History of computing hardware

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History of computing hardware (1960s-present) The history of computing hardware starting in the 1960s begins with the development of the integrated circuit (IC), which formed the basis of the first computer kits and home computers in the 1970s, notable examples being the MITS Altair, Apple II and Commodore PET; and which eventually powered personal and business computers such as the IBM PC and Apple Macintosh in the 1980s. Throughout the mid 1970s to late 1980s, hundreds of computer hardware companies were founded, most of which have since gone out of business. Some companies thrived and are still successful as of 2006, such as Dell and Apple Computer. From 1977 until 1983, Apple dominated the personal computer market. By the mid 1990s, IBM PC cloners such as Compaq, HP, Gateway and Dell had dominated the market, using Microsoft Windows as the operating system of choice, making the Macintosh a minority in the market. Today, Dell is the largest manufacturer of personal computers in the world. 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), though the IBM System/360 used hybrid circuits. 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. 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 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. Data General SuperNova 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 the first 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. [edit] Fourth generation Cray-1 supercomputer, 1976. 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. [edit] Microprocessors 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, reaching the market in 1971. 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 Bob 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. [edit] Supercomputers At the other end of the computing spectrum from the microcomputers, 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. [edit] The home computer era: 1970s [edit] Datapoint 2200 A programmable terminal called the Datapoint 2200 is the earliest known device that bears any significant resemblance to the modern personal computer[1][2]. 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[3]. 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. [edit] 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. [edit] MITS Altair 8800 The MITS Altair, the first home computer, 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 home computers 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 ground-breaking 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 show off 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. [edit] Apple Computer Main article: History of Apple Computer The Apple II microcomputer dominated the market from 1977 until 1983. Based on the bu