History Of The Space Hopper
The first ever hoppity hop / retro space hopper was called PON-PON, and was the invention of an Italian who was called Aquilino Cosani. And was based at Ledragomma, Italy.
In 1968 Cosani patented the PON-PON in Italy, and in 1969 was introduced to the United Kingdom through an advert putin the Cambridge Evening News paper. Cosani patented the PON-PON in 1971 in the United States of America. The USA already had a space hopper type toy that people used to bounce on, and this toy was created by the Sun company, and was called Hoppity Hop. All hoppers of this type are called Hoppity Hop or Hippity Hop these days, which was due to the popularity of the earliest hopper distributed and produced by the Sun company.
In the Britain the Space Hopper (UK name) was distributed and produced by Mettoy, which was later to become Mettoy-Corgi. Another company created a different version of the bouncing ball, but this ball had handles that were smooth for the rider to hold, whereas the earliest had opted for ribbed handles for better grip. The other company was called Wembley.
Initially the Space Hoppers were made up of a handle in the shape of a ring on the top of the space hopper type toy which was gripped by the rider for stability, and they were constructed from rubber. These toys were supplied in a choice of just a couple of colors, either red or blue. Sun created themed versions of their Hoppity Hop during the 1970s, which had a hard plastic head fixed to the ball in the shape of some favorite fictional character. A couple of the popular fictional characters used were Micky Mouse and Donald Duck.
The hoppity hop / space hopper was very popular during the 60s and 70s, with a resurgence of interest in the UK during the 1990s, thanks to the rave culture of the time, where the balls were recognised asa neccessary part of the scene. In the United States of America due to an incursion of competition by foreign creators of the toy the Hoppity Hop’s popularity severely faltered and finally the production of the north American version of the bouncy ball came to a halt.
Initially the USA version of the hopper, known as the Hoppity Hop, was aimed at both adults and children, but due to the limited size of the biggest version, it was not really useable by adults except for those close to a kid in size.
Europe of the 1990s brought a version of the bouncy ball went by the name of the Hop, and was created by the Italian company Ledragomma. These were created from a well-liked ball used for exercise at the time called Gymnic exercise balls. These hoppers had a maximum size of 26 inches..
Modern day retro space hoppers – Sizes for adultshave become very popular in later year and can be found in sizes of 120cm, 100cm, and 80cm. They are commonly more robust than the original balls, having much thicker skins
and as a rule built from vinyl rather than rubber.
Network Support For Computer Motherboard
In any type of computer, motherboard is the main component, which holds many vital parts of the system and provides connections to other peripherals. It acts as a communication highway. Each part of the computer system communicates to each other through the motherboard. The objective of the motherboard is provide a communication channel to all other peripherals and parts of the computer system.
Brief History Of Motherboard
In the earlier times when computer was first invented, the device used to be built in a frame or a case with parts connected through a backplane. The backplane comprised a set of slots interconnected through wires. After the arrival of printed circuit boards, the central processing unit, read only memory, random access memory, peripherals were mounted on the PCBs. As time passed by in the 1970s and 1980s, more and more numbers of components started getting housed on the motherboard due to economical reasons. In the 1990s, the motherboards became capable of performing video,audio,networking and graphics functions.
Overview Of Motherboard
Generally a computer motherboard has microprocessor, main memory and other vital components, mounted on it. Other parts like video and sound controllers, external storage and peripheral devices are connected to motherboards through plug-in cards. In the latest motherboards, all these components are mounted directly.
Motherboard Chipset
One of the most important component of motherboard is chipset. It controls the data flow through the data bus of the motherboard. Channelizing the data to the correct component is the primary objective of the chipset.
Motherboard Components
The motherboard contains connectors for all components. Expansion slots for PCI,ISA,AGP,DIMM and external connections for serial and parallel ports,USB ports,sound card,keyboard and mouse are mounted on it.
Keyboard & Mouse Connectors
All computers have keyboard ports connected to the motherboard. Two most commonly used connector types are DIN and AT. Nowadays mini DIN PS/2types of connectors are replacing ST types of connectors. PS/2 style sockets could be used with AT types by using a converter. USB connectors are also found in some PCs.
Parallel Port
Parallel ports are used by printers. On parallel port, multiple wires are used for carrying data signals. A 25 pin female DB connector is used in parallel port. Motherboards directly support parallel ports through direct connection or dongle.
Central Processing Unit
The component is also known as CPU. It controls all operations that are performed inside a computer. CPUs are basically large scale integrated circuits in rectangular small packages with multiple connecting pins. CPU consists of mainly two components,namely Arithmetic Logical Unit(ALU) and Control Unit(CU). ALU performs arithmetic and logical operations and CU fetches instructions from memory and execute them.
Universal Serial Bus
Universal Serial Bus or USB is an industry standard connection for PC. The speed of USB 3.0, the latest standard of USB, is 5 Gbits/second.
Basic Input Output System- Read Only Memory(BIOS ROM)
The BIOS ROM chip, which is a permanent memory,contains the software program which performs the basic operations when the computer is switched on. When the computer is powered up, the microprocessor searches for basic diagnostic information in BIOS ROM., such as, how much memory is available, whether all peripherals are working properly, if an external drive is connected,etc. When diagnostic information is found to be OK, then only the computer starts its operation.
Random Access Memory(RAM)
RAM is a temporary memory. It is used to store data when computer is powered up. Once the computer is switched off, this memory id erased.
Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory(EEPROM)
EEPROM is erasable programmable read only memory. It is possible to read from and write to this type of memory. Once the computer is switched off, data stored in EEPROM is retained.
Slots
Generally two types of slots are available on motherboard, namely AGP slots and PCI slots. AGP slots are used for graphics cards, while devices like modems, network cards and sound cards use PCI slots.
IDE Connector
This connector is used for connecting hard disks, CD and DVD.
Floppy Connector
The computer’s floppy drive is connected through this connector.
PC Support
Since motherboard contains so many components, any defective component could make the computer nonfunctional. Many online network support providers are rendering round the clock support for motherboards. In case the user faces any problem related to motherboard, immediately the help of PC support providers should be sought to mitigate the problem.