Category Archives: Uncategorized

RAM – The balancing act of 1 and 0

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A new year!

And a new blog post. I have been largely absent from this blog for a large amount of time, for which I apologise, but due to a very low non-existent readership despite some interesting content it is easy to become demoralised. Having said that I wont improve readership by failing to post new content and ideas, so here at last is an article covering the history of RAM. I go into some detail about RAM, and its function but not how it functions since I want this to be accessible and not a lesson in Physics! 🙂

Eventually I hope to produce an article dealing with modern memory components, the different types, speeds and so on but today I will reveal the story of how we got here while wishing you all a Happy New Year! As always you will find my article under t he knowledge Menu. I intend to re-categorise and update my blog categorisation as I add more content.

Sound Cards

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Hello everyone!

I am pleased to announce that I have finished researching and writing my latest addition to the blog. This is an extensive article to be found (as usual under the knowledge menu item) that covers the thirty year history of the development of PC sound.

As you will have gathered from my previous article, I absolutely love music, why I’m listening to some right now as I write this post. I felt that a great companion to my Audiof(PH)iles article (also under Knowledge) would be to chart the history of the development of sound cards.

I hope you enjoy the article it’s certainly a great deal more technical than I would ordinarily post, but I guess that leaves ample opportunity for future articles. 🙂

Audio F(PH)iles

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Music and the reproduction and playback of audio is a history of technology unto itself. I absolutely love music, and while I was writing my article on Hard Disk Drives I made a personal note of how similar an LP record player and early Hard Disks resembled each other.

This led me to explore the murky world of audio, from its analogue days, to its digital future. Music has underwent incredible transformations over time led in part by drug culture and the possibilities heralded by new technology. Sadly though the industry has more or less stagnated, held almost to ransom in terms of fidelity for the sake of pushing low quality files that are not worth their weight in bytes.

You can obtain high quality versions of classic albums that put to shame the pap that iTunes passes off as quality reproduction. But how did we get to this point? I invite you to have a look at my latest article on Audio.

Cases

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Hello everyone, it’s been a while since I posted or wrote a new article. I’ve been too busy reading books and playing games. 🙂 my latest article focuses on computer cases. If ever there was an area in which it was possible to really draw attention to the diversity of the humble Desktop computer its cases.

For the most part they are boring beige boxes with cables pouring out one end and Blu Ray discs that go in the other. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Some people invest a lot of time and effort and even love, into their machines. In the article I cover the different form factors for cases and some of the more customised machines (not to mention disasters) too.

Enjoy!! 🙂

Added a new article today about Power!

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Hello everyone, I have written and published a new article under the Knowledge menu item. The article goes into some detail regarding PC Power Supply Units, their various form factors and the dangers of using cheap and especially, no-name brand Power Supplies.

The PSU is one of the most overlooked components of a PC but it is simply put one of the most essential components there is in your computer, almost as important as the motherboard used to plug your hardware into. The PSU is your computer’s foundation and if it isn’t up to the job your machine will simply crumble under the strain or worse… Explode.

As always I have tried to write it in an entertaining fashion but I’ve spared you guys the history lesson this time (phew I hear you say). Either way I hope you enjoy the article and find it useful and informative! 🙂

GPU Article Added and Updated

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Hi all, I apologise for not getting the chance to update my original GPU article for quite some time. This was attributable to what looked like a massive DDOS attack being perpetuated either against WordPress or somewhere further upstream of the ISP’s network.

Needless to say I am now proud to present the completed article, and I hope that you find it entertaining and informative. As with all the stuff I generally write it’s not just a nerdgasm over the latest and greatest in tech, but an exploration of were the modern tech really started to emerge in modern Computers. I will probably write a supplementary article detailing the progress of 3D hardware development over the past 20 years but for now this should suffice…

Enjoy!!! 🙂 (As always you’ll find it in the Knowledge menu item)

Haswell that ends well.

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Intel Haswell CPU’s and Chipset architecture’s unveiled.

Intel has recently unveiled it’s new CPU and Chipset line-up and it’s a very interesting compromise. The new CPU’s feature a much more tightly integrated Northbridge which has the notable side-effect of actually reducing the expense of motherboards. Interestingly the new CPU line does not target a substantial performance increase over the previous generation of chips as its primary marketing target, although the CPU’s are approximately 10% faster than their respective counterparts. For example the i4770K is around 10% faster than the i3770K. Instead the primary focus of these processors is on power efficiency.

The i3770K has a power requirement of around 77 watts, meanwhile i4770K has a power requirement of 84 watts. The major difference between the two lies in the integrated GPU (Graphics Processor Unit) built into the i4770K. The integrated GPU is codenamed iGPU4600 and it is a considerable step up from the iGPU4000 integrated into the i3770K. Of course Intel have unveiled a range of CPU’s with a range of integrated GPU components targeted at different segments of the market. For example the mobile equivalents are expected to extend battery life in Haswell equipped machines to around 8 hours or so.

Storage Article Added

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Today I posted a short article regarding storage, looking at where it’s going. I haven’t looked into Magnetic storage for the article, instead choosing to look at the role that the transistor plays in modern computing.

Given the push away from older mechanical Hard disk technology I felt that focusing some attention on the current cream of the storage technology crop would be a better way to go. Needless to say I will write something about magnetic and mechanical storage when I get a chance. 🙂

I have also posted my first WordPress video, a comparison of an SSD compared to an HDD. Enjoy! 🙂

Blog updates!

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Just a small update.

I have updated the About page and added a section called Knowledge, which I am hoping to build into a useful repository of information on a range of computing related technical subjects. The first item I’ve added deals with the concept of architecture and shows how there is more to a computer than a CPU or RAM. I have used it to try and explain where differences in the architecture drive changes in CPU’s. It’s a feature I hope to expand on too!

Tomorrow I am upgrading my desktop computer and the upgrade may form the basis of a new item. Slowly but surely I am also starting to take control of this blog as I learn the features that WordPress offers. I’d also like to thank folks who have already visited my blog! Very unexpected at this early stage, but very welcome too! Enjoy!

Welcome

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Welcome to Kosmos’ Technology Blog. 

This blog aims to be not yet another jargon filled minefield of technological by-words, but a resource for people who stumble across or even wish to take up a more hands-on approach to the computer technology that makes life not only possible, but worth living.

I love technology, computers in particular and to this end I even manufacture my own machines. I aim to not only share my passion for technology but also to instill an understanding and love for it within this blog. I hope that this blog will not just be a reference but an authority, offering you the knowledge you need to feel confident with technology.

This isn’t just simply about tech, but fun and passion. Each of us encounters some form of technology in our daily lives, from iPads to computers, from consoles to set-top boxes, from televisions to computer displays. I aim to provide as much information as I can on the technologies that I use and the technologies that I find a strong interest in. My ultimate hope is that those who follow this blog will not feel intimidated by technology, but informed enough to not only seize control of it but to love it with a passion.

Technology is an enabler, through it I can communicate my ideas to an audience I could never reach through other means. I can achieve goals that were unheard off even as little as a decade ago. I can entertain and profit from it, I can educate and evangelize about it. Here the jargon will be explained, the details of what makes tech tick will be revealed and with a little patience and even love I am prepared to show you the how.

My real name is Andrew, and I welcome you all to my technology blog.