From “Memex” to Multimedia
A Historical Overview of the
Emergence of Multimedia
Systems
M.Dastbaz
Designing Interactive Multimedia Systems
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As We May Think - 1945
“A record if it is to be useful to science, must be continuously
extended, it must be stored and above all it must be consulted.
Today we make the record conventionally by writing and
photography, followed by printing…we also record on film, on wax
disks and on magnetic wires…” (Keyword - Recording).
“So much for the manipulation of ideas and their insertion into
the record… we can hardly consult it. This is much larger matter
than merely the extraction of data …” (Keyword - Selection).
When data of any sort are place in storage, they are filed
alphabetically or numerically, and information is found by tracing it
down from subclass to subclass….” (Keyword Sequential
Access).
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MEMEX
“Human mind does not work that way it operates by
association. With one item in its grasp, it snaps instantly to
the next that is suggested by the association of thoughts, in
accordance with some intricate web of trails carried by the
cells of the brain…”
“Consider a future device for individual use, which is sort of
a mechanized private file and library. It needs a name, and
to coin one in random “Memex” will do. A Memex is a
device in which an individual stores all his books, records
and communications, and is mechanized so that it may be
consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an
enlarged intimate supplement to his memory…”
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Why Has It Taken So Long ?
State of the technology.
Practical Computers effectively did not
exist.
Lack of private interests due to very high
costs.
Divergence of interests in the
development of computers.
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IT History a Brief Overview
Babbage’s Differential Engine
1643 - Blaise Pascal created the
Pascaline (it could only add and subtract).
1673 - Leibniz build his calculator that
could not only add and subtract but also
multiply, divide and calculate square
roots.
1822 - Charles Babbage proposed the
Differential Engine and later the Analytical
Engine. The Analytical Engine was the
first machine to use Punch cards (data) to
tell the machine what numbers to
calculate.
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IT History Conti/...
Babbage’s Analytical Engine
In commercial term Babbage was a failure.
He spent £17,000 and none of the
machines were ready in his life time. A
government official at the time commented
that the only use of the Analytical Engine
was to calculate the large amount of money
Babbage spent on it.
Ada Lovelace proposed to Babbage to builtin the ability into AE to jump from one set of
punch cards to another if certain conditions
was met. This is the same as loops etc........
and seen as the first programming
language.
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IT History Conti/...
ENIAC - 1946
1940’s is the beginning of the Computer
revolution.
A war time project called PX later to be know as
Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer
ENIAC got underway and was built as the first
digital computer by 1946. It was a massive
machine that contained about 18,000 vacuum
tubes, weighed about 30 tones and occupied an
area of 1,500 square feet and consumed about
180,000 watts of electrical power. It could
perform 5000 additions and 300 multiplication
per second.
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IT History Conti/...
The first computers to
use RAM were created in
1947 UNIVAC and
EDVAC.
The other key
developments are:
UNIVAC (Universal Automated
Computer) used stored program concept
developed by Von Neumann.
• William Shockley invented
the transistor in 1947
• Jack Kilby invented the
first IC
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IT History Conti/...
Altair 8800 - 1975
The 70’s mark the start of the single
chip (CPU) computers. INTEL launched
the 4004 single chip CPU that contained
2300 transistors in an area of 10 mm
with 1KB of data memory, and 4KB of
program memory. This family of chip
was later replaced by the 8000 family
that lasted more than 20 years.
The first “Home Computer” Altair 8800
was launched in 1975 selling for $375 in
kit format or $675 in assembled format.
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IT History Conti/...
Apple I
Apple II
Apple III
From the back of garage
Peter Jobs and Stephen
Woznick launched Apple
I in 1976 to be followed
by Apple II in 1977 (this
was the first real PC that
could use the TV as its
monitor).
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IT History Conti/...
Intel’s 80286 range of processors.
Within 6 years of it release, there were
an estimated 15 million 286-based
personal computers installed around the
world.
Based on Intel’s 8088 processor
IBM launched its Personal Computer
range in 1980.
MS-DOS version 1 was introduced
in 1981. A text-based 16 bit single
user single tasking operating
system.
The development of Windows as a
successor to MS-DOS was
announced in 1983 to be released in
1985 later release V2. in 1987, V3.
in 1990 revolutionized the PC
interface.
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IT History Conti/...
The Original Apple
Macintosh with 128KB
of memory
In 1983 - LISA - a computer
with a strange device called
the “mouse” was launched;
and
In 1984 the First Macintosh
emerged with GUI, sound
and high resolution black &
white monitor.
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The Emergence of Multimedia PC - A
Chaotic Start
With the development of the PC hardware and key peripherals such as
Audio cards, CD-ROM etc. the beginning of 90’s saw a rush by PC
vendors to produce Multimedia PCs that was to combine sound and video
all under the PC control.
Two major groups were formed MPC (Multimedia PC Marketing Council
headed by Microsoft) and IMA (Interactive Multimedia Association headed
by IBM and Apple)
In December 1990 MPC announced a set of hardware and software
standards for Multimedia PCs (known as MPC I).
» Intel based 386 SX PC with
» 4 MB of RAM
» Audio card and CD-ROM running in a GUI environment
(such as Windows)
At the same time Philips launched CDI and Commodore Launched CDTV
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The Emergence of MPC Cont/..
MPC I
MPC II
MPC III
CPU
386sx (16Mhz)
Memory
2 MB
4 MB
8 MB
HD drive
30 MB
160 MB
500 MB
Sound
8 bit + MIDI
16 bit + MIDI
16 bit + MIDI
Video
VGA
640 x 480
256 (8 bit)
SVGA
640 x 480
65K (16 bit)
SVGA + MPEG I
640 x 480
65K (16 bit)
150 Kb/s
600 ms
300 Kb/s
400 ms
600 Kb/s
280 ms
-resolution
- number of
colors
486sx (25Mhz) Pentium (75 Mhz)
CD-ROM
-speed
-seek time
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Other Key Developments
Ted Nelson coined the term “Hypertext” in 1967
Englbert built the first hypertext system in 1967
Apple launched HyperCard in 1987
Object Oriented languages and powerful software
tools began to emerge in 1990’s (e.g.. Visual
Basic, Tool Book, Authorware, Director, Visual C
etc..…).
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Applications of Multimedia
Education
Broadcasting and Advertising
Point of sale and Information
Sales Presentation
Direct Marketing
Literature and Publications
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So Where is Multimedia Technology
Today ?
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Hardware Technology
Key Features
– Processing Speed from 8 MHz to 1130 MHz
speed
– Data bus 8 MHz to 133Mhz
– Storage up from 40 MB to 100 GB
– Sound from 8 bit mono to 64 bit 4-8 channels
– Graphic from 512 KB Video Memory to 64MB
resolution up from 640x480 16 colours to
1600x1200 16 million colours
– From CD - ROM to CD-Write & Re-Write and
DVD (from 650 MB to a DVD disks which can
hold 8 hours of high-quality video, or 30 hours
of VHS quality video
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Hardware Technology II
Integration,
Convergence &
Advance of Mobile
Multimedia Devices
– WAP (Wireless
Application Protocols
– WML (WAP Markup
Language)
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Software Technology
From “Command
Line” interface
move to GUI
From old style of
programming &
Application
development to
Object Oriented
tools and authoring
environment.
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Finally BACK to Bush
How Does Multimedia
solve the problem
Integration of Media
Large Storing (recording
facility)
The power to associate
data
Fast Access and
Retrieval
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