[LMG S10] Issue 128: Upgradeability
Previously: USB Power Delivery is a specification that describes how much voltage and current can be supplied by different categories of USB cables. It allows power delivery at different levels for all kids of connected devices, up to 100W. This should help to simplify cable setups that otherwise require multiple kinds of cables between two closely interconnected devices (such as a laptop and an external monitor).
At some point in the past, computers could be upgraded with all kinds of parts: you could upgrade to a better network card, a better processor, or add more memory, without changing out the entire computer!
The short history of personal computers
After IBM released the IBM 360, the first mainframe that was meant to be used in both large-scale and small-scale applications, it quickly realised that providing service support for it was going to be a nightmare if each version required its own specialised support. In the 1970s, it was already thinking of a family-of-parts concept that allowed its products to use a set of interchangeable parts to reduce the number of these parts.
But Intel, founded in 1971, had made a major breakthrough in manufacturing low cost microprocessors. The price of computers dropped steadily in response, allowing the personal computer (PC) to become affordable to home users, and the family-of-parts concept came along for the ride.
The early computers, when purchased, needed a network card to connect to a network, needed a sound card to produce sound, needed a graphics card to view graphics … you basically needed a card for everything!
Upgradeable parts
On a desktop, you could upgrade a number of components.
Desktop CPUs were purchased separately, and had to be installed into a socket on a mainboard (also called a motherboard).
A CPU socket on a mainboard
Source: Digital Trends
Desktop computer memory was likewise purchased separately, and slotted in:
Memory slots on a desktop mainboard
Source: Bleuwire
On top of that, you still had to buy your own DVD/Bluray drives, storage disks, and other peripherals, to be plugged in laboriously to the mainboard. Many of these features made it into laptops as well.
Laptop upgrades
Because of the smaller space available, the CPU socket had to go. Most laptops have their CPUs soldered directly to the mainboard, and the CPU cannot be upgraded separately. Buying a laptop with a better CPU often means buying it with a different configuration, mainboard and all.
But laptops retained the ability to upgrade memory through the use of memory slots. These were oriented flat along the board to reduce space.
Memory slots on a laptop
Source: Laptopmag
And they also retained the ability to swap out or replace their disks, whether hard disk or solid state drive.
The hard disk slot on a laptop
Source: TweakTown
The SSD slots on a laptop
Source: EaseUS
Limitations of upgradable parts
A common limitation here is that replaceable components take up more space than directly-soldered ones, because the sockets and slots cannot be manufactured too thin if they are to be robust. As the industry moves towards thin-and-light designs, and hardware support moves to a system that replaces the whole device rather than individual parts, these replaceable parts are already on their way out.
On the Apple Macbook, Apple has already soldered down the CPU, memory, and SSD, allowing for no upgrades. This is also the case for many other thin-and-light laptop manufacturers.
Issue summary: Upgradable parts need a slot or socket to be inserted into; these slots/sockets need to be made robust enough, causing them to take up more space than a soldered part. Devices which were designed to be small and portable generally eliminate these as far as possible, opting to have parts directly soldered to the board instead.
There are of course other reasons for this transition, economic as well as financial, which I will not tackle here. I just wanted the chance to show some upgrade slots so if you ever get to see an old laptop opened up, you know what they are for!
What I’ll be covering next
Next issue: [LMG S10] Issue 129: Cooling
Next issue, another dive into another issue: why is my laptop running so hot? Why is it so loud? Why can’t I get a more powerful processor in this tiny PC? Why is my i7 slower than my friend’s i5?
This and more, next issue!
Sometime in the future: What is:
- XSS? [Issue 8]
- a good reason developers write code and give it away for free online? [Issue 21]
- OpenType? And what are fonts anyway? [Issue 42]