Test your Nerd Knowledge: Aug 2, 2022
Here’s a review of this week’s questions:
- What is the name of the French online music streaming service founded in 2007 by Daniel Marhely and Jonathan Benassaya?
- What was the name of the 8-bit personal home computer developed in Great Britain in 1982?
- In 2016, Avago merged with what company to become one of the largest global suppliers of semiconductors?
And here are the answers:
- Deezer. Like Napster in the U.S., Deezer had a rocky start in the legitimate streaming realm, after early versions resulted in the company being charged with copyright infringement. By 2009, the site had quelled most of its legal problems and was slowly growing in subscribers, reaching a respectable seven million that year. Contributions from private equity firms allowed for huge expansion into Belgium and Great Britain, and eventually North America. The platform is now available in over 180 countries. Like Rhapsody, Deezer now offers six different account types, dependent upon audio quality and how many ads and skips a user wishes to avoid.
- ZX Spectrum. Sinclair Research introduced the ZX Spectrum in 1982 and it sold over five million units before being discontinued 10 years later. Over that span of years, the Spectrum was released in eight different models, ranging from the entry level with 16 KB RAM to the ZX Spectrum +3 with 128 KB RAM and built-in floppy disk drive. It came bundled with “Horizons Software Starter Pack,” which included games like “Beating the Waves,” “Bubblesort” and “Monte Carlo.”
- Broadcom, Inc. A living example of Silicon Valley’s head-spinning practice of mergers and acquisitions, Broadcom offers a tremendous range of hardware and software solutions, including semiconductors and mainframe operations applications, as well as products that support data center networking, home connectivity, broadband access, telecommunications equipment, smartphones, base stations, data center servers and storage, factory automation, power generation and alternative energy systems. With revenues of over $45 billion in 2021, the company continues to grow, currently employing over 20,000 people.