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Designed for maintenance?
BEN’S WORKSHOP
By Ben Myers
Continued advances in computer technology have had a positive effect on the gear we use — faster, less power-hungry, lighter in weight, smaller and more secure than a decade ago. But maintaining and repairing modern computers present new challenges.
The processor chips regularly produced today have up to 10 billion transistors incorporating many and varied computing cores, on-board cache memory, and a graphics subsystem and other circuitry to talk to devices attached to the computer — all etched on silicon wafers at a spacing less than 10 nanometers, or 0.0000003937 inches. Chipsets supporting the processors and circuit traces on motherboards are smaller and closer together, allowing for smaller motherboards, too. Memory and storage have grown by multiples of two with every processor generation. Computers such as the older seven-slot Gigabyte board inside an older large tower, once state of the art in 2010, have become the province of high-end gaming and specialized use.
Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.35.0, 2024-08-26).