By K. Prafull As chip makers keep giving up faster and more energy efficient chips, industry observes have on doubt that they will hit a brick wall a decade or so later. Even if they do not, it is becoming difficult to increase the speed of silicon chips, while keeping them energy efficient. Several alternative have been proposed to silicon, but none of them are compatible with today's manufacturing techniques. Now, IBM and the California Institute of Technology in the US have jointly developed a better alternative - a process using the DNA as a model. The DNA is used is as a scaffolding to assemble millions of very small particles extremely close together and in precise patterns. Making chips with components closer together helps make smaller devices and faster computers. Current semiconductor fabrication methods cannot place components of chips closer than 22 nanometres. But the IBM-CalTach team has managed to place particle as close as 6 nanometres. Nevertheless, the technique cannot be used to make chips right away. The dissipation of heat, as components get tinier and tinier, is a concern. Also, the technology could take 10 years to come to the market. (Businessworld)

Collection by K. Prafull Computers were sold commercially for the first time in 1951. AT&T manufactured the first commercial modem, the Bell 130, in 1962. The world's first minicomputer, Digital Equipment's PDP-8, was introduced in 1965, and cost a phenomenal $18,000. Vinton Cerf was the co-creator of TAP/IP and the internet. ARPANET the fist 'internet', was launched in 1969. The floppy disc was invented in 1971. Alan Turing is considered the father of computer science. In 1937, he published the paper "on computable numbers, with an application cation to the Entsheidungsproblem". Begining in 1934, Konrd Zuse, a German engineer, built a series of computers, the Z1 through Z4, utilising binary arithmetic. Claud Shanon is called father of Information Technology. He published 'A mathematical theory of communication' in the bell system technical journal. The first high level language was fortran. It was developed in 1956 by an IBM team headed John Backus.Fortran became commercially available in 1957. Bill Gates launched his business career in 1969 at age 14 by forming a company named Lakeside Programming Group. Gates and his friend Paul Allen signed an agreement with computer centre corporation to report bugs in PDP 10 software, in exchange for computer time. Bill Gates' math SAT scope was perfect 800. One of the largest company in the world AT&T is believed to have employed over a million people at one point. Fastest supercomputer in india is 574 CPU cluster at intel Bangalore. Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard tossed a coin to decide whether the company they sounded would be called Hewlett-Packard or Packard-Hewlett. The term 'silicon valley' was coined by journalist Don Hoefler. Did you know the composer, computer scientist, and author Jaron Lanier coined the term virtual reality. The nine other supercomputer in the list of top 10 supercomputers in top 10 list are located in US, apart from japan's earth simulator. CDAC's ParamPadma cluster was ranked in june 2003 as the world's 171st fastest, by November 2003 it fell down to 258 with newer and more powerfull supercomputer entering the list. On a per capita basis, the US only ranks 5th in terms of Internet users. Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and Finland have a higher per capita use. The latest stats indicates that China appears to be the fastest growing Internet market. Time magazine named the computer the Man of the year 1983. The first cellular phone was launched in same year. The apple macintosh was released in 1984, along with IBM PC AT. To 1972, Bob Metcalfe created Ethernet, a trademark of the xerox company. The first transistorised computer was completed, the TX-O, at MIT in early 1956. The first mechanical calculator capable ve multiplication was invented by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, who co-invented the calculus, in 1673. Gay Lussac and Thenard extracted impure amorphous silicon in 1811. George Boole published his mathematical analysis of Logic, inventing Boolean algebra in 1854. This became the basis be computer design.

Dhurlakh is a small village in Samastipur, it was the place where I spent my childhood with my grand parents.