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
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
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
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