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20 Killer Tech n Trends of the Past

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PCQ Bureau
New Update

BLUETOOTH



All of us have experienced the joy and confusion that cable wires can cause,
both at home and office. So for short range data communication, Bluetooth

alleviated most of our frustration. Ericsson in Sweden developed it before other

companies adopted it. Did you know that Bluetooth was named after Danish Viking

Harald Blatand, which literally means Bluetooth. Though most commonly used with

phones and handheld mobile devices, it is also being used with printers, modems,

etc.

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DirectX



The first version of Direct X was shipped in the year 1995 as Windows Games SDK.
It enabled Windows versions starting from Windows 95, to incorporate high

performance multimedia. This opened up opportunities for developers to build

games based on the different versions of Direct X.

DSL



Digital Subscriber Line was launched way back in 1989. The high downstream rates
needed for streaming video made it the flavor of choice. The boom in PCs

prompted the need for high speed Internet both in corporate and commercial

markets. ADSL was the best way to cater to this need and was immediately popular

amongst both corporates and commercial organizations.

e-Commerce



The dot com boom changed the way trade took place. E-commerce started in 1970s
when commercial documents were sent over the Net. But with Internet growing at a

tremendous pace, it was not long before products and services started getting

traded on the Net. Boston Computer Exchange, a marketplace for used computers,

introduced in 1982, was perhaps the earliest instance of e-commerce in physical

goods. It facilitated many home-based entrepreneurs to transact over Internet to

sell their products.

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GIF / JPEG



In 1987 when GIF was introduced, the Internet revolution was gaining popularity.
This format used 256-color palette and its image compression algorithms also

reduced the image file size. Because of this GIF https://www.pcquest.com/2007/images// could be downloaded

faster and so it became a popular image format on Internet. Then in 1992 the

Joint Pictures Experts Group (JPEG) format came that simplified photographic

compression while retaining the picture quality. It was thus widely implemented

and became the de-facto standard for image format on Internet.

GSM/CDMA



In 1982 'Groupe Special Mobile' (GSM) was created to develop a standard for

mobile telephones to be used in Europe. Now, it's more popular as the Global

System for Mobile Communication (GSM). In 1989, Qualcomm proposed the concept of

CDMA and since its launch in 1995, it has become a favored medium for mobile

communication.

GPUs



Today's GPUs have descended from the monolithic graphic chips used in the late
1980s and early 1990s. GPUs were made popular mainly after the launch of Windows

which sparked off interest in high-speed, high-resolution 2D bitmapped graphics.

In the mid 90s the high demand for CPU assisted real time 3D graphics prompted

the demand for hardware accelerated 3D graphics.

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Moore's Law



In 1965, Moore predicted that the number of transistors on a chip doubles every
two years, which is now popularly known as Moore's Law. Today, we see many

transistors being added to a single die and more cores being added to attain

higher efficiency, in sync with Moore's prediction. Not only Intel even AMD has

followed the same path.

Internet



Internet evolved from ARPANET, a project where users of research computers of
one university could connect to research computers of other universities. Today,

we all know where Internet has reached, a network of worldwide computer networks

that is accessible to millions of people worldwide. It has become a platform of

communication where users around the globe can connect to exchange information.

This revolutionized the way people used to communicate and the process of

information exchange.

MP3



MP3 (MPEG-1 AUDIO LAYER 3) is an audio specific format that took the music
industry by storm. Even though the music industry was not the reason for the

introduction of this format but the passion for listening to music on the

Internet was definitely the cause. The year 1994 completely changed the way

people listened to, collected and distributed music. Anyone could distribute

music easily with no cost at all. One could also record a song and convert it to

MP3 and put it on the Net.

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Open Source



As most Open Source technologies are free in terms of cost, their popularity is
increasing with each passing day. The Concurrent Versioning System (CVS) in Open

Source applications allows one to keep track of different documents edited by

different people over the network. The recently launched Linux distro has major

enhancements such as a 3D desktop, easy-to-use applications, out-of- box support

for almost all hardware. Now there's even a ready to use solution for building a

media center PC.

Plug n Play



With Windows 95, Microsoft introduced the Plug-n-Play (P-n-P) feature that
allowed users to plug a device into a computer that was subsequently recognized

and configured by Windows. This was contrary to earlier operating systems where

the installed device had to be configured manually. With P-n-P the cumbersome

manual installation process was removed and prerequisite knowledge of device

installation wasn't needed anymore. Plug-n-Play proved to be one of the hottest

selling points for Windows 95.

Printing technologies



Dot—Matrix printers (DMP) were the first affordable printers and were the cause
for printing being introduced into regular corporate environments. But they

lacked color and quality, which was eventually answered by laser printing. With

their quiet operation, sharp print quality and ability to be plugged into the

network, laser printers became the first choice for large-volume corporate

printing. But laser prints are a bit costly and thus came inkjet printers that

brought high-quality color prints at a lower price and became an instant hit for

home and small office use.

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RAID



Redundant Array of Independent Disks was first defined in 1987 at the

University of California. Over the year different implementations of RAID have

appeared, each substantially different from the original idealized RAID level.

RAID 2 and RAID 3 didn't become as popular as RAID 5 as the latter provided much

faster and reliable data security. RAID provided an opportunity to store data in

an efficient and reliable way. It becomes the umbrella term for computer data

storage schemes and a common technology in all storage devices.

TFT / LCD



In early 2000, LCDcaptured the entire monitor market, almost making CRT extinct.
Initially LCDs had 'ghosting' problems but they were soon rectified. By the late

1990s, resolution for LCD panels moved from VGA to XGA which was indicative of

the demand for high resolution clear pictures which a CRT wasn't capable of

delivering. The flat screen LCD TV allowed viewers the freedom of sharper and

clearer pictures.

TCP/IP



A set of two most important communication protocols, Transmission Control
Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP), defined the world of networking. The

switch over from ARPANET to TCP/IP happened during the year 1983, as experts

wanted to adopt a single networking protocol to maintain order within the

growing community. The choice of TCP/IP was obvious as it provides a

technological bridge for small networks to connect to the Internet much more

readily than before.

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USB



Universal Serial Bus allows different devices to connect via a standard
interface socket. A major advantage is ease of use. The computer now needn't be

restarted to plug hardware peripherals, ie peripherals became hot swappable.

With this technology a new storage medium, USB drive, has become a commonly used

medium for data transfer. Nowadays all hardware peripherals are USB compatible.

VoIP



Voice over Internet Protocol routes voice calls over the Internet. Thus,
enterprises could move over from traditional TDM-based PBX networks and

integrate voice traffic with data and send it over a common IP network, unifying

voice and IP networks. This leads to ease of management and even though the

initial investment is substantial, call costs come down with increase in

volumes.

WIRELESS LAN



Radio operators developed wireless modems in early 1980s. Being wireless
revolutionized productivity in businesses due to mobility and ease of use. OFDM

technology based on radio waves is used to facilitate communication amongst

different devices in a specific area. Due to increase in usage of laptops,

wireless is the way to go. and going by the pace of development in this field,

we'll surely be living on a wireless earth sooner than later!

x386



Intel's first 32-bit microprocessor to offer protected and virtual real mode.
The first GUI based operating system for PC was launched upon the processor

based on x386 architecture. The instruction set of x386 became the industry

standard and is used till now. Also, it was the first CPU to use pipelining

technology, which gave higher performance and clock frequency.

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