history


History of the Internet

1960's 1960's Fairchild Semiconductor releases the first commercial integrated circuit. [556.9] Douglas Engelbart receives a patent on the mouse pointing device for computers. Gordon Moore suggests that integrated circuits would double in complexity every year. This later becomes known as Moore's Law, and is applied to microprocessor speed. Steven Gray founds the Amateur Computer Society, and begins publishing the ACS Newsletter. Some consider this to be the birth-date of personal computing IBM builds the first floppy disk. Intel announces a 1 KB RAM chip, which has a significantly larger capacity than any previously produced memory chip.
1970's 1970's Intel creates the first 4004 microprocessor, at the time called a "mini-programmer". Intel introduces its 4-bit bus, 108-KHz 4004 chip - the first microprocessor. Initial price is US$200. Speed is 60,000 operations per second. It uses 2300 transistors, based on 10-micron technology. It can address 640 bytes. Documentation manuals were written by Adam Osborne. The die for the chip measures 3x4 mm. The chip is introduced to the public in Las Vegas by Wayne Pickette. Xerox decides to build a personal computer to be used for research Project "Alto" begins. Popular Electronics publishes an article by MITS announcing the Altair 880. computer for US$439 in kit form. It uses the Intel 8080 processor. The Altair pictured on the cover of the magazine is actually a mock-up, as an actual computer was not available. Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs finish work on a computer circuit board, that they call the Apple I computer.
1980's 1980's Hewlett-Packard completes work on the Capricorn project, producing the HP-85. With a 32-character wide CRT display, small built-in printer, cassette tape recorder, and keyboard, it sold for US$3250. Adam Osborne, of Osborne Computer Corporation, introduces the Osborne 1 Personal Business Computer at the West Coast Computer Faire. It features a Z80A CPU, 5-inch display, 64KB RAM, keyboard, keypad, modem, and two 5.25-inch 100KB disk drives for US$1795. Weight: 24 pounds. It also includes US$1500 worth of software, including CP/M, BASIC, WordStar, and SuperCalc. Osborne anticipated selling 10,000 in total, but sales quickly reached10,000 in a single month.
1990's 1990's IBM unveils its new RISC-based workstation line, the RS/6000. Development work had been done under code name "America" for the RISC chip research, and "RIOS" for systems using the America technology. The architecture of the systems is given the name POWER, standing for Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC. Apple Computer ships its System 7.0 Macintosh operating system, two years after its announcement, for US$100. Apple Computer unveils and ships its first computers based on the PowerPC 601 processor, the Power Macintosh 6100/60, 7100/66, and 8100/80. All come w