Prototype pcb manufacturing. It’s not something a lot of people tend to think about it. It sounds downright strange or scary when you say it. What is it, exactly? Well, to start, pcb is an acronym that stands for printed circuit board. Basically prototype pcb manufacturing is the process of creating new and more powerful circuit boards for public use. Prototype pcbs, and indeed all newer consumer electronics, are typically more powerful and durable than their predecessors. This is both to push the limits of what computers can do and make them easier to use all at the same time. But it can be difficult to remember where computers and circuit boards began, especially in this day and age of super power computing. Related to this, it can also be difficult to think about how powerful prototype pcb assembly, circuit boards and computers in general might be in just a few decades. Pcb fabrication didn’t easy to be easy, after all, but now it’s standard routine for electronics companies. So, the question then becomes, how did computers get where they are now? And where might they be going in the near future? What follows is a short look at both of these ideas.
- Headed back a few decades
For the purposes of this article, we aren’t going to go all the way back to the very beginning. That story is fascinating in and of itself but it takes awhile to tell and there’s not enough time cover the development of the first computational machines. We’re going to start in the mid eighties when the first PCs became available for public use. This might seem like a long time ago but many of us still remember what this time was like. Computers, though they were becoming more ubiquitous, were still only playthings for the rich or the professional. They first transformed large sectors of the general business industry and then moved slowly into the homes of the public. They had mid level circuit boards, certainly not even at the level of our modern day prototype pcb manufacturing levels but much better than those that, say, ran the Apollo missions two decades before. They were independently operated, though and could barely connected to any other computers around them. The technology to connect computers together was still in its infancy and would have to wait on better transistors and faster processing units. That level of information is hard to maintain, after all and we didn’t start with it. It took a long time.
The late nineties The second big revolution in modern day computing came in the late nineties when the internet really started to catch on with the public. It had been around since the mid nineties, actually but it was difficult to navigate and open mostly to those with the specialized knowledge to figure it out. But, as it slowly became simpler, more and more people began to realize what it could be used for. Visionaries dreamed of creating open markets and discussion zones where ideas could flow openly and freely. It became, in effect, a place for people to dream of digital utopia, brought to you by our old friends prototype pcb manufacturing and circuit board prototyping.
Where computers go from here
Fast forward to today and computers run nearly every aspect of our lives. The internet is cheap, free and ubiquitous and everyone in the world is neatly, or not so neatly, connected together. But where could computers go from here? How can they improve? There are still dreams of utopia if you dig deep enough. The secret lies in our ability to work digital processing and other types of processing into all areas of our lives. It’s already begun, to a certain degree. Computers run our social lives, work lives and family lives. But when computers can be integrated into our heath, our minds, that’s where the true future starts. It can seem scary but as long as we proceed with caution and care, there’s no reason that this can’t be a third revolution that takes us to a place of even greater, deeper intelligence.