History of computing hardware (1960s–present)

The history of computing hardware starting at 1960 is marked by the conversion from vacuum tube to solid state devices such as the transistor and later the integrated circuit. By 1959 discrete transistors were considered sufficently reliable and economical that they made further vacuum tube computers uncompetetive. Computer main memory slowly moved away from magnetic core memory devices to solid-state static and dynamic semiconductor memory, which greatly reduced the cost, size and power consumption of computer devices. Eventually the cost of integrated circuit devices became low enough that home computers and personal computers became widespread.

Third generation

The mass increase in the use of computers accelerated with 'Third Generation' computers. These generally relied on Jack St. Claire Kilby's invention of the integrated circuit (or microchip), starting around 1965. However, the IBM System/360 used hybrid circuits, which were solid-state devcies interconnected on a substrate with discrete wires.

The first integrated circuit was produced in September 1958 but computers using them didn't begin to appear until 1963. Some of their early uses were in embedded systems, notably used by NASA for the Apollo Guidance Computer and by the military in the LGM-30 Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile.

By 1971, the Illiac IV supercomputer, which was the fastest computer in the world for several years, used about a quarter-million small-scale ECL logic gate integrated circuits to make up sixty-four parallel data processors.

While large 'mainframes' such as the System/360 increased storage and processing capabilities, the integrated circuit also allowed the development of much smaller computers. The minicomputer was a significant innovation in the 1960s and 1970s. It brought computing power to more people, not only through more convenient physical size but also through broadening the computer vendor field. Digital Equipment Corporation became the number two computer company behind IBM with their popular PDP and VAX computer systems. Smaller, affordable hardware also brought about the development of important new operating systems like Unix.

Large scale integration of circuits led to the development of very small processing units, an early example of this is the processor was the classified CADC used for analyzing flight data in the US Navy's F14A Tomcat fighter jet. This processor was developed by Steve Geller, Ray Holt and a team from AiResearch and American Microsystems.

In 1966, Hewlett-Packard entered the general purpose computer business with its HP-2116, offering a computational power formerly found only in much larger computers. It supported a wide variety of languages, among them BASIC, ALGOL, and FORTRAN.

File:Data General Super Nova.jpg

1969: Data General Nova.

In 1969, Data General shipped a total of 50,000 Novas at $8000 each. The Nova was one of the first 16-bit minicomputers and led the way toward word lengths that were multiples of the 8-bit byte. It was first to employ medium-scale integration (MSI) circuits from Fairchild Semiconductor, with subsequent models using large-scale integrated (LSI) circuits. Also notable was that the entire central processor was contained on one 15-inch printed circuit board.

In 1973, the TV Typewriter, designed by Don Lancaster, provided electronics hobbyists with a display of alphanumeric information on an ordinary television set. It used $120 worth of electronics components, as outlined in the September 1973 issue of Radio Electronics magazine. The original design included two memory boards and could generate and store 512 characters as 16 lines of 32 characters. A 90-minute cassette tape provided supplementary storage for about 100 pages of text. His design used minimalistic hardware to generate the timing of the various signals needed to create the TV signal. Clive Sinclair later used the same approach in his legendary Sinclair ZX80.

Fourth generation

The basis of the fourth generation was Marcian Hoff's invention of the microprocessor.

Unlike Third generation minicomputers, which were essentially scaled down versions of mainframe computers, the fourth generation's origins are fundamentally different. Microprocessor-based computers were originally very limited in their computational ability and speed, and were in no way an attempt to downsize the minicomputer. They were addressing an entirely different market.

Although processing power and storage capacities have increased beyond all recognition since the 1970s, the underlying technology of LSI (large scale integration) or VLSI (very large scale integration) microchips has remained basically the same, so it is widely regarded that most of today's computers still belong to the fourth generation.

Microprocessors

1971: Intel 4004.

On November 15, 1971, Intel released the world's first commercial microprocessor, the 4004. It was developed for a Japanese calculator company, Busicom, as an alternative to hardwired circuitry. Fourth generation computers developed, using a microprocessor to locate much of the computer's processing abilities on a single (small) chip. Coupled with one of Intel's other products - the RAM chip, based on an invention by Robert Dennard of IBM, (kilobits of memory on a single chip) - the microprocessor allowed fourth generation computers to be even smaller and faster than ever before. The 4004 was only capable of 60,000 instructions per second, but later processors (such as the Intel 8086 upon which all of the IBM PC and compatibles are based) brought ever increasing speed and power to the computers.

Supercomputers

1976: Cray-1 supercomputer.

At the other end of the computing spectrum from the microcomputers, the supercomputers of the era also harnessed integrated circuit technology and were immensely powerful. In 1976 the Cray-1 was developed by Seymour Cray, who left Control Data in 1972 to form his own company. This machine was known as much for its horseshoe-shaped design -- an effort to speed processing by shortening circuit paths -- as it was for being the first supercomputer to make vector processing practical. Vector processing, which uses a single instruction to perform the same operation on many numbers, has been a fundamental supercomputer processing style ever since. The Cray-1 could calculate 150 million floating point operations per second. 85 were shipped at a cost of $5 million each. The Cray-1 had a CPU that was mostly constructed of ECL SSI/MSI circuits.

1970 - 1989 Microcomputer Emerges

Datapoint 2200

1970: Datapoint 2200.

A programmable terminal called the Datapoint 2200 is the earliest known device that bears any significant resemblance to the modern personal computer. It was made by CTC (now known as Datapoint) in 1970 and was a complete commercially sold computer system in a small case bearing the approximate footprint of an IBM Selectric typewriter. The system's CPU was constructed from a variety of discrete components; although the company had commissioned Intel to develop a single-chip processing unit, there was a falling out between CTC and Intel, and the chip Intel had developed wasn't used. Intel soon released a modified version of that chip as the Intel 8008, the world's first 8-bit microprocessor. The needs and requirements of the Datapoint 2200 therefore determined the nature of the 8008, upon which all successive processors used in IBM-compatible PCs were based. Additionally, the design of the Datapoint 2200's multi-chip CPU and the final design of the Intel 8008 were so similar that the two are largely software-compatible; therefore, the Datapoint 2200, from a practical perspective, can be regarded as if it were indeed powered by an 8008, which makes it a strong candidate for the title of "first microcomputer" as well.

Xerox Alto

1973: Xerox Alto.

The Xerox Alto, developed at Xerox PARC in 1973, was a small minicomputer, and the first computer to use a mouse, the desktop metaphor, and a graphical user interface (GUI), concepts first introduced by Douglas Engelbart while at SRI International.

While its use was limited to the engineers at Xerox PARC, the Alto had features years ahead of its time and would later serve, along with the Xerox Star, as a model for the Apple Macintosh.

Altair 8800

1975: Altair 8800.

The MITS Altair, the first commercially successful microprocessor kit, was featured on the cover of Popular Electronics magazine in January 1975. It was the world's first mass-produced personal computer kit, as well as the first computer to use an Intel 8080 processor. It was a commercial success with 10,000 Altairs being shipped. The Altair also inspired the software development efforts of Paul Allen and his high school friend Bill Gates who developed a BASIC interpreter for the Altair, and then formed Microsoft.

The MITS Altair 8800 effectively created a new industry of microcomputers and computer kits, with many others following, such as a wave of small business computers in the late 1970s based on the Intel 8080, Zilog Z80 and Intel 8085 microprocessor chips. Most ran the CP/M-80 operating system developed by Gary Kildall at Digital Research. CP/M-80 was the first popular microcomputer operating system to be used by many different hardware vendors, and many software packages were written for it, such as WordStar and dBase II.

Many hobbyists during the mid 1970s designed their own systems, with various degrees of success, and sometimes banded together to ease the job. Out of these house meetings the Homebrew Computer Club developed, where hobbyists met to talk about what they had done, exchange schematics and software, and demonstrate their systems. Many people built or assembled their own computers as per published designs. For example, many thousands of people built the Galaksija home computer later in the early 80s.

1977 Trinity

1977 saw a race to be the first commercially successful pre-built microcomputer. The competitors were the Apple Computer Apple II, Commodore International PET 2001 and the Tandy TRS-80 Model I.

Apple ][

Apr. 1977: Apple II.

Steve Wozniak (Woz), a regular visitor to Homebrew Computer Club meetings, designed the Apple I, a single-board computer and first demonstrated it there. With specifications in hand and an order for 100 machines at US$666.66 each from the Byte Shop, Woz and his friend Steve Jobs, founded Apple Computer.

About 200 of the machines sold before the company announced the Apple II as a complete computer. Its higher price and lack of floating point BASIC along with a lack of retail distribution sites caused it to lag in sales behind the TRS-80, its clones, Commodore PET and other machines until 1979 when it surpassed the PET 2001 but was again pushed into 4th when Atari introduced its popular Atari 8-bit. This may be surprising that it wasn't the leader in the late 1970s given that it's now an iconic status symbol of the personal computing phenomenon and had color graphics, high build quality and open architecture.

The original Apple II operating system was only the built-in BASIC interpreter contained in ROM. Apple DOS was added to support the diskette drive; the last version was "Apple DOS 3.3". The machine came with a built-in full QWERTY keyboard in the flat streamline plastic case. The monitor and I/O devices were sold separately.

More than 4 million Apple II's were shipped by the end of its production in 1993.

PET

Oct. 1977: Commodore PET.

Chuck Peddle designed the Commodore PET (Personal Electronic Transactor). It was essentially the KIM-1 with a new display chip (the MOS 6545) driving a small built-in monochrome monitor with 40×25 character graphics. It came in 2 models; the 2001-4 with 4kb or the 2001-8 with 8kb of RAM. The machine also included a built-in Datassette for data storage located on the front of the case, which left little room for the keyboard. The 2001 was announced in June 1977 and the first 100 units were shipped in mid October 1977. However they remained back-ordered for months, and to ease deliveries they eventually canceled the 4 kB version early the next year.

Although the machine was fairly successful, there were frequent complaints about the tiny calculator-like keyboard, often referred to as a "chiclet keyboard" because the keys resembled the popular gum candy. This was addressed in upgraded "dash N" and "dash B" versions of the 2001, which put the cassette outside the case, and included a much larger keyboard with a full stroke non-click motion. Internally a newer and simpler motherboard was used, along with an upgrade in memory to 8, 16, or 32 KB, known as the 2001-N-8, 2001-N-16 or 2001-N-32, respectively.

The PET was the least successful with under 1 million sales.

TRS-80

File:Trs80 2.jpg

Nov. 1977: TRS-80 Model I.

From unknown designers came the TRS-80 which was Tandy Corporation's desktop microcomputer model line sold through Tandy's RadioShack stores in the late-1970s and 1980s. Hobbyists, home users, and small-businesses were the intended consumers. It was nicknamed "trash-eighty" which was both a term of endearment and an insult. No matter for the popularity of the TRS-80 computer with its users resulted in a successful venture for Tandy Corporation. Tandy had 3000+ Radio Shack storefronts from which to retail the TRS-80 while the PET and Apple ][ were mostly mail-order machines. This helped give it the leading position in the 1977 Trinity years.

The Model I combined the motherboard and keyboard into one unit with a separate power supply unit. It used a Zilog Z80 processor clocked at 1.77 MHz (the latest models were shipped with a Z80A). The basic model originally shipped with 4 KB of RAM, and later 16 KB. Its other strong features were its full stroke QWERTY keyboard, small size, well written Floating BASIC and it came with a monitor and tape deck all for $599 a savings of $600 over the Apple II. Its major draw back was the massive RF interference it caused in surrounding electronics which was never solved and was a violation of FCC regulations.

About 1.5 million TRS-80's were sold by it's cancellation in 1985

Atari 400/800

1979: Atari 800

In 1979 Atari 400 and Atari 800 introduced the ROM cartridge similar to the Atari 2600 game console to the microcomputer. This allowed pre-made applications in cartridge form to be sold which could be inserted and executed in seconds--a great advantage over cassette-tape installs. The names originally referred to the amount of memory, 4 KB RAM in the 400 and 8 KB in the 800. These two machines had design differences with the 400 being cheaper and targeting a game console niche while the 800 targeted the personal computer niche. The 400 had a membrane keyboard, no memory expansion slots and a single ROM cartridge slot. The 800 had a full-stroke QWERTY, an external memory slot and 2 ROM cartridge slots. They both came with a proprietary (and expensive) serial interface called Serial Input/Output (SIO). All external devices were connected using this interface in a daisy-chain fashion. Microsoft BASIC was 12 KB, and all of Atari's attempts to pare it down to 8 KB failed. So a local consulting firm delivered 8kb Atari BASIC which came on a ROM cartridge.

These two machines sold over 2 million boxes by the end of their production life.

Vic 20 and Commodore 64

1982: Commodore 64.

Commodore added the ROM cartridge to it's designs and produced the VIC-20, which had a full typewriter keyboard, color and sound, 3.5K of user accessible memory, one side ROM cartridge port and a much lower price than Apple's offerings. It was a successful home computer and sold over 1 million units but was replaced by the Commodore 64.

The best-selling personal computer of all time was released by Commodore International in 1982: the Commodore 64 (C64) . Magazines such as Compute! became available which contained the code for various utilities and games. Both machines connected to a TV set and needed an external tape deck or floppy disk sold separately. The C=64 name derived from it's 64kb of RAM and it also came with a side mount ROM cartridge slot. It used the MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor CPU; MOS Technology, Inc. was owned by Commodore. The C64 and Commodore's other 8-bit computers were followed in 1985 by the more powerful Commodore Amiga 1000, built around the Motorola 68000 CPU.

The Commodore 64 sold over 17 million units before its end.

Others

The Processor Technology Corporation produced the Sol-20 in 1976 and although it only sold 10,000 units it is significant because it had all the parts to be a stand-alone micro-computer. It came with a full QWERTY keyboard, storage tapedeck, 12" monochrome monitor and housed in a walnut paneled case with a power supply. It was built on the Intel 8080 CPU and had the standard S100 hardware bus giving it access to expansion cards and came with BASIC programming language all for $2100.

Many other home computers came onto the market, including the Atari 8-bit family, the Sinclair ZX80 and successors ZX81 and ZX Spectrum, the TI 99/4A, the BBC Micro, the Amstrad/Schneider CPC 464/CPC 646/CPC 6128 family, the Oric Atmos, the Coleco Adam, the SWTPC 6800 and 6809 machines, the Tandy Color Computer/Dragon 32/64, the Exidy Sorcerer, and the Japanese MSX range.

Of these, the Sinclair and BBC models were very influential in the British market, with the former introduced at an exceptional low cost (under £100), and the latter developed to meet the BBC and UK government's goals of introducing computer literacy to all schools and elsewhere in education and becoming widely popular in the home.

The IBM PC

1981: IBM 5150.

In 1980, IBM decided to enter the personal computer market in response to the success of the Apple II. The first model was the IBM PC, released in August, 1981. Like the Apple II and S-100 systems, it was based on an open, card-based architecture, which allowed third parties to develop for it. It used the Intel 8088 CPU running at 4.77 MHz, containing 29000 transistors. The first model used an audio cassette for external storage, though there was an expensive floppy disk option. While the original PC design could accommodate only up to 64k on the main board, the architecture was able to accommodate up to 640KB of RAM, with the rest on cards. Later revisions of the design increased the limit to 256K on the main board.

The IBM PC typically came with PC-DOS, an operating system based upon Gary Kildall's CP/M-80 operating system. In 1980, IBM approached Digital Research, Kildall's company, for a version of CP/M for its upcoming IBM PC. Kildall's wife and business partner, Dorothy McEwen, met with the IBM representatives who were unable to negotiate a standard non-disclosure agreement with her. IBM turned to Bill Gates, who was already providing the ROM BASIC interpreter for the PC. Gates offered to provide 86-DOS, developed by Tim Paterson of Seattle Computer Products. IBM rebranded it as PC-DOS, while Microsoft sold variations and upgrades as MS-DOS.

The impact of the Apple II and the IBM PC was fully demonstrated when Time magazine named the home computer the "Machine of the Year", or Person of the Year for 1982 (January 3, 1983, "The Computer Moves In"). It was the first time in the history of the magazine that an inanimate object was given this award.

IBM PC clones

The original PC design was followed up in 1983 by the IBM XT, which was an incrementally improved design; it omitted support for the cassette, had more card slots, and was available with an optional hard drive. While the architectural memory limit of 640K was the same, later versions were more readily expandable.

Although the PC and XT included a version of the BASIC language in read-only memory, most were purchased with disk drives and run with an operating system; three operating systems were initially announced with the PC. One was CP/M-86 from Digital Research, the second was PC-DOS from IBM, and the third was the UCSD p-System (from the University of California at San Diego). PC-DOS was the IBM branded version of an operating system from Microsoft, previously best known for supplying BASIC language systems to computer hardware companies. When sold by Microsoft, PC-DOS was called MS-DOS. The UCSD p-System OS was built around the Pascal programming language and was not marketed to the same niche as IBM's customers. Neither the p-System nor CPM-86 was a commercial success.

Because MS-DOS was available as a separate product, some companies attempted to make computers available which could run MS-DOS and programs. These early machines, including the ACT Apricot, the DEC rainbow 100, the Hewlett-Packard HP-150, the Seequa Chameleon and many others were not especially successful, as they required a customized version of MS-DOS, and could not run programs designed specifically for IBM's hardware. See List of early non-IBM-PC-compatible PCs.

Because the IBM PC was based on relatively standard integrated circuits, and the basic card-slot design was not patented, the key portion of that hardware was actually the BIOS software embedded in read-only memory. The first truly IBM PC compatible machines came from Compaq, although others soon followed.

In 1984, IBM introduced the IBM Personal Computer/AT (more often called the PC/AT or AT) built around the Intel 80286 microprocessor. This chip was much faster, and could address up to 16MB of RAM but only in a mode that largely broke compatibility with the earlier 8086 and 8088. In particular, the MS-DOS operating system was not able to take advantage of this capability. A popular urban legend has Bill Gates of Microsoft stating "Why would anyone need more than 640KB?".

Xerox Star

Introduced in 1981, the Xerox Star workstation, officially known as the "8010 Star Information System" was introduced by Xerox Corporation. Drawing upon its predecessor, The Xerox Alto, it was the first commercial system to incorporate various technologies that today have become commonplace in personal computers, including a bit-mapped display, a windows-based graphical user interface, icons, folders, mouse, Ethernet networking, file servers, print servers and e-mail. It also included a programming language system called Smalltalk.

Both the Xerox Alto and the Xerox Star would inspire the Apple Lisa and the Apple Macintosh.

Apple Lisa and Macintosh

1984: Apple Macintosh.

In 1983 Apple Computer introduced the first mass-marketed microcomputer with a graphical user interface, the Lisa. The Lisa ran on a Motorola 68000 microprocessor and came equipped with 1 megabyte of RAM, a 12-inch black-and-white monitor, dual 5¼-inch floppy disk drives and a 5 megabyte Profile hard drive. The Lisa's slow operating speed and high price (US$10,000), however, led to its commercial failure. It also led to the decision by Steve Jobs to move to the Apple Macintosh team.

Drawing upon its experience with the Lisa, in 1984 Apple launched the Macintosh. Its debut was announced by a single broadcast during the 1984 Super Bowl XVIII of the now famous television commercial "1984" created by Ridley Scott and based on George Orwell's novel 1984. The intention of the ad was to equate Big Brother with the IBM PC and a nameless female action hero (Anya Major), with the Macintosh.

The Mac was the first successful mouse-driven computer with a graphical user interface or 'WIMP' (Windows, Icons, Menus, and Pointers). Based on the Motorola 68000 microprocessor, the Macintosh included many of the Lisa's features at a price of $2,495. The Macintosh was initially introduced with 128 kb of RAM and later that year a 512 kb RAM model became available. To reduce costs of the Lisa the year younger Mac had a simplified motherboard design, no internal hard drive, and a single 3.5" floppy drive. Applications that came with the Macintosh included MacPaint, a bit-mapped graphics program, and MacWrite, which demonstrated WYSIWYG word processing.

While not an immediate success upon its release, the Macintosh was a successful personal computer for years to come. This is particularly due to the introduction of desktop publishing in 1985 through Apple's partnership with Adobe. This partnership introduced the LaserWriter printer and Aldus PageMaker (now Adobe PageMaker) to users of the personal computer. After Steve Jobs resigned from Apple in 1985 to start NeXT, a number of different models of Macintosh were released to a great degree of success such as the Macintosh Plus and Macintosh II. The entire Macintosh line of computers was IBM's major competition up until the early 1990s.

Other graphical computers

1985: Atari ST.

In 1985, the Atari ST, also based on the Motorola 68000 microprocessor, was introduced with the first color GUI in the Atari TOS. It could be modified to emulate the Macintosh using the third-party Spectre GCR device.

In the Commodore world, GEOS was available on the Commodore 64 and Commodore 128. Later, a version was available for PCs running DOS. It could be used with a mouse or a joystick as a pointing device, and came with a suite of GUI applications. Commodore's later product line, the Amiga platform, ran a GUI operating system by default.

In 1987, Acorn launched the Archimedes range of high-performance home computers in Europe and Australasia. Based around their own 32-bit ARM RISC processor, the systems initially shipped with a GUI OS called Arthur. In 1989, Arthur was superseded by a multi-tasking GUI-based operating system called RISC OS. By default, the mice used on these computers had three buttons.

PC Clones Dominate

The transition from a PC-compatible market being driven by IBM to one driven primarily by a broader market began to become clear in 1986 and 1987; in 1986, the 32-bit Intel 80386 microprocessor was released, and the first '386-based PC-compatible was the Compaq Deskpro 386. IBM's response came nearly a year later with the initial release of the IBM Personal System/2 series of computers, which had a closed architecture and were a significant departure from the PC standard. These models were largely unsuccessful, and the PC Clone style machines outpaced sales of all other machines through the rest of this period.

1990s and 2000s

In 1990, the NeXTstation workstation computer went on sale, for "interpersonal" computing as Steve Jobs described it. The NeXTstation was meant to be a new computer for the 1990s, and was a cheaper version of the previous NeXT Computer. The NeXTstation was somewhat a commercial failure, and NeXT shut down hardware operations in 1993.

The CD-ROM and CD-RW drives became standards for most personal computers.

The early 1990s saw the advent of the CD ROM coming as an industry standard, built-in to many desktop computers, and towards the end of the 1990s, in laptops as well. Although introduced in 1982, the CD ROM was mostly used for audio during the 1980s (and also video as the LaserDisc), and then for computer data such as operating systems and applications into the 1990s. Another popular use of CD ROMs in the 1990s was multimedia, as many desktop computers started to come with built-in stereo speakers capable of playing CD quality music and sounds with the SoundBlaster sound card on PCs. Later, CD-RW drives were included instead of standard CD ROM drives.

IBM introduced its successful ThinkPad range at Comdex 1992 using the series designators 300, 500 and 700 (allegedly analogous to the BMW car range and used to indicate market), the 300 series being the "budget", the 500 series "midrange" and the 700 series "high end". This designation continued until the late 1990's when IBM introduced the "T" series as 600/700 series replacements, and the 3,5 and 7 series model designations were phased out for A (3&7) & X (5) series. The A series was later partially replaced by the R series.

In 1994, The Zip drive was introduced by Iomega as a medium-capacity removable disk storage system. It aimed to replace the standard 3.5 inch floppy disk but failed to do so. Before the Zip was introduced, SyQuest was popular in the market of removable media, but were expensive and largely unsuccessful due to reliability issues. More modern Zip drives are still being produced into the latter 2000s, however writable CDs are more common.

By the mid 1990s, Amiga, Commodore and Atari systems were no longer on the market, pushed out by strong IBM PC clone competition and low prices. Other previous competition such as Sinclair and Amstrad were no longer in the computer market. With less competition than ever before, Dell rose to high profits and success, introducing low-cost systems targeted at consumers and business markets using a direct-sales model. Dell surpassed Compaq as the world's largest computer manufacturer, and held that position until October 2006.

In 1994, Apple introduced the Power Macintosh series of high-end professional desktop computers for desktop publishing and graphic designers. These new computers made use of new Motorola PowerPC processors as part of the AIM alliance, to replace the previous Motorola 68k architecture used for the Macintosh line. During the '90s, the Macintosh remained with a low market share, but as the primary choice for creative professionals, particularly those in the graphics and publishing industries.

Also in 1994, Acorn Computers launched its Risc PC series of high-end desktop computers. The Risc PC (codenamed Medusa) was Acorn's next generation ARM-based RISC OS computer, which superseded the Acorn Archimedes.

In 1995, Be Inc. released the BeBox computer, which used a dual PowerPC processor running at 66 MHz, and later 133 MHz with the Be operating system. The BeBox was largely a failure, with fewer than 2000 units produced between October 1995 and January 1997, when production was ceased.

The 1998 iMac brought Apple back into profit.

Due to the growth amongst IBM cloners in the '90s, they became the industry standard for business and home use, and with the introduction of Microsoft's Windows 3.0 operating system in 1990, and later with Windows 95 in 1995. The Macintosh was sent into a period of decline by the mid 1990s, and by 1996, Apple was almost bankrupt. Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, and brought Apple back into profitability, firstly with the release of Mac OS 8, a new operating system for Macintoshes, and with the PowerMac G3 and iMac computers for the professional and home markets. The iMac was one of the first computers to not use the beige color for casing, but a transparent bondi blue in an ergonomic shape, the iMac sold several million units and is still in production as of late 2007 using a different form factor. Mac OS X, iLife and iBook were later introduced by Apple.

The first PC motherboards to support Rambus RDRAM (Rambus Direct DRAM), a type of synchronous dynamic RAM, were released in 1999. RDRAM was also two to three times the price of PC-133 SDRAM due to a combination of high manufacturing costs and high license fees. RDRAM is very rarely used today.

Towards the late 1990s, many more personal computers started shipping that included USB (Universal Serial Bus) ports for easy plug and play connectivity to devices such as digital cameras, video cameras, personal digital assistants, printers, scanners, USB flash drives and other peripheral devices. As of 2006, all currently shipping computers for the consumer market include at least 2 USB ports. Also during the latter 1990s, DVD players started appearing on higher-end, usually more expensive, desktop and laptop computers, and eventually on consumer computers into the 2000s.

In 2002, Hewlett-Packard (HP) purchased Compaq. Compaq itself had bought Tandem Computers in 1997 (which had been started by ex-HP employees), and Digital Equipment Corporation in 1998. Following this strategy HP became a major player in desktops, laptops, and servers for many different markets. The buyout made HP the world's largest manufacturer of personal computers, until Dell later surpassed HP.

In 2003, AMD shipped its 64-bit based microprocessor line for desktop computers, Opteron and Athlon 64. Also in 2003, IBM released the 64-bit based PowerPC 970 for Apple's high-end PowerMac G5 systems. Intel, in 2004, reacted to AMD's success with 64-bit based processors, releasing updated versions of their Xeon and Pentium 4 lines. 64-bit processors are common in high end systems, servers and workstations, but are slowly becoming more popular in consumer desktop systems.

In 2004, IBM announced the proposed sale of its PC business to Chinese computer maker Lenovo Group, which is partially owned by the Chinese government, for $650 million US in cash and $600 million US in Lenovo stock. The deal was approved by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States in March 2005, and completed in May 2005. IBM will have a 19% stake in Lenovo, which will move its headquarters to New York State and appoint an IBM executive as its chief executive officer. The company will retain the right to use certain IBM brand names for an initial period of five years. As a result of the purchase, Lenovo inherited a product line that featured the ThinkPad, a line of laptops that had been one of IBM's most successful products.

In the early 2000s, WiFi began to become increasingly more popular as many consumers started installing their own wireless home networks. Many of today's laptops and also desktop computers are sold pre-installed with wireless cards and antennas. Also in the early 2000s, LCD monitors became more popular for computer monitors, with CRT production being slowed down. LCD monitors are typically sharper, brighter, and more economical than CRT monitors. The 2000s also saw the rise of multi-core processors and flash memory. Once limited to high-end industrial use due to expense, these technologies are now mainstream and available to consumers.

Microprocessor-Based Server and Networks

The invention in the late 1970s of local area networks (LANs), notably Ethernet, allowed PCs to communicate with each other (peer-to-peer) and with shared printers.

As the microcomputer revolution continued, more robust versions of the same technology were used to produce microprocessor based servers that could also be linked to the LAN. This was facilitated by the development of server operating systems to run on the Intel architecture, including several versions of both Unix and Microsoft Windows.

With the development of storage area networks and server farms of thousands of servers, by the year 2000 the minicomputer had all but disappeared, and mainframes were largely restricted to specialized uses. The Google server farm is thought to be the largest, with a total calculation rate three times that of Earth Simulator or Blue Gene, as of September 29,2004.

See also

• Timeline of computing
• CPU design- a technical discussion of computing history
• History of operating systems
• History of Apple Computer
• History of the Internet
• History of the graphical user interface
• Programming language timeline
• Hardware description language
• Hardware abstraction layer
• Computer architecture- how computers are designed
• Computers in fiction
• Fifth generation computer systems project
• Quantum computing
• Curta calculator
• Pirates of Silicon Valley - docudrama about Apple Inc. and Microsoft's early days.
• Triumph of the Nerds
• List of early non-IBM-PC-compatible PCs

References

• Freiberger, Paul (2000) [1984]. Fire in the Valley: The Making of the Personal Computer (2nd edition ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-135892-7. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

External links

• Stephen White's excellent Computer history site (the above article is a modified version of his work, used with Permission)
• Digital Deli, edited by Steve Ditlea, full text of the classic computer book
• Collection of old analog and digital computers at Old Computer Museum
• Yahoo Computers and History
• IEEE computer history timeline
• Links to all things Commodore
• A homebrew computer club site
• Computer History Museum
• Old Computer Museum
• Pictures and information on old computers
• ITPartshopper: a database of suppliers for obsolete computer parts
• History of Computers (1989-2004) in PC World excerpts
• How It Works - The Computer, 1971 and 1979 editions, by David Carey, illustrated by B. H. Robinson
• PC History Stan Veit's classic work on the history of Pre-IBM personal computers.
• WWW-VL: Internet History