What are some parts of an old computer 1990-2000 that are not used anymore in modern day computers?

Answer 1

In regard to technology, we no longer use IDE drive interface technology (as it has been replaced by SATA), ISA or VLB expansion slots (as they have been replaced by PCI and PCI Express), dial-up modems (as we now use integrated Ethernet and/or wireless network adapters to interface with broadband internet connections as well as on-site networking systems), floppy drive interfaces and their related floppy drives (not to mention the QIC-80 protocol-based tape drives and Zip drives as all are now obsolete), parallel and serial ports (superseded for the most part by USB ports though there are still some very rare occasions when both parallel and serial ports are used even to this day), and much more. One of the biggest changes that I find preferable is the fact that the pins for CPU interfaces have moved from the chips to the sockets. This makes storage of unmounted CPUs much easier since there are no pins to protect from being bent or broken off.

As far as actual parts, that can be answered by listing various types of RAM, hard drive designs, types of tape drives, etc. For example, in regard to RAM, we no longer use RAM SIMMs of the 30- or 72-pin varieties nor do we use the more modern DIMMs of speeds lower than about DDR2-800 (such as PC100, PC133, DDR333, DDR400, DDR2-667, and DDR2-800). We also do not use floppy drive cables, IDE cables, or (generally speaking) do we use CD-ROM audio cables any longer. Most people do not use video cards or sound cards any longer since those technologies are integrated into modern systems. The same can be said about networking cards.

The machines of today are quite different in their design than those of yesteryear even though their functions are the same as their predecessors. The same progress can be said about cars, cellular phones, and even more mundane things such as elevators, televisions, and radios. As times rolls on, the technologies used are improved or replaced by better technologies but they still serve the same purposes within our daily experiences.