7 years after the last published version, an update to Computer Hardware Chart is finally here!



Measuring in at 7200 × 9600 @ 200ppi (30" x 40" ARCH-E), CHC v2 has 75 CPU sockets/slots, 30 peripheral card slots, 17 internal disk drive interfaces, 57 peripheral ports, 44 kinds of RAM and more.



As before, I'm providing a high-res version for download for those with the means to print themselves for personal use or who want to keep the digital file for easy viewing. Please do not sell this image! The only site permitted to sell prints is currently DeviantArt. If you find it for sale elsewhere, it's not from me.





300DPI version (exceeds DA's limit for image uploads so this is on sta.sh in a .zip...):



Big thanks to the folks who proofed the draft of CHC 2.0 and who purchased prints of version 1.7 from DeviantArt! The funds from those sales helped me acquire some of the hardware for version 2.0.

Computer hardware chart was developed to help folks visually tell the difference between the plethora of computer interfaces developed over the years. This chart is geared toward consumer computes, however I've included some server and enterprise components. Version 1 was a project I developed in College. At the time, I had a rich supply of old hardware from my personal collection and availability to newer hardware from my job at the time. The professors I had in my provided support, feedback, and a plotter to ditto off copies for class. After I graduated and changed jobs, I lost easy access to new hardware and progress was stopped. CHC version 1.8 (a special version commissioned for for a McGraw-Hill book) of the poster outgrew the parent program I developed it in (Photoshop CS3) and I began the process of moving to Illustrator CC in stead. This allowed me to preserve the original individual photos and allow for a very detailed final product. This necessitated the complete re-shoot of the majority of the photos in version 1.x. Each individual photo was taken with my trusty PowerShot 630 at 8Mpx. This little camera has been through a lot. Including a complete lens replacement because of a rather destructive accident, and being too close to an exploding firework which left it badly dented. I have newer cameras, but I really don't like the current generation of CCDs in budget camera, and they have not been able to beat the macro on my Powershot 630.

The sources for the bits in CHC came from several sources. the majority was out of my personal hardware collection. I've been collecting vintage Macs for years and have built up a pretty large collection. For stuff I did not have on-hand I was able to photograph hardware from my work or from friends. Other hardware has been acquired from online resellers like eBay, Alibaba, and mouser. On rare occasion, google images were used for non-released hardware to impossible to get hardware (like XDIMM and XDR. Essentially all the fuzzy ones...).





Intentional omissions: Custom USB ports from devices like cell phones, telecom CPU sockets, high-end server CPU sockets (IBM power series, most SUN Sparc, and DEC CPUs), custom or one-off connectors, backplane connectors, uncommon sub-D or DIN interfaces, laptop dock connectors, laptop power ports, CPU voltage card ports, and stuff I don't know about.





THe future of CHC. I think I've exhausted the reasonable space available in a traditional wall chart. Even in version 2.0, the text and individual objects are getting pretty small. I would love to covet this to an iOS app. I am not a programmer... but would really appreciate if I could get a template Xcode project where I could plug in image resources and descriptions to get me started.

I hope you enjoy this item, Thank you!



-Sonic84





Images from CHC source hardware:

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Did you find an inaccuracy or type-o? Mention it in the comments!



