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Computer history, history time line, history of the PC, apple history,
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Over the years I have been very interested in the development and history of computers.
Recently there was an excellent television program spanning five weeks called "the
triumph of the nerds". It covered the early years of the modern PC.
"the seventies and eighties, Covering
the rise and fall of companies like Apple Amstrad and Altair, and the
rise and rise of Microsoft,
All this development has only spanned 25 years, which astounded me.
1982 saw the first IBM desktop PC and I saw it launched in Newcastle, UK. I was
also at a similar show that launched the Apple II, and the Amstrad PC1512.
This prompted me to look for information on this fascinating subject and add
it to my web page as a special feature. As anyone arriving to my site must
have used a computer to do so it should be interesting to you.
Over the past few years there have been several articles in magazines such
as PC PRO and I have information gleaned from these sources. I've tried to
pinpoint the most important ideas and inventions behind the development of
Information Technology (IT.)
Computing has so dominated technological and social advancement over the
last 50 years that there is scarcely any idea area of life left that hasn't
been touched by it. As a result, deciding which ideas to include, and what to leave out,
has proven extremely difficult. I've selected the ideas that I consider the most influential and
interesting, dating back to 500 BC.
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You would think that at the beginning of the 21st century, you get the impression that PCs have existed for
decades and always will. In fact, the PC has only just had its 22nd birthday.
On 12 August 1981 IBM
released its first mainstream desktop system for the amazing price of $1,565 (£1,100). Combining an Intel
8088 CPU running at 4.77MHz with 16Kb of RAM and the DOS operating system developed by a certain
William Henry Gates, the IBM PC brought together at least three of the key players in computing history - IBM,
Intel and Microsoft.
The IBM PC defined an era that continues to this day, and hopefully well beyond. But it was just one example of
the many great ideas that have fuelled the exponential growth of computing in the last few decades.
I've detailed certain landmarks, but space restrictions mean I can't
showcase every development and I've highlighted those I feel are the most
interesting or thought-provoking. However, I'm sure I've left some very
important developments of computer history out. If you think you've got a
particularly essential one please send me an email.
Read
on and enjoy this potted history of computers. I hope you'll find out a few things
you didn't know about computing, or at least a few fond memories you'd
forgotten
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