Research

Given below paragraphs talks briefly about Computer Monitors as they used to exist in the past, the progresses made, current screnario and future enhancements. The document also talks about the operating system support and application support for Multiple Monitors. History In early days, Computer Monitors depended on proprietary video drivers and multidisplay supporting GUI (graphic user interface) that were made for a company that sold the computer. Not any video driver could be used for any Monitor.

A PC monitor is a visual output device (display – sometimes called a visual display unit or VDU) which outputs dynamic images from devices such as PCs. PC monitors are an essential component of most modern PCs, and without such a device the computer would be simply useless. Monitors come in a range of different sizes and enclosures, and like the technology inside, the size and aesthetics have evolved alongside the PCs themselves. This article explores the turbulent life of PC monitors – from their birth, to their modern-day guise, to where they are likely headed in the future.

Until the early 1980's most monitors were terminals. They were boxy video display terminals (VDT's) combined with an attached keyboard. A terminal could be configured to work with just about any computer on the market. (Not that there was a wide selection of personal computers for you to choose from.) Terminals were attached to computers by a serial interface. In those days, the VDT was commonly referred to as a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube).

1 - Microsoft OS: the arrival of the personal computer 2 - Microsoft OS: MS-DOS 3 - Microsoft OS: First graphical interface 4 - Microsoft OS: first graphical interfaces – 2 5 - Microsoft OS: the 1990’s 6 - Microsoft OS: The 1990’s – 2 7 - Microsoft OS: A review of the NT core 8 - Microsoft OS: A review of the NT core – 2 9 - Microsoft OS: Present and Future

In the early 70's, there was a company known as intergalactic Digital Research. The name was just a little too geeky for even them, and was later shortened to Digital Research. The founder, Gary Kildall, created the first Disk Operating System for Microcomputers called CP/M (Control Program for Microcomputers). This became THE operating system for hobbyist microcomputers. A few years later this changed a bit (or was supplemented) when Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak designed a home computer that came prebuilt. It was a wild concept for the time, not having to build your computer -- it was a wildly successful idea as well. The micro(home)-computer bloomed from a small little hobby toy, into something that many small businesses wanted and felt they needed. But there was still the other group of CP/M builders and users.

600 BCE - Abacus - Commonly credited to the Chinese but may have originated in the Middle east. The oldest surviving abacus was used in 300 B.C. by the Babylonians. May have evolved from counting tables on a simple stone slab with incised parallel lines around 3000 BCE. 1925 - Vannevar Bush at MIT develops analog computers, culminating in the Differential Analyzer in the early 1940's 1945 - Bush authored the article "As We May Think" in the Atlantic Monthly in which he first proposed his idea of the Memex machine, which would help people sort through the enormous amount of published information available throughout the world.

1780 Benjamin Franklin –American statesman, inventor and scientist - discovers the existence of electricity 1822 Charles Babbage – English mathematician and inventor – built a mechanical computer which he called ‘The Analytical Engine’. His friend and colleague, Ada Augusta (Countess of Lovelace) wrote many articles about the engine, and is often described as the first computer programmer

Founding Fathers, Steve Jobs, The Woz and Mike Markkula. Steve Jobs is the heart of Apple; Steve Wozniak is the soul and little known Mike Markkula was the business spark that started the Apple Revolution.

In 1974, Gary Kildall was a programming teacher at the U.S. Navy Postgraduate school in California. Excited by the potential of Intel's new programmable microprocessors, Kildall contacted the ascendant electronics company. Kildall was immediately hired by Intel to write programs for the 4004 microprocessor.

An Operating System (OS) is an interface between hardware and user which is responsible for the management and coordination of activities and the sharing of the resources of the computer that acts as a host for computing applications run on the machine. As a host, one of the purposes of an operating system is to handle the details of the operation of the hardware. This relieves application programs from having to manage these details and makes it easier to write applications.