Digital Pregnancy Tests Are More Powerful Than An Original IBM PC

What Is Hidden Inside A Digital Pregnancy Test? Well, Apparently, A Micro Pc As Powerful As The IBM PC Or The Original ZX Spectrum

Digital Pregnancy Tests Are More Powerful Than An Original IBM PC

That technology evolves at an unstoppable rate is a no-brainer, something we see every day just by looking around. But sometimes it is difficult to realize and to what extent this evolution is real. Here is a good example: digital pregnancy tests that cost 5 euros and are disposable, more powerful than an original IBM PC or an 8-bit computer from the 80s, like the ZX Spectrum or the Amstrad CPC that counted hundreds, even thousands of dollars. Digital Pregnancy

Analog pregnancy tests have been in use for decades. They are nothing more than a strip of special paper that reacts chemically with urine, detecting a hormone associated with pregnancy.

It is a simple and effective test, so we are not very clear why do you need to computerize this process, adding a micro PC, RAM memory, LEDs, photosensors and even a process LED screen. It is possible that the success rate is a little higher, but does that justify the technological garbage that they originate, being a throwaway hardware? Digital Pregnancy

The digital pregnancy tests They have been around for a while, so some hardware experts like Foone or XToff have been messing around with these devices, and they have discovered some very interesting things.

It turns out that these pregnancy tests they are real microcomputers, with its processor, its RAM and its LED screen. Although curiously, they still use the classic paper strip to carry out the detection of the hormone through urine.

The two models analyzed, which sell at Walmart and Clearblue for between $ 5 and $ 10, according to The Verge, use a Holtek brand 8-bit processor operating at 4-8 MHz, with 64 bytes of RAM and a round battery as a battery. Digital Pregnancy

It was the computer of the first generation of video game players and designers in Spain. Now it’s back, almost 40 years later, with 2020 hardware.

When the liquid wets the paper, the battery is activated, and the micro PC starts up. Three LEDs and photosensitive cells detect the color of the paper, and display the message “Positive” or “Negative” on the screen. Literally all hardware exists to read the color of the paper as in an analog test, but supposedly it is more exact because sometimes it is difficult to identify the color with your own eyes … From a technical point of view it is curious how This 8 bit 4 or 8 MHz microcontroller has the same power as the original IBM PC or the ZX Spectrum, computers that were launched in the 80s and that cost more than 1,500 dollars the first, and about 300 euros the second. These tests are worth 5 euros and are for single use

This news was originally published at explica.co