacity than a simple desk PC (personal computer) has today. The ENIAC "contained 17,468 vacuum tubes, along with 70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors, 1,500 relays, 6,000 manual switches and 5 million soldered joints. It covered 1800 square feet (167 square meters) of floor space, weighed 30 tons, consumed 160 kilowatts of electrical power." Subsequent computers were smaller but still extremely large by modern standards - see e.g. UNIVAC.
Invention of the Transistor and Integrated Circuit (IC)
A major technological breakthrough came with the invention of the transistor4 (click the radio buttons at that link) at Bell Labs in 1947 by Bardeen, Brattain and Shockley - for which the Nobel Prize was awarded in 1956. This was followed a few years later by the invention of the integrated circuit5 (IC) by Jack S. Kilby of Texas Instruments and Robert Noyce of Fairchild Semicondutors (with essential help from Jean Hoerni), for which Kilby received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2000. These inventions made it possible to "miniaturize" electronic processors, which "process" electronic information. The age of so-called microprocessors began.
The Soviet satellite Sputnik sparks Innovation by the West
In a different technological arena, the United States Defense Department was shocked in 1957 by the Soviet (Russian) launch of the first satellite, Sputnik. This event began the modern Space Age and led the United States military to establish ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency), whose purpose was to move American technology forward in the face of the Soviet (Russian) technological challenge.
4 A transistor is a small electronic device with a semiconductor (e.g. silicon, i.e. a solid crystalline substance having electrical conductivity greater than an insulator but less than a conductor) and with at least three electrical contacts. It is used as an amplifier, detector or switch. See e.g. the McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Computers, Sybil P. Parker, editor-in-chief, 1984, as based on the McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, New York.
5 An integrated circuit (IC) is "a slice or chip of material (e.g. silicon) on which is etched or imprinted a complex of electronic components and their interconnections", The American Heritage College Dictionary, 3rd ed., Houghton Mifflin, Boston. It is also defined as "an interconnected array of ... elements integrated with a single semiconductor substrate or deposited on the substrate ... and capable of performing at least one complete electronic circuit function .... an integrated semiconductor." McGraw- Hill Dictionary of Computers, ibid.
For a Continuation of the Book GO TO
Page 3
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