Help.

[Bornice]

Hie... i was browsing through the net trying to get information on my term paper when I came across your site. I need help, please, plenty of it.
I am a university student and for my exam we've been asked to write a paper on computer architecture advancements and how it has affected programming.... I need help from you guys since you seem to know much about computers...
Help may be inform of... "What area do I look at? Computer memory? Processor? Input/ output devices.....??? Anything shall be gratefully accepted.. thanx!!!

[Killer42]

Hie... i was browsing through the net trying to get information on my term paper when I came across your site. I need help, please, plenty of it.
I am a university student and for my exam we've been asked to write a paper on computer architecture advancements and how it has affected programming.... I need help from you guys since you seem to know much about computers...
Help may be inform of... "What area do I look at? Computer memory? Processor? Input/ output devices.....??? Anything shall be gratefully accepted.. thanx!!!

Memory and CPU architecture seem to be two big areas of change. For instance, once upon a time the programmer had to work within 64KB chunks (um... "segments" I mean) of memory. Working on anything larger meant switching between segments all the time, plus I think you also had to keep track of stack pointers, and so on. Compare that with VB, for instance, where I don't know or care about memory allocation. (Oh alright, I care - but I don't have to).
CPU architecture has had a huge impact on programming. You certainly couldn't run Windows XP on an old 80286 processor (as far as I know). In fact, the 80386 was probably the first big leap forward, though others may disagree. That was when "386 enhanced mode" memory management allowed Windows, for example, to go from being a very expensive (in terms of processing and memory) menu system to a multi-tasking OS.