Laptop Computers

Further Reading: Computers

---

History Of Laptops ... Compaq SLT/286 By the end of the 1980s, laptop computers were becoming popular among business people...

Personal Digital Assistant ... The first PDA was released in 1986 by Psion, the Organizer II. Followed by Psion's Series 3, in 1991, which began to resemble the more familiar PDA style...

Laptop ... As portable computers became smaller, lighter, cheaper, more powerful and as screens became larger and of better quality, laptops became very widely used for all sorts of purposes, by all sorts of people...

Programming Language ... The earliest programming languages predate the invention of the computer, and were used to direct the behavior of machines such as Jacquard looms and player pianos. Thousands of different programming languages have been created, mainly in the computer field, with many more being created every year...

Computer Programming ... There is an ongoing debate on the extent to which the writing of programs is an art, a craft or an engineering discipline. In general, good programming is considered to be the measured application of all three, with the goal of producing an efficient and evolvable software solution (the criteria for "efficient" and "evolvable" vary considerably)...

Microprocessor ... General-purpose microprocessors in personal computers are used for computation, text editing, multimedia display, and communication over the Internet...

High-level Programming Language ... The first high-level programming language designed for computers was Plankalkül, created by Konrad Zuse...

Netbook ... More recently, Psion's now-discontinued netBook line, the OLPC XO-1 (initially called US$100 laptop) and the Palm Foleo were all small, portable, network-enabled computers...

Wi-Fi ... A device that can use Wi-Fi (such as a personal computer, video game console, smartphone, tablet, or digital audio player) can connect to a network resource such as the Internet via a wireless network access point. Such an access point (or hotspot) has a range of about 20 meters (65 feet) indoors and a greater range outdoors...

CPU Design ... CPUs designed for lower performance markets might lessen the implementation burden by: Acquiring some of these items by purchasing them as intellectual property Use control logic implementation techniques (logic synthesis using CAD tools) to implement the other components - datapaths, register files, clocks Common logic styles used in CPU design include: Unstructured random logic Finite-state machines Microprogramming (common from 1965 to 1985) Programmable logic array (common in the 1980s, no longer common) Device types used to implement the logic include: Transistor-transistor logic Small Scale Integration logic chips - no longer used for CPUs Programmable Array Logic and Programmable logic devices - no longer used for CPUs Emitter-coupled logic (ECL) gate arrays - no longer common CMOS gate arrays - no longer used for CPUs CMOS ASICs - what's commonly used today, they're so common that the term ASIC is not used for CPUs Field-programmable gate ar...

History Of The World Wide Web ... The hypertext portion of the Web in particular has an intricate intellectual history; notable influences and precursors include Vannevar Bush's Memex, IBM's Generalized Markup Language, and Ted Nelson's Project Xanadu. The concept of a home-based global information system goes at least as far back as "A Logic Named Joe", a 1946 short story by Murray Leinster, in which computer terminals, called "logics," were in every home...

Computer Program ... Computer source code is often written by computer programmers. Source code is written in a programming language that usually follows one of two main paradigms: imperative or declarative programming...

Unconventional Computing ... Some mechanical computers have a theoretical or didactic relevance, such as billiard-ball computers or hydraulic ones,... Light (optical computing) Computers can manipulate information as light (rather than electricity or billiard balls)...

Personal Computer Hardware ... EISA Micro Channel architecture ISA: expansion card slot format obsolete in PCs, but still used in industrial computers... Most modern computers have hardware support for sound integrated in the motherboard chipset but some users prefer to install a separate sound card as an upgrade...

Computer Multitasking ... The expression 'time sharing' was usually used to designate computers shared by interactive users at terminals, such as IBM's TSO, and VM/CMS In real-time systems, some waiting tasks are guaranteed to be given the CPU when an external event occurs... The term time-sharing is no longer commonly used, having been replaced by simply multitasking, and by the advent of personal computers and workstations rather than shared interactive systems...

Rugged Computer ... Construction Virtually all rugged computers share an underlying design philosophy of providing a controlled environment for the installed electronics...

Software ... Computer software is so called to distinguish it from computer hardware, which encompasses the physical interconnections and devices required to store and execute (or run) the software. At the lowest level, execunguage consists of groups of binary values signifying processor instructions that change the state of the computer from its preceding state...

Computer Data Storage ... In contemporary usage, 'memory' usually refers to semiconductor storage read-write random-access memory, typically DRAM (Dynamic-RAM). Memory can refer to other forms of fast but temporary storage...

Computer ... Conventionally a computer consists of some form of memory, at least one element that carries out arithmetic and logic operations, and a sequencing and control unit that can change the order of operations based on the information that is stored. Peripheral devices allow information to be entered from an external source, and allow the results of operations to be sent out...

Software Bug ... Bugs trigger errors that can in turn have a wide variety of ripple effects, with varying levels of inconvenience to the user of the program. Some bugs have only a subtle effect on the program's functionality, and may thus lie undetected for a long time...

Subnotebook ... These computers are often confused with the "ultra-mobile PC" category, which is the name of a platform of small form-factor tablet PCs...

Colossus Computer ... The Colossus computers were used to help decipher teleprinter messages which had been encrypted using the Lorenz SZ40/42 machine—British codebreakers referred to encrypted German teleprinter traffic as "Fish" and called the SZ40/42 machine and its traffic "Tunny"...

Arithmetic Logic Unit ... Early computers used a wide variety of number systems, including ones' complement, two's complement sign-magnitude format, and even true decimal systems, with various representation of the digits... Therefore, while even the simplest computer can calculate the most complicated formula, the simplest computers will usually take a long time doing that because of the several steps for calculating the formula...

Programmer ... Computer programmers write, test, debug, and maintain the detailed instructions, called computer programs, that computers must follow to perform their functions...

Desktop Replacement Computer ... Desktop replacement computers are also often used with a port replicator, to fully enjoy the desktop comfort... Design features Modern desktop replacements generally perform better than traditional laptop-style computers as their size allows the inclusion of more powerful components... However, these advantages generally come at a price premium, with many computers in this class costing as much as two desktop computers with similar specifications...