Imagine if I told you that the most powerful computers in the world are made from the same stuff you find at the beach. You’d probably think I was kidding! But it’s absolutely true. Silicon, the second most common element in Earth’s crust, has been the secret ingredient powering every smartphone, laptop, and gaming console for over 50 years.
But here’s where the story gets really exciting: scientists have discovered that silicon has reached its limits, and they’re now building computers that work like magic tricks – welcome to the world of quantum computing!
Source: Internet
Before Silicon: The Stone Age of Computing
The Era of Vacuum Tubes (1940s-1950s)
Before silicon chips existed, computers were massive monsters that filled entire rooms. The first electronic computer, ENIAC, weighed 30 tons and used 17,468 vacuum tubes – think of old-fashioned light bulbs that glowed when electricity passed through them.
Mind-blowing fact: ENIAC consumed 150 kilowatts of power (enough to power 100 modern homes) and could perform 5,000 additions per second. Your smartphone today can perform over 1 billion operations per second while using less power than a single ENIAC vacuum tube!
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