Everyone can agree that technology is a wonderful thing. However, what is particularly interesting is the rate of pace at which innovation occurs. For instance, several decades ago, Apple didnt make Macs or iPhones; they were still dabbling in Steve Jobs garage creating the original Apple. Forty years ago, Windows didnt exist and now its the most popular OS out there.
How Has Hardware Helped OS to Improve?
Of course, the starkest improvements in operating systems such as Windows have come around due to the massive hardware overhaul that PCs have experienced over the years. The ruling of Moore’s Law (the idea that the number of transistors on a microchip doubles every two years, even though the cost is halved) has certainly been true for the last few decades. As a result of this increased power and accessibility thanks to lower costs, operating systems have had to adapt and expand their functionality to suit a broader audience. For instance, Windows 10 has features such as Windows Hello and Cortana that Windows 95 didn’t and MacOS Catalina said goodbye to any 32-bit applications that wouldve been compatible with older versions of the operating system.
This increased power not just in processors has meant that other components have had to get faster too. People could only dream of ray-traced graphics even ten years ago when they all ran Windows 7 and with the progression that has occurred as a result of the competition between Nvidia and AMD in terms of graphics, that dream has now become a possibility.
To handle this, RAM has had to get faster and a lot of high-end kits feature speeds that match the speed of current-day processors. Old mechanical HDDs too have been swapped in favour of the faster and much smaller SSDs. Twenty years ago even, floppy disks were still a key part of a computer’s storage. Thanks to the much faster innovation that has been heralded by improvements in productivity and the Internet age, the capabilities of computers have increased exponentially, as Moore said they would decades earlier.
How Has This Impacted the Internet?
This has made the Internet a much more powerful tool, even just for general use. Theres been some notable progression on the side of the World Wide Web such as the continued implementation of HTML5 which has replaced the now decades-old standard of Adobe Flash. Consequently, the Internet is now capable of doing things it couldnt several years ago.
Its brought a lot of new content to the forefront of the platform, such as web-based games and online casinos. The latter has seen a notable increase in scope and popularity thanks to the rise of the Internet which in turn means it has become a worldwide institution. This is very well demonstrated by the fact that online casinos can now be found at registered domains across the world, including an online casino in Canada among other locations. The innovation that’s gone on behind the scenes has allowed for sites such as William Hill to provide a wide range of games from classic casino games such as roulette and blackjack to a vast array of different-themed slots.
Continued progress in the sector has also allowed for them to provide such games with a live dealer, making the overall online casino experience more real than it could’ve been several years ago. Digging a bit deeper too, HTML5 has also allowed such sites to harness the raw power of the new protocol and therefore create more engaging games and experiences which in turn will draw more people and allow the sites to continuously progress to the next level.
Theres no doubt that the last couple of decades certainly have seen some of the largest jumps in technology both on the sides of software and hardware. Increased power on the side of processors and graphics cards have greatly allowed for the software side in terms of games and the Internet to come up alongside. Whats more, with the way tech is going, it wouldnt be a surprise if in a few years people look back on the current latest developments and call them old hat.