D6
Yesterday and Today
omputers have
C
evolved into some-
thing magnificent
and useful for
everyone. We might
be knowledgeable of
popular innovators Bill Gates and
Steve Jobs or known brands like
HP and IBM, but have we looked
back and tracked where comput-
ers really started? Thanks to
Andy Crofford of TestKing.com,
let’s walk down the memory
lane to reconstruct the history
of computers and everything
connected to it.
1940s First Generation.
This is where everything start-
ed – from HP’s audio oscilla-
tor, Bell Telephone Laboratories’
complex number calculator to the
Atanasoff-Berry Computer and
the first architecture of a stored-
program computer. Who would’ve
thought that it would lead to the
mainstream computers we know
today after several decades?
1950s Second Generation,
Transistors. It’s the era when
many firsts took place. This
includes the first commercially
produced computer to use all-
diode logic took place, first reliable
OS running 35 hours a week at
90-percent utility, first computer
to solve clerical problems, first
programmable computer built
with transistors, and later on the
first electronic and transistorized
computers from NEC and IBM.
1960s Third Generation, Micro-
processor. The precursor to the
minicomputer called DEC PDP-1
was a good start for this genera-
tion. It was then followed by IBM
1401, which replaced the vacuum
tube with smaller, more reliable
transistors and used a magnetic
core memory.
By 1965, the first commercially
successful minicomputer was re-
leased. A year after that, the first
large-scale array computer came
out and several more years later,
the Apollo Guidance Computer
made its debut orbiting the Earth
on Apollo 7.
1970s Fourth Generation, Mi-
crocomputer. Scientific American
advertised the first personal com-
puter at $750 in 1971? Two years
after, the first display of alphanu-
meric text on an ordinary TV set
came to life, as well as the Micral
know to be the earliest commer-
cial, non-kit personal computer
based on micro-processor. It was
then followed by Xerox Alto that
had a built-in mouse for input and
the Tandem-16 that was the first
fault-tolerant computer for online
transaction processing. By 1976,
Steve Wozniak designed the Apple
I, later selling it with Steve Jobs. A
year after that, Apple II was also
released.
1980s Rise of Microcomput-
88DB.com promotes MSME growth
Micro and small and medium
enterprises (MSMEs) have long
been considered the backbone
of a country’s economy. The
latest statistics* from the De-
partment of Industry show that
of the 780,437 businesses in the
Philippines, 99.6% of these are
MSMEs, with micro enterprises
comprising 91.4% of the total
number of MSMEs. MSMEs
also provided 63.2% of the jobs
generated in 2009.
The importance of these en-
terprises is clear to 88DB.com,
which is why it is committed to
helping SMEs expand and grow
through digital marketing. Why
digital marketing and not tri-
media? “Usually start-ups and
MSMEs are critical about their
marketing budget and digital
marketing is a more cost-effec-
tive way of promoting a brand,
product, or service and the rate
of response is higher than tradi-
tional media. 88DB.com is here
to guide them and help them
leverage on the site’s features
and ad space,” says Racquel
Cagurangan, general manager
of 88DB.com.
88DB.com, the country’s first
ers. IBM introduced its PC and
Adam Osborne released the first
portable computer, the Osborne I,
which weighed 24 pounds. Apple
Lisa being the first with GUI was
launched in 1983, followed by its
clone Compaq PC. A year later,
Apple Macintosh became the first
successful mouse-driven comput-
er with GUI, which went head on
with IBM PC-AT that proved to be
several times faster than original
PC. In 1987, IBM introduced its
PS/2 machines, which made the
3.5-inch floppy disk drive and video
graphics array standard for IBM
computers.
1990s Personal Computers.
During this generation, Intel
released the P5-based Pentium
processor with 60 and 66 MHz
versions. After just a year, a 100
MHz version followed. By 1995,
Sony released the first Playsta-
tion, which a lot of kids and kids-
at-heart really loved. Toshiba’s
Libretto was then introduced and
was remarkable for it being the
smallest PC compatible computer.
Towards the end of this era, iMac
was announced by Apple followed
by PowerMac, which is powered
by Motorola’s G4 chip. To add,
AMD also released an Athlon
clocked at 750 MHz.
2000s Mobile Computing. This
era kicked off with new versions
of operating systems namely Mac
OS X, Windows XP, and Linux
2.4.0. By 2002, RIM launches the
first BlackBerry smartphone.
Year after year, new releases such
as Apple’s PowerPC G5, AMD’s
Athlon 64, NVIDIA’s GeForce
6800 came one after another.
By 2005 and beyond, Microsoft
released XBOX 360 and followed
by Macbook Pro, Playstation 3,
Nintendo Wii. In 2007, iPhone and
Asus Eee PC became revolution-
ary in their respective categories.
Google joined the competition by
releasing HTC Dream and Google
Android, which ran the Android
OS. Last year, iPad became the
ultimate tablet computer that
bridged the gap between smart-
phones and laptops. (GR. Ong)
rich multimedia service and life-
style portal, serves as a valuable
tool that connects businesses
with consumers. The website is
divided into categories and sub-
categories, and each business’
ad is placed in the appropriate
subcategory to make it easier
for their clients to find them.
Entrepreneurs can also net-
work and communicate with
other entrepreneurs through
the site’s features, like the fo-
rum and the mutual Q&A.
In their quest to encourage
the development of MSMEs,
88DB.com has forged partner-
ships with several organiza-
tions who share the same goal.
“88DB.com’s partnership with
different organizations help
MSMEs expand their reach and
network, more visibility, more
potential customers, therefore
growth for their business,” says
Cagurangan. 88DB.com’s part-
ner organizations include the
Association of Filipino Fran-
chisers, Inc. (AFFI), Philippine
Center for Entrepreneurship
(PCE), Animation Council of
the Philippines, Inc. (ACPI) and
Globe.
Technews
Western Digital to acquire Hitachi
Global Storage Technologies
estern Digital and
W
Hitachi, Ltd. have en-
tered into a definitive
agreement whereby
WD will acquire
Hitachi Global Stor-
age Technologies (Hitachi GST), a
wholly-owned subsidiary of Hitachi,
Ltd., in a cash and stock transac-
tion valued at approximately $4.3
billion. The proposed combination
will result in a customer-focused
storage company.
Under the terms of the agree-
ment, WD will acquire Hitachi GST
for $3.5 billion in cash and 25 mil-
lion WD common shares valued at
$750 million, based on a WD closing
stock price of $30.01 as of March 4,
2011. Hitachi, Ltd. will own ap-
proximately ten percent of Western
Digital shares outstanding after
issuance of the shares and two
representatives of Hitachi will be
added to the WD board of directors
at closing.
The transaction has been ap-
proved by the board of directors
of each company and is expected
to close during the third calendar
quarter of 2011, subject to custom-
ary closing conditions, including
regulatory approvals. WD plans to
Nokia QT Smartphone Developer gab
he world’s number 1
T
mobile phone brand,
Nokia, held the Qt
Smartphone Devel-
oper Workshop at the
Technological Insti-
tute of the Philippines (TIP) recent-
ly to discuss the process of creating
apps for Nokia smartphones.
The 3 day workshop with the
theme “Design, Deploy, Distribute”
allowed aspiring Filipino develop-
ers to learn about developing cre-
ative, powerful native applications
for Nokia Smartphones using Qt.
The participants were able to get
hands on training on the entire Qt
toolchain, including Nokia Qt SDK,
Qt Creator, Qt Designer, Qt Webkit,
and Qt Mobility APIs.
“The popularity of mobile apps
opened an opportunity for devel-
opers worldwide, and we want our
local developers to be at par with
foreign developers on creating dif-
ferent apps for Nokia smartphones.
Through this workshop, we hope to
encourage them to venture in the
growing mobile apps scene, and
give them an edge to excel in this
field,” explained Rhomel Marcojos,
Senior Services Marketing Manager
of Nokia Philippines.
TIP President Dr. Elizabeth Q.
Lahoz, Ph.D., said “we decided to
Experience the new MacBook
Pro at Power Mac Center
nnovation doesn’t
I
sleep in the world of
Apple. Just when you
thought that MacBook
Pro can’t get any bet-
ter, Apple surprises
anew with the most powerful Mac-
Book Pro yet. Its features – all-new
quad processors, breakthrough
high-speed thunderbolt technology,
and game-changing graphics – are
way ahead of its league.
The new MacBook Pro lineup
comprises the highest performing
Mac laptops ever, with next-genera-
tion quad-core Intel Core i7 proces-
sors for the 15- and 17-inch models
and dual-core Intel core i5 and i7
processors for the 13-inch model
which enable these Macs to run ap-
EVERY MONDAY• 14 March 2011
fund the transaction with a com-
bination of existing cash and total
debt of approximately $2.5 billion.
WD expects the transaction
to be immediately accretive to its
earnings per share on a non-GAAP
basis, excluding acquisition-related
expenses, restructuring charges
and amortization of intangibles.
The resulting company will re-
tain the Western Digital name and
remain headquartered in Irvine,
California. John Coyne will remain
chief executive officer of WD, Tim
Leyden chief operating officer and
Wolfgang Nickl chief financial of-
ficer. Steve Milligan, president and
chief executive officer of Hitachi
GST, will join WD at closing as
president, reporting to John Coyne.
“The acquisition of Hitachi GST
is a unique opportunity for WD to
create further value for our cus-
tomers, stockholders, employees,
suppliers and the communities
in which we operate,” said John
Coyne, president and chief ex-
ecutive officer of WD. “We believe
this step will result in several key
benefits3Ž4enhanced R&D capa-
bilities, innovation and expansion
of a rich product portfolio, compre-
hensive market coverage and scale
Nokia’s Qt Smartphone Developer Workshop with the theme
“Design, Deploy, Distribute” allowed developers and students
from the Technological Institute of the Philippines (TIP) to
have hands on training on the entire Qt toolchain, which is
used in creating applications for Nokia smartphones.
sponsor the venue of the Nokia Work-
shop because we believe that it will
benefit the majority of the IT Com-
munity. We have been supportive of
activities such as this ever since we
became a Center of Development.”
She also added, “we are happy to
see that Nokia works together with
schools and other agencies to come
up with new ideas that will surely be
functional for their users. Running
a workshop like this helps IT people
to enhance their skills and at the
same time hone their capabilities as
plications up to twice as fast as their
top-of-the-line predecessors.
The new MacBook Pro also
introduces a breakthrough high-
speed, versatile interface called
Thunderbolt. This groundbreaking
technology allows you to access
multiple streams of uncompressed
HD video at speeds that let you edit
an HD feature film in real time.
It carries the integrated Intel HD
Graphics 3000 processor which lets
users encode video quickly, mak-
ing HD video calls with FaceTime
possible, while getting long playback
time for DVDs and iTunes movies.
Check out and experience the
new MacBook Pro at any Power
Mac Center stores starting this
Friday, March 4, 2011.
that will enhance our cost structure
and ability to compete in a dynamic
marketplace.
The skills and contributions of
both workforces were key consider-
ations in assessing this compelling
opportunity. We will be relying on
the proven integration capabilities
of both companies to assure the
ongoing satisfaction of our custom-
ers and to bring this combination to
successful fruition."
“This brings together two
industry leaders with consistent
track records of strong execution
and industry outperformance,” said
Steve Milligan, president and chief
executive officer, Hitachi Global
Storage Technologies.
“Together we can provide cus-
tomers worldwide with the indus-
try’s most compelling and diverse
set of products and services, from
innovative personal storage to solid
state drives for the enterprise.”
Hiroaki Nakanishi, president,
Hitachi, Ltd. said, "As the former
CEO of Hitachi GST, I always
believed in the potential of Hitachi
GST to become a larger and more
agile company. This is a strategic
combination of two industry lead-
ers, both growing and profitable."
they make use of their intelligence
and training from school.”
The workshop also looked at the
new business opportunities avail-
able at the Ovi Store. Participants
were taught how they can publish
their applications to be made avail-
able to millions of Nokia Symbian
smartphone users worldwide.
If you are interested to attend
future Nokia workshops, contact
nokia.developer@ovi.com for more
details. Registration is free-of-
charge.
You may also avail of great
discounts on the previous models of
MacBook Pro at your favorite Power
Mac Center branches.
Established in August 1994,
Power Mac Center is a recognized
Apple Premium Reseller and an
Apple Authorized Service Provider
in the Philippines strategically
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Get more details on Power Mac
Center’s latest offers and other
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dates on the latest Apple products,
at www.powermaccenter.com.