Dinosaurs to Dots

Tuesday, 12 February 2008

The world’s first computer weighed 17 tons, filled a 9-by-17 meter room, and was as big as a dinosaur. It was called the ENIAC, or the Electronic Numerator Integrator Analyzer and Computer and it was built back in 1946. When the giant computer was solving a problem, it literally made loud cracking and buzzing noises because it used 17,000 vacuum tubes. These tubes would become red hot and frequently blow out, so a team of people were needed just to run around and constantly change the bulbs. Before ENIAC, however, it took a room full of people to solve the same problem.

The age of computers may have started slowly, but the wheels of innovation were set permanently in motion. By 1971, Intel had already developed a 12-millimetre computer chip with 12 times the capability of ENIAC. In 1978, I got an Atari 2600 game system for Christmas and I quickly became addicted to games like “Space Invaders” and “Asteroids”. This chunky, wood paneled console housed an amazing 1.19 MHz processor!

1946 ENIAC - Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computing


While computers began to become commonplace in the 1980’s, mobile phones were just getting their feet wet. The first generation or “1G” really began in 1983 when the Motorola DynaTAC 8000x was introduced to the U.S. market. The picture of the silvered haired gentlemen is of Dr. Martin Cooper of Motorola, who previously made the first U.S. analogue mobile phone call on a larger prototype model in 1973. Can you imagine making a call with something larger than what he has in his hand?
As we moved into the 1990’s, we began to see the second generation of mobile phones or “2G”. Many mobile standards emerged during this time, such as GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) and CDMA (Code division multiple access). One of the key differences between 1G and 2G is the usage of digital circuit switched transmission.

While the mobile networks got a whole lot better, mobile phone makers began to find that people preferred to carry smaller phones rather than the dictionary sized ones. Technological advances like better batteries and more powerful, yet more compact operating systems enabled this transition. Another important developed was the dramatic improvement in the density of cellular towers, which reduced the need for phones to have the power to reach distant sites.

The move to 3G systems has been talked about ever since 2G networks were launched. After many years of indecision and 2.5G rollouts, we are finally starting to see why 3G really is the next generation. More specifically, it enables the following:

· Enhanced multimedia (voice, data, video, and remote control).

· Usability on all popular modes (cellular telephone, e-mail, paging, fax, videoconferencing, and Web browsing).

· Broad bandwidth and high speed (upwards of 2 Mbps).

· Roaming capability throughout Europe, Japan, and North America.

The real appeal of 3G is that it should be operational from any location on our planet. The whole point is to allow people to remain connected at all times and new technologies like WiMAX now offer mobile users to roam between different kinds of networks with ease. All of these new network capabilities have started a revolution in mobile handset developments. The iPhone has opened everyone’s eyes to just how powerful and cool a mobile can really be. Smart phones are now being rolled out in great numbers and they have the computing power of laptops that are just a few years old. Mobile phones are rapidly taking on the role of the personal computer and portability is synonymous with fashion.

The quest for smaller and faster computers does not stop, however, with mobile phones or anything that can be seen or touched. Nanotechnology involves building working devices using nanoscale dimensions. If you consider that there are one billion nanometers to a meter and that a nanometer is 40,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair, then I think we can comfortably say that nanometers are quite small. The basic idea is to take molecules and use them like Legos. It is argued that in the future it will be possible to create a sugar cube sized supercomputer more powerful than a billion laptops. Wow, and to think I take my coffee with three sugars.

Nanotechnology Takes Off - KQED QUEST


Okay, this is where things can get a bit weird. The future of nanotechnology involves producing nanoscopic machines called “assemblers”, which can then literally construct any physical object by pasting together the right molecules. The idea would first be to get these assemblers to replicate themselves so that there would be trillions of them. The next step is to get maestro to step in and get them all to work together on a particular job. In the field of medicine, this may one day lead to the creation of new organs for those in need. Need a new liver, give us a minute. Your new mobile phone could be a tiny dot implanted in your ear. All of the data that is now stored in your computer could literally be contained in your fingertip. The potential applications of nanotechnology are endless and this is precisely what has a lot of people scared. Whether any of us like it or not, however, none of us will be able to stop the evolution from dinosaur sized computers to ones that are far smaller than that of one human hair. The world is truly becoming a smaller place.