[ML-General] Looking to develop curriculum for childrens technology camps

[david]

nano, as they're loosely tied to physical size.  The "Venn diagrams" of
each set does have some intersecting areas.  :-)



On 02/07/2016 06:57 PM, Matt wrote:
> On 02/07/2016 07:52 PM, david wrote:
>> Nits to pick:
>> Computers:
>> mainframe -- huge, multi-million dollar dinosaurs that have 1 to few
>> processors but engineered to serve thousands of ($$$) terminals and
>> designed to centralize data and functions.  Examples IBM, Unisys, Honeywell;
>> mini-computer -- washing machine sized computers, mostly for engineering
>> departments.  examples DEC PDP 8, PDP 11, Wang mini's, and so on.  Cost
>> tens of thousands of dollars and up;
>> micro-computers -- desktop machines originally designed for
>> single-person computing, but boy, did it grow up!  Cost around $1,000
>> and up;
>> Now, we have what I term the pico-computers (to follow the name history)
>> -- mostly designed as embedded device, grew into system-on-chip capable
>> of handling some desktop functions as long as they are not
>> comute-intensive.  Cost $5 to a few hundred, with peripherals covering a
>> wide spectrum.
>>
>> What's next?  A nano-comuter (quantum machines?)  Interfaces to humans
>> still gonna cost the same as all tiers but the (outdated) mainframe. 
>> Capable of enormous compute power, memory requirements/accomodations
>> will be phenomenally large.
>>
>> Meaningless historical trivia:  The IBM PC was designed as a *terminal*
>> only, for their mainframes and the IBM engineers and marketers had
>> deduced it was incapable of operating as a stand-alone computer. 
>> Follow-on trivia: in 1983, I designed and installed a network of PC's in
>> a department in a nuclear power plant, for purposes of database,
>> record-keeping, and some compute-intensive jobs.  When IBM came out and
>> examined what I had done, they turned white as a sheet and said, out
>> loud and to the room, "This is impossible."  And after the PC has
>> already established itself as a capable (sort of) stand-alone office
>> computer.  Yet it worked for many years.  My OS of choice at that time
>> was QNX, a variant of UNIX, of course.
>>
>> David Merchant
>> Man, how I do ramble sometimes.
> David,
>
> Where does the quad core android phone in my pocket fit on this chart?
>
> #matt
>
>
>
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