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I Hope you enjoy shopping at the Racing Ahead store and that you find what you are looking for. From time to time, new additions will be made to departments so please do come back and look again.
History of Personal ComputersThe capabilities of the personal computer have changed greatly since the introduction of electronic computers. By the early 1970s, people in academic or research institutions had the opportunity for single-person use of a computer system in interactive mode for extended durations, although these systems would still have been too expensive to be owned by a single person. The introduction of the microprocessor, a single chip with all the circuitry that formerly occupied large cabinets, led to the proliferation of personal computers after about 1975. Early personal computers - generally called microcomputers - were sold often in kit form and in limited volumes, and were of interest mostly to hobbyists and technicians. By the late 1970s, mass-market pre-assembled personal computers allowed a wider range of people to use computers, focusing more on software applications and less on development of the processor hardware.Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, home personal computers were developed for household use, offering personal productivity, programming and games. Somewhat larger and more expensive systems (although still low-cost compared with minicomputers and mainframes) were aimed for office and small business use. Workstations are characterized by high-performance processors and graphics displays, with large local disk storage, networking capability, and running under a multitasking operating system. Workstations are still used for tasks such as computer-aided design, drafting and modelling, computation-intensive scientific and engineering calculations, image processing, architectural modelling, and computer graphics for animation and motion picture visual effects. Eventually the market segments lost any technical distinction; business computers acquired color graphics capability and sound, and home personal computers and game systems users used the same processors and operating systems as office workers. Mass-market personal computers had graphics capabilities and memory comparable to dedicated workstations of a few years before. Even local area networking, originally a way to allow business computers to share expensive mass storage and peripherals, became a standard feature of the personal computers used at home. The personal computer Market In 2001, 125 million personal computers were shipped in comparison to 48 thousand in 1977. More than 500 million personal computers were in use in 2002 and one billion personal computers had been sold worldwide since mid-1970s till this time. Of the latter figure, 75 percent were professional or work related, while the rest sold for personal computer or home use. About 81.5 percent of personal computers shipped had been desktop computers, 16.4 percent laptops and 2.1 percent servers. United States had received 38.8 percent (394 million) of the computers shipped, Europe 25 percent and 11.7 percent had gone to Asia-Pacific region, the fastest-growing market as of 2002. The second billion personal computers was expected to be sold by 2008. Almost half of all the households in Western Europe had a personal computer and a computer could be found in 40 percent of homes in United Kingdom, compared with only 13 percent in 1985. As of June 2008, the number of personal computers in use worldwide hit one billion, while another billion is expected to be reached by 2014. Mature markets like the United States, Western Europe and Japan accounted for 58 percent of the worldwide installed personal computers . The emerging markets were expected to double their installed personal computers by 2013 and to take 70 percent of the second billion personal computers . About 180 million personal computers (16 percent of the existing installed base) were expected to be replaced and 35 million to be dumped into landfill in 2008. The whole installed base grew 12 percent annually. Rugged computer industry Besides the regular computer manufacturers, companies making especially rugged versions of computers have sprung up, offering alternatives for people operating their personal computers in extreme weather or environments. Netbooks and nettops personal computers The emergence of new market segment of small, energy-efficient and low-cost personal computers (netbooks and nettops) could threaten established companies like Microsoft, Intel, HP or Dell, analysts said in July 2008. A market research firm International Data Corporation predicted that the category could grow from fewer than 500,000 in 2007 to 9 million in 2012 as the market for low cost and secondhand personal computers expands in developed economies. Also, after Microsoft ceased selling of Windows XP for ordinary machines, it made an exception and continued to offer the operating system for netbook and nettop personal computers .
Types of Personal ComputersA desktop is an independent personal computer (PC) as opposed to smaller forms of personal computers such as a mobile laptop. Prior to the wide spread of personal computers a computer that could fit on a desk was considered remarkably small. Today the phrase usually indicates a particular style of computer case. Desktop personal computers come in a variety of styles ranging from large vertical tower cases to small form factor models that can be tucked behind an LCD monitor. In this sense, the term 'desktop' refers specifically to a horizontally-oriented case, usually intended to have the display screen placed on top to save space on the desk top. Most modern desktop personal computers have separate screens and keyboards. Nettop A subtype of desktops, called nettops, was introduced by Intel in February 2008 to describe low-cost, lean-function, desktop personal computers . A similar subtype of laptops (or notebooks) are the netbooks. Laptop A laptop personal computer or simply laptop, also called a notebook computer or sometimes a notebook, is a small personal computer designed for mobility. Usually all of the interface hardware needed to operate the laptop, such as parallel and serial ports, graphics card, sound channel, etc., are built in to a single unit. Most laptop personal computers contain batteries to facilitate operation without a readily available electrical outlet. In the interest of saving power, weight and space, they usually share RAM with the video channel, slowing their performance compared to an equivalent desktop machine. One main drawback of the laptop personal computer is that, due to the size and configuration of components, relatively little can be done to upgrade the overall computer from its original design. Some devices can be attached externally through ports (including via USB), however internal upgrades are not recommended or in some cases impossible, making the desktop personal computer more modular. A subtype of notebooks, called subnotebooks, are personal computers with most of the features of a standard laptop computer but smaller. They are larger than hand-held computers, and usually run full versions of desktop/laptop operating systems. Ultra-Mobile personal computers (UMPC) are usually considered subnotebooks, or more specifically, subnotebook Tablet personal computers . Netbooks Netbooks are sometimes considered in this category, though they are sometimes separated in a category of their own. Desktop replacements, meanwhile, are large laptops meant to replace a desktop computer while keeping the mobility of a laptop. Netbook personal computers Netbook personal computers are small portable computers in a "clamshell" design, that are designed specifically for wireless communication and access to the Internet. They are generally much lighter and cheaper than subnotebooks, and have a smaller display, between 7" and 9", with a screen resolution between 800x600 and 1024x768. The operating systems and applications on them are usually specially modified so they can be comfortably used with a smaller sized screen, and the OS is often based on Linux, although some Netbooks also use Windows XP. Some Netbook personal computers make use some of their built in high speed Wireless connectivity to offload some of their applications software to Internet servers, through the principle of Cloud computing, as most Netbook personal computers have small solid state storage systems instead of hard-disks. Storage capacities are usually in the 4 to 12 GB range. One of the first examples of such a system was the original EEE personal computer. Tablet personal computer A tablet personal computer is a notebook or slate-shaped mobile computer, first introduced by Pen Computing in the early 90s with their PenGo Tablet Computer and popularized by Microsoft. Its touchscreen or graphics tablet/screen hybrid technology allows the user to operate this personal computer with a stylus or digital pen, or a fingertip, instead of a keyboard or mouse. The form factor offers a more mobile way to interact with a computer. Tablet personal computers are often used where normal notebooks are impractical or unwieldy, or do not provide the needed functionality. Ultra-Mobile personal computer The ultra-mobile personal computer (UMPC) is a specification for a small form factor tablet personal computer. It was developed as a joint development exercise by Microsoft, Intel, and Samsung, among others. Current UMPCs typically feature the Windows XP Tablet personal computer Edition 2005, Windows Vista Home Premium Edition, or Linux operating system and low-voltage Intel Pentium or VIA C7-M processors in the 1 GHz range. Home Theater personal computer A home theater personal computer (HTPC) is a convergence device that combines the functions of a personal computer and a digital video recorder. It is connected to a television or a television-sized computer display and is often used as a digital photo, music, video player, TV receiver and digital video recorder. Home theater personal computers are also referred to as media center systems or media servers. The general goal in a HTPC is usually to combine many or all components of a home theater setup into one box. They can be purchased pre-configured with the required hardware and software needed to add television programming to the personal computer , or can be cobbled together out of discrete components as is commonly done with Windows Media Center, GB-PVR, SageTV, Famulent or LinuxMCE. Pocket personal computer An O2 pocket PCA pocket personal computer is a hardware specification for a handheld-sized computer (personal digital assistant) that runs the Microsoft Windows Mobile operating system. It may have the capability to run an alternative operating system like NetBSD or Linux. It has many of the capabilities of a modern desktop personal computer . Currently there are thousands of applications for handhelds adhering to the Microsoft Pocket personal computer specification, many of which are freeware. Some of these devices also include mobile phone features. Microsoft compliant Pocket personal computers can also be used with many other add-ons like GPS receivers, barcode readers, RFID readers, and cameras. In 2007, with the release of Windows Mobile 6, Microsoft dropped the name Pocket personal computer in favor of a new naming scheme. Devices without an integrated phone are called Windows Mobile Classic instead of Pocket personal computer . Devices with an integrated phone and a touch screen are called Windows Mobile Professional.
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