Appendix D: Computer networking
A computer on its own is only as powerful as its hardware and software; connect more than one and the power increases exponentially, often characterized as 2n: where n is the number of machines in the network. The number increases rapidly—2, 4, 8, 16,…. to 1,024 for 10 computers all the way up to over 10 million for 30. Now think of how many machines are connected to the Internet; the power figure is beyond comprehension.
The first computers were stand-alone devices, but it wasn't long before many people envisioned connecting computers together into a network as the next logical development in computer science. Interconnecting computers to enable communication and data transfers among devices was the subject ...
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