Time Line |
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| Charles Babbage | |
| 1815-52 | Augusta Ada, Countess of Lovelace |
| 1971 | Intel launches 4004, the world's first micro processor |
| Gary Kidall experiments with 4004. | |
| IBM commission Kidall to develop a version of PL/1 to run on the 8080 | |
| Kidall starts "Digital Research" and markets CP/M - a Control Program for Microcomputers | |
| MITS uses the 8800 as the basis for its Altair computer, sold by mail order for $400 | |
| 1975 | The Altair features on the cover of "Popular Electronics". Within weeks, MITS has made over half a million dollars. |
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| Paul Allen and Bill Gates approach MITS and offer to write a BASIC interpreter for the machine. | |
| "Popular Electronics" dubs these machines "Personal Computers" | |
| Apple II launched | |
| ?? | IBM's first PC, the 5100. Came with the APL program |
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| 1977 | Commodore PET launched |
| Zilog (founded by three ex-intel employees) releases the Z80 | |
| Visicalc developed by Dan Bricklin and ???? for the Apple II | |
| Intel launches the 8086 which can address a megabyte of memory. | |
| Bill Lowe, Laboratory Director at IBM's Boca Raton site in Florida, was given 30 days to put together a prototype PC. One of the decisions made in those 30 days was that their machine should have an open-architecture, unlike Apple's patented approach. They also chose to use the 8088 chip which could use eight bit peripheral chips, which were cheaper and mor readily available. | |
| August 1980 | Bill Lowe is given the go-ahead. The project is turned over to Philip "Don" Estridge. |
| IBM approach Digital and Microsoft for operating systems. | |
| 12 August 1981 | IBM PC launched in New York, known as the 5150 |
| Christmas 1981 | IBM has over 100,000 orders for its PC. |
| November 1982 | First "clone" launched - Compaq's portable (I used one - it wasn't). |
| January 1983 | IBM PC launched in the UK |
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First published: 27 January 2004 Last Edited:04 August 2005 12:00:01 |
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