Hitachi’s 320GB 7mm Hard Drive - Amazing Product...

It’s a new hard drive by Hitachi.This hard drive for ultra-light PCs that’s 26% thinner...

At the behest of equipment manufacturers looking to build a new class of ultra-thin notebooks, Hitachi GST announced today it will begin shipping quarter-inch thick hard drives — 26% slimmer than the current drives in most laptops and netbooks today.

Collins said upcoming ultra-light notebooks for which the new drives are being produced target a market segment between low-end netbooks and high-end, ultra-thin notebooks, such as the Macbook Air. The ultra-light notebooks are expected to roll out in the third quarter of the year.

Hitachi’s new Z-series drives are .27-in thick and have a single spinning platter with up to 320GB capacity, the same capacity as the company’s .37-inch thick, single-platter predecessors. Collins said Hitachi is not releasing a suggested retail price because it sells to equipment manufactures or resellers, who then determine the pricingThe first one, such as the Seagate Momentus XT (500GB), is the most popular and used in most notebooks and other 2.5-inch-based storage applications. The 12.5mm standard, such as the 1TB WD Corpio Blue, is a newer standard that offers higher capacities but can only fit in later models of laptop computers. The third, 7mm tier is used for ultraportable applications, such as Netbooks or tablet PCs. For a long time, this ultracompact tier of internal hard drive was known to be slow and come with limited storage capacities.

Hitachi unveiled Tuesday its latest in ultraslim hard drives, the Z-series of TravelStar and CinemaStar. The TravelStar is for ultraportable computing devices, whereas the CinemaStar is for audio and video (AV) streaming.

Hitachi said the drive slim down was prompted by laptop manufacturers such as Dell, HP, Lenovo and Aser, which are all planning to produce thinner, lighter notebooks. The new hard drives, however, will serve multiple markets, including television set-top boxes and portable video players, Collins said.

It’s the world’s first 320GB hard disk drive to spin at 7,200 RPM in a 7-mm high package — take that Seagate. The 2.5-inch Serial ATA 3Gbps Travelstar Z7K320 features a 1,334Mbps max transfer rate assisted by a 16MB cache. The HDD draws 1.8 watts during read/write operations and 0.8 watts on lower-power idle while humming along at 23dB when idle or 24dB when seeking. And that skinny 7-mm form factor means it’ll go places no standard 9.5-mm thick drive could even dream of when it hits the mass production lines in August.

Despite the ultrathin design, the new Z-series hard drives share the same port configuration with other 9mm SATA hard drives and therefore can be used in any application where other 2.5-inch SATA hard drives are used.

The Z-series includes three drives: the Travelstar Z7K320, a 7200rpm drive with 16MB cache for use in higher-performance notebooks, ultra portables and netbooks; the Travelstar Z5K320, a 5400rpm drive with 8MB cache with lower power usage, lower cost and quieter acoustics for mobile and ultra-portables; and the CinemaStar Z5K320, a 5400rpm drive with 8MB cache for use in A/V streaming devices such as set-top boxes, portable video players, DVR-enabled TVs and video surveillance systems.

Hard drives with a single disk platter represent about 70% of the PC drive market today, according to Brendan Collins, vice president of marketing at Hitachi GST. Two-disk drives provide 1TB and 2TB capacities.

The new slimmer drives are mechanically compatible with their thicker predecessors, meaning their serial ATA connection and side mounting holes are the same so that the drives are interchangeable in laptops.

SSDs can be 17 times the cost of a hard disk drive and and 1.8-inch drives can be up to seven times more expensive on a cost-per-gigabyte basis when compared to the new Hitachi Z-series drives, the company stated in its marketing material.

According to market research firm Forward Insights, for PC, notebook and netbook manufacturers, SSD prices are around $1.90 per gigabyte today. Hard drives cost about 30 cents per gigabyte.

Hitachi says the new drives are currently shipping in volumes to OEM manufacturers, so it’s unclear how much they cost individually. However, according to Hitachi, they offers the most cost-effective storage solution in terms of cost per gigabyte, especially when compared with that of solid-state drives.

Computer Printers Invention

In 1953, the first high-speed printer was developed by Remington-Rand for use on the Univac computer.

In 1938, Chester Carlson invented a dry printing process called electrophotography commonly called a Xerox, the foundation technology for laser printers to come.

The original laser printer called EARS was developed at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center beginning in 1969 and completed in November, 1971. Xerox Engineer, Gary Starkweather adapted Xerox copier technology adding a laser beam to it to come up with the laser printer. According to Xerox, "The Xerox 9700 Electronic Printing System, the first xerographic laser printer product, was released in 1977. The 9700, a direct descendent from the original PARC "EARS" printer which pioneered in laser scanning optics, character generation electronics, and page-formatting software, was the first product on the market to be enabled by PARC research."

According to IBM, "the very first IBM 3800 was installed in the central accounting office at F. W. Woolworth’s North American data center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1976." The IBM 3800 Printing System was the industry’s first high-speed, laser printer. A laser printer that operated at speeds of more than 100 impressions-per-minute. It was the first printer to combine laser technology and electrophotography according to IBM.

In 1992, Hewlett-Packard released the popular LaserJet 4, the first 600 by 600 dots per inch resolution laser printer.

In 1976, the inkjet printer was invented, but it took until 1988 for the inkjet to become a home consumer item with Hewlett-Parkard's release of the DeskJet inkjet printer.

Punch Cards - Herman Hollerith

Modern data processing began with the inventions of American engineer, Herman Hollerith.

In 1881, Herman Hollerith began designing a machine to tabulate census data more efficiently than by traditional hand methods. The U.S. Census Bureau had taken eight years to complete the 1880 census, and it was feared that the 1890 census would take even longer. Herman Hollerith invented and used a punched card device to help analyze the 1890 US census data. Herman Hollerith's great breakthrough was his use of electricity to read, count, and sort punched cards whose holes represented data gathered by the census-takers. His machines were used for the 1890 census and accomplished in one year what would have taken nearly ten years of hand tabulating. In 1896, Herman Hollerith founded the Tabulating Machine Company to sell his invention, the Company became part of IBM in 1924.



Herman Hollerith first got his idea for the punch-card tabulation machine from watching a train conductor punch tickets. For his tabulation machine he used the punchcard invented in the early 1800s, by a French silk weaver called Joseph-Marie Jacquard. Jacquard invented a way of automatically controlling the warp and weft threads on a silk loom by recording patterns of holes in a string of cards.

Hollerith's punch cards and tabulating machines were a step toward automated computation. His device could automatically read information which had been punched onto card. He got the idea and then saw Jacquard's punchcard. Punch card technology was used in computers up until the late 1970s. Computer "punched cards" were read electronically, the cards moved between brass rods, and the holes in the cards, created a electric current where the rods would touch.

Note: A chad is the small piece of paper or cardboard produced in punching paper tape or data cards; also can be called a piece of chad. The term originated in 1947 and is of unknown origin. In laymen's terms chad is the punched out parts of the card - the holes.

Invention of the iPod

The iPod originated with a business idea dreamed up by Tony Fadell, an independent inventor. Fadell's idea was to take an MP3 player, build a Napster music sale service to complement it, and build a company around it. Apple hired Fadell in early 2001 and assigned him a team of about 30 people, including designers, programmers and hardware engineers.

Invention: iPod in 2001

Function: noun / trademark / Internet Pod (Apple)

Definition: A portable device for downloading audio/video from the internet iTunes Web site Manufactured by Apple Computer, inc.



Patent: 7,054,981 (US) issued May 30, 2006

Inventor: Tony Fadell

Criteria: First to invent. First practical.

Birth: 1969

Nationality: American

Microcomputer - Invention and Evolution

I. Introduction

Intel’s first microcomputer add appeared in November 1971:

“Announcing a new era in integrated electronics.”

Intel delivered two different microcomputers five months apart: the MCS-4, emphasizing low cost, in November 1971, and the MCS-8, for versatility in April 1972. “The MCS-4 and MCS-8 CPU chip sell in quantity for less than $100 each, and are powerful alternatives to random logic” [1]. These two Micro Computer Systems (MCS) were aimed at two very different markets. One would eventually lead to the under $1 controller, the other would be the engine for a versatile personal computer (PC). By analogy it was like creating the “motorbike” and the “station wagon” at the same time. The advertised prophecy of “a new era” became fulfilled over the subsequent 20 year period.

A. Automobile Analogy

Our challenge was how to scale down a general purpose computer to fit on to a chip. Imagine that the only passenger vehicle in existence is an eight-passenger van costing $50 000. At first it would be difficult to imagine a $1000 version of this vehicle. The specifications would need to be drastically reduced to meet the price goal. Some ideas to consider:

1) reducing capacity by 75%
2) reducing speed by 90%
3) reducing range by 75%

The golf cart might be the result. However, if golf carts are unknown at the time, it is not easy to envision how to scale down a van.

What features of a computer can be scaled down? That depends on what it will be used for. Fortunately for us, our first customer's application was for a desktop calculator; we scaled down the computer's speed and memory size to meet the needs of this particular application. As computers go, the microcomputer was not very capable; some would say that we set the computer industry back 10 years. We thought that we were moving the LSI world ahead by 10 years [2]. I will share some of my recollections of the early days of Intel microprocessors.

Full Information Click Here

Compact Disc or CD

A compact disk (cd) is a popular form of digital storage media used for computer files, pictures, and music. The plastic platter is read and written to by a laser in a CD drive. It comes in several varieties including CD-ROM, CD-R, and CD-RW.



James Russell invented the compact disk in 1965. James Russell was granted a total of 22 patents for various elements of his compact disk system. However, the compact disk did not become popular until it was mass manufactured by Philips in 1980.

Other CD formats include CD-ROM [ C ompact D isc- R ead O nly M emory], a form of CD that is read (but not written to) by computer using a CD-ROM drive and that can contain computer programs and digitized text, sound, photographs, and video; CD-R [ C ompact D isc- R ecordable] and CD-RW [ C ompact D isc- R e W ritable], which can be written to one time and multiple times, respectively. Interactive CDs (CD-I, CDTV, and other formats) can store video, audio, and data. Photo CD is a format that holds digitized photographs and sound. There are also CD-ROMs that require special players with built-in microcomputers.



Other optical disk formats include digital versatile (or video) discs and videodiscs. A digital versatile disk (DVD) holds far more information than a CD. DVD players are backward compatible to existing technologies, so they can also play a CD (or CD-ROM), but a CD player cannot be used with a DVD (or DVD-ROM). The videodisc , or laser disk system, uses 12-in. (30-cm) disks for video recording. Its technology, unlike that of the CD, is an analog system that uses a laser to read a variable-width track, much like a conventional phonograph record.

RAM - Random Access Memory

Drum memory, an early form of computer memory that actualy did use a drum as a working part with data loaded to the drum. The drum was a metal cylinder coated with recordable ferromagnetic material. The drum also had a row of read-write heads that wrote and then read the recorded data.

Very Old RAM



Magnetic core memory (ferrite-core memory) is another early form of computer memory. Magnetic ceramic rings called cores, stored information using the polarity of a magnetic field.

DDR


SD RAM



DDR II RAM


Semiconductor memory is computer memory we are all familiar with, computer memory on a intergrated circuit or chip. Referered to as random-access memory or RAM, it allowed data to be accessed randomly, not just in the sequence it was recorded.

Dynamic random access memory (DRAM) is the most common kind of random access memory (RAM) for personal computers. The data the DRAM chip holds has to be periodicaly refreshed. Static random access memory or SRAM doesn't need to be refreshed.

Laptop RAM



Latest China DDR RAM



Timeline of Computer Memory

1834
Charles Babbage begins build his "Analytical Engine", precursor to the computer. It uses read-only memory in the form of punch cards.
1932
Gustav Tauschek invents drum memory in Austria.
1936
Konrad Zuse applies for a patent for his mechanical memory to be used in his computer. This computer memory is based on sliding metal parts.

1939
Helmut Schreyer invents a prototype memory using neon lamps.

1942
The Atanasoff-Berry Computer has 60 50-bit words of memory in the form of capacitors mounted on two revolving drums. For secondary memory it uses punch cards.
1947
Frederick Viehe of Los Angeles, applies for a patent for an invention that uses magnetic core memory. Magnetic drum memory is independently invented by several people.
* An Wang
An Wang invented the magnetic pulse controlling device, the principle upon which magnetic core memory is based.

* Kenneth Olsen
Kenneth Olsen invented vital computer components, best known for "Magnetic Core Memory" Patent No. 3,161,861 and as being the cofounder of Digital Equipment Corporation.
* Jay Forrester
Jay Forrester was a pioneer in early digital computer development and invented random-access, coincident-current magnetic storage.
1949
Jay Forrester conceives the idea of magnetic core memory as it is to become commonly used, with a grid of wires used to address the cores. The first practical form manifests in 1952-53 and renders obsolete previous types of computer memory.

1950
Ferranti Ltd. completes the first commercial computer with 256 40-bit words of main memory and 16K words of drum memory. Only eight were sold.
1951
Jay Forrester files a patent for matrix core memory.

1952
The EDVAC computer is completed with 1024 44-bit words of ultrasonic memory. A core memory module is added to the ENIAC computer.
1955
An Wang was issued U.S. patent #2,708,722 with 34 claims for magnetic memory core.
1966
Hewlett-Packard releases their HP2116A real-time computer with 8K of memory. The newly formed Intel starts sell a semiconductor chip with 2,000 bits of memory.

1968
USPTO grants patent 3,387,286 to IBM's Robert Dennard for a one-transistor DRAM cell. DRAM stands for Dynamic RAM (Random Access Memory) or Dynamic Random Access Memory. DRAM will become the standard memory chip for personal computers replacing magnetic core memory.
1969
Intel begin as chip designers and produce a 1 KB RAM chip, the largest memory chip todate. Intel soon switch to being notable designers of computer microprocessors.
1970
Intel releases the 1103 chip, the first generally available DRAM memory chip.
1971
Intel releases the 1101 chip, a 256-bit programmable memory, and the 1701 chip, a 256-byte erasable read-only memory (EROM).
1974
Intel receives a U.S. patent for a "memory system for a multichip digital computer".
1975
Personal consumer computer Altair released, it uses Intel's 8-bit 8080 processor and includes 1 KB of memory. Later in the same year, Bob Marsh manufacturers the first Processor Technology's 4 kB memory boards for the Altair.
1984
Apple Computers releases the Macintosh personal compututer. It is the first computer that came with 128KB of memory. The one-megabyte memory chip is developed.

Computer Monitor - Visual Display Unit

A visual display unit, often called simply a monitor or display, is a piece of electrical equipment which displays images generated from the video output of devices such as computers, without producing a permanent record. Most newer monitors typically consist of a TFT LCD, with older monitors based around a cathode ray tube (CRT). The monitor comprises the display device, simple circuitry to generate and format a picture from video sent by the signals source, and usually an enclosure. Within the signal source, either as an integral section or a modular component, there is a display adapter to generate video in a format compatible with the monitor.

Mono Monitor


Imaging technologies
19" inch (48.3 cm tube, 45.9 cm viewable) ViewSonic CRT computer monitor.

As with television, many different hardware technologies exist for displaying computer-generated output:

* Liquid crystal display (LCD). TFT LCDs are the most popular display device for new computers.
o Passive LCDs produce poor contrast, slow response, and other image defects. These were used in most laptops until the mid 1990s.
o Thin Film Transistor LCDs give much better picture quality in several respects. Nearly all modern LCD monitors are TFT.

Latest TFT Monitors :





* Cathode ray tube (CRT)
o Raster scan computer monitors, which produce images using pixels. These were the most popular display device for older computers.
o Vector displays, as used on the Vectrex, many scientific and radar applications, and several early arcade machines (notably Asteroids) - always implemented using CRT displays due to requirement for a deflection system, though can be emulated on any raster-based display.
o Television sets were used by most early personal and home computers, connecting composite video to the television set using a modulator. Resolution and image quality were strongly limited by the display capabilities of television.
* Plasma display
* Video projectors use CRT, LCD, DLP, LCoS or many other technologies to send light through the air to a projection screen. Front projectors use screens as reflectors to send light back, while rear projectors use screens as diffusers to refract light forward. Rear projectors are often integrated into the same case as their screen.
* Surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED)
* Organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display
* Penetron military aircraft displays

Computer Mouse

Years before personal computers and desktop information processing became commonplace or even practicable, Douglas Engelbart had invented a number of interactive, user-friendly information access systems that we take for granted today: the computer mouse was one of his inventions. At the Fall Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco in 1968, Engelbart astonished his colleagues by demonstrating the aforementioned systems---using an utterly primitive 192 kilobyte mainframe computer located 25 miles away! Engelbart has earned nearly two dozen patents, the most memorable being perhaps for his "X-Y Position Indicator for a Display System": the prototype of the computer "mouse" whose convenience has revolutionized personal computing.

Old Mouse



New Blue Track Technology Mouse



Mouse (computer), a common pointing device, popularized by its inclusion as standard equipment with the Apple Macintosh. With the rise in popularity of graphical user interfaces in MS-DOS; UNIX, and OS/2, use of mice is growing throughout the personal computer and workstation worlds. The basic features of a mouse are a casing with a flat bottom, designed to be gripped by one hand; one or more buttons on the top; a multidirectional detection device (usually a ball) on the bottom; and a cable connecting the mouse to the computer. By moving the mouse on a surface (such as a desk), the user typically controls an on-screen cursor. A mouse is a relative pointing device because there are no defined limits to the mouse's movement and because its placement on a surface does not map directly to a specific screen location. To select items or choose commands on the screen, the user presses one of the mouse's buttons, producing a "mouse click."

Mouse Connectors


Mouse Patent # 3,541,541 issued 11/17/70 for X-Y Position Indicator For A Display System
Douglas Engelbart's patent for the mouse is only a representation of his pioneering work in the design of modern interactive computer environments.

The invention of the computer keyboard

The invention of the modern computer keyboard began with the invention of the typewriter. Christopher Latham Sholes patented the typewriter that we commonly use today in 1868. The Remington Company mass marketed the first typewriters starting in 1877.
New Keyboard



Old Keyboard



Inventions Leading to the Computer Keyboard

A few key technological developments created the transition of the typewriter into the computer keyboard. The teletype machine, introduced in the 1930s, combined the technology of the typewriter (used as an input and a printing device) with the telegraph. Elsewhere, punched card systems were combined with typewriters to create what was called keypunches. Keypunches were the basis of early adding machines and IBM was selling over one million dollars worth of adding machines in 1931.

Early computer keyboards were first adapted from the punch card and teletype technologies. In 1946, the Eniac computer used a punched card reader as its input and output device. In 1948, the Binac computer used an electromechanically controlled typewriter to both input data directly onto magnetic tape (for feeding the computer data) and to print results. The emerging electric typewriter further improved the technological marriage between the typewriter and the computer.





Video Display Terminals

By 1964, MIT, Bell Laboratories and General Electric had collaborated to create a computer system called Multics; a time sharing, multi-user system. Multics encouraged the development of a new user interface, the video display terminal. The video display terminals (VDT) combined the technology of the cathode ray tube used in televisions and electric typewriters. Computer users could now see what text they were typing on their display screens making text easier to create, edit and delete, and computers easier to program and use.

Computer Keyboards Send Direct Electronic Impulses

Earlier computer keyboards had been based either on teletype machines or keypunches. There were many electromechanical steps in transmitting data between the keyboard and the computer that slowed things down. With VDT technology and electric keyboards, the keyboard's keys could now send electronic impulses directly to the computer and save time. By the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, all computers used electronic keyboards and VDTs. Nevertheless, the layout of the computer keyboard still owes its origin to the inventor of the first typewriter, Christopher Latham Sholes who also invented the QWERTY layout. However, the computer keyboard does have a few extra function keys.