资 源 简 介
Computer technology has made incredible progress in the roughly 55 years sincethe first general-purpose electronic computer was created. Today, less than athousand dollars will purchase a personal computer that has more performance,more main memory, and more disk storage than a computer bought in 1980 for$1 million. This rapid rate of improvement has come both from advances in thetechnology used to build computers and from innovaTIon in computer design.Although technological improvements have been fairly steady, progress arisingfrom better computer architectures has been much less consistent. During thefirst 25 years of electronic computers, both forces made a major contribuTIon; butbeginning in about 1970, computer designers became largely dependent upon integratedcircuit technology. During the 1970s, performance conTInued to improveat about 25% to 30% per year for the mainframes and minicomputers that dominatedthe industry.The late 1970s saw the emergence of the microprocessor. The ability of themicroprocessor to ride the improvements in integrated circuit technology moreclosely than the less integrated mainframes and minicomputers led to a higherrate of improvement—roughly 35% growth per year in performance.
