THE AGE OF LAPTOPS

A state of the art computer can detect whether a winner has rigged his win in the casino using biofeedback (Ocean’s Thirteen, 2007). Riley Pool uses the latest laptop to beat the security and help Benjamin Gates (Nicholas Cage) sneak his way into the Buckingham Palace (National Treasures: Book of Secrets, 2007). These are some popular scenes from the latest flicks.

Keep aside the films. Think of us, the common lot. Some of us juggle between our work and home laptops, many of us find our laptops indispensable, while the rest plans to get one soon. Laptops have truly had a meteoric rise. Over a period of 20 years, we have seen laptops breaking all imaginable boundaries and reaching our doorsteps meeting our technical demands thereby proclaiming the 21st century as the age of laptops.

Ironically though, the laptops had a very humble beginning. So much so that historians still cannot concur on which was the first laptop ever made! It is said that the first portable computer weighed 24 lbs and cost $1800, approximately. It had a tiny 5 inch screen, a modem port and floppy drives. In 1981, named the Osborne 1, this portable computer introduced the professionals to the concept of portable-data and paved the path for what is arguably considered the first laptop. In 1983, Manny Fernandez of Gavilan Computer promoted his machine as the first ‘laptop’. At 9 lbs with 128 megabytes of memory and a touchpad mouse, it was portable and could be kept on the lap – it fitted the basic premises for a functional laptop computer.

But how can you make a machine weighing merely 5 lbs work like a desktop computer? Both the laptop and the computer use the same components but are differently fitted for each. The laptop uses a flat compact design, where the components are placed together in a way to save power and produce less heat than desktops. To achieve this, a laptop uses:

• A CPU (Central Processing Unit) that runs at a low voltage and produces much less heat, is mounted directly into the motherboard without using pins and sockets and gets into an energy saving mode when not in use.

• A hard-drive physically smaller than that of a PC (personal computer) and spins at lower speed thereby reducing power consumption.

• Smaller memory modules to save space.

• Sharing of memory between CPU and GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) which at times leads to lesser graphic-display qualities in laptops.

Keeping this basic functioning same, laptops have been upgraded time and again – the lightest, the fastest or the one that runs the longest on battery – today the market is crowded with latest laptops. The budding musician composes his music, the choreographer records the beats, the law-student refers to cases, the copy-editor makes the last proof check before print or the engineer creates the latest design in his/her laptop. The laptop has reached the impoverished villages of third-world countries to assist children in learning and is a trustworthy companion for people across various professions and age groups.

Talk to a friend using your laptop aboard a train, download the latest film in the middle of a camping trek, transfer money to keep your hot water running - after all in this century when time is the most precious commodity, spending a few hundred dollars for a laptop to make life easier is surely wise.