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ASSIGNMENT 1 NAME: JOSHUA MENNOM-FAVOUR DOH COLLEGE: MEDICINE AND HEALTH SCIENCES. DEPARTMENT: MEDICAL LABORATORY SCIENCE COURSE: GST 115 (ICT). DATE: 20TH October, 2016. DEFINE CONNECTIVITY HARDWARE AND GIVE 10 EXAMPLES. Connectivity: is a computer term that refers to a program or device's ability to link with other programs and devices. For example, a program that can import data from a wide variety of other programs and can export data in many different formats is said to have good connectivity. On the other hand, computers that have different networks are the main connectivity mechanism for passing data in an electronic environment. A network is composed of several computers connected by a wired or wireless medium so data and other resources can pass through for sharing. A computer network may be as small as two computers connected by wire or wireless medium to as big as millions of computers connected throughout the internet. There are generally five classifications of network connectivity which are personal area network (PAN), local area network (LAN), campus area network (CAN), metropolitan are network (MAN) and wide area network (WAN). Computer networks may also be classified according to the hardware technology used in connecting each device. The classification includes Ethernet, wireless, LAN, Home PNA and power line comsmunication. The arrangement of computers in a network can also vary. The network topology refers to geometric forms in network connectivity. This could also describe the way computers see each other in relation to their logical order. Examples of network topologies are mesh, ring, star, bys, star-bus combination, tree or hierarchical topologies. It is good to note that although topology implies form, network topology is really independent of the physical placement or layout of computers. For instance, a star topology does not literally mean that computers form a star but it means that computers are connected using a hub which has many points to imply a star form. Perhaps the biggest aspect of computer connectivity is the use of communications protocol. In a network, different formats of data are being shared by different computer systems which may have different hardware and software specifications. Communications protocol tries to break down the disparity so that data could be shared and appropriately processed. Communications protocol are the set of rules and standards by which data is represented, signaled, authenticated and corrected before or after sending over the channel of communication. For example, in a voice communication like the case of radio dispatcher talking to mobile stations, they follow a standard set of rules on how to exchange communication. A communication protocol may be hard to generalize because of the varied purposes and different degree of sophistication. But most connectivity protocols commonly have the following properties: The network interface card (NIC) The hub The switch The bridge The router The gateway Modem ISDN Terminal adapters Wireless access points CSU/DSUs Transcievers Firewalls 1)NIC The network interface card (NIC), as its name suggests, is the expansion card you install in your computer to connect, or interface, your computer to the network. This device provides the physical, electrical, and electronic connections to the network media. A NIC is either an expansion card (the most popular implementation) or built in to the motherboard of the computer. In most cases, a NIC connects to the computer through expansion slots, which are special slots located on a computer’s motherboard that allow peripherals to be plugged directly into it. In some notebook, NIC adapters can be connected to the printer port or through a PC card slot. NIC cards generally all have one or two light emitting diodes (LEDs) that help in diagnosing problems with their functionality. If there are two separate LEDs, one of them may be the Link LED, which illuminates when proper connectivity to an active network is detected. This often means that the NIC is receiving a proper signal from the hub/MAU or switch, but it could indicate connectivity to and detection of a carrier on a coax segment or connectivity with a router or other end device using a crossover cable. The other most popular LED is the Activity LED. The Activity LED will tend to flicker, indicating the intermittent transmission or receipt of frames to or from the network. 2) The Hub In a star topology Ethernet network, a hub is the device that connects all the segments of the network together. Every device in the network connects directly to the hub through a single cable. Any transmission received on one port will be sent out all the other ports in the hub, including the receiving pair for the transmitting device, so that CSMA/CD on the transmitter can monitor for collisions. So, if one station sends it, all the others receive it; but based on addressing in the frame, only the intended recipient listens to it. This is to simulate the physical bus that the CSMA/CD standard was based on. It’s why we call the use of a hub in an Ethernet environment a physical star/logical bus topology. It is important to note that hubs are nothing more than glorified repeaters, which are incapable of recognizing frame boundaries and data structures; that’s why they act with such a lack of intelligence. A broadcast sent out by any device on the hub will be propagated to all devices connected to the hub. Any two or more devices connected to the hub have the capability of causing a collision with each other, just as in the case of a physical bus. 3) Bridge A bridge, specifically a transparent bridge, is a network device that connects two similar network segments together. The primary function of a bridge is to keep traffic separated on both sides of the bridge. Traffic is allowed to pass through the bridge only if the transmission is intended for a station on the opposite side. The main reasons for putting a bridge in a network are to connect two segments together and to divide a busy network into two segments. A switch can be thought of as a hardware-based multiport bridge. 4)Router A router is a network device that connects multiple, often dissimilar, network segments into an internetwork. The router, once connected, can make intelligent decisions about how best to get network data to its destination based on network performance data that it gathers from the network itself. Routers are very complex devices. Often, routers are computers unto themselves with their own complex operating systems to manage the routing functions (Cisco’s IOS, for example) and CPUs dedicated to the functions of routing packets. Because of their complexity, it is actually possible to configure routers to perform the functions of other types of network devices (like gateways, firewalls, etc.) by simply implementing the feature within the router’s software. 5)Gateways A gateway is any hardware and software combination that connects dissimilar network environments. Gateways are the most complex of network devices because they perform translations at multiple layers of the OSI model. For example, a gateway is the device that connects a LAN environment to a mainframe environment. The two environments are completely different. LAN environments use distributed processing, baseband communications, and the ASCII character set. Mainframe environments use centralized processing, broadband and baseband communications, and the EBCDIC character set. Each of the LAN protocols is translated to its mainframe counterpart by the gateway software. Another popular example is the e-mail gateway. Most LAN-based e-mail software, such as Novell’s GroupWise and Microsoft’s Exchange, can’t communicate directly with Internet mail servers without the use of a gateway. This gateway translates LAN-based mail messages into the SMTP format that Internet mail uses. 6).Modems A modem is a device that modulates digital data onto an analog carrier for transmission over an analog medium and then demodulates from the analog carrier to a digital signal again at the receiving end. The term modem is actually an acronym that stands for MOdulator / DEModulator. When we hear the term modem, three different types should come to mind: Traditional (POTS) DSL Cable Traditional(POTS) Most modems you find in computers today fall into the category of traditional modems. These modems convert the signals from your computer into signals that travel over the plain old telephone service (POTS) lines. The majority of modems that exist today are POTS modems, mainly because PC manufacturers include one with a computer. DSL Digital subscriber line (DSL) is quickly replacing traditional modem access because it offers higher data rates for a reasonable cost. In addition, you can make regular phone calls while online. DSL uses higher frequencies (above 3200Hz) than regular voice phone calls use, which provides greater bandwidth (up to several megabits per second) than regular POTS modems provide while still allowing the standard voice frequency range to travel at its normal frequency to remain compatible with traditional POTS phones and devices, an advantage over ISDN. DSL “modems” are the devices that allow the network signals to pass over phone lines at these higher frequencies. Most often, when you sign up for DSL service, the company you sign up with will send you a DSL modem for free or for a very low cost. This modem is usually an external modem (although internal DSL modems are available), and it usually has both a phone line and an Ethernet connection. You must connect the phone line to a wall jack and the Ethernet connection to your computer (you must have an Ethernet NIC in your computer in order to connect to the DSL modem). Alternatively, a router, hub, or switch may be connected to the Ethernet port of the DSL modem, increasing the options available for the Ethernet network. Cable Another high-speed Internet access technology that is seeing widespread use is cable modem access. Cable modems connect an individual PC or network to the Internet using your cable television cable. The cable TV companies use their existing cable infrastructure to deliver data services on unused frequency bands. ASSIGNMENT 2 NAME: AGOMAH GIDEON. COLLEGE: MEDICINE AND HEALTH SCIENCES. DEPARTMENT: PHYSIOLOGY. COURSE: GST 115. DATE: 9TH November, 2016. OPERATING SYSTEM FOR LAPTOP. Computer Name: HP-PC. Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit.(6.1,Build 7601). Language: English (Regional setting: English). System Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard. System Model: HP Elite Book 8440p. Processor: Intel(R) Core™ i5 CPU M540@ 2.53GHZ (4CPUs)-2,5GHZ Memory: 4096mb RAM. DirectX version: Direct X 11 OPERATING SYSTEM FOR PHONE. Phone name: Nokia 130. Version: 10, 01, 11. Date of manufacturing: 11/08/2014 RAM: 1035. Company name: Nokia Language: IK. APPLICATION SOFTWARE Facebook Whatsaap 2go Instagram True caller Snapchat Opera mini SYSTEM SOFTWARE Contacts Messaging Calculator Calendar Flash light Clock Radio ASSIGNMENT 2 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN LINUX AND UNIX. B)STATE ALL THE VERSIONS OF MAC OS AND LINUX TILL DATE. Mostly Linux is considered to be a copy of UNIX. Linux was actually a late addition to the family. It was written by Linus Torvalds back in 1991 and it was meant for IBM computers. As a matter of fact, in the world of operating systems, Linux has come up as a great operating system and it is welcomed with huge popularity. Commercial enterprise servers are running on Linux. Another cherry on the cake, Laptop and PC companies are also providing GNU Linux as a preinstalled OS on their systems so that individual users can also get a bite of it. An extensive brain storming confusion is if Linux a kernel or Operating System. After some time, people just start ignoring this doubt as it never gets answered; well keep reading for the solution. What Linus Torvalds wrote was Linux kernel and it had a lot of features similar to UNIX one. Why it is confused with OS, actually commercially available distributions that provide graphical interface, compilers and other utilities along with Linux kernel are referred to as Linux Operating System. Linux is, as they say, a UNIX-like kernel, because it has ‘some’ common features but still there are areas where they are not same. Difference between Unix and Linux can be understood by going through following points. 1. The difference in approach: There is a class of kernels that fall in Monolithic category, Monolithic ones are those which operate in one and only one process, they don’t have any other process for any kind of task. Another category is called Micro-kernel where core of the kernel is assigned one process while other processes are there for its side tasks like drivers, etc. Linux lies within Monolithic category with few exceptions in Micro-kernel. 2. Loadable kernel Modules: UNIX systems are bound to have static links of new modules to be added or recently added. Linux differs here too; it supports new additions on the fly. For example, drivers can be loaded dynamically whenever they are needed. This feature is recognized as Loadable kernel Modules (LKM). This feature enables us to add any component dynamically without arising the need of compiling the whole kernel again. Unloading can also be performed in similar fashion. This adds to the flexibility of Linux. 3. Kernel threads: Kernel thread is an independent execution flow. It can be used to execute some user process or any kernel code. Most of the UNIX-like systems constitute kernel thread sets. Threads always operate in same address space, so it is not expensive to perform context switching on kernel threads in comparison to processes- this explains why Unix-like systems have kernel threads. Kernel threads are used, on Linux, to execute kernel code. 4. Multi-threading: Multi-threaded applications are those which create multiple execution flows. These flows are also known as threads and are light weight processes. Nowadays all operating systems have support for multi-threading. Most of the UNIX-like operating systems LWP (read light weight process) are kernel thread based, while on the other hand Linux handles them a bit differently. In Linux, LWP are created by calling the clone () function which leads to creation of separate processes. Same task can also be carried out with fork () function but clone () lets recently created processes share their memory, address space etc. Their working in shared environment gave them a name “threads”. Hence, multithreading is supported by both of them but they differ in internal handling of it. 5. Preemption and non-preemption: We have a category of kernels which are able to pre-empt currently executing process and hence we call the preemptive kernels. Processes are run on a priority basis. If currently executing process is a low-priority one and a high-priority one process comes up, it can interrupt the current process and start executing itself. Non-preemptive kernels are those which don’t forcibly interrupt the current process even if a high-priority process has to wait. Linux based operating systems are non-preemptive while UNIX systems are fully preemptive. Linux based Realtime operating systems are found to be fullypreemptive History of Linux 1980: Bell Laboratories licenses the UNIX operating system to Microsoft, which then introduces their own version of UNIX called XENIX. 1980: The number of active computers in the U.S. reaches a milestone of one million units. 1981: Commodore brings the home computer known as the VIC-20 to market. The computer sells over a million units. 1981: IBM brings de facto standards to the personal computer market. 1981: The first portable computer, the Osborne 1, is introduced by Osborne Computer. 1982: Sun Microsystems opens for business. 1982: 16 months after MS-DOS becomes available on the market, Microsoft licenses the operating system to 50 microcomputer manufacturers. 1982: The computer is declared Man of the Year by Time Magazine. 1983: Upon introducing its first computer to the market in January, Compaq sales reach $111M. 1983: The Cray 2 super computer reaches a performance rating of one billion floating point operations per second, or FLOPs. 1984: Apple brings the Macintosh computer to the consumer market. 1984: IBM invents the PC Advanced Technology, or PC AT. 1985: Aldus releases PageMaker for the Apple Macintosh. This is the beginning of the desktop publishing era. 1987: IBM produces the PS/2 family of computers and ships over 1 million machines. 1987: Sun Microsystems offers a workstation that uses the RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing) microprocessor. 1987: Apple offers the Apple Macintosh II, Macintosh SE, and its new HyperCard technology. 1987: DEC releases the Vaxstation 2000, MicroVAX 3500 and 3600 workstations to the market. 1987: Aldus brings desktop publishing to the IBM PC and PC compatible market with the release of PageMaker for that platform. 1988: Cray Research produces a $20 million super computer, the Cray Y-MP. 1988: AT&T announces plans to work with Sun Microsystens to develop a new version of UNIX. 1988: IBM, DEC, HP, Apollo, and other major computer companies respond to AT&T’s announcement by creating the not-for-profit organization Open Software Foundation. Its purpose was to create royalty-free UNIX operating systems and software. 1988: NeXT introduces a workstation computer that uses rewritable optical discs as its primary form of data storage. 1988: The Morris computer worm spreads through the Internet and overloads thousands of computers, forcing them to crash and shut down. 1989: Intel unveils its new 80486 microprocessor as well as the I860 RISC coprocessor chip. The chips feature over one million transistors. 1989: Poqet unveils the first sub-notebook, the Poqet PC, which is a pocket-sized computer with an MS-DOS compatible operating system. 1989: Grid produces the GridPad, a laptop that uses a touch-sensitive pad. The pad also recognizes a person’s handwriting. 1989: Compaq introduces the LTE and LTE/286. These computers are batterypowered notebooks that include a hard drive and floppy disk. 1989: EISA-based PCs, the first of their kind, are available. 1989: The first computers that are 80486-based are unveiled. 1990: The Motorola 68040 microprocessor is introduced. 1990: The high performance RISC Station 6000 workstations are announced by IBM. 1990: A fault-tolerant VAX computer is introduced by Digital Equipment. 1990: Microsoft Windows 3.0 is introduced. 1990: The PS/1, a computer designed for home and home office use begins to ship from IBM. 1990: The first web hosting server connects with a web browser client over the Int. b1990: NCR switches from a proprietary mainframe to systems based on Intel 486 and microprocessors and their successors. 1990: Microsoft, IBM, Tandy, and AT&T, among others announce hardware and software specifications for multimedia platforms. 1991: Advanced Micro Devices, or AMD, announces it has created a competitor to the Intel 386 chips. It is called the AMD 386 microprocessor. 1991: Most PC vendors unveil Notebook PCs. 1991: The Advanced Computing Environment (ACE) is launched by 21 companies headed by Compaq. Its purpose is to create standards for PCs and workstations that are higher end. 1991: Microsoft is investigated by the Federal Trade Commission over business practices. 1991: The 486SX, which is a more affordable 486 chip, is introduced by Intel. 1991: The UNIX operating system Solaris is announced by SunSoft, a subsidiary of Sun Microsystems. 1992: OS/2 Version 2.0 is released by IBM. Over 1M units are shipped. 1992: Microsoft Windows 3.1 is introduced and results in the shipping of nearly 10M units. 1992: Compaq becomes a price trendsetter with the announcement of several new lines of PCs, an ultimately successful strategy. 1992: The RISC-based Alpha is announced as the next generation computer by Digital Equipment. 1992: Windows for Workgroups is introduced by Microsoft. 1992: Intel announces that it will change the name of their next microprocessor from 589 to Pentium. 1993: Novell’s NetWare 4.0 is revealed. 1993: Notes 3.0 is announced by Lotus. 1993: The first of the PowerPC microprocessors are shipped by Motorola. 1993: Windows NT is unveiled by Microsoft. 1993: The shipping of Pentium-based systems begins. 1993: Apple’s first Personal Digital Assistant called the Newton MessagePad is shipped. 1993: A family-oriented PC for the home called the Presario is introduced by Compaq. 1993: The FTC probe of Microsoft comes to an end with no action taken. 1993: After 10 years as Apple’s chairman, John Sculley is forced to resign. 1993: Microsoft at Work (MAW) along with the Plug and Play initiatives are outlined by Microsoft. 1993: PowerPC chip based workstations are debuted by IBM. 1993: IBM’s OS/2 for Windows upgrade is announced. 1994: Shipping begins of Macintosh computers that use the PowerPC. 1994: The clock-tripling microprocessor called 486DX4 is introduced by Intel. 1994 Intel Release the 90 & 100 MHz versions of the Pentium Processor. 1994 Linus Torvalds released version 1.0 of the Linux Kernel. 1994 PC-DOS 6.3 Basically the same as version 5.0 this release by IBM included more bundled software, such as Stacker (the program that caused Microsoft so much embarrassment) and anti-virus software. 1994 - September 21 Microsoft released Windows NT 3.5. This included many features missing from the original 3.1 release, including support for compressed files and Netware compatibility. 1994 - October 10 Intel Release the 75 MHz version of the Pentium Processor. 1994 Doom II released. This reflected the rapidly increasing quality of games available for the PC - an opinion supported by other major releases in 1994, such as "Alone in the Dark 2", "Theme Park", "Magic Carpet" and "Little Big Adventure" which also helped demonstrate the diversity of games available on the platform. This success of the PC as a games platform was partly due to and partly a cause of significantly increased PC ownership among the 'general public' during the early/mid 1990s. 1994 Netscape 1.0 was written as an alternative browser to NCSA Mosaic. 1994 Command & Conquer released. Other (less significant releases) for the PC included Star Trek 'The Next Generation', Full Throttle, Descent and Terminal Velocity. The advent of 3D graphics cards from Videologic and 3Dfx helped the platform's games status further. 1995 - March Linus released Linux Kernel v1.2.0 (Linux'95). 1995 - March 27 Intel release the 120 MHz version of the Pentium processor. 1995 - May 30 The main feature of Windows NT 3.51 was a version supporting IBM's Power PC processor. Delays in the release of the processor meant delays in the release of Windows NT 3.51 (NT 3.51 only exists because the processor wasn't ready in time for NT 3.5). As the development team waited for the release of the processor they fixed bugs in the existing codebase. This made NT 3.51 reliable and therefore popular with customers. 1995 - June 1 Intel release the 133 MHz version of the Pentium processor. 1995 - August 21 [poss. 23] Windows '95 was launched by Bill Gates & Microsoft. Unlike previous versions of Windows, Windows '95 is an entire operating system - it does not rely on MS-DOS (although some remnants of the old operating system still exist). Windows '95 was written specially for the 80386 and compatible computers to make 'full' use of its 32 bit processing and multitasking capabilities, and thus in some respects it is much more similar to Windows NT than Windows 3.x. Both Windows 95 and Windows NT provide the Win32 API for programmers, and when Windows NT 4 was released it had an almost identical user interface to Windows 95. Unfortunately, in order to maintain backwards compatibility, Windows 95 doesn't impose the same memory protection and security measures that NT does and so suffers from much worse stability, reliability and security. Despite being remarkable similar in function to OS/2 Warp (produced by IBM and Microsoft several years earlier, but marketed by IBM), Windows '95 has proved very popular. 1995 - November 1 Pentium Pro released. At introduction it achieved a clock speed of up to 200 MHz (there were also 150, 166 and 180 MHz variants released on the same date), but is basically the same as the Pentium in terms of instruction set and capabilities. It achieves 440 MIPs and contains 5.5 million transistors - this is nearly 2400 times as many as the first microprocessor, the 4004 - and capable of 70,000 times as many instructions per second. 1995 - December 28 CompuServe blocked access to over 200 sexually explicit sites, partly to avoid confrontation with the German Government. Access to all but 5 was restored on Feb. 13 1996. 1995 - December JavaScript development announced by Netscape. 1996 Quake released - representing the dramatic increases in both software and hardware technology since Doom, of 3 years previous. Other notable releases included "Civilization 2", "Command & Conquer - Red Alert", "Grand Prix 2" and "Tomb Raider". On the more controversial front "Battle Cruiser 3000" was also released, but its advertising had to be censored. 1996 - January Netscape Navigator 2.0 released. First browser to support JavaScript. 1996 - January 4 Intel release the 150 & 166 MHz versions of the Pentium Processor. They contain the equivalent of over 3.3 million transistors. 1996 Windows '95 OSR2 (OEM System Release 2) was released - partly to fix bugs found in release 1 - but only to computer retailers for sale with new systems. There were actually two separated releases of Windows 95 OSR2 before the introduction of Windows '98, the second of which contained both USB and FAT32 support - the main selling points of Windows '98. FAT32 is a new filing system that provides support for disk paritions bigger than 2.1GB and is better at coping with large disks (especially in terms of wasted space). 1996 - June 9 Linux 2.0 released. 2.0 was a significant improvement over the earlier versions: it was the first to support multiple architectures (originally developed for the Intel 386 processor, it now supported the Digital Alpha and would very soon support Sun SPARC many others). It was also the first stable kernel to support SMP, kernel modules, and much more. 1996 - July 31 Windows NT 4.0 was released. The main feature was an update of the user interface to match Windows 95. 1996 - October 6 Intel release the 200 Mhz version of the Pentium Processor. 1997 Tim Berners-Lee awarded the Institute of Physics' 1997 Duddell Medal for inventing the World Wide Web (see 1989). 1997 "Grand Theft Auto", "Quake 2" and "Blade Runner" were all released while Lara Croft returned in "Tomb Raider 2". As the standards for graphics kept increasing, 3d graphics cards were beginning to become mandatory for games players. 1997 - January 8 Intel released Pentium MMX (originally 166 and 200 Mhz versions), for games and multimedia enhancement. To most people MMX is simply another 3-letter acronym and people wearing coloured suits on Intel ads, and to programmers in meant an even further expanded instruction set that provides, amongst other functions, enhanced 64-bit support - but software needs to be specially written to work with the new functions. A major rival clone, the AMD-K6-MMX containing a similar instruction set, caused a legal challenge from Intel on the right to use the trademarked name MMX - it was not upheld. 1997 - May 11 IBM's Deep Blue, the first computer to beat a reigning World Chess Champion, Gary Kasparov, in a full chess match. The computer had played him previously loosing 5/6 games in February 1996. 1997 - May 7 Intel Release their Pentium II processor (233, 266 and 300 Mhz versions). It featured, as well as an increased instruction set, a much larger on-chip cache. 1997 - June 2 Intel release the 233 MHz Pentium MMX. 1997 - August 6 After 18 months of losses Apple were in serious financial trouble. Microsoft invested in Apple, buying 100,000 non-voting shares worth $150 million - a decision not approved of by many Apple owners! One of the conditions was that Apple were to drop their long running court case - attempting to sue Microsoft for copying the look and feel of their operating system when designing Windows. There is some contention as to whether Apple were justified in sueing Microsoft, given that they themselves used some of the ideas from the XEROX 'Star' system when designing their G.U.I. - however the similarities between MacOS and Windows are much more pronounced than those between the XEROX system and the Mac. 1998 - February Intel released of 333 MHz Pentium II processor. Code-named Deschutes these processors use the new 0.25 micron manufacturing process to run faster and generate less heat than before. 1998 - April A U.S. court has finally banned the long-running game of buying domain names relating to trademarks and then at selling them for extortionate prices to the companies who own the trademark. The case was based around a man from Illinois who bought www.panavision.com in 1995 and has just tried to sell it for $13,000. The current going commercial rate for domain name registration is around $100. 1998 - June 25 Microsoft released Windows '98. Some U.S. attorneys tried to block its release since the new O/S interfaces closely with other programs such as Microsoft Internet Explorer and so effectively closes the market of such software to other companies. Microsoft fought back with a letter to the White House suggesting that 26 of its industry allies said that a delay in the release of the new O/S could damage the U.S. economy. The main selling points of Windows '98 were its support for USB and its support for disk paritions greater than 2.1GB. 1999 - Jan 25 Linux Kernel 2.2.0 Released. The number of people running Linux is estimated at over 10million, making it an not only important operating system in the Unix world, but an increasingly important one in the PC world. 1999 - Feb 22 AMD release K6-III 400MHz version, 450 to OEMS. In some tests it outperforms soon-to-be released Intel P-III. It contains approximately 23 million transistors, and is based on 100 MHz super socket 7 motherboards, an improvement on the 66MHz buses their previous chips were based on. This helps its performance when compared to Intel's Pentium II - which also uses a 100MHz bus speed. 1999 - Aug 31 Apple releases the PowerMac G4. It’s powered by the PowerPC G4 chip from Apple, Motorola and IBM. Available in 400MHz, 450MHz and 500MHz versions its claimed to be the first personal computer to be capable of over one billion floating-point operations per second. 1999 - Nov 29 AMD release Athlon 750MHz version. 2000 - Jan 14 US Government announce restrictions on exporting Cryptography are relaxed (although not removed). This allows many US Companies to stop the long running, and rather ridiculous process of having to create US and International copies of their software. 2000 - Jan 19 Transmetal launch their new 'Crusoe' chips. Designed for laptops these provide comparable performance to the mid-range Pentium II chips, but consume a tiny fraction of the power. They are a new and exciting competitor to Intel in the x 86 markets. 2000 - Feb 17 Offical Launch of Windows 2000 - Microsoft's replacement for Windows 95/98 and Windows NT. Claimed to be faster and more reliable than previous versions of Windows. It is actually a descendant of the NT series, and so the trade-off for increased reliability is that it won't run some old DOS-based games. To keep the home market happy Microsoft also released Windows ME, the newest member of the 95/98 series. 2000 - March 6 AMD Release the Athlon 1GHz. 2000 - March 8 Intel release very limited supplies of the 1GHz Pentium III chip. 2000 - June 20 British Telecom (BT) claim the rights to hyperlinks on the basis of a US patent granted in 1989. Similar patents in the rest of the world have now expired. Their claim is widely believed to be absurd since Ted Nelson wrote about hyperlinks in 1965, and this is where Tim Berners Lee says he got the ideas for the World Wide Web from. This is just another in the line of similar incredulous cases - for example amazon.com's claim to have patented '1-click ordering'. Even more absurb was the claim made in March 2002 by a 'til then unheard of company "Maz Technologies" that they had, in 1998, obtained a fairly generic patent covering encrypted storage of documents. BT's claim was finally rejected by a judge in the US on 23 August 2002. 2000 - Sept 6 RSA Security Inc. released their RSA algorithm into the public domain, in advance of the US patent (#4,405,829) expiring on the 20th Sept. of the same year. Following the relaxation of the US government restrictions earlier in the year (Jan. 14) this removed one of the last barriers to the world-wide distribution of much software based on cryptographic systems. It should be noted that the IDEA algorithm is still under patent and also that government restrictions still apply in some places. 2001: Apple unveils the Mac OS X operating system, which provides protected memory architecture and pre-emptive multi-tasking, among other benefits. Not to be outdone, Microsoft rolls out Windows XP, which has a significantly redesigned GUI. 2003: The first 64-bit processor, AMD’s Athlon 64, becomes available to the consumer market. 2004: Mozilla’s Firefox 1.0 challenges Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, the dominant Web browsers. Facebook, a social networking site, launches. 2005: YouTube, a video sharing service, is founded. Google acquires Android, a Linux-based mobile phone operating system. 2006: Apple introduces the MacBook Pro, its first Intel-based, dual-core mobile computer, as well as an Intel-based iMac. Nintendo’s Wii game console hits the market. 2007: The iPhone brings many computer functions to the smart phone. 2009: Microsoft launches Windows 7, which offers the ability to pin applications to the taskbar and advances in touch and handwriting recognition, among other features. 2010: Apple unveils the iPad, changing the way consumers view media and jumpstarting the dormant tablet computer segment. 2011: Google releases the Chromebook, a laptop that runs the Google Chrome OS. 2012: Facebook gains 1 billion users on October 4. 2015: Apple releases the Apple Watch. Microsoft releases Windows 10. 2016: Iphone 7 VERSIONS OF MAC OS TILL DATE. Version 10.0 “Cheetah”.It was released by apple on March 24, 2001. Version 10.1 “Puma”. On September 25, 2001, this version was released. Version 10.2 “Jaguar” This version was released on August 23, 2002. Version 10.3 “Panther”: was released on October 24, 2003. Version 10.4 “Tiger’ it was released April 29, 2005. Version 10.5:”Leopard” This version was released on October 26, 2007. Version 10.6: “Snow Leopard”: was released on August 28, 2009. Version 10.7 “Lion”: It was released on July 20, 2011. Version 10.8 “Mountain Lion”: was released on July 25, 2012. Version 10.9: “Mavericks”: was released on October 22, 2013 Version 10.10 “Yosemite” was released to the general public on October 16, 2014. Version 10.11 “El Captain” was revealed on June 8, 2015 during the WWDC keynote speech. Version 10.12 “Sierra” was released on June 13, 2016.