Upgrade to Pro — share decks privately, control downloads, hide ads and more …

The History of the PC

The History of the PC

Arno Huetter

May 24, 2015
Tweet

More Decks by Arno Huetter

Other Decks in Technology

Transcript

  1. About the Author Arno Huetter Arno wrote his first lines

    of code on a Sinclair ZX80 in 1984. Over the years, he has been programming in C/C++, Java and C#, and also did quite some database development. Today he is Development Lead at Dynatrace (APM vendor).
  2. First computer I ever used (1984): Sinclair ZX-80  Zilog

    Z80, 3,25MHz  1k RAM (expandable to 16k), 4k ROM  32x24 characters monochrome  Storage: Cassette Tape  Sinclair Basic
  3. Hollerith Tabular Machine 1890 ENIAC (US Army) 1946 IBM Type

    3-S Tabulator 1924 Vacuum Tubes Transistors Integrated Circuits Microprocessors Mechanical Electro- mechanical UNIVAC 1951 IBM 701/702 1952 Whirlwind (MIT) 1951 DEC PDP-1 1961 IBM System/360 1964 IBM 350 Disk 1956 Intel 4004 1971 MITS Altair 8800 1975 Apple II 1977 IBM PC 1981 Xerox Alto 1974 Apple Mac 1984 SAGE 1958 DEC PDP-8 1965 DEC VAX-11 1977 IBM System/370 1970 Transistor 1947 Mark I (Harvard) 1944 DEC PDP-11 1970 1970 1960 1950 1940 1890 1980 IBM 1401 1959 OS/360 Unix CP/M VMS DOS MacOS SUN-1 1982 Arpanet 1969
  4. The early 1970s - Revolution waiting to happen  Mainframes

    operated by white coat engineers  Valley electronic components industry (e.g. young Steve Jobs simply phones HP‘s Bill Hewlett for obtaining parts)  Technology enthusiasts want their own computer  Microprocessor innovation  Venture capital funding  Personal computer possibilities neglected by big players (e.g. Woz offered Apple I to HP initially)
  5. Famous tech predictions  Ken Olson (DEC founder) as late

    as 1977: “There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home.”
  6. Microsoft Founding / Altair Basic  1974/75: Gates and Allen

    develop Altair Basic on Harvard University‘s PDP-10 (4k mem footprint). Delivered on paper tape  Allen had to implement an Intel 8008 emulator first  Gates basically sells a non-existing product to MITS  On the flight to Albuquerque, Allen finds out bootstrapper is missing, and builds one on the plane  Microsoft founded April 4th, 1975 in Albuquerque  Basic ports for most 8bit microcomputers  Fortran, Cobol, Assembler, Xenix follow
  7. Apple Founding / Apple II  1975/76: Wozniak develops Apple

    I. Inspired by Altair, IMSAI, based on MOS Technology 6502  Wozniak and Jobs show Apple I at Homebrew Computer Club. Jobs sells 50 fully assembled units to Byte Shop  Apple founded April 1st, 1976. Working out of Jobs‘ family garage. In 1977 Markulla steps in as investor  Wozniak morphs Apple I into Apple II. 1MHz, 4k-64k RAM, 280x192px, Integer Basic. Millions of units sold over the years. First killer app: VisiCalc
  8. IBM PC  1980: IBM finally awakes due to Apple‘s

    success  PC design based on open standards (except BIOS). Intel 8088, 4,77MHz, 16-256k RAM, 5,25“ floppy disks  IBM approaches Microsoft for providing languages  Digital Research fumbles opportunity to sell CP/M  Microsoft steps in, purchases QDOS for 50k and transforms it into PC DOS. Non-exclusive license opens doors for clone- makers  1981: IBM 5150 introduced, sets standards for years to come. First killer app: Lotus 1-2-3 CP/M Inventor Gary Kildall (Digital Research)
  9. Apple Macintosh  1979: Steve Jobs visits Xerox Parc, sees

    Alto GUI  Pirate project within Apple, highly dedicated team works in death-march mode for years  Motorola 68000, 8MHz, 128k RAM, 3,5“ floppy disk, 384×256px B+W, overlapping windows  Introduced in famous 1984 Super Bowl TV commercial  Sold at USD 2,490 initially, sales plummet until 512k version was introduced  First killer app: Aldus PageMaker (combined with LaserWriter)
  10. What happened next (1)  1982: Sun Microsystems founded, C64

    launches  1983: IBM introduces XT (5160). Compaq offers IBM- compatible Portable, Microsoft creates Word for DOS  1984: IBM announces AT (5170)  1985: Apple ousts Steve Jobs. Microsoft introduces Windows 1.0 as well as Word and Excel for Macintosh. Atari ST launches  1986: First 386-based PC comes from Compaq, not IBM
  11. What happened next (2)  1987: IBM announces PS/2 platform

    (Microchannel architecture). Microsoft ships Windows 2.0  1988: IBM and Microsoft introduce OS/2. Compaq and Gang of Nine push EISA architecture  1989: Steve Job‘s NeXT becomes available. Microsoft offers Word for Windows  1990: Windows 3.0 hits the market  1991: Linus Torvalds creates initial Linux version  1993: Windows NT introduced. IBM in crisis  1994: Netscape founded, WWW takes off
  12. What happened next (3)  1995: Windows 95 launches 

    1996: Sun introduces Java. Apple close to bankruptcy. Jobs sells NeXtStep to Apple (Mach kernel, foundation for OS X)  1997: Jobs becomes Apple interim CEO  1998: Apple introduces iMac  2000: OS X launches  2002: HP acquires Compaq
  13. Bibliography  Canion, R.: „Open: How Compaq Ended IBM's PC

    Domination and Helped Invent Modern Computing “  Cringeley, R.: „Triumph of the Nerds“, http://www.pbs.org/nerds/  Cringeley, R.: „Accidental Empires“  Freiberger, P.: „Fire in the Valley: The Making of The Personal Computer”  Hiltzik, M.: „Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age “  Linzmayer, O.: „Apple Confidential“  Isaacson, W.: „Steve Jobs“  Wallace, J.: „Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire”