History of Computers - Servers

Introduction

A server is a computer that hosts other computers on a local network. This type of computer is very efficient at processing and delivering data quickly to other computers.

Overview

Servers are extremely important nowadays because they allow even larger groups of computers deliver and process more data that could have been impossible before. Also, Servers are used by video games to connect many people into one lobby through what is called "multiplayer".

Significance

The significance of servers is how they were able to offer the first access to the internet as they were host to the World Wide Web and network connection. Servers are extremely significant nowadays because they allow even larger groups of people deliver more data that could have been impossible before.

The IBM VM

In 1981, The IBM Virtual Machine hosted the first kind of emailing software named LISTSERV using a network called BITNET.

NeXTCube

In 1991, The NeXTCube contained a 256 MHz CPU, 2GB on a disk, and a grayscale monitor running NeXTSTEP OS and allowed the birth of the World Wide Web.

ProLiant

ProLiant was the first ever rack-mounted server. Being introduced in 1994, it had an Intel P2 Xeon 450 Mhz, 256Mb RAM, and a 24X CDROM player.

Sun Ultra II

In 1998, The Sun Ultra II was the first ever server made by Google located at Stanford University. It had dual 200Mhz CPUs and 256 MB of RAM.

RLX Blade

Released in 2001, RLX Technologies the first ever blade server which took previous server models and shrunk them to a more compact rack type server configuration.

PS3 Cluster

Released in 2003, The PS3 Cluster contained a 3.2 Ghz Cell Broadband Engine CPU, a 60 GB ATA Hard Drive, a 256MB RAM, a 550Mhz RSX GPU. Although the PS3 Cluster was only a video game console at heart, It featured built-in networking.

The Cloud

If you want to read more about cloud server hosting, Read The Cloud

References

http://blog.iweb.com/en/2012/01/history-of-servers-in-pictures-from-1981-to-today/1959.html

http://blog.webwerks.in/dedicated-servers-blog/the-history-of-dedicated-server-cpus-till-today

https://www.lifewire.com/servers-in-computer-networking-817380