Posts Tagged ‘Part’

I am not into technologies, those that change so ever fast, and always. But I do observe technological trends, along which the development of scientific applications revolves.

And of all trends, perhaps disruptive technologies are the defining path of industrial implications, a linear passage that technological progress almost invariably follows. Though the concept of “disruptive technologies” is only popularized in 1997 by Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen in his best-seller “The Innovator’s Dilemma”, the phenomenon was already evidenced back in 1663, when Edward Somerset published designs for, and might have installed, a steam engine.

As put forth by Clayton Christensen, disruptive technologies are initially low performers of poor profit margins, targeting only a minute sector of the market. However, they often develop faster than industry incumbents and eventually outpace the giants to capture significant market shares as their technologies, cheaper and more efficient, could better meet prevailing consumers’ demands.

In this case, the steam engines effectively displaced horse power. The demand for steam engines was not initially high, due to the then unfamiliarity to the invention, and the ease of usage and availability of horses. However, as soon as economic activities intensified, and societies prospered, a niche market for steam engines quickly developed as people wanted modernity and faster transportation.

If you are using a desktop computer, you may already know that there isn’t any single part known as a “computer”. A computer is a system of several parts working together. The physical parts which you could see and touch are jointly known as hardware. There are some computer hardware parts which collectively form a computer.

Computer Hardware Parts:

System Unit

The system unit is the heart of a computer system. Generally, it’s a rectangular box placed on or beneath your desk. There are several electronic components which process information inside this box. The most vital of these components is the central processing unit (CPU), or microprocessor, which acts as the brain of your computer.

Another component is the RAM or the random access memory which temporarily stores data that the CPU uses while the computer is on. When the computer is turned off, the information stored in RAM gets erased.

Hard Disk Drive

Your computer’s hard disk drive stores data on a hard disk, a firm plate or stack of plates with a magnetic surface.  The hard disks normally serve as your computer’s primary means of storage, holding almost all of your programs and files as it can hold enormous amounts of information. The hard disk is usually located inside the system unit.

Information can be relayed to consumers and potential customers in real time using out of home advertising. Digital signage hardware, software and content together make up the solution used for this form of advertising. Using this technology, a retailer can control and display the information quickly and effectively and can target a specific audience at specific locations in real time. Content can be rapidly updated without any additional investment offering higher rate of returns than in static forms of advertising. Since content can be updated quickly without additional costs, this technology is a more preferred medium over the static technology used in advertising.

Both software and content cannot work independently until there is a medium to display the information. This is where the hardware plays a major role in Digital Signage technology. CRTs, plasma displays, LED, DLP, Video walls and LCD displays can all be used to display the information and content which can be in the form of data, animations, images, video and multimedia. Software on the other hand comprises the core of the solution. It supports the most popular industry standard file formats such as Flash files, Video, HTML, QuickTime, Microsoft Office, and JPG. It can be customized based on the nature of targeted information and used to control either a single or multiple interfaces. Content can be regularly updated manually, through a scheduling system, or by linking in with an outside feed so that appropriate messages are displayed.