The Tracks of Technology

Ezine Fall 2020

Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a f ollower .

- Steve Jobs

Tabl e of Con ten ts About Us....................................................6

Google's Graveyard..................................8

Avoid Account Theft..............................12

Cybersecurity Issues in Austin..............14

Tech Inventions......................................18

4

Smart Spies.............................................20

Brief Timeline of Smartphones............24

Delving into Intel's Microprocessors....26

Apple Versus Android Popularity.........30

Quiz time!................................................32

The Tracks of TECHNOLOGY ? 5

A bou t Us Var un Var shney Varun is a freshman at LASA High School. He enjoys biking and compet ing in Science Olympiad. He is interested in technology because of his interest in science and innovat ion. Many of t he adult s in his life work for technology companies, which has also fueled his interest in technology.

Sebast ian Hill Sebast ian likes playing soccer and biking, and he has competed in mult iple Science Olympiad compet it ions. He is a part of t he Duke Tip program. He is interest ed in technology, which is fueled by his parent s' career pat hs.

6

Vedasr i Sur ada Vedasri loves paint ing and is a very innovat ive and creat ive person. She is interested in a STEM-related career in t he future and t herefore is excited to write, explore and learn about technology.

Lily Wilker son Lily enjoys map-making and biking around Aust in. She's been interest ed in computers ever since she broke her family's desktop wit h malware as a child.

She is interested in a career relat ing to engineering and technology and is excited to explore tech furt her.

Dear Reader, We creat ed t his m agazine t o educat e you about som e of t he t echnologies present in t he m odern w orld, how t hey are changing and how t o prot ect yourself online. As t he w orld becom es increasingly reliant on t echnology, it m akes sense t o dig deeper int o w hat is really behind t he t ech. This m agazine show cases several different aspect s of our t echnology-based w orld, from passw ord securit y t o phone popularit y.

We w ant t o t hank our Elect ronic M agazine t eacher, M s. M cGuire, for support ing us and for t eaching us so m uch about t he different aspect s of m aking a m agazine.

Thanks, Varun Varshney, Sebast ian Hill, Vedasri Surada and Lily Wilkerson

The Tracks of TECHNOLOGY ? 7

Googl e's Gr av eyar d Wh y Go o g le kills so m a n y o f t h eir p r o d u ct s, a n d wh a t m a kes t h em u n iq u e in t h e in d u st r y. b y Lily W ilkerson

magine trying to open Google+ killings

I

t

to scroll through your friend?s

p

profile, only to find the app

inaccessible. Imagine searching your phone for YouTube Gaming, only to find that Google silently discontinued it. Imagine trying to send a message with Google Talk, trying to pay for your meal with Hands Free, or trying to navigate home with MyTracks. All those services and hundreds more have been discontinued by Google over the last twenty years, and more

are

yet

to

come. Naeem

creator

of

Google Cemetery, AcquiredBy Google is integral to hundreds of millions of people?s daily lives.

Over 15 percent of the world?s population uses a Google service daily. Google's suite of products contains

more

than

120

applications and services, but some are much more popular than

others.

This

gives

the

company room to discontinue many of

its lower priority

services.

The hom epage of Google.com , t he highest t rafficked w ebsit e in t he w orld and t he service Google is least likely t o kill. Im age provided by Google.

8

Noor,

and other tech tracking projects, set out to track Google?s killed projects. ?Inspiration came to me after seeing Google on the news about them discontinuing one of their products every other week.

So I thought

of

creating a

"If a part icular project doesn't meet t heir requirement s, t hey end up killing it ." - Naeem Noor.

The Android Law n St at ues st and out side Googleplex Building 44, com m em orat ing defunct versions of t he Android m obile operat ing syst em . Phot o by At om ic Taco.

website that features Google and ?Google and Microsoft, both of

acquisitions

are

of

similar

how many products they?ve killed.? these giants are outliers when it

products which they are already

comes to [acquisitions],? Noor working on, which end up being Noor said. ?If a particular project doesn?t meet their requirements, they end up killing it.? Clearly, many of their projects don?t meet their requirements; according to

said.

?Both

acquired companies.

of

over Most

them

have part of it or simply acquired to kill

200

other their competition.?

of

these

Google

has

acquired

several

The current hom epage of Google+, form erly one of Google's largest services t hat w as ult im at ely discont inued in April 2019. Phot o provided by Google.

Google Cemetery, Google has discontinued 166 products since 2006, with four more on the horizon. From niche hardware like Nexus

Player

to

mainstream

applications like Google Plus, very little is safe from Google?s axe.

While every company ends some of their services, Google outpaces its

competition.

The

average

lifespan of a Google project is only four years, much shorter than other tech companies support their services. They also differ from other tech companies with acquisitions. In the early 2010s, Google acquired startups at a rate nearing one every week.

The Tracks of TECHNOLOGY ? 9

repercussion,? Noor said.

With so many services killed, nearly

everyone

has

been

affected. Even Noor has had one of his favorite Google products discontinued. ?Google Reader, to this day, I still mourn its death. It was a product I used on a daily basis... I still miss Google Reader,?

Cafet eria seat ing out side Googleplex Building 40, em pt y on a chilly January day. Phot o by Rom an Boed, court sey of Px here.

services only to shut them down content

merged

with

their

Noor said.

In

addition

to

those smaller

products nearing their ends, two

just months after it took them regular YouTube accounts. While major services will soon be on the over. Most recently in June 2020, Google Google acquired North, a smart

eight

days

acquisition. acquired

after In

2012,

service. Within a month, Meebo down

streaming

features

and

chopping block. Google Hangouts, platforms in the world, will shut

separate channel designs have down for good in early 2021.

Google main platform.

Meebo, a messaging

shut

functionality

Google?s not been implemented on the Google has been trying to replace

platform and social networking was

no

would be lost in the merge. Tools once one of the largest messaging

glasses company whose users like found their glasses unusable just

said

and

their

development team was moved to work on Google+, a service that would itself be killed in 2019.

Hangouts with multiple services

Not being able to rely on Google maintaining

even

its

largest

services for the long run is inconvenient and could worry businesses products

looking without

to a

in the G Suite, notably Google Meet

and

millions

Google

of

Chat,

but

still

use

users

Hangouts daily.

use Another service soon closing with direct

heavy user activity is Google Play

successor in Google?s G Suite. If

Music. ?Google Play Music is

Google?s consolidation of services a product?s replacement has less scheduled to be shut down in has been met with criticism over

functionality than the original

December

the years. One of

product, that can leave a sour

encouraging its users to use the

the most

controversial changes was the taste in the mouth of consumers. YouTube

2020.

Music

Google app

as

is its

merging of YouTube Gaming with ?It is really frustrating when a replacement,? Noor said. the main YouTube platform. Users product you use ends up dying. I with separate YouTube channels don?t think Google cares, if it on

the

independent

YouTube doesn?t meet their target they

Gaming website or app found their

10

will

kill

it

without

any

However, many users have been frustrated at Google during the transition, arguing that YouTube Music has fewer features than the

service it replaces. On top of that, anytime

soon, even

though

the company. At the time of

many users' paid libraries of music Google tried experimenting with

writing

have been lost while changing Inbox by Google which lasted

Alphabet

platforms.

company,

Despite

these only 4 years before it was shut

(December

2020),

Inc, Google?s parent is

the

5th

most

complaints, Google has shown no down,? Noor said.

profitable company in the world,

willingness to extend Google Play

and has the 4th highest market

Music?s life.

Google?s ability to move on from even its largest products

capitalization.

While those services may be once it sees them slowing down nearing

their

ends,

some

of is vital to its success as a

Google?s products aren?t going company. They push through anywhere. Platforms like YouTube their failures and aren?t afraid of and

Google

Chrome

are

so shutting a project down, unlike

widespread that shutting them some

of

their

competitors.

down would be disastrous for the Google keeps moving forward, company,

at

least

for

the whether its users want it to or

foreseeable future. ?I don?t think not, and that

strategy has

[Gmail is] going to be shut down clearly worked fantastically for

The logo of Google, LLC. Im age provided by Google.

Google's headquart ers at Googleplex Buildings 40-46 in M ount ain View , California.

Phot o by St eve Jurvet son.

The Tracks of TECHNOLOGY ? 11

AVOID ACCOUNT THEFT HOW TO MAKE A BETTER PASSWORD

BY LILY WILKERSON

Lengt h Is Key.

P4sSw0rD

A password should be ten characters at minimum, with more important logins around 15. Length is a more important to security than any other factor, including special characters, words used, or repetitiveness.

*

Avoid Unmodified Words.

Programs can easily scan through unmodified words that can be found in the dictionary, even in pairs or chains. A password like "watermelon" is much less secure than "thsdoewnht," despite both having ten lowercase letters.

Don't Use Common Phrases.

Seriously.

This should go without saying, but you shouldn't use "password" as your password. Or "123456," or anything else along those lines.

Those passwords are easily found and accessed.

12

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Use Special Ch ar act er s.

&! @?

Using capital letters, numbers, and other non-alphanumeric characters is an easy way to increase security. Anything that adds depth to a standard lowercase word will make a password significantly harder to crack.

$# *% + .

Never Reu se Passw or ds.

Reusing passwords across websites increases the danger of a data leak containing your information.

Even a small modification to a password, like adding one letter or an exclamation point, cuts this risk significantly. Yes, it makes your passwords harder to memorize, but it's worth it.

!!!

Change Important Passwords Regularly.

!!!

For your most important accounts, like banking info or your main email, it's recommended to change your password at least once a year. While this is somewhat annoying, and many platforms make it challenging to change your password, the inconvenience of changing your password is much smaller than that of having your most important accounts compromised.

Informat ion courtesy of TechRadar, Google and CNET. The Tracks of TECHNOLOGY ? 13

Cyber secur it y issues in Aust in A look into the cyber side of Austin businesses

By Seb ast ian Hill

Did you know that more than half

companies who face this growing

because they have to promise

of companies get hacked every

problem. Nick Karwoski, the IT

security for customer?s data and

year? A lot of companies try their

manager at Square-root, a field

information.

best to prevent this because there

marketing management company

is a lot of important company

founded in Austin, Texas, says that

information that would cause

there are a lot of measures that

problems if compromised. There

his company goes through to

are specific people whose jobs are

prevent cybersecurity attacks. He

to prevent this from happening.

has been with Square-root for 6 years. He says that cybersecurity

In Austin, there are plenty of

14

is important for his company

?Phishing is always the number one way companies get hacked.?

One of the most common cyber attacks is phishing, which is when someone poses as a trustworthy person and tries to steal private

safety.

One of the ways that they?ve enhanced their security is by using two-factor identification.

Two-factor authentication is an additional step used when logging in that makes it harder for hackers to steal passwords. Two-factor authentication is important because people tend to use the same password across multiple sites, meaning that when someone hacks one site, the rest of your sites are compromised.

Karwoski says that ?Yes, Two-Factor authentication is utilized and very crucial. Many user IDs and passwords are available on the dark web. Hackers will try these combinations on all sorts of websites even if they aren't the sites they were stolen from. This is information, such as passwords or

training when they are hired and

logins.

are updated on a regular cadence.?

When asked whether the

because many people reuse passwords (which is a bad practice). Two factor-identification guards against this because

employees received cybersecurity

According to Karwoski, one of the besides something you know (your

training, Karwoski answered ?Yes,

best ways to prevent hackers is

this is the number one defense

to make your employees aware of hold (your phone or hardware

against phishing and other

the risk. Training employees in

token). A hacker rarely will have

attacks, having aware and

cybersecurity can ensure that

possession of your password and

properly trained employees. All

employees don?t cause

phone/ hardware token.?

employees receive cybersecurity

insecurities in the company's

password) you need something you

The Tracks of TECHNOLOGY ? 15

According to Domsch, there are some common security threats that they face being a security company. They have people who routinely try to attack and gain access to their systems to learn how the software works. He says that the larger problems are the ones that people hear about the most. These include phishing attacks, financially motivated attacks where the hacker will try to get access to bank account

Nick Karw oski, t he IT m anager at square-root .

information to steal money, ransomware attacks and attacks where hackers will try and get people to improperly transfer money to the hacker.

Square-root has a cybersecurity

Domsch was asked if and why

committee and they work with

cybersecurity is important at

Sailpoint also has people who try

outside software to help protect

Sailpoint.

to get access to the software that Sailpoint develops. They do this to

their company. Square-root uses antivirus software, vulnerability scanning software and firewalls to prevent hacking.

[Cybersecurity] ?It's absolutely critical in two ways. First, for our customers, our product is a cybersecurity product. We build

At another Austin-based company, and design software that helps

16

Sailpoint, which is a company that

our customers protect their data

specializes in cybersecurity

and access to their systems. By

software, Matt Domsch has been

giving the right people the right

working for two years. He is the

access to the right systems at the

head of IT at Sailpoint and helps

right time and making sure that

produce some of the software that

the people who shouldn't have

the company is known for.

access to systems don't.?

learn how the software works, or to plant their malware. They spend a lot of time and effort to try to prevent this from happening.

Sailpoint has an IT department that is responsible for the protection and prevention of cyber attacks and hackers.

According to Domsch, Sailpoint does conduct cybersecurity training for their employees. ?So

every three months we have a new set of training classes that all the employees in the company have to take. And if you don?t take them by the deadline, we?ll turn off your accounts to any of our systems? said Domsch.

Domsch is not the person who does the security training. Sailpoint hires an outside firm that specializes in creating that training and delivering that training. They do more specialized training for their specific software engineers internally, and in some cases, Domsch is involved in that.

Similar to Square-root, Sailpoint

M at t Dom sch, t he head of t he IT depart m ent at Sailpoint .

does use Two-factor authentication. ?We do use two-factor authentication. We use several different methods, depending on the kinds of systems you?re accessing. So most of them have an application on your phone that sends you a secure message on your phone when you go to log in.?

an additional step further than a

cybersecurity-related reasons.

username and password that you Passwords are relatively easy to need to access an account or a

crack and get past. This is most

system. You might need a special

common when people use short

application on your phone to

passwords that are easy to

receive a notification that you can remember, and they use them approve, it might be an SMS

across many websites. So when a

message that comes to you, it

hacker knows that password on

might be a hardware key, and

one site and the password

sometimes Sailpoint has buttons

database is stolen, hackers can

that have to be plugged into a

reverse engineer and figure out

According to Domsch, two factor

device that provides an additional what that password is and try

authentication, or multi-factor

level of security.

authentication (because there can be more than two steps), is usually

Two-factor authentication is important for many

using that password to access those systems or access other systems.

The Tracks of TECHNOLOGY ? 17

by Sebastian Hill

18

B

The Tracks of TECHNOLOGY ? 19

SM A RT SPIES A closer look at pr ivacy concer ns r egar ding smar t speaker s By: Vedasr i Sur ada

A graphic of 3 smart speakers including the Google Home, Amazon Echo and Amazon Echo Dot. Photo by Vedasri Surada

20

Artificial

A

Intelligence

products were created to

make

technology

smart and in a way, "intelligent like humans," but how safe is smart?

To

speakers

summarize

and

their

smart abilities

nowadays, they have features and abilities that we take as luxuries and enjoy to the fullest, but how about the features we don't know about, and moreover, the features that may have the potential of putting us in danger?

Smart speakers like Amazon's Echo and Google's Home use automated voices for services like playing music, set alarms, make

reminders and

answer

Geoffrey Fowler is a technology columnist

questions with not always the

at the Washington Post. He graduated from

right answer. But we don't realize

Harvard University and Trinity University.

that these smart speakers also

Picture provided by G. Fowler

have the ability to be the control center for your entire home.

Because nowadays, almost every

many of these recordings weren't

home is a smart home that pairs

relevant to Alexa whatsoever. I

with the smart speaker.

Products like Alexa can actually

"Artificial Intelligence can

listen to you, and it has been proven by Geoffrey Fowler, a technology

columnist

at

the

Washington Post.

do some useful and magical

found

this

very

interesting

because I was confused about which signal Alexa recorded that to.

"I wouldn't buy a smart speaker because they seem unnecessary and I personally think that they

?Amazon

kept

recordings

of

everything Alexa heard and did not even offer consumers an option to say stop archiving future recordings," Fowler said.

Fowler himself found recordings of whatever Alexa recorded, and

things."

are not safe and violate privacy," said Venkata Krishna, a software

- Geoffrey Fowler

engineer at General Motors.

Krishna, clearly expressed that smart speakers have no use, but if anything, they are a bit creepy.

The Tracks of TECHNOLOGY ? 21

Krishna shares the opinion of many people in the general public eye.

Some people do doubt how much privacy we are really given with a "smart home". Every smart voice assistant like Echo or Google Home collects and stores your voice recordings so they can get smarter in the future. Even though the technology is improving for the better, the people need to know

about

this

before

the

purchase.

Amazon changed their privacy policy a few weeks ago so that you can turn some settings off, but can you believe that Amazon had the option and way to make the product safer a long time ago but only made the difference a few weeks ago? Even though the change was made in the policy, it is still not the default. We expect it to be safe when we just get the

A visu al gr aph ic of t h e Am azon Ech o w h ich h as t h e abilit y t o con n ec And to be realistic, as much as People just click the button to use people care about privacy, we are the application. used to the luxury of things coming for us when it comes to technology. So who's going to go to the settings and change that?

The amount of liberation we give to the "I agree" button is crazy. On the Google Home website, after a long search, you can find the

app, but instead, you have to go to "People click ?I agree? to some information collected by the settings and change many things privacy policy they don?t really speaker. The Google Home's to make sure that you're not being read," Fowler said.

default is to collect app stats, WiFi

recorded.

points, cloud services, and many

The more you think about that, the more you know it's true.

more things to "improve the Google WiFi app experience," as stated by the website.

The Privacy Policy in the Amazon Alexa App is agreed to when you simply click sign-in. Image by Vedasri Surada

The app creators also make I agree

buttons

and

policy

instructions small and that sort of information very hard to find in their there?s

website. a

"Just

because

setting

buried

somewhere in an app, does not mean most people are actually in control," Fowler said.

22

Internet

privacy

legislation

and

safety

across the United

States. If we can make more alliances such as the DPA, then we can definitely be safer as well.

In

conclusion,

the

world

of

artificial intelligence is always advancing and changing. What we need to think and act about is if the technology development is for the better or the worse.

Although we have all of these things to fix, we should never forget that technology is quite wonderful and definitely does makes

lives

easier.

It

is

undeniable that we wouldn't love a smart speaker playing us our

con n ect t o you r sm ar t h om e. Im age by EyeEm , Get t y, an d AARP

favorite music on any given day.

In order to make a difference in

digital experience a safer place

Products like smart speakers are

privacy

to

a luxury for sure, but who doesn't

concerns

in

smart

products like smart speakers, you

be

with

the

constantly

advancing world that we live in.

love a product that provides as

Did you know about the Digital

many services as we get on a

Privacy Alliance? They are a

smart speaker today!

group of a group of people

Fowler doesn't forget to mention

"The technology has introduced

including

technologists,

that technology "can do some

new dangers into our lives that we

hackers, engineers, activists,

useful and magical things," and it

need to be wary of. Most people

advocates

truly can.

don?t have the time or interest to

companies

need

to

speak

up

and

the

government needs to spread the change.

and who

some fight

tech for

focus on the second part, which is why we need the government to make laws to help give us some basic protections," Fowler said.

He makes complete sense. To be safe, we need to have the time and interest in technology protections that we aren't currently giving.

In order to make better protection

The Google Nest agreement to privacy policy is a bit more specific, but still requires you to click on many more links to get more specific information.

Picture by Vedasri Surada

orders, we need more technology activists interested in making the

The Tracks of TECHNOLOGY ? 23

BRIEF

by: Vedasr i Su r ada

24

The Tracks of TECHNOLOGY ? 25

Delv ing int o Int el 's M icr opr ocessor s A deeper look into Intel?s computer chips and micr opr ocessor s b y Varu n Varsh n ey ou are playing a video selling

Y

computer

chips

for The two general kinds of Central

game on your laptop everyday computers. when it starts lagging and then crashes. Why

Prasad

Kerkar

is

Processing Units (CPUs) that Intel a

Project

Manager in the Atom CPU Design

did this happen? You Team at Intel. He has worked at look at the tiny, blue sticker on Intel in a variety of positions for your laptop that says ?Intel CORE over 20 years. i5 Inside?, and you think about what a great idea it would be to do "The microprocessors are based

makes have many variations or generations

with

different

specifications. This wide variety of processors is part of why Intel has such a big computer

market

share in

processors.

Even

outside of laptops, though, there on Intel architecture," Kerkar some research about Intel's are many uses of Intel's said. "Intel makes mostly two technologies. microprocessors. kinds of processors. One is the Intel Corporation, a technology "The CORE," Kerkar said, "that is big core. If you go to Costco, you company based in Santa Clara, scalable to a higher performance, will see the laptops called CORE California, is a major player in the and that is usually used in data i5, CORE i7, CORE i3. So that's computer chip industry. These centers. And then the other Atom based on another architecture, days, a huge portion of personal CPUs are also used in a variety of but it is again, compliant to the computers have an Intel computer other applications. Some of them Intel architecture. The lower end chip inside. Intel has a lot of are industrial applications." laptops can come with the Atom variety in the products they sell.

CPU. And there are what you call Amit Varshney is a System on a Also, Intel makes processors that desktops, which come with Atom Chip (SoC) Design Engineer at are used in servers in addition to CPU." Intel. A system on a chip is

26

essentially a circuit/ "chip" that has most of the parts needed in an electronic

system.

components

that

A are

few almost

always included in the system on a chip are a Central Processing Unit, memory, input/ output ports and secondary storage. Amit has about 19 years of experience working at Intel. His work is mainly about reducing the amount of power used by Intel's microprocessors.

Intel is very well known for the computer chips that it makes, but Intel has also made computer chips that go elsewhere. ?Intel partnered with a company called Lava, and the phone was called XOLO X900. It was the first smartphone with Intel Varshney

said.

"I

Inside,?

worked

on

The Lava XOLO X900 is t he first sm art phone w it h Int el t echnologies. When people t hink of Int el, t hey usually t hink of com put ers and lapt ops, not sm art phones. Phot o

by Int el Corporat ion.

reducing power consumption of that product, as well as I also turned off. So a lot of effort is cooling down the microprocessor, helped in verifying the functional spent in making sure that at any further reducing the amount of being used, correctness of the project of the given time for whatever the power microprocessor is supposed to do, noticeable differences CPU design."

Varshney said that the Lava XOLO X900 was released in 2012, and it was most popular in India. Clearly, Intel does a lot more than just

making in

the

whatever does not need to be performance of the computer. active should not be active. That basically reduces a lot of power consumption."

"The other major part [of the computer chip] is GPU, which is the Graphics Processing Unit,?

said. ?There is designing and building computer Reducing the amount of power Varshney that a microprocessor consumes something called bus. Bus is chips for everyday computers.

"Power is consumed when part of the design is active," Varshney said. "Whatever does not need to be active at any given time in order to generate whatever you need to generate, that should be

is very important because this mainly responsible for transferring makes the microprocessor more data back and forth. And then efficient. Not only does it use less there are several other parts like power, but it also generates less DMA (Direct Memory Access), and heat, which in turn means that then there is a big part called less energy has to be spent on fabric, whose job is basically

The Tracks of TECHNOLOGY ? 27

nt ou Am The different t ypes of m em ory in a com put er represent ed as a t riangle. Com put ers have different t ypes of m em ory in different places and in different quant it ies, w it h each t ype of m em ory having different propert ies.

interconnecting all the parts. I and that is an SLM memory. So it After that, there is your hard disk, think those are the main parts."

Varshney said that mainstream computers these days usually have multiple CPUs and multiple GPUs.

is slightly slower than the data which comes in terabytes these cache. And it is more dense. days. So this is the memory Right, after that, there is the LLC, hierarchy.? which is called the Last Level Cache. It is also built into the chip.

So this is even slower, but larger

As we

descend

the

memory

hierarchy, the speed goes down,

but the quantity of that type of ?Internal memory to the CPU is in size. And then the next one is memory increases. The hard drive very important. And it requires called DRAM, and that's what you is the slowest but the largest in local and high-speed access. So see when you're ordering a quantity, and the CPU memory is that's why any CPU will have large computer. You can say, 'I want the fastest but the smallest in amounts of memory in the chip eight GB of memory,' or '16 GB of quantity. itself,? Kerkar said. ?After that, the memory,' or '32 GB of memory.' next level of memory is called N2, ?It seems that [over the last 20

28

years] we've gone from a single "Most of the tools that are used processing unit to a multi-core to design a CPU used to come model, which is in the Atom CPU with their custom language,"

with the memory design team, the backend

implementation

team,

and the design automation team,?

design,? Kerkar

said. ?As the Kerkar said. "After that, the Kerkar said. ?I?m working with process geometries are becoming language changed to TCL many different teams across the smaller and smaller, we are because TCL is easy to write. board, and we all work together.? accounting to take the small That is what was usually used. I Many different teams work geometry effects.? think it's commonly used today together, designing and building also.

And then the other Kerkar said that originally Intel?s the parts that go into Intel?s language that is being used is CPUs had one core, one interface computer chips. As time passes, Perl.

Perl is used to write custom unit, and one SRAM, but then Intel computer chips and the parts that specific tools at Intel, for doing went to two cores. After that, Intel go into them are becoming better. custom specific jobs." went to four cores. Kerkar said Companies such as Intel and AMD that having four cores, rather than Varshney said that TCL (Tool one core, means that four tasks Control Language) is important

(Advanced Micro Devices) are

can be run simultaneously.

because of interoperability. Perl

computer chips. Kerkar said the

The computer chip has many parts is important because it is used with many interactions both with to automate the usage of the

next big thing is 5G. He said that

other things on the chip and with tools that are used with the things that are located outside of codes.

5G processing unit on the SoC. It

the chip. In order for all of this ?I?m working with the hardware to actually do anything, architecture team, I?m working there must be software. with the RTL team, I?m working

future holds for companies like

competing

to

make

better

computer chips will soon have a will be interesting as to what the Intel

that

design

and

build

computer chips.

A com put er chip cont ains m any different com ponent s such as capacit ors, induct ors and a m icroprocessor. Phot o by Ioannis Karat hanasis court esy of Pix abay.

The Tracks of TECHNOLOGY ? 29

30

The Tracks of TECHNOLOGY ? 31

Q u iz t im e!

1

2

Which of t he follow ing project s by Google has been killed? a) Google Plus

c) YouTube

b) Gmail

d) Google Chrome

True or false: A st rong passw ord should cont ain as m any charact ers as possible. a) True

3

True or false: M ult i-fact or aut hent icat ion increases securit y. a) True

4

b) False

True or false: The PlaySt at ion w as m ade

by Google, LLC. a) True

32

b) False

b) False

5

True or false: Sm art speakers like Am azon Echo use Art ificial Int elligence. a) True

6

7

8

b) False

Which of t he follow ing com panies m ade t he first sm art phone? a) Apple

c) IBM

b) Google

d) Amazon

Which of t he follow ing is NOT a com ponent present in com put er chips? a) CPU

c) GPU

b) Fabric

d) TCL

Which of t he follow ing sm art phones has Int el t echnologies inside? a) Apple iPhone 11

c) Samsung Galaxy Note 9

b) Lava XOLO X900

d) Huawei Mate SE

The Tracks of TECHNOLOGY ? 33

We can only see a shor t distance ahead, but we can see plenty ther e that needs to be done.

- Alan Tur ing

Cover Page phot o by fabrikasim f court esy of Freepik