IKEA SUMMERA PC TOWER SHELF Galant desk attachment computer holder 300.904.38

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Seller: sidewaysstairsco ✉️ (1,180) 100%, Location: Santa Ana, California, US, Ships to: US & many other countries, Item: 204258903113 IKEA SUMMERA PC TOWER SHELF Galant desk attachment computer holder 300.904.38. (wikipedia.org). A gaming desktop, with a laptop at the bottom left for comparison. A portion of Babbage's Difference engine. This section relies largely or entirely on a single source. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Check out my other new & used items>>>>>>HERE! (click me) FOR SALE: A quality, steel accessory piece for IKEA's GALANT desk IKEA SUMMERA UNDER-DESK COMPUTER SHELF DETAILS: A computer tower holder for your GALANT desk! A sturdy, just like the GALANT desk, powder coated steel composition shelf for under your desk. Made to handle most home computer towers - safety strap included. No computer tower? The SUMMERA computer holder could be used to hold accessories, a label printer or small profile scanner, or use it to keep your power strip off the floor. Retired and rare! IKEA officially phased out their GALANT line of desks and tables in 2014 and replaced them with a similar-looking series of desks/tables (BEKANT). With the phasing out of GALANT came the phasing out of the GALANT-specific SUMMERA add-ons like the keyboard tray and the computer shelf. It's been about 10 years since their retirement, and still there are GALANT fans that miss them, and it becomes harder and harder to find IKEA GALANT and SUMMERA pieces - making them rare and sought after. May work with IKEA BEKANT desks! SUMMERA desk attachments were made specifically for IKEA's GALANT desks/tables but may work with IKEA's BEKANT desk/table frames as well. Though IKEA continues to offer a small variety of GALANT storage solutions they have completely phased out GALANT desks/tables and introduced BEKANT desks/tables in their place. GALANT and BEKANT main parts are not officially compatible but the SUMMERA add-on pieces may work with BEKANT desk/table frames. We can not guarantee compatibility so please look into the topic for yourself before purchasing. Dimensions: Width: 45 cm (17.72 in) Depth: 25 cm (9.84 in) Height: 56 cm (22.04 in) CONDITION: Like-new/opened-box condition. The contents are in new condition while the box has acquired some storage wear. Please see photos. To ensure safe delivery all items are carefully packaged before shipping out. THANK YOU FOR LOOKING. QUESTIONS? JUST ASK. *ALL PHOTOS AND TEXT ARE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OF SIDEWAYS STAIRS CO. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.* "The computer desk and related ergonomic desk are furniture pieces designed to comfortably and aesthetically provide a working surface and house or conceal office equipment including computers, peripherals and cabling for office and home-office users. Computer desk The most common form of the computer desk is an ergonomic variant of the office desk, which has an adjustable keyboard tray and sufficient desktop space for handwriting. Provisions for a monitor shelf and holes for routing cables are integrated in the design, making it easier to connect the computer components together. The typical armoire desk provides space for a keyboard, mouse, monitor, printer and speakers. cubicle desk designs for business and government workplaces include a range of shelves, trays and cable-routing holes for computer systems. In some computer desks, the cabling is affixed to the modesty panel at the back of the desk, to create a neater appearance. There are a great variety of computer desk shapes and forms. Large multiple student computer desks configured in rows are designed to house dozens of computer systems while facilitating wiring, general maintenance, theft prevention and vandalism reduction. Small rolling lectern desks or computer carts with tiny desktops provide just enough room for a laptop computer and a mouse pad. Computer desks are typically mass-produced and require some self-assembly. The computer itself is normally separate from the desk, which is designed to hold a typically sized computer, monitor and accessories. Cabling must be routed through the channels and access openings by the user or installer. A small number of computers are built within a desk made specially for them, like the British i-desk. Various proposals for the "Office of the future" suggested other integrated designs, but these have not been taken up. A rolling chair table configuration offers mobility and improved access in situations where a desk is not convenient. Gyratory computer tables can be used over a bed. Modular computer tables separate user interface elements from the computing and network connection, allowing more placement flexibility. The modules are connected via wireless technology. Ergonomic desk The ergonomic desk is a modern desk form which, like the adjustable drawing table or drafting table, offers mechanical adjustments for the placement of its elements in order to maximize user comfort and efficiency. The ergonomic desk is usually a "stand-alone" piece of furniture allowing access to the adjustment mechanisms. Some ergonomic desks have a sufficiently large desktop height adjustment to create either a common "sit-down" desk or a less common standing desk, which allows the user to work while standing. The ergonomic desk is usually a close companion to the ergonomic chair. The ergonomic desk originated with the beginning of the field of human factors or ergonomics after World War II. Legislation stating minimal requirements for furniture used by office workers referred to ergonomic desk standards. The desk area should be deep enough to accommodate a monitor placed at least 20 inches away from your eyes.[1] Health and safety diagram modeling a positioning scheme for seating, viewing, and hand placement Some research has indicated that the placement of computer desks in an office environment can influence workers' happiness and productivity.[2] Having an appropriate chair increases comfort and can reduce work-related injuries and pain." (wikipedia.org) "Small office/home office (or single office/home office; sometimes short SOHO) refers to the category of business or cottage industry that involves from 1 to 10 workers. In New Zealand, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) defines a small office as 6–19 employees and a micro office as 1–5.[1] History Before the 19th century, and the spread of the industrial revolution around the globe, nearly all offices were small offices and/or home offices, with only a few exceptions. Most businesses were small, and the paperwork that accompanied them was limited. The industrial revolution aggregated workers in factories, to mass-produce goods. In most circumstances, the white collar counterpart—office work—was aggregated as well in large buildings, usually in cities or densely populated suburban areas. Beginning in the mid-1980s, the advent of the personal computer and fax machine, plus breakthroughs in telecommunications, created opportunities for office workers to decentralize. Decentralization was also perceived as benefiting employers in terms of lower overheads and potentially greater productivity. Professions Many consultants and the members of such professions like lawyers, real estate agents, and surveyors in small and medium-sized towns operate from home offices. Several ranges of products, such as the armoire desk, all-in-one printer, virtual assistants, home servers and network-attached storage are designed specifically for the SOHO market. A number of books and magazines have been published and marketed specifically at this type of office. These range from general advice texts to specific guidebooks on such challenges as setting up a small PBX for the office telephones. Technology has also created a demand for larger businesses to employ individuals who work from home. Sometimes these people remain as independent businesspersons, and sometimes they become employees of a larger company. The small office home office has undergone a transformation since its advent as the Internet has enabled anyone working from a home office to compete globally. Technology has made this possible through email, the World-Wide Web, e-commerce, videoconferencing, remote desktop software, VPN, VLAN, webinar systems, and telephone connections by VOIP. Due to the increase in small and home offices, web services and standard business software have been created to directly assist smaller businesses in standard business practice [2][3] In many countries, a home office can be claimed as a tax deduction only if office space and supplies are not provided by a corporate office." (wikipedia.org) "Ikea Is Killing Every Startup’s Favorite Desk Maya Kosoff ikea galant desk Flickr/The Shopping Sherpa Ikea's "Galant" desk, favored by startups everywhere, will soon disappear from Ikea stores. "As of now, we are not producing any more Galant desks," Janice Simonsen, Ikea's U.S. product public relations representative told Business Insider. Ikea is phasing out the Galant desks and replacing them with a new, similar-looking series of desks. The Bekant will start appearing in stores next week, and will be available in all Ikea stores by October. The Ikea website is already referring to the page displaying the rest of its Galant desks as "the Galant/Bekant system." The Galant desk, minimalistic in its design and easily customizable, is used the world over—most notably in the offices of startups. Tomorrow Focus, the publisher of the Huffington Post in Germany, has several news rooms full of the desks. Business Insider does, too. As early as November 2013, Ikea forums began buzzing with rumors of Ikea discontinuing the Galant desk line. Similar rumors of the Galant's demise resurfaced on Twitter earlier this summer.     Ikea discontinuing Galant desks. Startups all over start to mourn.     — TK (@Tawheed) June 10, 2014 "People will like the Bekant just as much, if not better than the Galant line," Simonsen said." (businessinsider.com) "A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as programs. These programs enable computers to perform a wide range of tasks. A computer system is a nominally complete computer that includes the hardware, operating system (main software), and peripheral equipment needed and used for full operation. This term may also refer to a group of computers that are linked and function together, such as a computer network or computer cluster. A broad range of industrial and consumer products use computers as control systems. Simple special-purpose devices like microwave ovens and remote controls are included, as are factory devices like industrial robots and computer-aided design, as well as general-purpose devices like personal computers and mobile devices like smartphones. Computers power the Internet, which links billions of other computers and users. Early computers were meant to be used only for calculations. Simple manual instruments like the abacus have aided people in doing calculations since ancient times. Early in the Industrial Revolution, some mechanical devices were built to automate long, tedious tasks, such as guiding patterns for looms. More sophisticated electrical machines did specialized analog calculations in the early 20th century. The first digital electronic calculating machines were developed during World War II. The first semiconductor transistors in the late 1940s were followed by the silicon-based MOSFET (MOS transistor) and monolithic integrated circuit chip technologies in the late 1950s, leading to the microprocessor and the microcomputer revolution in the 1970s. The speed, power and versatility of computers have been increasing dramatically ever since then, with transistor counts increasing at a rapid pace (as predicted by Moore's law), leading to the Digital Revolution during the late 20th to early 21st centuries. Conventionally, a modern computer consists of at least one processing element, typically a central processing unit (CPU) in the form of a microprocessor, along with some type of computer memory, typically semiconductor memory chips. The processing element carries out arithmetic and logical operations, and a sequencing and control unit can change the order of operations in response to stored information. Peripheral devices include input devices (keyboards, mice, joystick, etc.), output devices (monitor screens, printers, etc.), and input/output devices that perform both functions (e.g., the 2000s-era touchscreen). Peripheral devices allow information to be retrieved from an external source and they enable the result of operations to be saved and retrieved. Etymology A human computer. A human computer, with microscope and calculator, 1952 According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first known use of computer was in a 1613 book called The Yong Mans Gleanings by the English writer Richard Brathwait: "I haue [sic] read the truest computer of Times, and the best Arithmetician that euer [sic] breathed, and he reduceth thy dayes into a short number." This usage of the term referred to a human computer, a person who carried out calculations or computations. The word continued with the same meaning until the middle of the 20th century. During the latter part of this period women were often hired as computers because they could be paid less than their male counterparts.[1] By 1943, most human computers were women.[2] The Online Etymology Dictionary gives the first attested use of computer in the 1640s, meaning 'one who calculates'; this is an "agent noun from compute (v.)". The Online Etymology Dictionary states that the use of the term to mean "'calculating machine' (of any type) is from 1897." The Online Etymology Dictionary indicates that the "modern use" of the term, to mean 'programmable digital electronic computer' dates from "1945 under this name; [in a] theoretical [sense] from 1937, as Turing machine".... Types See also: Classes of computers Computers can be classified in a number of different ways, including: By architecture     Analog computer     Digital computer     Hybrid computer     Harvard architecture     Von Neumann architecture     Complex instruction set computer     Reduced instruction set computer By size, form-factor and purpose     Supercomputer     Mainframe computer     Minicomputer (term no longer used),[93] Midrange computer     Server         Rackmount server         Blade server         Tower server     Personal computer         Workstation         Microcomputer (term no longer used)[94]             Home computer (term fallen into disuse)[95]         Desktop computer             Tower desktop             Slimline desktop                 Multimedia computer (non-linear editing system computers, video editing PCs and the like, this term is no longer used)[96]                 Gaming computer             All-in-one PC             Nettop (Small form factor PCs, Mini PCs)             Home theater PC             Keyboard computer             Portable computer             Thin client             Internet appliance         Laptop             Desktop replacement computer             Gaming laptop             Rugged laptop             2-in-1 PC             Ultrabook             Chromebook             Subnotebook             Netbook     Mobile computers:         Tablet computer         Smartphone         Ultra-mobile PC         Pocket PC         Palmtop PC         Handheld PC     Wearable computer         Smartwatch         Smartglasses     Single-board computer     Plug computer     Stick PC     Programmable logic controller     Computer-on-module     System on module     System in a package     System-on-chip (Also known as an Application Processor or AP if it lacks circuitry such as radio circuitry)     Microcontroller Hardware Main articles: Computer hardware, Personal computer hardware, Central processing unit, and Microprocessor Video demonstrating the standard components of a "slimline" computer The term hardware covers all of those parts of a computer that are tangible physical objects. Circuits, computer chips, graphic cards, sound cards, memory (RAM), motherboard, displays, power supplies, cables, keyboards, printers and "mice" input devices are all hardware. ...     Create account     Log in Personal tools Contents (Top) Etymology History Types Hardware Software Networking and the Internet Unconventional computers Future     Professions and organizations     See also     Notes     References     Sources     External links Computer     Article     Talk     Read     View source     View history Page semi-protected From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from Computers) For other uses, see Computer (disambiguation). setting the input parameters A Colossus Mark 2 computer being operated by Dorothy Du Boisson (left) and Elsie Booker (right), 1943 Man replacing one vacuum tube out of hundreds in early computer Rows of large, dark computer cabinets in warehouse-like room Purple video game console with attached controller Smartphone with rainbow-like display held in a hand Computers and computing devices from different eras. Top row: automatic mechanical calculator (1820) (difference engine), first-generation computer (Colossus computer) Middle row: early vacuum tube computer (ENIAC), supercomputer (IBM Summit) Bottom row: video game console (Nintendo GameCube), smartphone (LYF Water 2) A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as programs. These programs enable computers to perform a wide range of tasks. A computer system is a nominally complete computer that includes the hardware, operating system (main software), and peripheral equipment needed and used for full operation. This term may also refer to a group of computers that are linked and function together, such as a computer network or computer cluster. A broad range of industrial and consumer products use computers as control systems. Simple special-purpose devices like microwave ovens and remote controls are included, as are factory devices like industrial robots and computer-aided design, as well as general-purpose devices like personal computers and mobile devices like smartphones. Computers power the Internet, which links billions of other computers and users. Early computers were meant to be used only for calculations. Simple manual instruments like the abacus have aided people in doing calculations since ancient times. Early in the Industrial Revolution, some mechanical devices were built to automate long, tedious tasks, such as guiding patterns for looms. More sophisticated electrical machines did specialized analog calculations in the early 20th century. The first digital electronic calculating machines were developed during World War II. The first semiconductor transistors in the late 1940s were followed by the silicon-based MOSFET (MOS transistor) and monolithic integrated circuit chip technologies in the late 1950s, leading to the microprocessor and the microcomputer revolution in the 1970s. The speed, power and versatility of computers have been increasing dramatically ever since then, with transistor counts increasing at a rapid pace (as predicted by Moore's law), leading to the Digital Revolution during the late 20th to early 21st centuries. Conventionally, a modern computer consists of at least one processing element, typically a central processing unit (CPU) in the form of a microprocessor, along with some type of computer memory, typically semiconductor memory chips. The processing element carries out arithmetic and logical operations, and a sequencing and control unit can change the order of operations in response to stored information. Peripheral devices include input devices (keyboards, mice, joystick, etc.), output devices (monitor screens, printers, etc.), and input/output devices that perform both functions (e.g., the 2000s-era touchscreen). Peripheral devices allow information to be retrieved from an external source and they enable the result of operations to be saved and retrieved. Etymology A human computer. A human computer, with microscope and calculator, 1952 According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first known use of computer was in a 1613 book called The Yong Mans Gleanings by the English writer Richard Brathwait: "I haue [sic] read the truest computer of Times, and the best Arithmetician that euer [sic] breathed, and he reduceth thy dayes into a short number." This usage of the term referred to a human computer, a person who carried out calculations or computations. The word continued with the same meaning until the middle of the 20th century. During the latter part of this period women were often hired as computers because they could be paid less than their male counterparts.[1] By 1943, most human computers were women.[2] The Online Etymology Dictionary gives the first attested use of computer in the 1640s, meaning 'one who calculates'; this is an "agent noun from compute (v.)". The Online Etymology Dictionary states that the use of the term to mean "'calculating machine' (of any type) is from 1897." The Online Etymology Dictionary indicates that the "modern use" of the term, to mean 'programmable digital electronic computer' dates from "1945 under this name; [in a] theoretical [sense] from 1937, as Turing machine".[3] History Main articles: History of computing and History of computing hardware For a chronological guide, see Timeline of computing. Pre-20th century The Ishango bone, a bone tool dating back to prehistoric Africa Devices have been used to aid computation for thousands of years, mostly using one-to-one correspondence with fingers. The earliest counting device was most likely a form of tally stick. Later record keeping aids throughout the Fertile Crescent included calculi (clay spheres, cones, etc.) which represented counts of items, likely livestock or grains, sealed in hollow unbaked clay containers.[a][4] The use of counting rods is one example. The Chinese suanpan (算盘). The number represented on this abacus is 6,302,715,408. The abacus was initially used for arithmetic tasks. The Roman abacus was developed from devices used in Babylonia as early as 2400 BC. Since then, many other forms of reckoning boards or tables have been invented. In a medieval European counting house, a checkered cloth would be placed on a table, and markers moved around on it according to certain rules, as an aid to calculating sums of money.[5] The Antikythera mechanism, dating back to ancient Greece circa 150–100 BC, is an early analog computing device. The Antikythera mechanism is believed to be the earliest known mechanical analog computer, according to Derek J. de Solla Price.[6] It was designed to calculate astronomical positions. It was discovered in 1901 in the Antikythera wreck off the Greek island of Antikythera, between Kythera and Crete, and has been dated to approximately c. 100 BC. Devices of comparable complexity to the Antikythera mechanism would not reappear until the fourteenth century.[7] Many mechanical aids to calculation and measurement were constructed for astronomical and navigation use. The planisphere was a star chart invented by Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī in the early 11th century.[8] The astrolabe was invented in the Hellenistic world in either the 1st or 2nd centuries BC and is often attributed to Hipparchus. A combination of the planisphere and dioptra, the astrolabe was effectively an analog computer capable of working out several different kinds of problems in spherical astronomy. An astrolabe incorporating a mechanical calendar computer[9][10] and gear-wheels was invented by Abi Bakr of Isfahan, Persia in 1235.[11] Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī invented the first mechanical geared lunisolar calendar astrolabe,[12] an early fixed-wired knowledge processing machine[13] with a gear train and gear-wheels,[14] c. 1000 AD. The sector, a calculating instrument used for solving problems in proportion, trigonometry, multiplication and division, and for various functions, such as squares and cube roots, was developed in the late 16th century and found application in gunnery, surveying and navigation. The planimeter was a manual instrument to calculate the area of a closed figure by tracing over it with a mechanical linkage. A slide rule The slide rule was invented around 1620–1630 by the English clergyman William Oughtred, shortly after the publication of the concept of the logarithm. It is a hand-operated analog computer for doing multiplication and division. As slide rule development progressed, added scales provided reciprocals, squares and square roots, cubes and cube roots, as well as transcendental functions such as logarithms and exponentials, circular and hyperbolic trigonometry and other functions. Slide rules with special scales are still used for quick performance of routine calculations, such as the E6B circular slide rule used for time and distance calculations on light aircraft. In the 1770s, Pierre Jaquet-Droz, a Swiss watchmaker, built a mechanical doll (automaton) that could write holding a quill pen. By switching the number and order of its internal wheels different letters, and hence different messages, could be produced. In effect, it could be mechanically "programmed" to read instructions. Along with two other complex machines, the doll is at the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, and still operates.[15] In 1831–1835, mathematician and engineer Giovanni Plana devised a Perpetual Calendar machine, which, through a system of pulleys and cylinders and over, could predict the perpetual calendar for every year from AD 0 (that is, 1 BC) to AD 4000, keeping track of leap years and varying day length. The tide-predicting machine invented by the Scottish scientist Sir William Thomson in 1872 was of great utility to navigation in shallow waters. It used a system of pulleys and wires to automatically calculate predicted tide levels for a set period at a particular location. The differential analyser, a mechanical analog computer designed to solve differential equations by integration, used wheel-and-disc mechanisms to perform the integration. In 1876, Sir William Thomson had already discussed the possible construction of such calculators, but he had been stymied by the limited output torque of the ball-and-disk integrators.[16] In a differential analyzer, the output of one integrator drove the input of the next integrator, or a graphing output. The torque amplifier was the advance that allowed these machines to work. Starting in the 1920s, Vannevar Bush and others developed mechanical differential analyzers. First computer A portion of Babbage's Difference engine Charles Babbage, an English mechanical engineer and polymath, originated the concept of a programmable computer. Considered the "father of the computer",[17] he conceptualized and invented the first mechanical computer in the early 19th century. After working on his revolutionary difference engine, designed to aid in navigational calculations, in 1833 he realized that a much more general design, an Analytical Engine, was possible. The input of programs and data was to be provided to the machine via punched cards, a method being used at the time to direct mechanical looms such as the Jacquard loom. For output, the machine would have a printer, a curve plotter and a bell. The machine would also be able to punch numbers onto cards to be read in later. The Engine incorporated an arithmetic logic unit, control flow in the form of conditional branching and loops, and integrated memory, making it the first design for a general-purpose computer that could be described in modern terms as Turing-complete.[18][19] The machine was about a century ahead of its time. All the parts for his machine had to be made by hand – this was a major problem for a device with thousands of parts. Eventually, the project was dissolved with the decision of the British Government to cease funding. Babbage's failure to complete the analytical engine can be chiefly attributed to political and financial difficulties as well as his desire to develop an increasingly sophisticated computer and to move ahead faster than anyone else could follow. Nevertheless, his son, Henry Babbage, completed a simplified version of the analytical engine's computing unit (the mill) in 1888. He gave a successful demonstration of its use in computing tables in 1906. Analog computers Main article: Analog computer Sir William Thomson's third tide-predicting machine design, 1879–81 During the first half of the 20th century, many scientific computing needs were met by increasingly sophisticated analog computers, which used a direct mechanical or electrical model of the problem as a basis for computation. However, these were not programmable and generally lacked the versatility and accuracy of modern digital computers.[20] The first modern analog computer was a tide-predicting machine, invented by Sir William Thomson (later to become Lord Kelvin) in 1872. The differential analyser, a mechanical analog computer designed to solve differential equations by integration using wheel-and-disc mechanisms, was conceptualized in 1876 by James Thomson, the elder brother of the more famous Sir William Thomson.[16] The art of mechanical analog computing reached its zenith with the differential analyzer, built by H. L. Hazen and Vannevar Bush at MIT starting in 1927. This built on the mechanical integrators of James Thomson and the torque amplifiers invented by H. W. Nieman. A dozen of these devices were built before their obsolescence became obvious. By the 1950s, the success of digital electronic computers had spelled the end for most analog computing machines, but analog computers remained in use during the 1950s in some specialized applications such as education (slide rule) and aircraft (control systems). Digital computers Electromechanical By 1938, the United States Navy had developed an electromechanical analog computer small enough to use aboard a submarine. This was the Torpedo Data Computer, which used trigonometry to solve the problem of firing a torpedo at a moving target. During World War II similar devices were developed in other countries as well. Replica of Konrad Zuse's Z3, the first fully automatic, digital (electromechanical) computer Early digital computers were electromechanical; electric switches drove mechanical relays to perform the calculation. These devices had a low operating speed and were eventually superseded by much faster all-electric computers, originally using vacuum tubes. The Z2, created by German engineer Konrad Zuse in 1939 in Berlin, was one of the earliest examples of an electromechanical relay computer.[21] Konrad Zuse, inventor of the modern computer[22][23] In 1941, Zuse followed his earlier machine up with the Z3, the world's first working electromechanical programmable, fully automatic digital computer.[24][25] The Z3 was built with 2000 relays, implementing a 22 bit word length that operated at a clock frequency of about 5–10 Hz.[26] Program code was supplied on punched film while data could be stored in 64 words of memory or supplied from the keyboard. It was quite similar to modern machines in some respects, pioneering numerous advances such as floating-point numbers. Rather than the harder-to-implement decimal system (used in Charles Babbage's earlier design), using a binary system meant that Zuse's machines were easier to build and potentially more reliable, given the technologies available at that time.[27] The Z3 was not itself a universal computer but could be extended to be Turing complete.[28][29] Zuse's next computer, the Z4, became the world's first commercial computer; after initial delay due to the Second World War, it was completed in 1950 and delivered to the ETH Zurich.[30] The computer was manufactured by Zuse's own company, Zuse KG [de], which was founded in 1941 as the first company with the sole purpose of developing computers.[30] Vacuum tubes and digital electronic circuits Purely electronic circuit elements soon replaced their mechanical and electromechanical equivalents, at the same time that digital calculation replaced analog. The engineer Tommy Flowers, working at the Post Office Research Station in London in the 1930s, began to explore the possible use of electronics for the telephone exchange. Experimental equipment that he built in 1934 went into operation five years later, converting a portion of the telephone exchange network into an electronic data processing system, using thousands of vacuum tubes.[20] In the US, John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford E. Berry of Iowa State University developed and tested the Atanasoff–Berry Computer (ABC) in 1942,[31] the first "automatic electronic digital computer".[32] This design was also all-electronic and used about 300 vacuum tubes, with capacitors fixed in a mechanically rotating drum for memory.[33] Two women are seen by the Colossus computer. Colossus, the first electronic digital programmable computing device, was used to break German ciphers during World War II. It is seen here in use at Bletchley Park in 1943. During World War II, the British code-breakers at Bletchley Park achieved a number of successes at breaking encrypted German military communications. The German encryption machine, Enigma, was first attacked with the help of the electro-mechanical bombes which were often run by women.[34][35] To crack the more sophisticated German Lorenz SZ 40/42 machine, used for high-level Army communications, Max Newman and his colleagues commissioned Flowers to build the Colossus.[33] He spent eleven months from early February 1943 designing and building the first Colossus.[36] After a functional test in December 1943, Colossus was shipped to Bletchley Park, where it was delivered on 18 January 1944[37] and attacked its first message on 5 February.[33] Colossus was the world's first electronic digital programmable computer.[20] It used a large number of valves (vacuum tubes). It had paper-tape input and was capable of being configured to perform a variety of boolean logical operations on its data, but it was not Turing-complete. Nine Mk II Colossi were built (The Mk I was converted to a Mk II making ten machines in total). Colossus Mark I contained 1,500 thermionic valves (tubes), but Mark II with 2,400 valves, was both five times faster and simpler to operate than Mark I, greatly speeding the decoding process.[38][39] ENIAC was the first electronic, Turing-complete device, and performed ballistics trajectory calculations for the United States Army. The ENIAC[40] (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was the first electronic programmable computer built in the U.S. Although the ENIAC was similar to the Colossus, it was much faster, more flexible, and it was Turing-complete. Like the Colossus, a "program" on the ENIAC was defined by the states of its patch cables and switches, a far cry from the stored program electronic machines that came later. Once a program was written, it had to be mechanically set into the machine with manual resetting of plugs and switches. The programmers of the ENIAC were six women, often known collectively as the "ENIAC girls".[41][42] It combined the high speed of electronics with the ability to be programmed for many complex problems. It could add or subtract 5000 times a second, a thousand times faster than any other machine. It also had modules to multiply, divide, and square root. High speed memory was limited to 20 words (about 80 bytes). Built under the direction of John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert at the University of Pennsylvania, ENIAC's development and construction lasted from 1943 to full operation at the end of 1945. The machine was huge, weighing 30 tons, using 200 kilowatts of electric power and contained over 18,000 vacuum tubes, 1,500 relays, and hundreds of thousands of resistors, capacitors, and inductors.[43] Modern computers Concept of modern computer The principle of the modern computer was proposed by Alan Turing in his seminal 1936 paper,[44] On Computable Numbers. Turing proposed a simple device that he called "Universal Computing machine" and that is now known as a universal Turing machine. He proved that such a machine is capable of computing anything that is computable by executing instructions (program) stored on tape, allowing the machine to be programmable. The fundamental concept of Turing's design is the stored program, where all the instructions for computing are stored in memory. Von Neumann acknowledged that the central concept of the modern computer was due to this paper.[45] Turing machines are to this day a central object of study in theory of computation. Except for the limitations imposed by their finite memory stores, modern computers are said to be Turing-complete, which is to say, they have algorithm execution capability equivalent to a universal Turing machine. Stored programs Main article: Stored-program computer Three tall racks containing electronic circuit boards A section of the reconstructed Manchester Baby, the first electronic stored-program computer Early computing machines had fixed programs. Changing its function required the re-wiring and re-structuring of the machine.[33] With the proposal of the stored-program computer this changed. A stored-program computer includes by design an instruction set and can store in memory a set of instructions (a program) that details the computation. The theoretical basis for the stored-program computer was laid out by Alan Turing in his 1936 paper. In 1945, Turing joined the National Physical Laboratory and began work on developing an electronic stored-program digital computer. His 1945 report "Proposed Electronic Calculator" was the first specification for such a device. John von Neumann at the University of Pennsylvania also circulated his First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC in 1945.[20] The Manchester Baby was the world's first stored-program computer. It was built at the University of Manchester in England by Frederic C. Williams, Tom Kilburn and Geoff Tootill, and ran its first program on 21 June 1948.[46] It was designed as a testbed for the Williams tube, the first random-access digital storage device.[47] Although the computer was described as "small and primitive" by a 1998 retrospective, it was the first working machine to contain all of the elements essential to a modern electronic computer.[48] As soon as the Baby had demonstrated the feasibility of its design, a project began at the university to develop it into a practically useful computer, the Manchester Mark 1. The Mark 1 in turn quickly became the prototype for the Ferranti Mark 1, the world's first commercially available general-purpose computer.[49] Built by Ferranti, it was delivered to the University of Manchester in February 1951. At least seven of these later machines were delivered between 1953 and 1957, one of them to Shell labs in Amsterdam.[50] In October 1947 the directors of British catering company J. Lyons & Company decided to take an active role in promoting the commercial development of computers. Lyons's LEO I computer, modelled closely on the Cambridge EDSAC of 1949, became operational in April 1951[51] and ran the world's first routine office computer job. Grace Hopper was the first to develop a compiler for a programming language.[2] Transistors Main articles: Transistor and History of the transistor Further information: Transistor computer and MOSFET Bipolar junction transistor (BJT) The concept of a field-effect transistor was proposed by Julius Edgar Lilienfeld in 1925. John Bardeen and Walter Brattain, while working under William Shockley at Bell Labs, built the first working transistor, the point-contact transistor, in 1947, which was followed by Shockley's bipolar junction transistor in 1948.[52][53] From 1955 onwards, transistors replaced vacuum tubes in computer designs, giving rise to the "second generation" of computers. Compared to vacuum tubes, transistors have many advantages: they are smaller, and require less power than vacuum tubes, so give off less heat. Junction transistors were much more reliable than vacuum tubes and had longer, indefinite, service life. Transistorized computers could contain tens of thousands of binary logic circuits in a relatively compact space. However, early junction transistors were relatively bulky devices that were difficult to manufacture on a mass-production basis, which limited them to a number of specialised applications.[54] At the University of Manchester, a team under the leadership of Tom Kilburn designed and built a machine using the newly developed transistors instead of valves.[55] Their first transistorised computer and the first in the world, was operational by 1953, and a second version was completed there in April 1955. However, the machine did make use of valves to generate its 125 kHz clock waveforms and in the circuitry to read and write on its magnetic drum memory, so it was not the first completely transistorized computer. That distinction goes to the Harwell CADET of 1955,[56] built by the electronics division of the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell.[56][57] MOSFET (MOS transistor), showing gate (G), body (B), source (S) and drain (D) terminals. The gate is separated from the body by an insulating layer (pink). The metal–oxide–silicon field-effect transistor (MOSFET), also known as the MOS transistor, was invented by Mohamed M. Atalla and Dawon Kahng at Bell Labs in 1959.[58] It was the first truly compact transistor that could be miniaturised and mass-produced for a wide range of uses.[54] With its high scalability,[59] and much lower power consumption and higher density than bipolar junction transistors,[60] the MOSFET made it possible to build high-density integrated circuits.[61][62] In addition to data processing, it also enabled the practical use of MOS transistors as memory cell storage elements, leading to the development of MOS semiconductor memory, which replaced earlier magnetic-core memory in computers. The MOSFET led to the microcomputer revolution,[63] and became the driving force behind the computer revolution.[64][65] The MOSFET is the most widely used transistor in computers,[66][67] and is the fundamental building block of digital electronics.[68] Integrated circuits Main articles: Integrated circuit and Invention of the integrated circuit Further information: Planar process and Microprocessor MOS 6502 computer chip die photograph Die photograph of a MOS 6502, an early 1970s microprocessor integrating 3500 transistors on a single chip MOS 6502 computer chip in 'DIP' package Integrated circuits are typically packaged in plastic, metal, or ceramic cases to protect the IC from damage and for ease of assembly. The next great advance in computing power came with the advent of the integrated circuit (IC). The idea of the integrated circuit was first conceived by a radar scientist working for the Royal Radar Establishment of the Ministry of Defence, Geoffrey W.A. Dummer. Dummer presented the first public description of an integrated circuit at the Symposium on Progress in Quality Electronic Components in Washington, D.C. on 7 May 1952.[69] The first working ICs were invented by Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments and Robert Noyce at Fairchild Semiconductor.[70] Kilby recorded his initial ideas concerning the integrated circuit in July 1958, successfully demonstrating the first working integrated example on 12 September 1958.[71] In his patent application of 6 February 1959, Kilby described his new device as "a body of semiconductor material ... wherein all the components of the electronic circuit are completely integrated".[72][73] However, Kilby's invention was a hybrid integrated circuit (hybrid IC), rather than a monolithic integrated circuit (IC) chip.[74] Kilby's IC had external wire connections, which made it difficult to mass-produce.[75] Noyce also came up with his own idea of an integrated circuit half a year later than Kilby.[76] Noyce's invention was the first true monolithic IC chip.[77][75] His chip solved many practical problems that Kilby's had not. Produced at Fairchild Semiconductor, it was made of silicon, whereas Kilby's chip was made of germanium. Noyce's monolithic IC was fabricated using the planar process, developed by his colleague Jean Hoerni in early 1959. In turn, the planar process was based on Mohamed M. Atalla's work on semiconductor surface passivation by silicon dioxide in the late 1950s.[78][79][80] Modern monolithic ICs are predominantly MOS (metal–oxide–semiconductor) integrated circuits, built from MOSFETs (MOS transistors).[81] The earliest experimental MOS IC to be fabricated was a 16-transistor chip built by Fred Heiman and Steven Hofstein at RCA in 1962.[82] General Microelectronics later introduced the first commercial MOS IC in 1964,[83] developed by Robert Norman.[82] Following the development of the self-aligned gate (silicon-gate) MOS transistor by Robert Kerwin, Donald Klein and John Sarace at Bell Labs in 1967, the first silicon-gate MOS IC with self-aligned gates was developed by Federico Faggin at Fairchild Semiconductor in 1968.[84] The MOSFET has since become the most critical device component in modern ICs.[81] The development of the MOS integrated circuit led to the invention of the microprocessor,[85][86] and heralded an explosion in the commercial and personal use of computers. While the subject of exactly which device was the first microprocessor is contentious, partly due to lack of agreement on the exact definition of the term "microprocessor", it is largely undisputed that the first single-chip microprocessor was the Intel 4004,[87] designed and realized by Federico Faggin with his silicon-gate MOS IC technology,[85] along with Ted Hoff, Masatoshi Shima and Stanley Mazor at Intel.[b][89] In the early 1970s, MOS IC technology enabled the integration of more than 10,000 transistors on a single chip.[62] System on a Chip (SoCs) are complete computers on a microchip (or chip) the size of a coin.[90] They may or may not have integrated RAM and flash memory. If not integrated, the RAM is usually placed directly above (known as Package on package) or below (on the opposite side of the circuit board) the SoC, and the flash memory is usually placed right next to the SoC, this all done to improve data transfer speeds, as the data signals don't have to travel long distances. Since ENIAC in 1945, computers have advanced enormously, with modern SoCs (Such as the Snapdragon 865) being the size of a coin while also being hundreds of thousands of times more powerful than ENIAC, integrating billions of transistors, and consuming only a few watts of power. Mobile computers The first mobile computers were heavy and ran from mains power. The 50 lb (23 kg) IBM 5100 was an early example. Later portables such as the Osborne 1 and Compaq Portable were considerably lighter but still needed to be plugged in. The first laptops, such as the Grid Compass, removed this requirement by incorporating batteries – and with the continued miniaturization of computing resources and advancements in portable battery life, portable computers grew in popularity in the 2000s.[91] The same developments allowed manufacturers to integrate computing resources into cellular mobile phones by the early 2000s. These smartphones and tablets run on a variety of operating systems and recently became the dominant computing device on the market.[92] These are powered by System on a Chip (SoCs), which are complete computers on a microchip the size of a coin.[90] Types See also: Classes of computers Computers can be classified in a number of different ways, including: By architecture     Analog computer     Digital computer     Hybrid computer     Harvard architecture     Von Neumann architecture     Complex instruction set computer     Reduced instruction set computer By size, form-factor and purpose     Supercomputer     Mainframe computer     Minicomputer (term no longer used),[93] Midrange computer     Server         Rackmount server         Blade server         Tower server     Personal computer         Workstation         Microcomputer (term no longer used)[94]             Home computer (term fallen into disuse)[95]         Desktop computer             Tower desktop             Slimline desktop                 Multimedia computer (non-linear editing system computers, video editing PCs and the like, this term is no longer used)[96]                 Gaming computer             All-in-one PC             Nettop (Small form factor PCs, Mini PCs)             Home theater PC             Keyboard computer             Portable computer             Thin client             Internet appliance         Laptop             Desktop replacement computer             Gaming laptop             Rugged laptop             2-in-1 PC             Ultrabook             Chromebook             Subnotebook             Netbook     Mobile computers:         Tablet computer         Smartphone         Ultra-mobile PC         Pocket PC         Palmtop PC         Handheld PC     Wearable computer         Smartwatch         Smartglasses     Single-board computer     Plug computer     Stick PC     Programmable logic controller     Computer-on-module     System on module     System in a package     System-on-chip (Also known as an Application Processor or AP if it lacks circuitry such as radio circuitry)     Microcontroller Hardware Main articles: Computer hardware, Personal computer hardware, Central processing unit, and Microprocessor Video demonstrating the standard components of a "slimline" computer The term hardware covers all of those parts of a computer that are tangible physical objects. Circuits, computer chips, graphic cards, sound cards, memory (RAM), motherboard, displays, power supplies, cables, keyboards, printers and "mice" input devices are all hardware. History of computing hardware Main article: History of computing hardware First generation (mechanical/electromechanical)     Calculators     Pascal's calculator, Arithmometer, Difference engine, Quevedo's analytical machines Programmable devices     Jacquard loom, Analytical engine, IBM ASCC/Harvard Mark I, Harvard Mark II, IBM SSEC, Z1, Z2, Z3 Second generation (vacuum tubes)     Calculators     Atanasoff–Berry Computer, IBM 604, UNIVAC 60, UNIVAC 120 Programmable devices     Colossus, ENIAC, Manchester Baby, EDSAC, Manchester Mark 1, Ferranti Pegasus, Ferranti Mercury, CSIRAC, EDVAC, UNIVAC I, IBM 701, IBM 702, IBM 650, Z22 Third generation (discrete transistors and SSI, MSI, LSI integrated circuits)     Mainframes     IBM 7090, IBM 7080, IBM System/360, BUNCH Minicomputer     HP 2116A, IBM System/32, IBM System/36, LINC, PDP-8, PDP-11 Desktop Computer     HP 9100 Fourth generation (VLSI integrated circuits)     Minicomputer     VAX, IBM AS/400 4-bit microcomputer     Intel 4004, Intel 4040 8-bit microcomputer     Intel 8008, Intel 8080, Motorola 6800, Motorola 6809, MOS Technology 6502, Zilog Z80 16-bit microcomputer     Intel 8088, Zilog Z8000, WDC 65816/65802 32-bit microcomputer     Intel 80386, Pentium, Motorola 68000, ARM 64-bit microcomputer[c]     Alpha, MIPS, PA-RISC, PowerPC, SPARC, x86-64, ARMv8-A Embedded computer     Intel 8048, Intel 8051 Personal computer     Desktop computer, Home computer, Laptop computer, Personal digital assistant (PDA), Portable computer, Tablet PC, Wearable computer Theoretical/experimental     Quantum computer     IBM Q System One Chemical computer     DNA computing     Optical computer     Spintronics-based computer     Wetware/Organic computer     Other hardware topics Peripheral device (input/output)     Input     Mouse, keyboard, joystick, image scanner, webcam, graphics tablet, microphone Output     Monitor, printer, loudspeaker Both     Floppy disk drive, hard disk drive, optical disc drive, teleprinter Computer buses     Short range     RS-232, SCSI, PCI, USB Long range (computer networking)     Ethernet, ATM, FDDI A general-purpose computer has four main components: the arithmetic logic unit (ALU), the control unit, the memory, and the input and output devices (collectively termed I/O). These parts are interconnected by buses, often made of groups of wires. Inside each of these parts are thousands to trillions of small electrical circuits which can be turned off or on by means of an electronic switch. Each circuit represents a bit (binary digit) of information so that when the circuit is on it represents a "1", and when off it represents a "0" (in positive logic representation). The circuits are arranged in logic gates so that one or more of the circuits may control the state of one or more of the other circuits. Input devices When unprocessed data is sent to the computer with the help of input devices, the data is processed and sent to output devices. The input devices may be hand-operated or automated. The act of processing is mainly regulated by the CPU. Some examples of input devices are:     Computer keyboard     Digital camera     Digital video     Graphics tablet     Image scanner     Joystick     Microphone     Mouse     Overlay keyboard     Real-time clock     Trackball     Touchscreen     Light pen Output devices The means through which computer gives output are known as output devices. Some examples of output devices are:     Computer monitor     Printer     PC speaker     Projector     Sound card     Video card Control unit" (wikipedia.org) "A gaming computer, also known as a gaming PC, is a specialized personal computer designed for playing video games at high standards. Gaming PCs typically differ from mainstream personal computers by using high-performance video cards, a high core-count central processing units with raw performance and higher-performance RAM. Gaming PCs are also used for other demanding tasks such as video editing.[1] Gamers and computer enthusiasts may choose to overclock their CPUs and GPUs in order to gain extra performance. The added power draw needed to overclock either processing units often requires additional cooling, usually by air cooling or water cooling.[2] 65.1 million gaming products have been sold overall as of 2021, of which 27.9 million are gaming notebooks, 19.7 million are gaming monitors, and 17.5 million are gaming desktops.[3] History The Nimrod, designed by John Makepeace Bennett, built by Raymond Stuart-Williams and exhibited in the 1951 Festival of Britain, is considered to be the first gaming computer to ever be conceived. Bennett did not intend for it to be a real gaming computer, however, as it was supposed to be an exercise in mathematics as well as to prove computers could "carry out very complex practical problems", not purely for enjoyment.[4] Few years later, game consoles like the Magnavox Odyssey (released in 1972) and the Atari 2600 (released 1977) were the basis of the future of not just gaming consoles, but gaming computers as well with their increasing popularity with families everywhere.[5] The first "modern" computer was made in 1942, the Atanasoff–Berry Computer (ABC for short). Unlike modern desktops and laptops, the ABC was a gargantuan machine that occupied "1,800 square feet… weighing almost 50 tons",[6] . When the Apple II and the Commodore 64 released in 1977 and 1982 respectively, personal computers became more appealing for general consumer use.[7] The Apple II cost around US$1,298 in 1977 ($5,633 adjusted for inflation in 2021) and the Commodore 64 cost around US$595 (equivalent to $1,671 in 2021), making it expensive for most consumers.[citation needed] However, their overall computing power, efficiency, and compact size was more advanced from even the most advanced computers at the time.[citation needed] Today, many companies and manufacturers offer gaming computers in a variety of configurations. For instance, Dell has their gaming computer division, Alienware, which formed in 1997, HP with their OMEN division, whose lineage dates back to 1991 under the defunct brand VoodooPC, Lenovo with their Legion PCs, Asus with their own TUF and ROG PCs, Acer with their special product lines, and Predator, that coexist with the rest of their line-up, and more other brands. These brands aim for affordability, features, build-quality, performance, or a mixture of these for marketing.[citation needed] Hardware The inner workings of a desktop gaming PC from 2021 The Commodore 64 was the most powerful computer for its time in 1982, featuring an MOS Technology 6510 CPU with 64 kb of RAM. It could display up to "40 columns and 25 lines of text" along with 16 colors on its 320x200 resolution screen.[8] Over time, technology progressed to where these specifications became outdated and computer hardware continued to evolve than what was possible before. Today, many modern general-purpose use computers have basic specifications for the average user, such as a Lenovo Chromebook C340-11, which as 4 GB of RAM, 64 GB of internal storage, a dedicated graphics card, Intel Celeron N4000, and has a 1366x768 resolution screen with some variants offering touch screen capabilities. Gaming computers have much more advanced specifications such as the Alienware Area-51M R2 Gaming Laptop, which features the latest Intel Core i9 processor with 10 cores, a dedicated graphics card with 8 GB of VRAM, 16 GB of RAM, and 512 GB of internal storage. Gaming laptops generally do not offer touch screen displays, since they require a large portion of energy to run which in turn can affect the speed and frame-rate of the game.[9] Form factors Question book-new.svg     This section relies largely or entirely on a single source. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please help improve this article by introducing citations to additional sources. Find sources: "Gaming computer" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (June 2021) A gaming desktop, with a laptop at the bottom left for comparison. Senior editor of Tom's Hardware Andrew Freedman says that "Gaming rigs aren't one-size fits all", and that there are certain instances where a gaming desktop will be more appropriate than a laptop and other circumstances where a laptop is more appropriate than a desktop.[10] Each platform has its pros and cons, which may change depending on a person's needs. For example, someone looking for maximum portability may choose a laptop over a desktop since it is all self-contained in one unit, whereas a desktop setup is split up into multiple components: a monitor, keyboard, mouse, and the desktop itself. Freedman states that laptops are ideal candidates for LAN parties, especially ones equipped with "Nvidia's Max-Q GPUs" which "can easily fit into a backpack and don't pack outrageously large chargers". Upgradeability is another category many PC gamers consider when deciding between a laptop and a desktop. As Freedman states, "you can't build a laptop on your own", as the usable space inside a laptop is much more limited compared to a desktop. There are also less items that can be changed out on a laptop than a desktop, like RAM and storage, compared to a desktop where almost all the components, including motherboards and CPUs, can be swapped out with the latest technology available at the time. The only exception is pre-built desktops, which can use "proprietary motherboards that aren't standard sizes". These uniquely shaped motherboards can limit the owner's capability to upgrade components in the future, but they can still generally change out "the RAM, GPU and… CPU". Another major category PC gamers consider is the cost. Freedman did a basic comparison between two similarly equipped computers, one a laptop and one a desktop. Both had the similar CPUs (an Intel Core I5), GPUs (Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660s except the laptop's was a compact version that could fit within the case), and RAM, but the laptop was $200 more expensive than the desktop and nearly half as much memory as the desktop. The SSD (or solid-state drive) in the laptop is faster than a regular hard-drive though and gaming laptops are ready to start playing once they are configured, whereas desktop PC gamers have to make additional purchases if they only have the computer, not the accessories. People usually buy gaming PCs because they want the performance that is expected to them. The majority of this potential lies in the parts of desktops, which can be overclocked for more performance as well as being able to with stand abuse because of their higher durability. Freedman also states that desktops have "a bigger chassis", which allows for "more fans…for better cooling and heat dissipation", which ultimately leads to stronger performance. Build types See also: Homebuilt computer As stated before, there are options PC gamers take into account when deciding to build their own unit versus buying a pre-built one. There are not many options when it comes to the laptop configuration but they do exist. Jason Clarke, a contributor to Chillblast, points out that there are a number of builders that deal specifically with laptops with some adding configurable features that were not originally so, such as being able to change CPUs and GPUs.[11] It is important to note that these PC builders build from scratch and the possibility to change out CPUs and GPUs after they have been installed is unlikely. Clarke also advises that people should and cannot build their own laptops because of how complex and compact everything is. Many PC gamers and journalists, like Clarke and Freedman, advise people to start with gaming desktops as they are the way to go when seeking pure performance. Pre-built desktops like Alienware's Aurora R11 are ready-to-go systems with a history behind them, but some claim that their systems are over-priced. This is mainly due to the cost of building the PC and ease of access for components for the consumer. Marshall Honorof, a writer for Tom's Guide, explains that the steps on how to build a gaming PC from scratch "can be a daunting process, particularly for newcomers" but it could be one of the best technological decisions someone can make. According to his research, Honorof found that $1,500 is enough to buy a "powerful, but not quite top-of-the-line" computer and one can choose his or her own components." (wikipedia.org) "Enthusiast computing refers to a group of people who build high-end personal computers that facilitate gaming, stock trading, video editing, music creation and editing, photograph editing, programming, remote work, cryptocurrency mining, and other hardware-intensive applications. Elements of an enthusiast computer may include cutting edge CPU(s), GPU(s), screen(s), cooling devices, cases, motherboard(s), input devices, computer memory, computer storage, virtual reality headsets, network cards, haptics, power supplies, and peripheral devices. Many manufacturers address this market by producing state of the art offerings which can then be integrated into a custom build. Influence of gaming See also: Gaming computer Games have historically been the driving force behind the rapid pace of consumer hardware development. For example, The 7th Guest and Myst helped drive the adoption of CD-ROMs.[1][2] Intel and AMD both incorporated instruction sets such as MMX, 3DNow!, and Streaming SIMD Extensions into their processors to support the PC's growing role as a home entertainment device. More recently,[when?] however, other types of applications have piqued the interest of computing enthusiasts. Scientific distributed computing tools such as Folding@home, GIMPS, and SETI@home, along with other computationally intensive tasks, including cryptocurrency mining, may also push CPUs and GPUs to their limits, and may also serve as a means of competition, such as tracking how many data sets a user has completed. Costs An enthusiast PC implies the early adoption of new hardware, which is sold at a premium price. As an example, the video card ATI Radeon 9700 Pro was released at US$399 in 2002.[3] Many gaming PCs support the use of multiple video cards in SLI or CrossFire, making it possible to spend thousands of dollars in graphics cards alone.[4] Beyond a certain level of performance, price increases dramatically while offering smaller increases in performance; this is a classic example of diminishing returns. For example, a user who purchased three Nvidia Titan X graphics cards in 2015 would have spent over $4000, while 2016's high-end graphics card offering from Nvidia, the GTX 1080, in three-way SLI would offer a significant increase in performance at less than half the price. Hardware description See also: Homebuilt computer Case, power supply, cooling, and other case accessories Main articles: Computer case, Computer power supply, and Computer cooling Further information: Case modding and Quiet PC As well as the computing components themselves, case and related accessories often form a target for enthusiast attention, for functional and aesthetic reasons. A common design in custom-built gaming PCs incorporates colorful lighting and a clear plastic or tempered glass side window. Computer cases Computer cases, especially of gaming computers, are often selected with care, for their aesthetic and functional value. Functionally, the case must be able to provide cooling for high-end, possibly overclocked components, and have room for expansion and customization. Aesthetically, case modding usually includes features that show off the creator's intent: clear sides to reveal the internal components and layout, which may be adorned with LEDs, images on the graphics cards or power supply units. Computer power supplies Computer power supplies may be selected for very high quality electrical stability and performance, so that the high speed electronics reliant on them will not suffer from irregularities or disruption, and so that high power processors and graphics cards can be properly supplied with the often high levels of current needed. Power supply reviews for enthusiasts may, for example, take apart the item to identify the exact manufacturers of components, the types and sources of capacitors or power regulation circuitry involved, the quality of PCB soldering, and the calibre of any wiring. Cooling systems Cooling systems may receive careful attention, both to ensure high quality airflow and reduced operating temperatures under heavy workloads or intense activity, to support overclocking, and as part of quiet computing as well. Water cooling Water cooling, in which a water is used to cool a part of the computer, is becoming cheaper and more available.[when?] While much more expensive than an ordinary fan, it transfers heat more efficiently and is generally quieter. As building a computer becomes more of an enthusiast activity, due to the rise of tablets, laptops, and cell phones, more cases appeal to water cooling setups. Quiet computing Quiet computing is a specialist aspect of enthusiast activity, whereby the user aims to ensure the computer runs very quietly, with the goal of enjoyable ambience. Fans, hard drives, and any other noisy components may be selected for their acoustic properties, and then mounted in ways that dampen vibration and provide acoustic isolation. Motherboard Main article: Motherboard The motherboard is the circuit board to which nearly all components and peripherals are connected to. It also houses the externally-accessible USB, Ethernet, audio, and display ports, which can be used to connect different peripherals. Every hardware component is connected to the motherboard in some way. Storage drives connect to a motherboard's SATA or M.2 ports and sometimes receive power directly from the motherboard. Video cards are typically seated in a PCIe slot in the motherboard, and receive up to 75 watts of power from it. In modern systems, the power supply typically has a 24-pin cable that plugs directly into the motherboard.[5] The CPU is seated in the CPU tray, and is connected by the motherboard to PCIe lanes,[6] which in turn connect the processor to other hardware components. All case fans and coolers connect to headers on the motherboard, as do the case's LED, reset, and power button cables, and RAM is seated in the motherboard's DIMM slots. Motherboards' compatibility with other components is determined primarily by its CPU socket type, which must be compatible with the processor intended for use, and its chipset. Central processing unit Main article: Central processing unit Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 The CPU is mainly responsible for computing physics, AI and central game processes. Modern gaming PCs use high-end processors.[citation needed] With the rise of multi-threaded games, multi-core processor setups have become more necessary, providing better performance by offloading work to all available cores at once. Furthermore, an ample amount of L2 Cache within the CPU, generally 4 MB or more, is recommended to reap the benefits of even faster game performance. In addition, a gaming processor should be capable of running at least the SSE3 instruction set extension, which is available with CPUs produced since at least 2006.[7] Graphics Main articles: Graphics processing unit and Video card Gaming PCs use hardware accelerated video cards which offer high-end rasterisation-based rendering/image quality. A graphics card is the most important component, being the main determining factor of the capabilities of a gaming PC.[8] Memory capacity on 3D cards is usually at least 256 MB to 12 GB. The amount of video RAM is more important while gaming in higher resolution or using high resolution textures, and/or with extensive modding. Having at least 2GB to 4GB of VRAM or more is suggested for today's[when?] standards when gaming. The type of memory used, however, is an important factor. The current VRAM standards are GDDR5, GDDR5X, GDDR6, GDDR6X and HBM2. VRAM standards meaning the type of memory used in the cards manufacturing. GDDR5 and GDDR6 are generations of GDDR, whereas the GDDR5x and 6x variants denote a speed increase over their non-x counterparts. HBM2 memory is generally slower however it comes with the benefit of having massive capacities. Modern graphics cards use the PCI Express expansion slot. Two or more graphics cards can be used simultaneously on motherboards supporting SLI or ATI CrossFire technology, for Nvidia and AMD based cards respectively. Both technologies allow for between two and four graphics cards, although Nvidia recommends only using multiples of the same model, to be used in unison to process and render an image.[9] However, the technologies that allowed for the use of multiple graphics cards in tandem have largely been phased out. As of 2021, only Nvidia's NVLink remains and at that, only on one of their top-of-the-line models, the GeForce RTX 3090 and the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti. The decline of these technologies are largely due to the decrease in support for multiple cards in applications and indeed, games, as well as the decrease in returns on investment, or in other words, consumers were paying a heavy premium for little to no improvement, or in some cases, even performance decrease. A high-end graphics card will also use more electricity, or have a higher power draw, than a lower-end card. This power draw only increases as the number of graphics cards increases, adding another cost to a high-end computer. Overclocking a graphics card, or multiple, also adds additional power draw. However, as the number of graphics cards increases, the performance gains by adding another graphics card decreases significantly due to the complexity of more than two GPUs communicating to each other in an efficient way. This is another example of depreciating returns.     "A well-made, top-class video card should at least adequately play all the new games for at least two years, though hardcore gamers will eagerly spend the money to upgrade more often. To keep up with the technology while spending the least amount of money, waiting two years to upgrade is the most accepted compromise." - Microsoft.com[10] Memory Main article: Random access memory A DDR4 DRAM module, in this case a Corsair Dominator Platinum module Random access memory, or RAM, acts as a cache for non-graphical resources that games use. Enthusiasts will often purchase the fastest RAM, which has a lower latency, thus offering negligible performance increases in most cases. For gaming, a higher frequency of memory than would be necessary for an average computer user can offer some benefits. This has led to certain motherboards supporting RAM overclocking, with the new XMP standard. As RAM frequency is increased, however, the stability of the system decreases, increasing the risk of random computer shutdowns. 8 GB is usually the recommended amount of memory for gaming computers, as some 64-bit games can use over 4 GB of RAM. Most gaming PCs as of the early 2020s have at least 8 GB of RAM.[11] While 16 GB of RAM is often considered a sweet spot for gaming, 32 GB of RAM is increasingly used for future-proofing.[11] The current maximum amount supported on consumer hardware is 128 GB (for quad-channel configuration), with 8 slots on some LGA 2066 motherboards, each slot supporting up to a 16 GB DIMM. Storage Main articles: Hard disk drive and Solid-state drive Samsung 960 EVO M.2 SSD In gaming PCs, it is desirable to have fast hard drives, which will generally result in shorter loading times in games. For this reason, some gaming PCs use certain RAID setups to lower latency and increase throughput to mass storage.[12] Since the space taken up by games is nominal compared to the total availability on modern hard drives, speed is preferred over capacity. Solid-state drives have become popular in recent times[when?], which offer significantly higher speeds than mechanical hard drives. Originally more expensive than hard disk drives, over time,[when?] prices have significantly dropped. The performance of SSDs is now[when?] considered a minimum,[citation needed] and some[who?] consider them necessary even in budget PCs. Currently,[when?] NVMe drives have become the standard for fast storage. These drives connect straight into the motherboard, allowing for extremely fast data read and write speed. These drives are very fast and most NVMe PCIe drives easily surpass the speed of SATA and M.2 SSDs.[citation needed] Audio Main article: Sound card     This section needs to be updated. The reason given is: It is talking about 15-year-old hardware (X-Fi). Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (October 2020) While sound hardware is usually integrated onto modern gaming motherboards, gaming PCs can also be equipped with a dedicated sound card and speakers in a 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound configuration. A speaker setup or a set of quality headphones is required to enjoy the advanced sound found in most modern computer games.[13] Sound cards have hardware accelerated technologies, such as EAX. The Sound Blaster X-Fi, with its Fatal1ty editions having 64 MB of onboard RAM (unmatched for a sound card), targets enthusiasts as its main demographic, having a dedicated "gaming mode".[14] Dedicated sound cards have largely died out in popularity, however, due to many modern motherboards now supporting onboard audio, which is considered perfectly acceptable for most use cases. The decline of sound cards started with the introduction of the new millennium. From 2000-2007 the market for these cards collapsed 80%, greater than the 2007-2008 financial decline that had happened in the latter part of the decade. " (wikipedia.org) "A desktop computer (often abbreviated desktop[1]) is a personal computer designed for regular use at a stationary location on or near a desk (as opposed to a portable computer) due to its size and power requirements. The most common configuration has a case that houses the power supply, motherboard (a printed circuit board with a microprocessor as the central processing unit, memory, bus, certain peripherals and other electronic components), disk storage (usually one or more hard disk drives, solid state drives, optical disc drives, and in early models a floppy disk drive); a keyboard and mouse for input; and a monitor, speakers, and, often, a printer for output. The case may be oriented horizontally or vertically and placed either underneath, beside, or on top of a desk. Personal computers with their cases oriented vertically are referred to as towers. Since the mid-1990s, the majority of computer cases have been designed in a horizontally orientated form factor known as a "pizza box", also commonly referred to as a "desktop case". As a result, the term "desktop" has been used retronymously to distinguish these cases from earlier, vertically oriented models.[2][3] History Origins Apple II computer Prior to the widespread use of microprocessors, a computer that could fit on a desk was considered remarkably small; the type of computers most commonly used were minicomputers, which, despite the name, were rather large and were "mini" only compared to the so-called "big iron". Early computers, and later the general purpose high throughput «mainframes», took up the space of a whole room. Minicomputers, on the contrary, generally fit into one or a few refrigerator-sized racks, or, for the few smaller ones, built into a fairly large desk, not put on top of it. It was not until the 1970s when fully programmable computers appeared that could fit entirely on top of a desk. 1970 saw the introduction of the Datapoint 2200, a "smart" computer terminal complete with keyboard and monitor, was designed to connect with a mainframe computer but that didn't stop owners from using its built-in computational abilities as a stand-alone desktop computer.[4] The HP 9800 series, which started out as programmable calculators in 1971 but was programmable in BASIC by 1972, used a smaller version of a minicomputer design based on ROM memory and had small one-line LED alphanumeric displays and displayed graphics with a plotter.[5] The Wang 2200 of 1973 had a full-size cathode-ray tube (CRT) and cassette tape storage. The IBM 5100 in 1975 had a small CRT display and could be programmed in BASIC and APL. These were generally expensive specialized computers sold for business or scientific uses.[6] Growth and development Apple II, TRS-80 and Commodore PET were first generation personal home computers launched in 1977, which were aimed at the consumer market – rather than businessmen or computer hobbyists. Byte magazine referred to these three as the "1977 Trinity" of personal computing.[7] Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, desktop computers became the predominant type, the most popular being the IBM PC and its clones, followed by the Apple Macintosh,[8] with the third-placed Commodore Amiga having some success in the mid-1980s but declining by the early 1990s. IBM 5150 Personal Computer A person working on a 2004 tower PC computer with a Dell monitor Early personal computers, like the original IBM Personal Computer, were enclosed in a "desktop case", horizontally oriented to have the display screen placed on top, thus saving space on the user's actual desk, although these cases had to be sturdy enough to support the weight of CRT displays that were widespread at the time. Over the course of the 1990s, desktop cases gradually became less common than the more-accessible tower cases that may be located on the floor under or beside a desk rather than on a desk. Not only do these tower cases have more room for expansion, they have also freed up desk space for monitors which were becoming larger every year. Desktop cases, particularly the compact form factors, remain popular for corporate computing environments and kiosks. Some computer cases can be interchangeably positioned either horizontally (desktop) or upright (mini-tower). Influential games such as Doom and Quake during the 1990s had pushed gamers and enthusiasts to frequently upgrade to the latest CPUs and graphics cards (3dfx, ATI, and Nvidia) for their desktops (usually a tower case) in order to run these applications, though this has slowed since the late 2000s as the growing popularity of Intel integrated graphics forced game developers to scale back. Creative Technology's Sound Blaster series were a de facto standard for sound cards in desktop PCs during the 1990s until the early 2000s, when they were reduced to a niche product, as OEM desktop PCs came with sound boards integrated directly onto the motherboard. Decline While desktops have long been the most common configuration for PCs,[9] by the mid-2000s the growth shifted from desktops to laptops.[10] Notably, while desktops were mainly produced in the United States, laptops had long been produced by contract manufacturers based in Asia, such as Foxconn. This shift led to the closure of the many desktop assembly plants in the United States by 2010. Another trend around this time was the increasing proportion of inexpensive base-configuration desktops being sold, hurting PC manufacturers such as Dell whose build-to-order customization of desktops relied on upselling added features to buyers.[11] Battery-powered portable computers had just a 2% worldwide market share in 1986.[12] However, laptops have become increasingly popular, both for business and personal use.[13] Around 109 million notebook PCs shipped worldwide in 2007, a growth of 33% compared to 2006.[14] In 2008, it was estimated that 145.9 million notebooks were sold and that the number would grow in 2009 to 177.7 million.[15] The third quarter of 2008 was the first time when worldwide notebook PC shipments exceeded desktops, with 38.6 million units versus 38.5 million units.[13][16][17][18] The sales breakdown of the Apple Macintosh has seen sales of desktop Macs staying mostly constant while being surpassed by that of Mac notebooks whose sales rate has grown considerably; seven out of ten Macs sold were laptops in 2009, a ratio projected to rise to three out of four by 2010. The change in sales of form factors is due to the desktop iMac moving from affordable G3 to upscale G4 model and subsequent releases are considered premium all-in-ones. By contrast, the MSRP of the MacBook laptop lines have dropped through successive generations such that the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro constitute the lowest price of entry to a Mac, with the exception of the even more inexpensive Mac Mini (albeit without a monitor and keyboard), and the MacBooks are the top-selling form factors of the Macintosh platform today.[19] The decades of development mean that most people already own desktop computers that meet their needs and have no need of buying a new one merely to keep pace with advancing technology. Notably, the successive release of new versions of Windows (Windows 95, 98, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10 and so on) had been drivers for the replacement of PCs in the 1990s, but this slowed in the 2000s due to the poor reception of Windows Vista over Windows XP. Recently, some analysts have suggested that Windows 8 has actually hurt sales of PCs in 2012, as businesses have decided to stick with Windows 7 rather than upgrade.[20] Some suggested that Microsoft has acknowledged "implicitly ringing the desktop PC death knell" as Windows 8 offers little upgrade in desktop PC functionality over Windows 7; instead, Windows 8's innovations are mostly on the mobile side.[21] The post-PC trend has seen a decline in the sales of desktop and laptop PCs.[20][22] The decline has been attributed to increased power and applications of alternative computing devices, namely smartphones and tablet computers.[23] Although most people exclusively use their smartphones and tablets for more basic tasks such as social media and casual gaming, these devices have in many instances replaced a second or third PC in the household that would have performed these tasks, though most families still retain a powerful PC for serious work.[24] Among PC form factors, desktops remain a staple in the enterprise market but have lost popularity among home buyers. PC makers and electronics retailers have responded by investing their engineering and marketing resources towards laptops (initially netbooks in the late 2000s, and then the higher-performance Ultrabooks from 2011 onwards), which manufacturers believed had more potential to revive the PC market[9] than desktops. In April 2017, StatCounter declared a "Milestone in technology history and end of an era" with the mobile Android operating system becoming more popular than Windows (the operating system that made desktops dominant over mainframe computers).[25] Windows is still most popular on desktops (and laptops), while smartphones (and tablets) use Android, iOS or Windows 10 Mobile. Resurgence Desktop PC's have become very popular among remote workers, gamers and content creators due to their superior computing power and storage capacity compared to mobile devices.[26] Towards the middle of the 2010s, media sources began to question the existence of the post-PC trend, at least as conventionally defined, stating that the so-called post-PC devices are just other portable forms of PCs joining traditional desktop PCs which still have their own operation areas and evolve.[27][28][29][30] Although for casual use traditional desktops and laptops have seen a decline in sales, in 2018, global PC sales experienced a resurgence, driven by the business market.[31][32] Desktops remain a solid fixture in the commercial and educational sectors.[33] According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), PC sales shot up 14.8% between 2020 and 2021 and desktop market grew faster than the laptop market in the second quarter of 2021.[34][35] In addition, gaming desktops have seen a global revenue increase of 54% annually.[36] For gaming the global market of gaming desktops, laptops, and monitors is expected to grow to 61.1 million shipments by the end of 2023, up from 42.1 million, with desktops growing from 15.1 million shipments to 19 million.[37] PC gaming as a whole now accounts for 28% of the total gaming market as of 2017.[38] This is partially due to the increasing affordability of desktop PCs.[39] Types By size HP HP9000 workstation with sub-compact, universal desktop\desktower case Full-size Full-sized desktops are characterized by separate display and processing components. These components are connected to each other by cables or wireless connections. They often come in a tower form factor. These computers are easy to customize and upgrade per user requirements, e.g. by expansion card. Early extended-size (significantly larger than mainstream ATX case) tower computers sometimes were labeled as "deskside computers",[40][41] but currently this naming being quite rare.[42] Compact Compact desktop can be used similar to All-in-one computer Main articles: Small form factor (desktop and motherboard) and Nettop Compact desktops are reduced in physical proportions compared to full-sized desktops. They are typically small-sized, inexpensive, low-power computers designed for basic tasks such as web browsing, accessing web-based applications, document processing, and audio/video playback.[43] Hardware specifications and processing power are usually reduced[44] and hence make them less appropriate for running complex or resource-intensive applications. A nettop is a notable example of a compact desktop. A laptop without a screen can functionally be used as a compact desktop, sometimes called a "slabtop".[45] All-in-one Main article: All-in-one PC Dell Inspiron One 23 Touch as an example of an AIO desktop PC An all-in-one (AIO) desktop computer integrates the system's internal components into the same case as the display, thus occupying a smaller footprint (with fewer cables) than desktops that incorporate a tower.[46] The All-in-one systems are rarely labeled as desktop computers. By usage Gaming computer Main article: Gaming computer Gaming computers are desktop computers with high performance CPU, GPU, and RAM optimized for playing video games at high resolution and frame rates. Gaming computer peripheries usually include mechanical keyboards for faster response time,[47] and a gaming computer mouse which can track higher dots per inch movement.[48] Home theater Main article: Home theater PC These desktops are connected to home entertainment systems and typically used for amusement purpose. They come with high definition display, video graphics, surround sound and TV tuner systems to complement typical PC features. Thin client / Internet appliance Main articles: Thin client and Internet appliance Over time some traditional desktop computers have been replaced with thin clients utilizing off-site computing solutions like the cloud.[49] As more services and applications are served over the internet from off-site servers, local computing needs decrease, this drives desktop computers to be smaller, cheaper, and need less powerful hardware. More applications and in some cases entire virtual desktops are moved off-site and the desktop computer runs only an operating system or a shell application while the actual content is served from a server. Thin client computers may do almost all of their computing on a virtual machine in another site. Internal, hosted virtual desktops can offer users a completely consistent experience from anywhere.[50] Workstation HP Integrity server with rack-mountable and desktop variants HP9000 workstation, based on an Integrity desktop server Main article: Workstation Workstations are advanced class of personal computers designed for a user and more powerful than a regular PC but less powerful than a server in regular computing. They are capable of high-resolution and three-dimensional interfaces, and typically used to perform scientific and engineering work.[51] Like server computers, they are often connected with other workstations.[52] The main form-factor for this class is a Tower case, but most vendors produce a compact or all-in-one low-end workstations. Most of tower workstations can be converted to a rack-mount version. Desktop server Oriented for small business class of servers; typically entry-level server machines, with similar to workstation/gaming PC computing powers and with some mainstream servers features, but with only basic graphic abilities; and some desktop servers can be converted to workstations. Non-common types Quantum technology On January 29, 2021 Shenzhen SpinQ Technology announced that they will release the first-ever desktop quantum computer. this will be a miniaturized version of their previous quantum computer based on the same technology (nuclear magnetic resonance) and will be 2 qubit device. Applications will mostly be educational for high school and college students. the company claims SpinQ will be released to the public by the fourth quarter of 2021.[53][54][55] Comparison with laptops See also: Laptop § Disadvantages Desktops have an advantage over laptops in that the spare parts and extensions tend to be standardized, resulting in lower prices and greater availability. For example, the size and mounting of the motherboard are standardized into ATX, microATX, BTX or other form factors. Desktops have several standardized expansion slots, like conventional PCI or PCI Express, while laptops tend to have only one mini-PCI slot and one PC Card slot (or ExpressCard slot). Procedures for assembly and disassembly of desktops tend to be simple and standardized as well. This tends not to be the case for laptops, though adding or replacing some parts, like the optical drive, hard disk, or adding an extra memory module is often quite simple. This means that a desktop computer configuration, usually a tower case, can be customized and upgraded to a greater extent than laptops. This customization has kept tower cases popular among gamers and enthusiasts. Another advantage of the desktop is that (apart from environmental concerns) power consumption is not as critical as in laptop computers because the desktop is exclusively powered from the wall socket. Desktop computers also provide more space for cooling fans and vents to dissipate heat, allowing enthusiasts to overclock with less risk. The two large microprocessor manufacturers, Intel and AMD, have developed special CPUs for mobile computers (i.e. laptops) that consume less power and lower heat, but with lower performance levels. Laptop computers, conversely, offer portability that desktop systems (including small form factor and all-in-one desktops) can not due to their compact size and clamshell design. The laptop's all-in-one design provides a built-in keyboard and a pointing device (such as a touchpad) for its user and can draw on power supplied by a rechargeable battery. Laptops also commonly integrate wireless technologies like WiFi, Bluetooth, and 3G, giving them a broader range of options for connecting to the internet, though this trend is changing as newer desktop computers come integrated with one or more of these technologies. A desktop computer needs a UPS to handle electrical disturbances like short interruptions, blackouts, and spikes; achieving an on-battery time of more than 20–30 minutes for a desktop PC requires a large and expensive UPS.[56][57] A laptop with a sufficiently charged battery can continue to be used for hours in case of a power outage and is not affected by short power interruptions and blackouts. A desktop computer often has the advantage over a comparable laptop in computational capacity. Overclocking is often more feasible on a desktop than on a laptop; similarly, hardware add-ons such as discrete graphics co-processors may be possible to install only in a desktop." (wikipedia.org) "Industrial style or industrial chic refers to an aesthetic trend in interior design that takes cues from old factories and industrial spaces that in recent years have been converted to lofts and other living spaces.[1] Components of industrial style include weathered wood, building systems, exposed brick, industrial lighting fixtures and concrete.[2] This aesthetic became popular in the late 2000s and remained popular in the 2010s.[3] Industrial style can also be seen in the use of unexpected materials used in building. Shipping containers are now being used in architecture for homes and commercial spaces. The Industrial style of design is most commonly found in urban areas including cities and lofts. These are prime locations because they provide almost a blank space for homeowners to get started with a fresh canvas. These locations also contain some of the key elements used to achieve this style of design including exposed bricks and pipes, concrete flooring, and large open windows. These elements help give the space a “warehouse” feel which is the ultimate goal of this style of design. This style incorporates raw materials to give the space an unfinished feel. To achieve an industrial feel, a natural color palette is most commonly used. A mix of grays, neutrals and rustic colors can be seen in these spaces. These simple colors allow for the use of furniture and other accessories to help liven up the room. Also, having the walls a neutral color allows for open areas like lofts to feel bigger and more connected while giving furniture the opportunity to help create a natural flow of the room. Large sectionals are a staple item in any industrial style room. This is because of their ability to help close off larger spaces and help divide up the living areas. This is important because spaces like lofts tend to be very open. In order to create the illusion of multiple rooms, a sectional can help block the flow and define a separate living area. As far as lighting goes, floor lamps are trending. Any light fixture with metal finishes fits right into this style. Large open windows also help bring natural light into the space which can be very beneficial for smaller spaces. Overhead light fixtures can also give the area an industrial ambiance, especially in the kitchen. To tie into the industrial theme, many homeowners resort to a kitchen island. These islands tend to be made of reclaimed wood or other earthy materials. A kitchen island can also contribute in separating a big room and providing a defined kitchen area. They can be paired with barstools that are made of wood or contain metal finishes. Open faced shelving and storage are big hits when it comes to an industrial kitchen. Free standing metal racks can also provide extra storage and can be beneficial in smaller rooms. If they have wheels, they can multitask. For example, low shelving on wheels can serve as a computer desk one day; the next day it can stand-in as a bar cart. Exposed overhead beams, brick and concrete are notable accents to the kitchen along with darker cabinets and shelving. Lighter colored floors or polished concrete are ways to incorporate this style into any kitchen. To modernize this rather rustic look, decorative tiles look great in the kitchen. Tile as a backsplash can help create a modern twist and help liven up the space." (wikipedia.org) "From humble origins to global brand – a brief history of IKEA IKEA reaches millions of hearts and homes all over the world. And it all began in a small Swedish town in the 1940s, with an enterprising boy who hoped to be able to create a better life for people everywhere. The cover photo of the 1973 IKEA Catalog showing a couple reclining on two TAJT easy chairs in a room with yellow carpet. The sun shining on a long low, lichen-covered stone wall that runs through a field in the Swedish province of Småland. Our roots Ingvar Kamprad founded IKEA in 1943 at the age of 17, selling goods like pens and wallets. Småland, his home county in Sweden, was heavily forested with stony soil. Resourceful people who were expert at making the most of a little is a quality that has always been at the heart of IKEA. The IKEA range is born To reward him for doing well in school, Ingvar’s father gave him a small sum of money which he used to set up a company. In 1948 he starts selling furniture, signalling the start of the IKEA range as we know it. An IKEA HANSA shelving unit from 1957 consisting of dark metal frames and legs and wooden shelves. An IKEA CAVELLI armchair from 1959 with olive green upholstery and dark wood legs and armrests. A portrait of IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad, outdoors smiling while wearing a pink, white and green striped shirt. Low prices and good quality IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad was always determined to offer the best possible prices but not at the expense of quality. He was aware that some of his competitors were cheating on quality to keep prices down, something he was not prepared to do. In the 1948–1949 issue of the brochure “ikéa-nytt” he explained how IKEA prices could be kept so low. “Our low prices – by far the lowest in the land – are possible thanks to a high turnover, direct delivery from the factory and very low overheads.” Ingvar’s original idea to offer products with both a low price and good quality is alive and well to this very day and has become a cornerstone of the IKEA culture and identity. An IKEA flatpack with the top removed revealing a pine chair waiting to be assembled. The flatpack revolution begins High costs and damage rates when transporting furniture via mail order were constant thorns in Ingvar’s side. Although flatpack furniture already existed, it hadn’t really taken off in Sweden yet. In 1953, IKEA adopted the flatpack. Self-assembly products proved popular and to be the solution to those costly transportation problems. A wooden frame in the shape of a pentagon lying on a scuffed concrete floor. Democratic Design The desire to offer products with both a low price and good quality has always been a driving force at IKEA. However, in addition to price and quality, there are three other dimensions that are considered when developing IKEA products: function, form and sustainability. When all five dimensions are in balance, we consider the design of the product to be democratic. The concept of Democratic Design was officially launched at the Milan Furniture Fair in 1995 and ever since it has been the tool we use when developing and evaluating products. Well-fed customers are happy customers In June 1960, only coffee and cold dishes were offered in IKEA stores. By the end of the year, the IKEA restaurant kitchen was fully equipped, including a microwave oven – a novelty at the time. Everything from hot snacks such as hamburgers to á la carte dishes were served. The idea comes from something Ingvar observed: people left the store at lunchtime to eat in one of the restaurants or street kitchens in Älmhult. This interrupted the whole buying process. He realized that hungry customers buy less. Or as we often say, it’s tough to do business on an empty stomach. A chef in a high chef’s hat stands behind a counter in an IKEA restaurant sometime in the 1960s. A large, framed, borderless world map in black and white, hangs on a beige wall above two day beds. IKEA expands and restructures     1950 – 1959: IKEA expanded operations in Sweden.     1960 – 1969: Stores opened in Denmark and Norway.     1970s: The expansion continued in countries outside of Scandinavia including Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Kuwait, Netherlands, Singapore and Switzerland.     Early 1980s: Ingvar Kamprad looked for an ownership structure that would ensure total independence and a long-term business perspective. He described this as trying to give the IKEA brand “eternal life”. His solution was to separate the ownership of the retail operation from the IKEA concept and the IKEA brand to keep these separate roles in independent business groups, operating under a franchise system. Read more on the IKEA Museum website Why is IKEA called IKEA? IKEA is named after the initials of founder Ingvar Kamprad, Elmtaryd, the farm on which he grew up, and Agunnaryd, the nearby village. Before the most recent update in 2018, the logo had not been revamped since the 1980s. The latest changes were intended to improve legibility, and ensure consistent recognition and color reproduction in the digital age. Nowadays, the same logo has to work just as well on a mobile screen as on a storefront or paper bag. A collection of six IKEA logos showing how the logo has developed from 1951 to 2018. Several piles of IKEA catalogs on a desktop. The catalog on top of one of the piles is open with one side urled. The iconic IKEA Catalogue In 1950, the first annual IKEA home furnishing catalog was published in Sweden. It would go on to be the flagship of IKEA marketing material until 2021, when the last printed version rolled off the presses." (ikea.com) ""In personal computing, a tower is a form factor of desktop computer case whose height is much greater than its width, thus having the appearance of an upstanding tower block, as opposed to a traditional "pizza box" computer case whose width is greater than its height and appears lying flat. Compared to a pizza box case, the tower tends to be larger and offers more potential for internal volume for the same desk area occupied, and therefore allows more hardware installation and theoretically better airflow for cooling. Multiple size subclasses of the tower form factor have been established to differentiate their varying heights, including full-tower, mid-tower, midi-tower and mini-tower; these classifications are however nebulously defined and inconsistently applied by different manufacturers. Although the traditional layout for a tower system is to have the case placed on top of the desk alongside the monitor and other peripherals, a far more common configuration is to place the case on the floor below the desk or in an under-desk compartment, in order to free up desktop space for other items.[1] Computer systems housed in the horizontal "pizza box" form factor — once popularized by the IBM PC in the 1980s but fallen out of mass use since the late 1990s — have been given the term desktops to contrast them with the often underdesk-situated towers. Subclasses See also: Comparison of computer form factors Tower cases are often categorized as mini-tower, midi-tower, mid-tower, or full-tower. The terms are subjective and inconsistently defined by different manufacturers.[2][3] Full-tower A full-tower computer case from c. 2010 Full-tower cases, typically 20 inches (51 cm) or more in height, are designed for maximum scalability.[4] For case modding enthusiasts and gamers wanting to play the most technically challenging video games, the full-tower case also makes for an ideal gaming PC case because of their ability to accommodate extensive water cooling setups and larger case fans.[5] Traditionally, full-tower systems had between four to six externally accessible half-height 5.25-inch drive bays and up to ten 3.5-inch drive bays.[5][4]: 138  Some full-tower cases included locking side-doors and other physical security features to prevent theft of the discs inside those bays.[6] However, as modern computing technology has moved away from mechanical removable media drives toward solid-state devices such as USB flash drives, solid-state drives (SSDs) and large-capacity external storage as well as cloud storage, such an abundance of internal and external drive bays is less common.[7] More recent full-tower cases instead only have one or two external drive bays, or none at all, with the internal bays moved elsewhere in the case to free up room and improve airflow.[8] Full-tower cases readily fit full-size ATX motherboards but may also accommodate smaller microATX motherboards due to the former standard's interoperability in mounting holes. Full-tower cases may also have increased dimensional depth and length over their shorter counterparts, allowing them to accommodate Extended ATX motherboards, larger graphics cards and heatsinks.[8] Since the 2010s, full-tower cases are commonly used by enthusiasts as showpiece cases with custom water cooling, RGB LED lighting, and tempered glass or acrylics side panel.[9][10][11] They may also hold two motherboards (as is the case with the Corsair 1000D) and dual power supplies (Corsair 900D).[12][13] Mid-tower Mid-tower cases, usually between 16 inches (41 cm) and 20 inches (51 cm) in height, are the most common form factor of personal computer towers.[5][8][14] Before the late 2010s, mid-towers contained between three to four 5.25-inch drive bays and an equivalent number of 3.5-inch bays to house optical disc drives, floppy disk drives and hard disk drives, leaving just enough room for a standard ATX motherboard and power supply unit.[14] Since the widespread adoption of USB flash drives, solid-state drives (which take up far less space than spinning hard disk drives) and the declining usage of internal optical drives, the number of drive bays has become less of a concern to the contemporary computer user, the internal space of mid-towers is now used more commonly for closed-loop water coolers, dual graphics cards, and tightly stacked SSDs.[8] Midi-tower The marketing term midi-tower sometimes refers to cases smaller than a mid-tower but still larger than a mini-tower (see below), typically with two to three external bays.[15] Other times the term may be synonymous with mid-tower.[16] Mini-tower Mini-tower cases, between 12 inches (30 cm) and 16 inches (41 cm) in height,[17] slot between the Mini-ITX specification for small-form-factor PCs and the archetypal mid-tower. Mini-towers typically will only accommodate microATX motherboards and for this reason sell in fewer numbers in the consumer market than the other size classes of computer towers.[8][18]: 94–95  Traditionally, mini-towers had only one or two disk drive bays (either 5.25-inch or 3.5-inch).[19] History The horizontally configured system unit of the original IBM PC set a de facto standard for the physical setup of personal computers from the early 1980s to the mid-1990s. The tower form factor may be seen as a proportional miniaturization of mainframe computers and minicomputers, some of which comprise massive tall enclosures standing almost to the ceiling.[20] In the advent of the microcomputer era, most systems were configured with the keyboard built into the same chassis that the main system circuit board resides. Such computers were also termed home computers and counted such popular systems as the Apple II, TRS-80, VIC-20, and Commodore 64, among others. In 1981, IBM introduced the IBM Personal Computer, a system which was met widespread adoption in both enterprises and home businesses within a couple years and set a new de facto standard for the physical configuration of microcomputers. The IBM PC and successors housed the system board and expansion cards in a separate horizontal unit, with the keyboard usually in front and the prescribed CRT monitor resting on top of the system unit; the front of the system unit houses one or more disk drives.[21] In 1982, NCR introduced the Tower series of workstation computers, named so for their tall, upright configuration, intended to be stowed away under a desk. The first, the Tower 1632, is 29 inches tall and featured a Motorola 68000 microprocessor. Costing upwards of $12,500, the 1632 is meant to run Unix and supports up to 16 simultaneous networked users.[22] NCR continued adding to the Tower line into the late 1980s.[23][24][25] In 1983, Tandy Corporation offered their Tandy 2000 with an optional floor stand, turning the normally horizontal desktop case on its side and allowing it to be stashed under-desk; the square badge on the Tandy 2000 can be removed and rotated upright in turn.[26] IBM followed suit with their PC/AT in 1984, which included an optional "floor-standing enclosure" for $165.[27] Of the three initial entrants in the company's RT PC line in 1986, two were tower units, while the other was a traditional horizontal case like the AT and the PCs before it.[28] An IBM PS/2 Model 60 (left) and an PS/2 Model 80 (right) side by side. These models were IBM's first Intel-based PCs built in a tower form factor. In 1987, IBM introduced the PS/2 Model 60, an initial entry in the company's Personal System/2 line of personal computers. It was IBM's first Intel-based PC built entirely into a tower case.[29] The PS/2 Model 60 was comparable in technical specification to its sibling the PS/2 Model 50, which sported a horizontal desktop form factor. Whereas the Model 50 had only four expansion slots and three drive bays, however, the Model 60 featured eight expansion slots and four drive bays. Because of the latter's increased potential for connectivity and multitasking, technology journalists envisioned the PS/2 Model 60 as a multiuser machine, although multiuser operating systems supporting the 80286 processor of both the Models 50 and 60 were hard to come by in 1987.[30] IBM followed up with the tower-based PS/2 Model 80 later that year, their first PC powered by an i386 processor.[31] According to The New York Times in 1988, the PS/2 Models 60 and 80 started the trend of computer manufacturers offering PC compatibles in optional tower form factors:     A countertrend is to take PCs off the desk and put them on the floor. IBM started it with the tower configuration for its PS/2 Models 60 and 80, and at least a dozen companies were showing floor-standing PCs at Comdex. Freed from the need to fit on a desk, some of the tower models are actually getting bigger to accommodate large disk drives, a variety of floppy drives and backup devices, and room for up to a dozen slots for plug-in boards.[32] Aftermarket floor stands, allowing existing horizontal desktop computers to be stored upright on the floor, were sold in the late 1980s by companies such as Curtis Computer Products.[33] Recommending such kits in The Washington Post in 1989, Brit Hume called the tower the best configuration for ergonomics and noted that, "Contrary to popular myth, standing vertically will not hurt the computer or throw off your disk drives."[33] The transition in dominance from horizontal desktop computers to towers was mostly complete by 1994, according to a period article in PC Week.[34] Computer cases or pre-built systems offered in the traditional horizontal form factor have since been separately categorized as desktops, to contrast them with the usually-floor-situated towers.[19] Brian Benchoff of Hackaday argued that the popularity of the Macintosh Quadra 700 was the turning point for computer manufacturers to move over to the tower form factor en masse. The tower form factor of the Quadra 700 was by necessity: common peripherals of the Quadra were the relatively extremely heavy color CRT monitors offered by Apple (those whose screens measured 20 inches and over diagonally could weigh 80 lbs or more) favored by the desktop publishing industry during the 1990s. Such monitors threatened to crush the plastic frames of the Macintosh IIcx and Macintosh IIci; customers might have been tempted to fit such heavy monitors atop the IIcx and IIci because of their horizontal form factor." (wikipedia.org) "A shelf (PL: shelves)[1] is a flat, horizontal plane used for items that are displayed or stored in a home, business, store, or elsewhere. It is raised off the floor and often anchored to a wall, supported on its shorter length sides by brackets, or otherwise anchored to cabinetry by brackets, dowels, screws, or nails. It can also be held up by columns or pillars. A shelf is also known as a counter, ledge, mantel, or rack.[1] Tables designed to be placed against a wall, possibly mounted, are known as console tables, and are similar to individual shelves. A shelf can be attached to a wall or other vertical surface, be suspended from a ceiling, be a part of a free-standing frame unit, or it can be part of a piece of furniture such as a cabinet, bookcase, entertainment center, headboard, and so on. Usually, two to six shelves make up a unit, each shelf being attached perpendicularly to the vertical or diagonal supports and positioned parallel one above the other. Free-standing shelves can be accessible from either one or both longer length sides. A shelf with hidden internal brackets is termed a floating shelf. A shelf or case designed to hold books is a bookshelf. The length of the shelf is based upon the space limitations of its siting and the amount of weight which it will be expected to hold. The vertical distance between the shelves is based upon the space limitations of the unit's siting and the height of the objects; adjustable shelving systems allow the vertical distance to be altered. The unit can be fixed or be some form of mobile shelving. The most heavy-duty shelving is pallet racking. In a store, the front edge of the shelf under the object(s) held might be used to display the name, product number, pricing, and other information about the object(s). Materials Adjustable shelving made from Dexion steel slotted angle Shelves are normally made of strong materials such as wood,[2] bamboo or steel, though shelves to hold lighter-weight objects can be made of glass or plastic. Do it yourself (DIY) shelves can be made from things such as an old door,[3] colored pencils[4] or books.[5] Pipe shelving Pipe shelving can be used in a home, business, store or restaurant. It consists mainly of wood boards resting on black or galvanized steel gas pipe. Copper pipe can be used but it is not recommended[by whom?] for heavy-duty shelves. Pipe shelving can also be modified to be used as retail clothing displays and wall shelves. Pipe shelving supports rest on the floor with floor flanges (these need not be attached) and attaches to the wall with flanges that are directed backwards. Many different designs exist and some companies make these shelves for commercial and residential applications and others make these shelves as DIY projects.[6] Pipe shelving is mainly attached to a wall but some companies have designed free standing units. Pipe shelving has even been used in reclamation projects such as shipping container architecture and was used by Marriott Hotels & Resorts in a bar project.[7] Proportions for hanging on a wall Two stainless steel shelf supports placed relatively far apart. When hanging shelves on a wall, home designers generally try to ensure that the shelf should be no wider than 1.4 x bracket's width and no wider than 1.2 x bracket's height.[citation needed] Spacing brackets for a long shelf should be no more than 4 x shelf-breadth between each bracket - this holds true for normal materials used at home.[8] Length and size of screws holding the shelf to the wall differ depending on the material of the wall. A good rule of thumb for concrete walls is that the screw should go into the wall at least as far as one-tenth the width of the shelf. But there are shelf systems where a brace is hung on the wall, onto which brackets are attached without screws. " (wikipedia.org) "A desk or bureau is a piece of furniture with a flat table-style work surface used in a school, office, home or the like for academic, professional or domestic activities such as reading, writing, or using equipment such as a computer.[1][2] Desks often have one or more drawers, compartments, or pigeonholes to store items such as office supplies and papers.[2] Desks are usually made of wood or metal, although materials such as glass are sometimes seen. Some desks have the form of a table, although usually only one side of a desk is suitable to sit at (there are some exceptions, such as a partners desk),[3] unlike most usual tables. Some desks do not have the form of a table, for instance, an armoire desk[4] is a desk built within a large wardrobe-like cabinet, and a portable desk[5] is light enough to be placed on a person's lap. Since many people lean on a desk while using it, a desk must be sturdy. In most cases, people sit at a desk, either on a separate chair or a built-in chair (e.g., in some school desks). Some people use standing desks to be able to stand while using them. Etymology The word "desk" originated from the Modern Latin word desca "table to write on", from the mid 14th century.[6] It is a modification of the Old Italian desco "table", from Latin discus "dish" or "disc".[2] The word desk has been used figuratively since 1797.[6] A desk may also be known as a bureau, counter, davenport, escritoire, lectern, reading stand, rolltop desk, school desk, workspace, or writing desk.[7] History Chinese editing desk of the 12th century Desk-style furniture appears not to have been used in classical antiquity or in other ancient centers of literate civilization in the Middle East or Far East, but there is no specific proof. Medieval illustrations show the first pieces of furniture which seem to have been designed and constructed for reading and writing. Before the invention of the movable type printing press in the 15th century, any reader was potentially a writer or publisher or both, since any book or other document had to be copied by hand. The desks were designed with slots and hooks for bookmarks and for writing implements. Since manuscript volumes were sometimes large and heavy, desks of the period usually had massive structures.[8] Ornamental desk (walnut), designed by Frank Furness, 1870-71, Philadelphia Museum of Art Desks of the Renaissance and later eras had relatively slimmer structures, and more and more drawers were added as woodworking became more precise and cabinet-making became a distinct trade.[8] It is often possible to find out if a table or other piece of furniture of those times was designed to be used as a desk, by looking for a drawer with three small separations (one each for the ink pot, the blotter and the powder tray) and storage for pens. The basic desk forms were developed mostly in the 17th and 18th centuries. The modern ergonomic desk is a refinement of the mechanically complex drawing table or drafting table[9] from the end of the 18th century. Industrial era Refinements to the first desk forms were considerable through the 19th century, as steam-driven machinery made cheap wood-pulp paper possible towards the end of the first phase of the Industrial Revolution. This allowed an increase in the number of the white-collar workers. As these office workers grew in number, desks were mass-produced for them in large quantities, using newer, steam-driven woodworking machinery. This was the first sharp division in desk manufacturing. From then on, limited quantities of finely crafted desks have been continued to be constructed by master cabinetmakers for the homes and offices of the rich, while the vast majority of desks were assembled rapidly by unskilled labor from components turned out in batches by machine tools. Thus, age alone does not guarantee that an antique desk is a masterpiece, since this split in quality took place more than a hundred years ago. More paper and correspondence drove the need for more complex desks and more specialized desks, such as the rolltop desk which was a mass-produced, slatted variant of the classical cylinder desk.[10] It provided a relatively fast and cheap way to lock up the ever increasing flow of paperwork without having to file everything by the end of the day. Paper documents became voluminous enough to be stored separately in filing cabinets. Correspondence and other documents were now too numerous to get enough attention to be rolled up or folded again, then summarized and tagged before being pigeonholed in a small compartment over or under the work surface of the desk. The famous Wooton desk and others were the last manifestations of the "pigeonhole" style. The surfaces of some newer desks could be transformed into many different shapes and angles, and were ideal for artists, draftsmen, and engineers. Steel versions A small boom in office work and desk production occurred at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th with the introduction of smaller and less expensive electrical presses[further explanation needed] and efficient carbon paper coupled with the general acceptance of the typewriter. Steel desks were introduced to take heavier loads of paper and withstand the pounding meted out on the typewriters. This also gave rise to the "typewriter desk", a platform, sometimes on wheels and with expandable surface via flaps, that was built to a specific height to make typing easier and more comfortable than when using a standard or traditional desk. The L-shaped desk also became popular, with the "leg" being used as an annex for the typewriter. Another big expansion occurred after the Second World War with the spread of photocopying. Paperwork further increased the number of desk workers, whose work surfaces diminished in size as office rents rose, and the paper itself was moved more and more directly to filing cabinets or sent to specialized records management centers, or transformed into microfilm, or both. Modular desks seating several co-workers close by became common. Even executive or management desks became mass-produced, built of cheap plywood or fiberboard covered with wood finish, as the number of people managing the white collar workers became even greater. Student models School desk manufactured by the American S.F. Company of Buffalo, New York in about 1900 A student desk can be any desk form meant for use by an enrollee in elementary, secondary or postsecondary education. Anna Breadin designed and patented a one-piece school desk in the late 1880s that was built with a table section attached in front of a wooden seat and back rest. Before this, most students in America sat either on chairs or long benches at long tables.[11] Student desk and chair commonly used in high schools and universities. In homes, the term "student desk" designates a small pedestal desk,[12] or writing table[13] constructed for use by a teenager or a pre-teen in their room. It often is a pedestal desk, with only one of the two pedestals and about two-thirds of the desk surface. Such desks are sometimes called "left-pedestal desks" and "right-pedestal desks", depending on the position of the single pedestal. These desks are not as tall as normal adult desks. In some cases, the desk is connected from the seat to the table. The desks are usually mass-produced in steel or wood and sold on the consumer market.[11] There is a wide variety of plans available for woodworking enthusiasts to build their own versions. Modern mass-produced student desks are often made with laminate table tops and molded plastic seats in a combined single unit, with storage found under the desktop or on a wire shelf beneath the seat.[11] There are many novel forms of student desks made to maximize the relatively restricted area available in a child's room. One of the most common is the bunk-bed desk, also called the "loft bed".[14] Influence of computers A desk in an office An office desk in a cubicle, which shows the sharing of space between computer components and paper documents Until the late 1980s, desks remained a place for paperwork and "business machines", but the personal computer was taking hold in large and medium-sized businesses. New office suites included a "knee hole" credenza which was a place for a terminal or personal computer and keyboard tray. Soon, new office designs also included "U-shape" suites which added a bridge worksurface between the back credenza and front desk. During the North American recession of the early 1990s, many managers and executive workers were required to do word processing and other functions previously completed by typing pools and secretaries. This necessitated a more central placement of the computer on these "U-shape" suite desk systems. With computers more prevalent, "computer paper" became an office supply. The beginning of this paper boom gave birth to the dream of the "paperless office", in which all information would only appear on computer monitors. However, the ease of printing personal documents and the lack of comfort with reading text on computer monitors led to a great deal of document printing. The need for paperwork space vied with the increased desk space taken up by computer monitors, computers, printers, scanners, and other peripherals. The need for more space led some desk companies to attach some accessory items to the modesty panel at the back of the desk, such as outlet strips and cable management, in an attempt to clear the desktop of electrical clutter. Through the "tech boom" of the 1990s, office worker numbers increased along with the cost of office space rent. The cubicle desk became widely accepted in North America as an economical way of squeezing more desk workers into the same space, without further shrinking the size of their cramped working surfaces. The cubicle walls have become a new place for workers to affix papers and other items once left on the horizontal desktop surface. Even computer monitor bezels themselves were used to attach reminder notes and business cards. Early in the 2000s, private office workers found that their side and back computer-placing furniture made it hard to show the contents of a computer screen to guests or co-workers. Manufacturers have responded to this issue by creating "forward facing" desks where computer monitors are placed on the front of the "U-shape" workstation. This forward computer monitor placement promotes a clearer sight-line to greet colleagues and allows for common viewing of information displayed on a screen. Replacement of bulky CRT monitors with flat panel LCDs freed up significant room on desktops. However, the size of displays often increased to accommodate multiple on-screen windows, to display more and more information simultaneously. The lighter weight and slimmer profile of the new displays allowed them to be mounted on flexible arms, so they could be swung into view or out of the way, and adjusted frequently as needed. Notable examples     The Resolute desk in the Oval Office has been used by many United States presidents, including John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama. It is made from the timbers of HMS Resolute, an abandoned British ship discovered by an American vessel and returned to Queen Victoria of Great Britain as a token of friendship and goodwill. Queen Victoria commissioned the desk from William Evenden, Royal Naval Dockyard at Chatham, England, and presented it to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880.[15]     The Bureau du Roi (French pronunciation: ​[byʁo dy ʁwa], the King's desk), also known as Louis XV's roll-top secretary (French: Secrétaire à cylindre de Louis XV), is the richly ornamented royal cylinder desk which was constructed at the end of Louis XV's reign, and is now again in the Palace of Versailles.     Henry VIII's writing desk is a portable writing desk, made in about 1525-26 for Henry VIII. It is currently in the Victoria and Albert Museum. The desk is a product of the royal workshops and is lavishly embellished with ornamental motifs introduced to the Kingdom of England by continental artists." (wikipedia.org) "Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon with improved strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant typically need an additional 11% chromium. Because of its high tensile strength and low cost, steel is used in buildings, infrastructure, tools, ships, trains, cars, machines, electrical appliances, and weapons. Iron is the base metal of steel. Depending on the temperature, it can take two crystalline forms (allotropic forms): body-centred cubic and face-centred cubic. The interaction of the allotropes of iron with the alloying elements, primarily carbon, gives steel and cast iron their range of unique properties. In pure iron, the crystal structure has relatively little resistance to the iron atoms slipping past one another, and so pure iron is quite ductile, or soft and easily formed. In steel, small amounts of carbon, other elements, and inclusions within the iron act as hardening agents that prevent the movement of dislocations. The carbon in typical steel alloys may contribute up to 2.14% of its weight. Varying the amount of carbon and many other alloying elements, as well as controlling their chemical and physical makeup in the final steel (either as solute elements, or as precipitated phases), impedes the movement of the dislocations that make pure iron ductile, and thus controls and enhances its qualities. These qualities include the hardness, quenching behaviour, need for annealing, tempering behaviour, yield strength, and tensile strength of the resulting steel. The increase in steel's strength compared to pure iron is possible only by reducing iron's ductility. Steel was produced in bloomery furnaces for thousands of years, but its large-scale, industrial use began only after more efficient production methods were devised in the 17th century, with the introduction of the blast furnace and production of crucible steel. This was followed by the open-hearth furnace and then the Bessemer process in England in the mid-19th century. With the invention of the Bessemer process, a new era of mass-produced steel began. Mild steel replaced wrought iron. The German states saw major steel prowess over Europe in the 19th century.[1] Further refinements in the process, such as basic oxygen steelmaking (BOS), largely replaced earlier methods by further lowering the cost of production and increasing the quality of the final product. Today, steel is one of the most commonly manufactured materials in the world, with more than 1.6 billion tons produced annually. Modern steel is generally identified by various grades defined by assorted standards organisations. The modern steel industry is one of the largest manufacturing industries in the world, but also one of the most energy and greenhouse gas emission intense industries, contributing 8% of global emissions.[2] However, steel is also very reusable: it is one of the world's most-recycled materials, with a recycling rate of over 60% globally.[3] Definitions and related materials See also: Steel grades The steel cable of a colliery winding tower The noun steel originates from the Proto-Germanic adjective stahliją or stakhlijan 'made of steel', which is related to stahlaz or stahliją 'standing firm'.[4] The carbon content of steel is between 0.002% and 2.14% by weight for plain carbon steel (iron-carbon alloys). Too little carbon content leaves (pure) iron quite soft, ductile, and weak. Carbon contents higher than those of steel make a brittle alloy commonly called pig iron. Alloy steel is steel to which other alloying elements have been intentionally added to modify the characteristics of steel. Common alloying elements include: manganese, nickel, chromium, molybdenum, boron, titanium, vanadium, tungsten, cobalt, and niobium.[5] Additional elements, most frequently considered undesirable, are also important in steel: phosphorus, sulfur, silicon, and traces of oxygen, nitrogen, and copper. Plain carbon-iron alloys with a higher than 2.1% carbon content are known as cast iron. With modern steelmaking techniques such as powder metal forming, it is possible to make very high-carbon (and other alloy material) steels, but such are not common. Cast iron is not malleable even when hot, but it can be formed by casting as it has a lower melting point than steel and good castability properties.[5] Certain compositions of cast iron, while retaining the economies of melting and casting, can be heat treated after casting to make malleable iron or ductile iron objects. Steel is distinguishable from wrought iron (now largely obsolete), which may contain a small amount of carbon but large amounts of slag. Material properties Origins and production An iron-carbon phase diagram showing the conditions necessary to form different phases An Incandescent steel workpiece in a blacksmith's art Iron is commonly found in the Earth's crust in the form of an ore, usually an iron oxide, such as magnetite or hematite. Iron is extracted from iron ore by removing the oxygen through its combination with a preferred chemical partner such as carbon which is then lost to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. This process, known as smelting, was first applied to metals with lower melting points, such as tin, which melts at about 250 °C (482 °F), and copper, which melts at about 1,100 °C (2,010 °F), and the combination, bronze, which has a melting point lower than 1,083 °C (1,981 °F). In comparison, cast iron melts at about 1,375 °C (2,507 °F).[6] Small quantities of iron were smelted in ancient times, in the solid-state, by heating the ore in a charcoal fire and then welding the clumps together with a hammer and in the process squeezing out the impurities. With care, the carbon content could be controlled by moving it around in the fire. Unlike copper and tin, liquid or solid iron dissolves carbon quite readily. All of these temperatures could be reached with ancient methods used since the Bronze Age. Since the oxidation rate of iron increases rapidly beyond 800 °C (1,470 °F), it is important that smelting take place in a low-oxygen environment. Smelting, using carbon to reduce iron oxides, results in an alloy (pig iron) that retains too much carbon to be called steel.[6] The excess carbon and other impurities are removed in a subsequent step. Other materials are often added to the iron/carbon mixture to produce steel with the desired properties. Nickel and manganese in steel add to its tensile strength and make the austenite form of the iron-carbon solution more stable, chromium increases hardness and melting temperature, and vanadium also increases hardness while making it less prone to metal fatigue.[7] To inhibit corrosion, at least 11% chromium can be added to steel so that a hard oxide forms on the metal surface; this is known as stainless steel. Tungsten slows the formation of cementite, keeping carbon in the iron matrix and allowing martensite to preferentially form at slower quench rates, resulting in high-speed steel. The addition of lead and sulfur decrease grain size, thereby making the steel easier to turn, but also more brittle and prone to corrosion. Such alloys are nevertheless frequently used for components such as nuts, bolts, and washers in applications where toughness and corrosion resistance are not paramount. For the most part, however, p-block elements such as sulfur, nitrogen, phosphorus, and lead are considered contaminants that make steel more brittle and are therefore removed from steel during the melting processing." (wikipedia.org) "IKEA (Swedish: [ɪˈkêːa]; US and UK: /aɪˈkiːə/) is a Swedish multinational conglomerate based in the Netherlands that designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture, kitchen appliances, decoration, home accessories, and various other goods and home services. Started in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad, IKEA has been the world's largest furniture retailer since 2008.[6][7][8][9][10] The brand used by the group is derived from an acronym that consists of the founder's initials, and those of Elmtaryd, the family farm where he was born, and the nearby village Agunnaryd (his hometown in Småland, southern Sweden).[11][12] The group is primarily known for its modernist designs for various types of appliances and furniture, and its interior design work is often associated with simplicity. In addition, the firm is known for its attention to cost control, operational details, and continuous product development that has allowed IKEA to lower its prices by an average of two to three percent. As of March 2021, there are 422 IKEA stores operating in 50 countries[13] and in fiscal year 2018, €38.8 billion (US$44.6 billion) worth of IKEA goods were sold.[14] For multiple reasons, including lowering taxes payable, IKEA uses a complicated corporate structure. Within this structure, all IKEA stores are operated under franchise from Inter IKEA Systems B.V. which handles branding, design, manufacturing, and supply. Another part of the IKEA group, Ingka Group, operates the majority of IKEA stores as a franchisee and pays royalties to Inter IKEA Systems B.V.[15][16] Some IKEA stores are also operated by independent franchisees.[17] The IKEA website contains about 12,000 products and there were over 2.1 billion visitors to IKEA's websites in the year from September 2015 to August 2016.[18][19] The group is responsible for approximately 1% of world commercial-product wood consumption, making it one of the largest users of wood in the retail sector.[20] IKEA claims to use 99.5% recycled or FSC-certified wood.[21] However, IKEA has been shown to be involved in unsustainable and most likely illegal logging of old-growth and protected forests in multiple Eastern European countries in recent years.[22][23][24] History     Parts of this article (those related to documentation) need to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (May 2021) See also: § Alternative store designs; and § Ventures beyond furniture, homeware and Swedish food IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad (right) shakes hands with Hans Ax, IKEA's first store manager, in 1965. Map of countries with IKEA stores Legend:   Current market locations   Future market locations   Former market locations   No current or planned market locations In 1943, then-17-year-old Ingvar Kamprad founded IKEA as a mail-order sales business, and began to sell furniture five years later.[25] The first store was opened in Älmhult, Småland, in 1958, under the name Möbel-IKÉA (Möbel means "furniture" in Swedish). The first stores outside Sweden were opened in Norway (1963) and Denmark (1969).[26] The stores spread to other parts of Europe in the 1970s, with the first store outside Scandinavia opening in Switzerland (1973), followed by West Germany (1974),[26] Japan (1974), Australia, Canada (1975),[27][28] Hong Kong (1975), Singapore and the Netherlands (1978).[29] IKEA further expanded in the 1980s, opening stores in countries such as France and Spain (1981), Belgium (1984),[30] the United States (1985),[31] the United Kingdom (1987),[32] and Italy (1989).[33][29] Germany, with 53 stores, is IKEA's biggest market, followed by the United States, with 51 stores. IKEA entered Latin America in February 2010, opening in the Dominican Republic.[34] As for the region's largest markets, on 8 April 2021, a store was opened in Mexico City. In August 2018, IKEA opened its first store in India, in Hyderabad.[35][36] In November 2021, IKEA opened its largest store in the world, measuring 65,000 square metres (700,000 sq ft),[37] in the Philippines at the Mall of Asia Complex in Pasay City.[38][39][40] On 10 August 2022, IKEA opened its first store in Chile. This is its the first store in South America. Another store is expected to open in Colombia by 2023, soon to be followed by a store in Peru.[41][42][43] In March 2022, IKEA announced the closing of all 17 stores in Russia, resulting from the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the first market in which they suspended business. However, Ingka also owns 14 shopping centers across Russia operating under its Mega brand. These will remain open.[44] Due to the ongoing war and unimproved situation in Russia, IKEA said on 15 June that it would sell factories, close offices and reduce its work force.[45] Later it became known that IKEA does not plan to sell its business, but expects to return to Russia within two years. About 700 people will continue to work for the company during this period.[46] By October 2022, IKEA laid off about 10,000 Russian employees.[47] IKEA was hit hard by COVID-19 due to lockdown in various countries, like in the UK and Canada.[48][49] Because demand had fallen,[50] its annual catalogue ceased publication after 70 years in print.[51] The prices of their products have risen significantly in 2022 due to rising costs and inflation.[52] In April 2022, IKEA has shut down one of its stores in Guiyang when sales took a significant hit from the pandemic. Due to strict COVID-19 lockdowns in China, IKEA is considering closing another store in Shanghai by July 2022.[53] IKEA is also facing stock shortages and shipping problems that may continue until the end of 2022.[54] First store opening in each location Main article: List of countries with IKEA stores     1958, Sweden     1963, Norway     1969, Denmark     1973, Switzerland     1974, Japan     1974, Germany     1975, Australia     1975, Canada     1975, Hong Kong1     1977, Austria     1978, Singapore     1978, Netherlands     1980, Spain     1981, Iceland     1981, France     1983, Saudi Arabia     1984, Belgium     1984, Kuwait     1985, United States     1987, United Kingdom     1989, Italy     1990, Hungary     1990, Poland     1991, Czech Republic2     1991, Serbia3     1991, United Arab Emirates     1992, Slovakia2     1994, Taiwan     1996, Finland     1996, Malaysia     1998, China     2000, Russia (ceased operations in 2022)     2001, Israel     2001, Greece     2004, Portugal     2005, Turkey     2007, Romania     2007, Cyprus     2008, Ireland     2010, Dominican Republic     2011, Bulgaria     2011, Thailand     2012, Macau     2013, Lithuania     2013, Puerto Rico     2013, Egypt     2013, Qatar     2014, Jordan     2014, Croatia     2014, Indonesia     2014, South Korea     2016, Morocco     2018, India     2018, Latvia     2018, Bahrain     2019, Estonia     2020, Ukraine     2021, Mexico     2021, Slovenia     2021, Philippines     2022, Oman     2022, Chile 1 then British Hong Kong, 2 then part of Czechoslovakia, 3 then part of Yugoslavia Store layout Interior of an IKEA store in Hong Kong The self-service warehouse area Traditional store layout IKEA stores are typically blue buildings with yellow accents[55] (also Sweden's national colours). They are often designed in a one-way layout, leading customers counter-clockwise along what IKEA calls "the long natural way" designed to encourage the customer to see the store in its entirety (as opposed to a traditional retail store, which allows a customer to go directly to the section where the desired goods and services are displayed). There are often shortcuts to other parts of the showroom.[56] The sequence first involves going through the furniture showrooms making note of selected items. The customer collects a shopping cart and proceeds to an open-shelf "Market Hall" warehouse for smaller items, visits the self-service furniture warehouse to collect previously noted showroom products in flat pack form. Sometimes, they are directed to collect products from an external warehouse on the same site or at a site nearby after purchase. Finally, customers pay for their products at a cash register. Not all furniture is stocked at the store level, such as particular sofa colours needing to be shipped from a warehouse to the customer's home or the store. Most stores follow the layout of having the showroom upstairs with the marketplace and self-service warehouse downstairs. Some stores are single level, while others have separate warehouses to allow more stock to be kept on-site. Single-level stores are found predominantly in areas where the cost of land would be less than the cost of building a 2-level store. Some stores have dual-level warehouses with machine-controlled silos to allow large quantities of stock to be accessed throughout the selling day. As-is area at IKEA Damansara, Selangor Most IKEA stores offer an "as-is" or “bargain corner” (recently rebranded as “circular hub”) area at the end of the warehouse, just before the cash registers. Returned, damaged, and formerly showcased products are displayed here and sold with a significant discount. Alternative smaller store formats     This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. The specific problem is: no need to report every new store. Please help improve this section if you can. (November 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) The vast majority of IKEA stores are located outside of city centers, primarily because of land cost and traffic access. Several smaller store formats have been unsuccessfully tested in the past (the "midi" concept in the early 1990s, which was tested in Ottawa and Heerlen with 9,300 m2 (100,000 sq ft), or a "boutique" shop in Manhattan). New formats for full-size stores A new format for a full-size, city center store was introduced with the opening of the Manchester (United Kingdom) store, situated in Ashton-under-Lyne in 2006. Another store, in Coventry, opened in December 2007. The store had seven floors and a different flow from other IKEA stores; however, it closed down in 2020 due to the site being deemed unsuitable for future business.[57] IKEA's Southampton store that opened in February 2009 is also in the city center and built in an urban style similar to the Coventry store. IKEA built these stores in response to UK government restrictions blocking retail establishment outside city centers.[58] Adaptation to Japanese market Japan was another market where IKEA performed badly initially, exited the market completely and then re-entered the Japanese market with an alternative store design and layout with which it finally found success. The IKEA entered the Japanese market in 1974 through a franchise arrangement with a local partner, only to withdraw in failure in 1986. Japan was one of the first markets outside its original core European market. Despite Japan being the second largest economy in the world at the time, IKEA did not adequately adapt its store layout strategy to the Japanese consumer. Japanese consumers did not have a culture of DIY furniture assembly, and many in the early days had no way to haul the flat-packs home to their small apartments. Nor did the store layouts familiar to European customers initially make much sense to Japanese consumers. So prior to re-entering the Japanese market in 2006, IKEA management did extensive local market research in more effective store layouts. One area of local adaptation was the room displays common to every IKEA store worldwide. Rather than just replicate a typical European room layout, the IKEA Japan management was careful to set up room displays more closely resembling Japanese apartment rooms, such as one for "a typical Japanese teenage boy who likes baseball and computer games".[59] Inner-city stores IKEA also adapted its store location and services to the 'inner-city' format for the expansion in China, unlike other countries where IKEA stores for economic and planning restriction reasons tends to be more commonly just outside city centers due to planning restrictions. In China, planning restrictions are less of an issue than in other country markets due to the lack of cars for much of its customer base. Accordingly, in store design alternatives, IKEA has had to offer store locations and formats closer to public transportation since few customers had access to cars with which to buy and take-home DIY flat pack furniture. The store design alternative thinking and strategy in China has been to locate stores to facilitate access for non-car owning customers.[60] In fact, in some locations in China, IKEA stores can be found not in the usual suburban or near airport locations like in other countries, but rather places such as downtown shopping center with a 'mini-IKEA' store to attract shoppers. For example, one store design alternative trend that IKEA has implemented has been 'pop-up' stores along social media platforms in their advertising strategy for the first-time as a company to reach new customers demographics while still reinforcing its global brand locally in China.[61] Small sized stores In Hong Kong, where shop space is limited and costly, IKEA has opened three outlets in the city, most of which have the one-way layout, part of shopping malls, small for IKEA stores but huge for Hong Kong retail stores. In addition to tailoring store sizes for specific countries, IKEA also alters the sizes of their products in order to accommodate cultural differences.[62] In 2015, IKEA announced that it would be attempting a smaller store design at several locations in Canada. This modified store will feature only a display gallery and a small warehouse. One location planned for Kitchener is in the place formerly occupied by a Sears Home store. The warehouses will not keep furniture stocked, and so customers will not be able to drop in to purchase and leave with furniture the same day. Instead, they will purchase the furniture in advance online or in-store and order the furniture delivered to one of the new stores, for a greatly reduced rate. IKEA claims that this new model will allow them to expand quickly into new markets rather than spending years opening a full-size store.[63] In 2020, IKEA opened at Al Wahda Mall in Abu Dhabi, UAE, which at 2,137 m2 (23,002 sq ft) was one of the smallest IKEA stores in the world.[64][65][66][67] It also opened at 360 Mall in Kuwait and in Harajuku, Tokyo at the same year. The size of 360 Mall store was slightly larger than Al Wahda's despite bringing similar concept, at 3,000 m2 (32,000 sq ft), located at extension of the mall.[68] As for IKEA Harajuku, the 2,500 m2 (26,910 sq ft), 7-storey store houses the chain's first and only konbini concept.[69][70] In 2021, IKEA opened another of its smallest stores at the JEM Mall in Jurong East, Singapore. Replacing liquidated department store Robinsons, IKEA Jurong is only 6,500 m2 (70,000 sq ft) across three levels and the first in Southeast Asia that did not provide the "Market Hall" warehouse in its store.[71][72] Also on the same year, IKEA opened its first small-store format in Bali, Indonesia. Replacing liquidated Giant hypermarket, IKEA Bali is dubbed as Customer Meeting Point, and eventually the smallest store so far, at 1,200 m2 (13,000 sq ft) of space.[73][74][75][76] In 2022, another small-size store was opened inside Kings Mall (now known as Livat Hammersmith), Hammersmith, in February, at 4,600 m2 (50,000 sq ft),[77][78][79] followed by a 9,400 m2 (101,000 sq ft) store inside Mall Taman Anggrek, Jakarta, which was opened on 7 April 2022.[80][81][82][83][84][85][86] Products and services Furniture and homeware A man assembling an IKEA Poäng chair Rather than being sold pre-assembled, much of IKEA's furniture is designed to be assembled by the customer. The company claims that this helps reduce costs and use of packaging by not shipping air; the volume of a bookcase, for example, is considerably less if it is shipped unassembled rather than assembled. This is also more practical for European customers using public transport, because flat packs can be more easily carried. IKEA contends that it has been a pioneering force in sustainable approaches to mass consumer culture.[87] Kamprad calls this "democratic design", meaning that the company applies an integrated approach to manufacturing and design (see also environmental design). In response to the explosion of human population and material expectations in the 20th and 21st centuries, the company implements economies of scale, capturing material streams and creating manufacturing processes that hold costs and resource use down, such as the extensive use of medium-density fibreboard ("MDF"), also called "particle board". Notable items of IKEA furniture include the Poäng armchair, the Billy bookcase and the Klippan sofa, all of which have sold by the tens of millions since the late 1970s.[88][89] The IKEA and LEGO brands teamed up to create a range of simple storage solutions for children and adults.[90] In June 2021, IKEA Canada unveiled a series of 10 "Love Seats" inspired by different Pride flags, created by four LGBTQ designers.[91] Furniture and product naming IKEA products are identified by one-word (rarely two-word) names. Most of the names are Scandinavian in origin. Although there are some exceptions, most product names are based on a special naming system developed by IKEA.[92] Company founder Kamprad was dyslexic and found that naming the furniture with proper names and words, rather than a product code, made the names easier to remember.[93] Some of IKEA's Swedish product names have amusing or unfortunate connotations in other languages, sometimes resulting in the names being withdrawn in certain countries. Notable examples for English include the "Jerker" computer desk (discontinued several years ago as of 2013), "Fukta" plant spray, "Fartfull" workbench,[94] and "Lyckhem" (meaning bliss). Due to several products being named after real locations, this has resulted in some locations sharing names with objects considered generally unpleasant, such as a toilet brush being named after the lake of Bolmen and a trash can named after the village of Toften. In November 2021, Visit Sweden launched a jocular campaign named "Discover the Originals", which invites tourists to visit the locations which have received such unfortunate associations with such items.[95][96] Design services The first US Planning Studio located in Manhattan, United States, in 2019, which closed in January 2022[97] During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, to facilitate social distancing between customers and accommodate the increased volume of customers who were booking IKEA design consultation services, IKEA stores in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain improved their design consulting process by piloting Ombori's paperless queue management system for the brand.[98] In March 2021, IKEA launched IKEA Studio in partnership with Apple Inc., an app enabling customers to design full-scale rooms with IKEA furniture using augmented reality on an iPhone.[99] Smart home In 2016, IKEA started a move into the smart home business. The IKEA TRÅDFRI smart lighting kit was one of the first ranges signalling this change.[100] IKEA's media team has confirmed that smart home project will be a big move. They have also started a partnership with Philips Hue.[101] The wireless charging furniture, integrating wireless Qi charging into everyday furniture, is another strategy for the smart home business.[102] A collaboration to build Sonos smart speaker technology into furniture sold by IKEA was announced in December 2017.[103] The first products resulting from the collaboration launched in August 2019.[104] Under the product name SYMFONISK, IKEA and Sonos have made two distinct wireless speakers that integrate with existing Sonos households or can be used to start with the Sonos-ecosystem, one that's also a lamp and another that's a more traditional looking bookshelf speaker. Both products as well as accessories for the purpose of mounting the bookshelf speakers have gone on sale worldwide on 1 August.[105] From the start, IKEA SYMFONISK can only be controlled from the Sonos app, but IKEA will add support for the speakers in their own Home Smart app in October [year missing] to be paired with scenes that control both the lights and smart blinds together with the speakers.[citation needed] Houses and flats IKEA has also expanded its product base to include flat-pack houses and apartments, in an effort to cut prices involved in a first-time buyer's home. The IKEA product, named BoKlok was launched in Sweden in 1996 in a joint venture with Skanska. Now working in the Nordic countries and in the UK, sites confirmed in England include London, Ashton-under-Lyne, Leeds, Gateshead, Warrington, Bristol and Liverpool.[106] Solar PV systems At the end of September 2013, the company announced that solar panel packages, so-called "residential kits", for houses will be sold at 17 UK stores by mid-2014. The decision followed a successful pilot project at the Lakeside IKEA store, whereby one photovoltaic system was sold almost every day. The solar CIGS panels are manufactured by Solibro, a German-based subsidiary of the Chinese company Hanergy.[107][108] By the end of 2014, IKEA began to sell Solibro's solar residential kits in the Netherlands and in Switzerland.[109] In November 2015, IKEA ended its contract with Hanergy and in April 2016 started working with Solarcentury to sell solar panels in the United Kingdom.[110] The deal would allow customers to be able to order panels online and at three stores before being expanded to all United Kingdom stores by the end of summer.[111] Furniture rental In April 2019, the company announced that it would begin test marketing a new concept, renting furniture to customers. One of the motivating factors was the fact that inexpensive IKEA products were viewed as "disposable" and often ended up being scrapped after a few years of use. This was at a time when especially younger buyers said they wanted to minimize their impact on the environment. The company understood this view. In an interview, Jesper Brodin, the chief executive of Ingka Group (the largest franchisee of IKEA stores), commented that "climate change and unsustainable consumption are among the biggest challenges we face in society".[112] The other strategic objectives of the plan were to be more affordable and more convenient. The company said it would test the rental concept in all 30 markets by 2020, expecting it to increase the number of times a piece of furniture would be used before recycling.[113] Restaurant and food markets An IKEA Bistro in Beijing Swedish Food Market IKEA restaurant in Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada Swedish meatballs The first IKEA store opened in 1958 with a small cafe that transitioned into a full-blown restaurant in 1960 that,[114] until 2011, sold branded Swedish prepared specialist foods, such as meatballs, packages of gravy, lingonberry jam, various biscuits and crackers, and salmon and fish roe spread. The new label has a variety of items including chocolates, meatballs, jams, pancakes, salmon and various drinks.[115][116] Although the cafes primarily serve Swedish food, the menu varies based on the culture, food and location of each store.[117] With restaurants in 38 countries, the menu will incorporate local dishes including shawarma in Saudi Arabia, poutine in Canada, macarons in France, and gelato in Italy.[118] In Indonesia, the Swedish meatballs recipe is changed to accommodate the country's halal requirements.[119] Stores in Israel sell kosher food under rabbinical supervision.[120] The kosher restaurants are separated into dairy and meat areas.[121] In many locations, the IKEA restaurants open daily before the rest of the store and serve breakfast.[citation needed] All food products are based on Swedish recipes and traditions. Food accounts for 5% of IKEA's sales.[122] IKEA sells plant-based meatballs made from potatoes, apples, pea protein, and oats in all of its stores.[123] According to United States journalist Avery Yale Kamila, IKEA began testing its plant-based meatballs in 2014, then launched the plant-based meatballs in 2015 and began testing vegan hot dogs in 2018.[124][125][126] In 2019, journalist James Hansen reported in Eater London that IKEA would only sell vegetarian food at Christmastime.[127] Småland Every store has a kids play area, named Småland (Swedish for small lands; it is also the Swedish province of Småland where founder Kamprad was born). Parents drop off their children at a gate to the playground, and pick them up after they arrive at another entrance. In some stores, parents are given free pagers by the on-site staff, which the staff can use to summon parents whose children need them earlier than expected; in others, staff summon parents through announcements over the in-store public address system or by calling them on their cellphones.[128] The largest Småland play area is located at the IKEA store in Navi Mumbai, India.[129] Some of these were closed down due to pandemic. Other ventures A MEGA Family Shopping Centre in Russia IKEA owns & operates the MEGA Family Shopping Centre chain in Russia.[130] On 8 August 2008, IKEA UK launched a virtual mobile phone network called IKEA Family Mobile, which ran on T-Mobile.[131] At launch it was the cheapest pay-as-you-go network in the UK.[132][133] In June 2015 the network announced that its services would cease to operate from 31 August 2015.[134] As of 2012, IKEA has a joint venture with TCL to provide Uppleva integrated HDTV and entertainment system products.[135][136] In mid-August 2012, the company announced that it would establish a chain of 100 economy hotels in Europe but, unlike its few existing hotels in Scandinavia, they would not carry the IKEA name, nor would they use IKEA furniture and furnishings – they would be operated by an unnamed international group of hoteliers.[137] As of 30 April 2018, however, the company owned only a single hotel, the IKEA Hotell in Älmhult, Sweden. It was previously planning to open another one, in New Haven, Connecticut, United States, after converting the historic Pirelli Building. The company received approval for the concept from the city's planning commission in mid-November 2018; the building was to include 165 rooms and the property would offer 129 dedicated parking spaces. Research in April 2019 provided no indication that the hotel had been completed as of that time.[138][139] The building was then sold to Connecticut architect and developer Becker + Becker for $1.2 million.[140] Opening in 2022 under Hotel Marcel, it will be managed by Chesapeake Hospitality and became part of Hilton's Tapestry Collection.[141][142] From 2016 to 2018, IKEA made the Saladda belt-driven bicycle.[143] In September 2017, IKEA announced they would be acquiring San Francisco-based TaskRabbit. The deal, completed later that year, has TaskRabbit operating as an independent company.[144] In March 2020, IKEA announced that it had partnered with Pizza Hut Hong Kong on a joint venture. IKEA launched a new side table called SÄVA. The table, designed to resemble a pizza saver, would be boxed in packaging resembling a pizza box, and the building instructions included a suggestion to order a Swedish meatball pizza from Pizza Hut, which would contain the same meatballs served in IKEA restaurants.[145][146] In April 2020, IKEA acquired AI imaging startup Geomagical Labs.[147][148] In July 2020, IKEA opened a concept store in the Harajuku district of Tokyo, Japan, where it launched its first ever apparel line.[149] Ingka Centres, IKEA's malls division, announced in December 2021 that it would open two malls, anchored by IKEA stores, in Gurugram and Noida in India at a cost of around ₹9,000 crore (US$1.1 billion). Both malls are expected to open by 2025.[150] Corporate structure Main articles: Stichting INGKA Foundation, Ikano, and Ingvar Kamprad IKEA ownership chart Stichting INGKA Foundation (Netherlands) Stichting IKEA Foundation (Netherlands) INGKA Holding (Netherlands) Other IKEA franchisees Retail locations Intellectual properties IKEA Interogo Foundation (Liechtenstein) Inter IKEA Holding (Netherlands) Interogo Holding (Switzerland) (and substs.) Inter IKEA Systems (Netherlands) IKEA Supply IKEA of Sweden IKEA Industry Holding IKEA Comm- unications IKEA Food Services The image above contains clickable links Flowchart showing the structure and ownership of IKEA companies. Parent companies are at the top of the chart. Provides services to | Is the parent of This box:     viewtalkedit IKEA is owned and operated by a complicated array of not-for-profit and for-profit corporations. The corporate structure is divided into two main parts: operations and franchising. INGKA Holding B.V., based in the Netherlands, owns the Ingka Group, which takes care of the centers, retails, customer fulfillment, and all the other services related to IKEA products. The IKEA brand is owned and managed by Inter IKEA Systems B.V., based in the Netherlands, owned by Inter IKEA Holding B.V. Inter IKEA Holding is also in charge of design, manufacturing and supply of IKEA products. Inter IKEA Systems is owned by Inter IKEA Holding BV, a company registered in the Netherlands, formerly registered in Luxembourg (under the name Inter IKEA Holding SA). Inter IKEA Holding, in turn, is owned by the Interogo Foundation, based in Liechtenstein.[151][152] In 2016, the INGKA Holding sold its design, manufacturing and logistics subsidiaries to Inter IKEA Holding.[153] In June 2013, Ingvar Kamprad resigned from the board of Inter IKEA Holding SA and his youngest son Mathias Kamprad replaced Per Ludvigsson as the chairman of the holding company. Following his decision to step down, the 87-year-old founder explained, "I see this as a good time for me to leave the board of Inter IKEA Group. By that we are also taking another step in the generation shift that has been ongoing for some years."[154] After the 2016 company restructure, Inter IKEA Holding SA no longer exists, having reincorporated in the Netherlands. Mathias Kamprad became a board member of the Inter IKEA Group and the Interogo Foundation.[155] Mathias and his two older brothers, who also have leadership roles at IKEA, work on the corporation's overall vision and long-term strategy.... Marketing Catalogue Main article: IKEA Catalogue IKEA used to publish an annual catalogue, first published in Swedish in 1951.[217] It is considered to be the main marketing tool of the company, consuming 70% of its annual marketing budget.[218] The catalogue is distributed both in stores and by mail,[219] with most of it being produced by IKEA Communications AB in IKEA's hometown of Älmhult, Sweden.[220] At its peak in 2016, 200 million copies of the catalogue were distributed in 32 languages to more than 50 markets.[221] In December 2020, IKEA announced that they would cease publication of both the print and digital versions of the catalogue, with the 2021 edition (released in 2020) being the final edition.[222] IKEA Family The IKEA Family card, issued in Canada, c. 2012 In common with some other retailers, IKEA launched a loyalty card called "IKEA Family". The card is free of charge and can be used to obtain discounts on certain products found in-store. It is available worldwide. In conjunction with the card, IKEA also publishes and sells a printed quarterly magazine titled IKEA Family Live which supplements the card and catalogue. The magazine is already printed in thirteen languages and an English edition for the United Kingdom was launched in February 2007. It is expected to have a subscription of over 500,000.[223] IKEA Place app On 12 September 2017, IKEA announced the augmented reality app, IKEA Place, following by Apple's release of its ARkit technology and iOS 11.[224] IKEA Place helps consumers to visualize true to scale IKEA products into real environment.[225] Advertising In 1994, IKEA ran a commercial in the United States, titled Dining Room, widely thought to be the first to feature a homosexual couple; it aired for several weeks before being pulled after calls for a boycott and a bomb threat directed at IKEA stores.[226] Other IKEA commercials appeal to the wider LGBTQ community, one featuring a transgender woman.[227] German-Turkish advertisement in Berlin-Neukölln In 2002, the inaugural television component of the "Unböring" campaign, titled Lamp, went on to win several awards, including a Grand Clio,[228] Golds at the London International Awards[229] and the ANDY Awards,[230] and the Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival,[231] the most prestigious awards ceremony in the advertising community. A debate ensued between Fraser Patterson, Chief Executive of Onis, and Andrew McGuinness, partner at Beattie McGuinness Bungay (BMB), the advertising and PR agency that was awarded the £12m IKEA account.[232][233] The essence of the debate was that BMB claimed to be unaware of Onis's campaign as Onis was not an advertising agency. Onis's argument was that its advertising could be seen in prominent landmarks throughout London, having been already accredited, showing concern about the impact IKEA's campaign would have on the originality of its own. BMB and IKEA subsequently agreed to provide Onis with a feature page on the IKEA campaign site linking through to Onis's website for a period of 1 year. In 2008, IKEA paired up with the makers of video game The Sims 2 to make a stuff pack called IKEA Home Stuff, featuring many IKEA products. It was released on 24 June 2008 in North America and 26 June 2008 in Europe. It is the second stuff pack with a major brand, the first being The Sims 2 H&M Fashion Stuff. IKEA took over the title sponsorship of Philadelphia's annual Thanksgiving Day parade in 2008, replacing Boscov's, which filed for bankruptcy in August 2008. In November 2008, a subway train decorated in IKEA style was introduced in Novosibirsk, Russia.[234] Four cars were turned into a mobile showroom of the Swedish design. The redesigned train, which features colourful seats and fancy curtains, carried passengers until 6 June 2009. IKEA marketing campaign in the Paris Métro In March 2010, IKEA developed an event in four important Métro stations in Paris, in which furniture collections are displayed in high-traffic spots, giving potential customers a chance to check out the brand's products. The Métro walls were also filled with prints that showcase IKEA interiors. In September 2017, IKEA launched the "IKEA Human Catalogue" campaign, in which memory champion Yanjaa Wintersoul memorized all 328 pages of the catalogue in minute detail in just a week before its launch. To prove the legitimacy and accuracy of the campaign, live demonstrations were held at press conferences in IKEA stores across Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand as well as a Facebook Live event held at the Facebook Singapore headquarters and talk show demonstrations in the US with Steve Harvey among others.[235] The advertising campaign was hugely successful winning numerous industry awards including the Webby award 2018 for best social media campaign,[236] an Ogilvy award and is currently a contender for the Cannes Lions 2018.[237] In 2020, IKEA conducted a "Buy Back Friday" campaign with a message to present a new life to old furniture instead of offering customers to buy new items for Black Friday.[238] In June 2021, IKEA said it had suspended adverts on GB News because of concerns the channel's content would go against their aim to be inclusive. In a statement IKEA said: "We have safeguards in place to prevent our advertising from appearing on platforms that are not in line with our humanistic values. We are in the process of investigating how this may have occurred to ensure it won't happen again in future, and have suspended paid display advertising in the meantime."[239] Criticisms Main article: Criticism of IKEA See also: Stichting INGKA Foundation § Criticisms and reforms IKEA has been criticized about unsustainable sourcing of wood from protected forests, certain unsafe product lines, negative effects on communities, as well as other issues. In popular culture IKEA stores have been featured in many works of fiction. Some examples include:     The SCP Foundation, an online collaborative writing project documenting fictional anomalous objects, entities and events, features an entry (numbered SCP-3008) based on an IKEA store which is notably bigger on the inside than it would outwardly imply, and from which escaping is far more difficult than expected.[240][241] The interior of this store is populated by entities dressed in IKEA staff attire, resembling highly deformed, faceless humanoids, which are normally passive during the "day" (when the lights are switched on) but become aggressive during the "night" (when the lights are switched off).         A number of survival horror video games have been created based on SCP-3008.[242]     The Swedish crime comedy film Jönssonligan dyker upp igen features a failed robbery of the IKEA store at Kungens Kurva by the eponymous gang.[243]     The American film 500 Days of Summer features the main characters flirting around the showroom of an IKEA store. It was filmed on-location at an IKEA store. One of the tracks from the film's score is entitled "Ikea" to reflect the scene.[244]     The novel The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe by French author Romain Puertolas features a trip to an IKEA store in Paris, France.[245]     IKEA Heights, a comedic melodrama web series     Children's picture book Bears Out of The Box by Stefan Cabo and illustrated by Lucia Mrvova. The book features IKEA's famed Fabler Bjorn doll, who is trying to venture outside the store. The book was released in 2021 by Europe Books.[246][247][248]     The 2014 horror comedy novel Horrorstör is set in a haunted store called ARSK, modelled on IKEA, and the novel is designed to look like the IKEA catalog.[249]     In 2018, the company's plush toy shark "Blåhaj" was widely used in an internet meme,[250][251][252] with social media users posting humorous photos of it in their homes." (wikipedia.org)
  • Condition: New other (see details)
  • Condition: New, opened-box condition. Please see photos and description.
  • Compatible Brand: IKEA
  • Pattern: Solid
  • Shape: Rectangle
  • Color: Gray
  • Compatible Model: GALANT
  • Material: Metal, Steel
  • MPN: 300.904.38
  • Brand: IKEA
  • Type: Under-desk Shelf
  • Era: 21st Century (2000-Now)
  • Model: SUMMERA
  • Original/Reproduction: Original
  • Style: Industrial
  • Theme: Computer & Office
  • Features: Adjustable
  • Country/Region of Manufacture: China
  • Room: Home Office/Study
  • Finish: Powder Coat
  • Product Line: SUMMERA

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