خاتمة .. كتاب الحاسبات تعمل

Conclusion .. The Book of Computers Works

Conclusion

The previous chapters included many examples of the use of electronic computers in various major fields. Since the early seventies, a very important transformation has occurred in digital electronic computers that has opened new horizons for the spread of these computers in countless applications. This transformation resulted from the development of the integrated electronic circuit industry to include each of them thousands of transistors and complementary elements in a silicon chip with a side length of about six millimeters and a thickness of no more than a small part of a millimeter. It was thus possible for a single chip to contain the main processor of the computer, or even a million of them in the foreseeable future. Since these chips are manufactured in bulk, their production costs have decreased to between a few dollars and a few hundred dollars, depending on their degree of complexity and the quantities produced. Thus, two basic conditions for the generalization of computers were achieved: small size and low cost. This opened up new and wide areas for computers, in office work of all kinds, and in consumer goods such as cars, household appliances and games. It is expected that soon any individual will be able to acquire a high-capacity personal computer, no larger than a regular book, that educates, entertains and performs many computational and non-computational tasks.

However, the development of electronic computer systems does not depend only on the development of hardware, from a main processor, memory, storage, input and output media, etc., and increasing the speed of operation. Giant distributed systems, which include many main processors, require extremely complex programming and lack the necessary basis in theoretical computer science. The generalization of personal computers and their use in advanced methods of teaching children requires easy methods and means of communicating with the computer, and smart computers, which simulate some aspects of human intellectual activity in their performance, are still in a primitive stage awaiting the necessary progress in computer science, data processing and life sciences.

Despite its amazing performance and captivating magic, the computer remains inanimate, unaware, and without power or strength except to the extent that it was designed and programmed for. The miracle remains the human creature who designed, developed, produced, programmed, and stopped the computer whenever he wanted.

(The development of computers depends to a large extent on the continuous miniaturization of electronic parts and the use of integrated circuits on the widest scale.)

(The use of integrated circuits (above) leads to the creation of small, easy-to-carry and transport computers (below) that can control a large number of household appliances and tools (to the left).