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AT-
P8/P9 power supply connectors, 5 pin
DIN
ATX-
single 20 pin keyed power supply connector, 6
pin mini-DIN
CPUs
Socket 7-
Pentium
321 pins
Socket
8-
Pentium Pro
387 pins
Socket A-
AMD
Athlon
462 pins
Socket 370-
Celeron
370
pins
Socket 423-
0.18 micron Pentium IV with 256K L2
cache on die
423 pins
Socket 478-
newer 0.13 micron
Pentium IV Xeon with 512K L2 cache on die
478 pins
Slot
1-
Pentium II/III
242 pins
Slot 2-
Xeon
330
pins
Slot A-
AMD Athlon
242 pins
Memory
1987
FPM DRAM
Front Page
Mode
successive accesses to the same page of memory only require a
column address
66 MHz
1995
EDO DRAM
Extended Data Output
15% faster than
FPM
75 MHz
1996
SDRAM
Synchronous DRAM
PC100, PC133, fastest of the DRAM
technologies
input and output synchronized with the CPU clock
133
MHz
Newer RDRAM and DDR technologies for Pentium IV and up CPUs:
1999 proprietary Direct RDRAM (Direct Rambus DRAM)
800
MHz
2000
open source DDR 333 (also called PC2700) (Double
Data Rate)
333 MHz
executes instructions twice with each tick
of the clock doubling the bus speed
2002
DDR 400 (also called PC3200)
400 MHz
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Technical and Financial News about the CompTIA Organization
and its Major Corporate Partners
- 1982 -- The Computing Technology Industry Association
(CompTIA) was founded in Chicago. A group of numerous IT companies
whose goal was to develop a series of vendor neutral exams.
- 1999 -- December, CompTIA has selected Pearson Education > who owns National
Computer Systems > who owns Virtual University Enterprises
(VUE) division to deliver its certification examinations along
with Sylvan Prometric.
- 2000 -- March, Sylvan sells its IT testing division to the
Thomson Corp of Canada for $775 million.
The new testing agency name is Prometric without the Sylvan.
"TORONTO, ONTARIO; STAMFORD, CT, March 3, 2000 – The Thomson
Corporation (TSE: TOC) announced today that it has completed the
acquisition of the Prometric division of Sylvan Learning Systems,
Inc. (NASDAQ: SLVN) for US $775 million in cash." Thomson will add
Prometric to its Learning Division. The purchase was financed by
Thomson's sale of 40 US newspaper companies for $1.6 Billion (all
cash). Thomson is the largest company in Canada with revenues in
excess of $7 billion annually. Its founder Ken Thomson follows
Gates and Allen of Microsoft, Jobs and Wozniak of Apple, Michael
Dell of Dell computers, and the Walton's of Wal-Mart as one of the
richest men in the world with assets of $12 billion. What do you
do with $12 Billion? Purchase all the major competition!
- 2000 -- March, CompTIA's Board of Directors has chosen to open
its first international office in Toronto, Canada.
- 2000 -- April, Following the acquisition of Prometric by
Thomson, CompTIA has announced two revisions in its A+ exams. (1)
going to an ADAPTIVE test format in August 2000. (2) Revising the
A+ exams to include Win 98, Win NT4, Win 2000, and basic
networking questions in January 2001.
- 2000 -- May, The Thomson Corporation acquires Wave Technologies International, Inc. for $45
million. Wave Technologies is a leader in A+ training and is
intended to move Thomson Learning, a division of the Thomson
Corporation, into a leadership role in this field.
- 2000 -- August, Thomson invests $12 million in Brainbench, an online certification testing
site. A member from Thomson will join Brainbench's Board of
Directors.
- 2000 -- August, the (1) change takes effect and the A+ Core
and Win/DOS exams are changed from a standard test to a more
difficult ADAPTIVE test.
- 2000 -- September, Thomson Learning has announced it will
merge its Course Technology company with recently acquired Wave
Technologies.
- 2000 -- October, Thomson Corporation (Stamford, CT,
www.thomsonlearning.com) has invested an estimated $60 million in
WebCT (Peabody, MA) to make it the
largest shareholder. The strategic investment will facilitate
Thomson's ability to make their holdings available as online
learning materials. Full scale Web TV training for college and
certification degrees AT HOME is on the horizon.
Thomson's
main competitor, Pearson Education, has also invested in WebCT.
Pearson owns Macmillan (Simon and Schuster), has ties with AOL and
Linux, and has just coinvested in Ebrary with McGraw Hill and
Random-House. Pearson and Thomson appear to be the two key players
in the development of a worldwide system of online education.
- 2000 -- November, Thomson Multimedia (NYSE: TMS) has announced
the integration of Microsoft software to its newly designed
Thomson digital cable receiver to be marketed in a new line of RCA
televisions. Microsoft's alliance with Thomson (Prometric) is
probably the reason why Microsoft's new 2001 3rd ed A+ book in the
section "Registering for the A+ Exam" only mentions Prometric and
does not include VUE as a testing center. You can register with
either company to take the exam.
- 2000 -- November, The Thomson Corp enters an agreement with
Universitas 21 (an international network of 21 universities in ten
countries) to develop and deliver online courses. Universitas 21
will award the degrees.
- 2000 -- November, CompTIA has selected Course Technology, a
division of Thomson Learning, to develop its Server+ certification
exam which is scheduled for introduction in June 2001.
- 2000 -- December, Thomson acquires Galton Technologies, Inc., a market leader of
certification exams with clients that include Cisco, Oracle,
Compaq, Lucent and Novell.
- 2001 -- January, Reed Elsevier and the Thomson Corp have
acquired Harcourt Inc. for $4.5 billion
(all cash). Reed will then resell Harcourt's world leading
scientific, technical, and medical publishing businesses to
Thomson for $2.1 billion.
- 2001 -- January, the (2) change takes effect and the A+ test
goes from a 20 question adaptive test back to the standard 70
question test BUT Win98, WinNT4, Win2000, and more networking
questions are added to the OS Technologies Exam (formerly the
DOS/Win exam) and the passing score is increased on the Core exam
from 68% to 75% to maintain test difficulty. Adaptive is always an
option to control test scores in the future if everyone starts
passing.
- 2001 -- February, Thomson buys a share of Florida based ExamSoft Worldwide - a leading developer of
software to ensure secure testing on personal computers.
- 2001 -- April, Intel transfers its Intel Certification program
to CompTIA.
- 2001 -- August, Comptia will convert the A+ Exams from the
present 70 question STANDARD format back again to the 20 question
ADAPTIVE format on AUG 30, 2001.
- 2001 -- October, Microsoft has signed a contract with
Prometric (Thomson) to deliver all of its certification exams. The
world's largest IT certification alliance is formed.
- 2001 -- October, CompTIA's A+ and Network+ certifications have
been integrated as electives in the Microsoft Certified Systems
Administrator (MCSA) Certification.
- 2002 -- January, Internet Home Alliance Announces Plans to
Establish a Home Installer Certification Program with CompTIA to
deliver the exams in the Summer of 2003. Internet Home Alliance is
an open alliance of 30 companies that include Best Buy, Cisco
Systems, General Motors, Panasonic, Sears, and Sun
Microsystems.
- 2002 -- February, CompTIA announces that it will develop a
vendor neutral entry-level security certification for IT
professionals to debut in the Fall of 2002. The objectives of this
certification will include knowledge of firewalls, viruses, worms,
passwords, encryption, and how to lockdown a computer for optimum
security.
- 2002 -- September, Kaplan College has formed a partnership
with NETg (Thomson Corporation) that
will enable individuals to transfer up to 40 credit hours earned
at NETg's online Boot Camps towards a Kaplan College Associate of
Science degree in Interdisciplinary Studies and Bachelor of
Science in Management degree with a concentration in Information
Technology Management. At home training for college degrees is
reaching new dimensions.
With Galton and Harcourt, Thomson has one of the world's
largest databases of medical, legal, and IT information. With
Microsoft, WebCT, and RCA, Thomson has formed the partnerships it
needs to teach and disseminate this information. With Wave and
Prometric it can develop courses and test candidates. With
Universitas 21 and Kaplan College Thomson can issue at home
Bachelor and Master degrees.
Pearson has just as
formidable an armada and is sailing on about the same course. Both
of these titans of education and publishing have sales of about $7
Billion/ yr. Both claiming to be the world leader in online
education. With 20,000 colleges and universities in the world and
85 million students which equates to about $950 Billion spent
annually on higher education the sea they are sailing is indeed
large (This figure does not include the $270 Billion spent on
public elementary and secondary school education in the US alone
of which Microsoft is planning in its antitrust settlement with
the government to have an inside track to monopolize. Half of all
the computers used in schools are Apple computers and with the
government's help that may soon be rectified. This antitrust suit
may be the best thing that ever happened to Micorsoft. How ironic is that? ).
- 2002 -- November, Microsoft's four-year-long battle with the
federal government over antitrust violations ENDS as U.S. District
Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly approves most of the provisions of
the settlement and dismisses most of the concerns of the nine
states. There will be NO BreakUp of the Microsoft Corporation. The
case can still go back to a Court of Appeals.
CNET comments "The proposed deal would impose relatively mild
restrictions on the software maker compared with earlier rulings
in the 4-year-old case, focusing largely on tweaking Microsoft's
competitive behavior. But nine of the 18 states that joined with
the DoJ to prosecute the historic antitrust case refused to sign
the settlement. Those states including California, Connecticut,
Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Utah and West
Virginia who argued the agreement was bad for Microsoft
competitors and consumers because provisions intended to rein in
Microsoft's monopolistic business practices were riddled with
exceptions that gave the company too much latitude.
- 2003 -- January, Microsoft and U.S. government officials have
asked a federal judge to bar two computer industry trade groups
from appealing the settlement of the 4-year-old antitrust battle.
Federal antitrust enforcers and Microsoft said the Software &
Information Industry Association and the Computer &
Communication Industry Association don't have a right to appeal.
- 2003 -- January, Seven of the nine states have decided NOT to
pursue the Appeals process. Lawyers representing Massachusetts and
West Virginia, the last two holdouts in the Microsoft antitrust
case, continue to fight on and asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for
the District of Columbia today to hear oral arguments against the
Nov 2002 settlement that U.S. District Judge Colleen
Kollar-Kotelly approved.
In response, Microsoft said it will pay $25 million in legal
reimbursements to be divided among those seven states who decided
not to pursue the Appeals process.
- 2003 February, Microsoft agrees to pay $1.1 billion to settle
class-action lawsuits brought by Californians.
More news about Microsoft, Security, and its Antitrust Case is
available at this link
http://pages.prodigy.net/aplus_omega/microsoft.htm
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