From 3000 BC to 1890 AD

3000 BC: Dust abacus is invented, probably in Babylonia.

1800 BC: Babylonian mathematician develops algorithms to resolve numerical problems.

1000 BC: Phoenicians encode language into symbols - the phonetic alphabet is developed.

Piles of stones are used to Represent 'counting’ of objects-an abstract concept.

'Abaci' tables are developed using positional notation.

Paper is invented.

500 BC: Bead and wire abacus is created.

'Abacus' first personal calculator -introduces the idea of letting one object equate to several others –Babylonia.

200 AD: Saun-pan computing tray is used in China; soroban computing tray used in Japan.

700-800. - Arabic numerals spread through Europe introduces concept of the ‘zero’ & ‘fixed places’ (Roman numerals remain in some places until 17 century)

1000: Gerbert of Aurillac or Pope Sylvester II devises a more efficient abacus.

1100 - Mukhammed ibn Musa Al'Khowarizmi develops concept of following a written process to achieve a goal - the 'algorithm' is born

1400 - Korea begins using mobile characters for printing

1457 Gutenberg Printing Press is invented.

1612: John Naiper, Baron of Merchiston, Scotland - first printed use of the ‘decimal point’ and develops the ‘bones’ system of multiplication. 1614 - defines log tables.

1622: William Oughtred develops the slide rule in England.

1623: William Schickard, prof. Tubingen, Germany - builds first ‘adding machine’ based on Naiper's studies

1624: Wilhelm Schickard builds first four-function calculator-clock at the University of Heidelberg.

1642: Blaise Pascal builds the first numerical calculating machine in Paris.

1673: Gottfried Leibniz builds a mechanical calculating machine that multiplies, divides, adds and subtracts. It is a stepped cylindrical gear to do multiplication by successive additions to an accumulator.

1780: American Benjamin Franklin discovers electricity.

1801: Joseph-Marie Jacquard invents perforated card for use on his loom. People riot against machine technology.

1822: In England Charles Babbage designs a Difference Engine to calculate logarithms for navigation tables, but the machine is never built.

1833: Charles Babbage designs the Analytical Machine that follows instructions from punched-cards. It is the first general purpose computer.

1842: Lady Ada Byron, Countess of Lovelace and daughter of Lord Byron, the poet, documents Babbage's work and writes programs for Babbage.

1844 - Samuel Morse sends message from Washington to Baltimore - 36 miles - by wire. "What hath God wrought?"

1854: Irishman George Boole publishes The Mathematical Analysis of Logic using the binary system now known as Boolean algebra.

1855: George and Edvard Scheutz of Stockholm build the first practical mechanical computer based on Babbages work.

1876: Telephone is invented by Alexander Graham Bell.

1884: Herman Hollerith applies for patents for automatic punch-card tabulating machine.

1884: Institute of Electrical Engineers (IEE) is founded.

1886: William Burroughs develops the first commercially successful mechanical adding machine.

1889: Patent is issued for Hollerith tabulating machine.

1890 - Herman Hollerith - in response to U S Census Bureau submits (and wins) the bid for automating census compilation using punched card techniques.

From 1900 to 1952

1903: Nikola Tesla, a Yugoslavian who worked for Thomas Edison, patents electrical logic circuits called gates or switches.

1911: Computer-Tabulating-Recording Company is formed through a merger of the Tabulating Company (founded by Hollerith), the Computing Scale Company, and the International Time Recording Company, later followed by merger into International Business Machines.

1912: Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE) is formed.

1914: Thomas J. Watson becomes President of Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company.

1921: Czech word robot is used to describe mechanical workers in the play R.U.R. by Karel Capek.

1924: Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company changes its name to International Business Machines.

By 1925 much of the early work in computing theory had been lost, or was never sufficiently recorded, therefore considerable computational knowledge was re-discovered during the next two decades.

1925: Vannevar Bush, builds a large scale analog calculator, the differential analyzer, at MIT.

1927: First public demonstration of television. Radio-telephone becomes operational between London and New York.

1927: Powers Accounting Machine Company becomes the Tabulating Machines Division of Remington-Rand Corp.

1928: A Russian immigrant, Vladimir Zworykin, invents the cathode ray tube (CRT).

1931: First calculator, the Z1, is built in Germany by Konrad Zuse.

1933: First electronic talking machine, the Voder, is built by Dudley, who follows in 1939 with the Vocoder (Voice coder).

1936 - Konrad Zuse, Berlin, Germany, Zuse-1 begin developing a relay calculator using binary arithmetic.

1936: Englishman Alan M. Turing while at Princeton University formalizes the notion of calculable ness and adapts the notion of algorithm to the computation of functions. Turing's machine is defined to be capable of computing any calculable function.

1937: George Stibitz builds the first binary calculator at Bell Telephone Laboratories.

1938: Hewlett-Packard Co. is founded to make electronic equipment.

1938 - Helmut Schreyer and Zuse, perform the first Z-1 calculation and begin Z-2.

1939 - Stibitz develops a large scale electro-mechanical Complex Number Calculator for Bell Labs. A year later the Bell Labs Model I is the first computing machine connected remotely via telephone lines to another device. World War II is the impetus for much advancement in automatic calculation and computing.

The need for code encryption/decryption, ballistics & firing calculations and navigation tables drive the efforts.

1939: First Radio Shack catalog is published.

1939: John J. Atanasoff designs a prototype for the ABC (Atanasoff-Berry Computer) with the help of graduate student Clifford Berry at Iowa State College. In 1973 a judge ruled it the first automatic digital computer.

1940: At Bell Labs, George Stibitz demonstrates the Complex Number Calculator, which may be the first digital computer.

1940: First color TV broadcast.

1940: Remote processing experiments, conducted by Bell Laboratories, create the first terminal.

1941: Atanasoff visits IBM only to hear that "IBM sees no future in electronic computing."

1941: Konrad Zuse builds the Z3 computer in Germany, the first calculating machine with automatic control of its operations.

April 9, 1943 proposal paper - John William Mauchly and John Presper Eckert, under guidance from John Brainerd, Dean of the Moore School of Electrical Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, begin development of the Electronic Numerical Integrator And Calculator - ENIAC computing machine on behalf of the US Army, Ballistic Research Laboratory.

John von Neuman visits Mauchly & Eckert and later develops paper on their work.

1944: Team at Bletchley Park, England, builds a decryption machine, Colossus, based on the U.S. ENIGMA machine used earlier. Colossus is used in planning for D-Day and plays critical role in Allies success.

Team includes Alan Turing. and M.H.A. Neuman

Existence of Colossus is kept secret until 1970.

Decryption algorithms are kept secret even longer.

1944 Harvard University - Mark I - first large scale general purpose electro- mechanical calculator. Conceived by Howard Aiken and implemented by IBM researchers. The machine, sponsored by the Navy, is also known as the IBM Automatic Sequence Control Calculator (ASCC).

Program is not internally stored but driven by paper tape.

1944 Grace Murray Hopper, later known as the ‘First Lady of Computing’, joins Aiken at Harvard. She is the third programmer assigned to the Mark I.

1944: Colossus Mark II is built in England.

1944: Mark I (IBM ASCC) is completed, based on the work of Professor Howard H. Aiken at Harvard and IBM. It is a relay-based computer.

1945: John von Neumann paper describes stored-program concept for EDVAC.

1945 September 9, 1945, 3:45 P.M. - Grace Hopper, working in temporary, windows-open, W W I building at Harvard University, finds and removes a 'computing problem' from the relay switches of the Mark II. It is a large moth smashed in Relay # 70 on Panel ‘F’. From that point forward, fixing compute problems becomes known as 'debugging.'

Arthur C. Clarke publishes his work "Extra-Terrestrial Relays" describing the use of geostationary satellites to provide worldwide communications. The telecommunications satellite is conceived.

1946: Binac (Binary Automatic Computer), the first computer to operate in real time, is started by Eckert and Mauchly; it is completed in 1949.

1946: ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), with 18,000 vacuum tubes, is dedicated at the University of Pennsylvania. It was 8 by 100 feet and weighed 80 tons. It could do 5,000 additions and 360 multiplications per second.

1946: Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation is formed as the Electronic Control Co. to design a Universal Automatic Computer (Univac).

1946: Term bit for binary digit is used for first time by John Tukey.

1947: Alan M. Turing publishes an article on Intelligent Machinery which launches artificial intelligence.

1947: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is formed.

1948: EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator) is developed at the University of Cambridge by Maurice V. Wilkes.

1948: IBM introduces the 604 electronic calculator.

1948: IBM builds the Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator (SSEC), a computer with 12,000 tubes.

1948: Transistor is invented by William Bradford Shockley with John Bardeen and Walter H. Brattain.

1949: EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer) supports the first tests of magnetic disks.

1949 An Wang, Harvard, patents the concept of core memory (single wire, delay line technology)

1949: Jay Forrester uses iron cores as main memory in Whirlwind. Forrester patent is issued in 1956.

1949: Claude Shannon of MIT builds the first chess playing machine.

1949: Hiroshi Yamauchi takes over as president of Japanese domestic playing card company. The company’s name is Nintendo.

1949 : First UNIVAC computer is delivered to the US Census Bureau. Initially over budget and late, 46 more are eventually built. Stores 12,000 digits in random access mercury-delay lines.

1950: Remington-Rand acquires Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corp.

1950: SEAC (Standards Eastern Automatic Computer) is delivered to the National Bureau of Standards.

1951: December 26, The National Machine Accountants Association (NMAA) was founded and chartered in Chicago, Illinois. This group was the precursor to DPMA.

1951: First Joint Computer Conference is held.

1951 Howard Aiken's Mark II is delivered to the Naval service Weapons Center. First full scale machine to feature drum memory. Mark II is the first computer pictured on the cover a magazine (TIME).

1951 Coronado Corporation changes its name to Texas Instruments, Inc.

1951: Maurice Wilkes, Stanley Gill and David Weaver realize the difficulties of programming a computer and develop the concept of subroutines as well as the first textbook on programming computers.

1951: IEEE Computer Society is formed.

1951: UNIVAC I is installed at the Bureau of Census using a magnetic tape unit as a buffer memory.

1951: Wang Laboratories, Inc. is founded by An Wang in Boston.

1951: Whirlwind computer becomes operational at MIT. It was the first real-time computer and was designed by Jay Forrester and Ken Olsen.

1952: The first annual NMAA convention was held in Minneapolis.

1952 Grace Hopper, presents a paper on "The Education of the Computer" and describes the concept of compilers and the language translators.

1952: Fred Gruenberger writes first computer manual.

1952: IBM introduces the 701, its first electronic stored-program computer.

1952: Nixdorf Computer is founded in Germany.

1952: Remington-Rand acquires Engineering Research Associates (ERA).

1952: RCA develops Bizmac with iron-core memory and a magnetic drum supporting the first database.

1952: A fake UNIVAC front panel is used for the televised CBS election coverage. Actual connection is to Remington-Rand in Phil, PA. The UNIVAC predicts the outcome with 5% of the vote in just one hour after the polls close. An Eisenhower landslide

1952 G.W. Dummer, British radar expert, proposes electronic equipment be manufactured as a solid block - no interconnecting wires. Prototype fails and he receives little support for research.

1952: U.S. Department of Justice sues IBM for monopolizing the punched-card accounting machine industry.

From 1953 to 1983

1953: AK-SAR-BEN Chapter of the National Machine Accountants Association (NMAA) was formed. E. Stuart Johnson - President.

1953: Burroughs Corp. installs the Universal Digital Electronic Computer (UDEC) at Wayne State University.

1953: First high-speed printer is developed by Remington-Rand for use on the Univac.

1953: First magnetic tape device, the IBM 726, is introduced with 100 character-per-inch density and 75 inches-per-second speed.

1953: IBM ships its first stored-program computer, the 701 for United Nations in Korea. It is a vacuum tube, or first generation, computer.

1954: FORTRAN is created by John Backus at IBM. Harlan Herrick runs the first successful FORTRAN program.

1954: Gene Amdahl develops the first operating system, used on IBM 704.

1954 Texas Instruments announces start of commercial production on silicon transistors.

1954 Commodore is founded by Jack Traimel as a "typewriter repair service"

1955: The Lincoln -CORNHUSKER Chapter of NMAA, the National Machine Accountants Association was formed. J. Max Hoffmann - Pres. 14 persons / companies attended the first meeting.

1955 The first transistor calculator, TRADIC, is built in the Bell Telephone Laboratories by J.H.Felker

1955: First SHARE users group meeting is held.

1955: Remington-Rand merges with Sperry Gyroscope to form Sperry-Rand.

1955 IBM 704 introduced. First commercial machine w/ floating point hardware. Gene Amdahl is chief architect. Also in 1955

February 24, 1955 - Mrs. Jobs names her baby boy - "Steven"

October 28, 1955 - Mrs. Gates names her baby boy - "William"

1956: APT (Automatic Programmed Tool) is developed by D.T. Ross.

1956: Burroughs acquires Electrodata and the Datatron computer, which becomes the Burroughs 205.

1956: Government antitrust suit against IBM is settled; consent decree requires IBM to sell as well as lease machines.

1956: A. Newell, D. Shaw and F. Simon invent IPL (Information Processing Language.)

1956: RCA ships the Bizmac.

1956: T.J. Watson, Jr. assumes presidency of IBM.

1956: The acronym artificial intelligence is coined by John McCarthy.

1957: Control Data Corporation is formed by William C. Norris and a group of engineers from Sperry-Rand.

During the latter half of the 50’s vacuum tube technology gave way to the transistor and the ‘first era of computers’ came to an end.

1957: DEC, Digital Equipment Corporation is founded by Ken Olsen.

1957

USSR launches Sputnuik. In response, U.S. forms the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) to establish U.S. lead in military science & technology.

1957: First issue of Datamation is released.

1957: Honeywell joins with Raytheon to ship the Datamatic 1000.

1958: ALGOL, first called IAL (International Algebraic Language), is presented in Zurich.

1958: First virtual memory machine, Atlas, is installed in England by Feranti. It was developed at the University of Manchester by R.M. Kilburn.

1958: First electronic computers are built in Japan by NEC: the NEC-1101 and -1102.

1958: Frank Rosenblatt builds the Perceptron Mark I using a CRT as an output device.

1958: LISP is developed on the IBM 704 at MIT under John McCarthy.

1958: Seymour Cray builds the first fully transistorized supercomputer for Control Data Corp., the CDC 1604.

1958 - Jack St. Claire Kilby (Texas Instruments) conceives and proves idea of integrating transistors with resistors and capacitors on a single semi-conductor chip.

1958 - Whirlwind becomes reality as SAGE System for Air Defense

1959: COBOL is defined by the Conference on Data System Languages (Codasyl), based on Grace Hoppers Flow-Matic.

1959: First packaged program is sold by Computer Science Corporation.

1959: IBM introduces the 1401. Over 10,000 units will be delivered during its lifetime.

1959: IBM ships its first transistorized, or second generation, computers, the 1620 and 1790.

1959: General Electric develops machine to recognize Magnetic Ink Code Recognition (MICR) for Bank of America. Its a high water mark for GE computing.

1960: The NMAA sponsored a special meeting and established the "CERTIFICATE in DATA PROCESSING", a professional examination program.

1960: Benjamin Curley develops and ships the first minicomputer, the PDP-1, at Digital Equipment Corporation.

1960 - Grace Hopper, Joe Wegstein & an industry committee develop the Common Business Oriented Language -COBOL. (ALGOL 60 is also developed by committee, not widely adopted but influential in development of other languages.)

1960: COBOL runs on UNIVAC II and RCA 501.

1960: Control Data Corporation delivers its first product, a large scientific computer named the CDC 1604.

1960: First electronic switching central office becomes operational in Chicago.

1960: Removable disks first appear.

1961: AFIPS (American Federation of Information Processing Societies) forms.

1961: Multiprogramming runs on Stretch computer. Time-sharing runs at MIT on IBM 709 and 7090 computers by F. Corbato.

1961: IBM delivers the Stretch computer to Los Alamos. This transistorized computer with 64-bit data paths is the first to use eight-bit bytes; it remains operational until l971.

1961: Jack Kelley and Robert Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductor develops the idea of a monolithic structure for integrated circuits. Noyce gets the patent.

1962: The first CDP examination was held in NEW YORK. George Abbot, of the AK-SAR-BEN Chapter in Omaha received CERTIFICATE # 1.

1962: NMAA elected to adopt a more progressive name to reflect the changing nature of information processing. DATA PROCESSING MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION (DPMA) was founded.

1962: APL (A Programming Language) is developed by Ken Iverson, Harvard University and IBM.

1962: First general-purpose simulation languages are proposed: (1) SIMSCRIPT by the Rand Corporation, and (2) GPSS by IBM.

1962: IBM markets 1311 using removable disks.

1962: IBM's U.S.-based annual revenues from computer products reaches $1 billion and for the first time surpasses its other revenue.

1962 - Atlas computer from Univ Manchester, England, is first to have virtual memory and paging. Capable of 200k FLOPS.

Teletype ships Model 33 keyboard / punch-tape terminal.

1962: H. Ross Perot founds EDS (Electronic Data Systems) in Dallas, TX.

1963 - ASCII is the result of early efforts to develop standardization between various brands of computers. 'A Standard Code for Information Interchange'

1963: Control Data acquires Bendix Corp. computer division.

1963: Conversational graphics consoles are developed by General Motors (DAC-1) and MIT Lincoln Laboratories (Sketchpad), resulting in computer-aided design (CAD). Sketchpad uses the first light-pen, developed by Ivan Sutherland.

1963: DEC ships the first PDP-5 minicomputer.

1963: Charles Tandy buys Radio Shack Corp. -- for free!

1964: Control Data Corporation introduces the CDC 6000, which uses 60-bit words and parallel processing. CDC ships the 6600, the most powerful computer for several years. It was designed by Seymour Cray.

1964: BASIC (Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Language) is created by Tom Kurtz and John Kemeny of Dartmouth. First time-sharing BASIC program runs.

1964: Graphic tablet is developed by M.R. Davis and T.D. Ellis at Rand Corporation.

1964: Honeywell introduces the H-200 attacking IBM's installed base of 1400 systems.

1964: NCR introduces the 315/100.

1964: Douglas Engelbart, SRI, Automation Research Center, originates ideas for a number of modern computing concepts: hypertext, outline processor, video conference, the mouse, two-D editing, windows, cross-file editing, uniform syntax construction, remote procedure protocols, mixed text and graphics files, and others.

1964: IBM produces first large scale, real-time, on-line reservation system - SABRE - for American Airlines.

1964: IBM coins the term "word processing".

1964 - April - IBM announces the System 360, an upward compatible, combination - scientific / business computer(by the mid-80’s the IBM 360 will have generated over $100 billion in revenues).

1964 Paul Baron of the RAND Corporation, (America’s foremost Cold-War Think Tank) makes public his proposal for a totally decentralized network - no central point of authority or control, "a network designed from the beginning to operate while in tatters."

(THE INTERNET IS CONCEIVED)

1965: CDC founds the Control Data Institute to provide computer-related education.

1965: Ken Olsen and Digital Equipment Corporation introduce the DEC PDP-8, first true mini computer.

1965: First computer science Ph.D. is granted to Richard L. Wexelblat at the University of Pennsylvania.

1965: IBM ships the first System 360, its first integrated circuit-based, or third generation, computer.

1966: Honeywell acquires Computer Control Company, a minicomputer manufacturer.

1966: Scientific Data Systems (SDS) introduces Sigma 7.

1966: Texas Instruments offers the first solid-state hand-held calculator.

1966 - National Science Foundation (NSF) cuts funding to universities for the development of (new) computers. Encourages the use of commercially available machines.

1967 - The NSF "Pierce Report" provides impetus for developing computer science curriculum for higher education.

1967 - Niklaus Wirth begins development of PASCAL language in Zurich, Switzerland.

1967 - Seven years after Fairchild introduced the integrated circuit, the new 'third generation' computers adopt IC technology.

1967: DEC introduces the PDP-10 computer.

1967: A.H. Bobeck at Bell Laboratories develops bubble memory.

1967: Burroughs ships the B3200.

1967: First issue of Computerworld is published.

1968 - Edward Dijkstra begins move against the 'jump' instruction in software. Movement to reliable software development is underway.

"GOTO Statement
Considered Harmful."

1968: Dendral, the first medical diagnostic medical program, is created by Joshua Lederberg at Stanford University.

1968: Univac introduces the 9400 computer.

1968: Integrated Electronics (Intel) Corp. is founded by Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce.

1968 - Arthur C. Clarke introduces HAL through the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey".

1969 - Dennis Ritchie and Kenneth Thompson, Bell Labs, withdraw from multi-vendor 'Multics' operating system program and begin work on a ‘single user’ operating systems. They call it UNIX.

1969: Edson deCastro leaves DEC to start Data General Corp. and introduces the Nova, the first 16-bit minicomputer.

1969: First International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence is held.

1969: IBM unbundles hardware and software; introduces a minicomputer line, System/3.

1969: Lockheed Electronics ships the MAC-16.

1969: PASCAL compiler is written by Nicklaus Wirth and installed on the CDC 6400.

1969 - Intel announces the 1KB RAM chip - highest capacity ever.

1969 - Xerox opens Palo Alto Research Center (PARC)

1969

Peace, Love, Music and

DoD commissions ARPAnet for research into networking also in 1969

Bill Gates and Paul Allen, calling themselves Lakeside Programming Club, sign an agreement with Computer Center Corporation to report bugs in PDP-10 software in exchange for free computer time.

1970: Computer Logic Systems ships SLS-18.

1970: DEC ships its first 16-bit minicomputer, the PDP-11/20.

1970: Data General ships SuperNova.

1970: First ACM Computer Chess tournament is held.

1970: Honeywell acquires General Electric's computer operations.

1970: IBM ships its first System 370, a fourth generation, computer.

1970: Xerox Data Systems introduces the CF-16A.

1970

Gilbert Hyatt files patent application for "Single Chip Integrated Circuit Computer Architecture" the first basic patent on the microprocessor.

First PASCAL compiler becomes operational.

Information Sciences contacts Gates and Allen, offering PDP-10 computer time for programming expertise.

Frederico Faggin, Intel, begins work on circuit design for 4004 microprocessor.

1971 - Marcian Ted Hoff, Intel, delivers the 4004 for ETI, a Japanese calculator company.

4-bit bus –
108 KHz,60,000 operations/sec, 2300 transistors,640 bytes addressable, US $200

Documentation manuals are written by Adam Osborne.

Alan Shugart, IBM, delivers practical use of the 8" floppy disk on the Displaywriter dedicated word processor.

Steve Wozniak and Bill Fernandez build a computer from rejected parts - call it ‘the Cream Soda Computer’.

Wang Labs introduces the Wang 1200 word processor.

15 nodes on ARPANET

(THE INTERNET BEGINS)

1971: Computer Automation introduces the Alpha-16.

1971: IBM introduces the 370/135 and 370/195 mainframe computers.

1971: Floppy disks are introduced to load the IBM 370 microcode.

1971: Intel Corporation announces the first microprocessor, the Intel 4004, developed by a team headed by Marcian E. Hoff.

1971: John Blankenbaker builds the first personal computer, the Kenbak I.

1971: NCR introduces the Century 50.

1971: Sperry-Rand takes over the RCA computer product line.

1972: Cray Research is founded.

1972: First electronic pocket calculator is developed by Jack Kilby, Jerry Merryman, and Jim VanTassel of Texas Instruments.

1972: Gary Kildall at Naval Postgraduate School writes PL/1, the first programming language for the Intel 4004 microprocessor.

1972: Prime Computer is founded.

1972

Intel develops the 8008 chip for Computer Terminal Corp

8-bit bus

108 KHz,

3500 transistors,

16K bytes address space

Atari is founded by Nolan Bushnell - ships the first commercial video game - PONG

Bill Gates and Paul Allen form the ‘Traf-O-Data Company’ after developing an 8008-based turnkey system for recording automobile traffic flow on highways.

First 5.25 inch floppies appear

Edward Roberts, William Yates & Jim Bybee, Micro Instrumentation & Telemetry Systems, deliver the MITS 816 to computer hobby enthusiasts no display, no keyboard, no storage

1973

Based on the Intel 8008, the French built Micral, first non-kit microcomputer, is advertised unsuccessfully in the U.S. first reference of "microcomputer" in print

Donald Knuth promises 12 volumes of "The Art of Programming."

First three become the 'bible' of software engineering.

Univ College of London & Royal Radar of Norway are first international ARPANET nodes

Bob Metcalfe’s Harvard Thesis outlines the idea for Ethernet

Xerox builds the Alto workstation at PARC. Uses Smalltalk language, a mouse & Ethernet. Less than 2000 are built.

Stephen Wozniak joins Hewlett-Packard

Gary Kildall begins consulting work at Intel.

1973: First National Computer Conference (NCC) is held in New York City.

1973: IBM settles a lawsuit by Control Data, selling Service Bureau Corporation (SBC) to Control Data.

1973: PROLOG language is developed by Alain Comerauer at the University of Marseilles-Luminy, France.

1973: R2E markets the MICRAL, the first microcomputer in France.

1973: Winchester disk drives are first introduced by IBM, who uses the term as a code name for its Model 3340 direct-access storage device.

1974: Digital Equipment enters the Fortune 500 ranking of the largest industrial companies.

1974: DPMA helps establish the "INSTITUTE for the CERTIFICATION of COMPUTER PROFESSIONALS". This organization was formed to stimulate industry acceptance of the examinations. The ICCP begins administering DPMA's CDP program.

1974: Intel introduces the 8080, an 8 bit microprocessor that will be used in numerous personal computers.

8-bit bus

2 MHz,

6000 transistors,

64K bytes address space

1974: Zilog is formed.

1975: Homebrew Computer Club, considered the first personal computer users group, is formed.

1975: MITS introduces the Altair personal computer, named after a Star Trek episode, A Voyage to Altair. The kit cost $397 for a 256 byte computer. The I/O consisted of switches and lights. It was designed by Ed Roberts and Bill Yates.

1975: Microsoft is founded after Bill Gates and Paul Allen adapt and sell BASIC to MITS for the Altair PC.

1975: The first computer store opens in Santa Monica, CA.

1975: Xerox withdraws from the mainframe computer industry.

1975 has a few surprises

IBM announces the 5100 ‘educational’ computer

BASIC,

16KB Ram,

tape storage,

5" screen

Price: $9000

Weight: 55 pounds - sales are disappointing

Cray I Supercomputer announced by Seymour Cray

First issue of Byte magazine is published.

Steve Dompier uses his Altair and a radio to play "Fool on the Hill" & "Daisy" at the Homebrew Computer Club.

Gates and Allen change company name to Micro-Soft

1976: First fault-tolerant computer, the T/16, is introduced by Tandem.

1976: MYCIN, an expert system to diagnose and treat infectious blood diseases, is developed at Stanford University by E. Shortliffe.

1976: NEC System 800 and 900 general-purpose mainframes are introduced.

1976: Seymour Cray engineers and delivers Cray 1 with 200,000 freon-cooled ICs and 100 million floating point operations per second (MFLOP) performance.

1976: Super minicomputers are introduced by Perkin-Elmer and Gould SEL.

1976: Zilog Z-80 chip is introduced.

1977: Steve & Steve name a computer after a piece of fruit. Jobs ,Wozniak

Apple Computer is founded and introduces the Apple II personal computer.

1977: Apple, Commodore, and Tandy begin selling personal computers.

1977: DEC introduces its first 32-bit super minicomputer, the VAX-11/780.

1977: Datapoint introduces ARC system, the first local area network.

1977: First ComputerLand franchise store opens in Morristown, NJ under the name Computer Shack.

1977: Tradename ‘Microsoft’ is registered

1978: SPRINT business service is inaugurated.

1978: Texas Instruments introduces the Speak-and-Spell educational toy featuring digital speech synthesis.

Total computers in use in the U.S. exceed a half million units.

1978: The first COMDEX trade show is held.

1978 - Apple licenses BASIC from Microsoft as Applesoft

Microsoft sales reach $1 million for the year.

1978 - Daniel Bricklin and Bob Frankston introduce VISICALC - a new concept for application computing.

Scott Adams founds Adventure International

1978

Intel releases the 8086 chip

16-bit registers,

16-bit bus

29,000 transistors,

1M bytes address space

$360

follows with the 8088 as a stepping stone to 8086 16-bit internal, 8-bit to external devices

Moore's Law

The density of transistors on a chip will double every 18 months, thus increasing the price performance of compute power by a factor of two every 1 1/2 years.

Gordon Moore, Co-Founder, INTEL Corp.

1979: Ada language is developed by a team at CII-Honeywell Bull (France) directed by Jean Ichbiah.

1979: The Source and CompuServe Information Services go on-line.

1979: VisiCalc, the first electronic spreadsheet software, is shown at the West Coast Computer Faire.

1979: Wordstar, one of the best-selling word processing programs for PCs, is released by Micropro (now called Wordstar International).

1979 - Taito introduces Space Invaders in Japan.

1980: Control Data Corporation introduces the Cyber 205 supercomputer.

1980: First issue of InfoWorld is published.

1980: Microsoft licenses UNIX operating system from Bell Laboratories and introduces its XENIX adaptation.

1980 - Tim Patterson begins writing a disk-based operating system for use with Seattle Computer Products(SCP) 8086-based computer.

Paul Allen contacts SCP asking for rights to sell Patterson’s DOS to an ‘unnamed client.’

Microsoft pays less than $100,000 for the rights.

1980 - Alan Shugart, after leaving IBM, introduces the Winchester hard drive for PCs. This changes everything. and

in exchange for MSC carrying the development costs.

IBM underestimates the revolution!!

1980: Total computers in use in the U.S. exceed one million units.

1981: Commodore introduces the VIC-20 home computer, which sells over one million units.

1981: IBM enters the PC arena with the IBM PC.

It is supported by the DOS operating system

from Microsoft Corporation, under an agreement that gives Microsoft all profits

IBM 5150 Personal Computer (PC)

4.77 MHz Intel 8088 CPU

4KB RAM,

40KB ROM

5.25 " floppy drive,

PC-DOS 1.0 (MS-DOS)

$3000 base price

$6000 fully expanded

Wall Street ad from Apple: "Welcome IBM... Seriously!"

Tandy President, John Roach, "I don’t think IBM’s entry into the microcomputer field is that significant."

Microsoft begins work on GUI a ‘Graphical User Interface’.

Apple Computer prohibits mail-order sales - claiming, "no provisions for customer education or support services."

Osborne Computer Co. begins marketing the first fully self-contained portable computer. (bankrupt in two years)

College professor, James Clark, founds Silicon Graphics

1981: Osborne Computer introduces the Osborne 1, the first portable computer.

THE INFORMATION AGE is Announced

1982

John Naisbitt, Megatrends - "The information age will collapse the information ‘float’.

#1 point of the 5 key points of the information age:

"The Information Society is an economic reality, not an intellectual abstraction."

1982

Justice Department throws out 13 year old antitrust lawsuit against IBM.

Disney’s TRON - special effects are computer generated.

Intel releases the 80286 chip

16-bit registers,

16-bit bus

134,000 transistors,

16M bytes address space

$360

Rod Canion, Jim Harris & Bill Murto, senior managers at Texas Instruments, leave to found Compaq Computer

and . . .

Commodore Super VIC

TI 99/4

Toshiba T-100

Radio Shack TRS-Model 16

Casio FX-9000P IBM-PC XT Epson KX-1

Sharp PC-1500 NEC 5200 Sinclair ZX81 Altos 8600 TRS Pocket Computer Atari 800 Astrovision ZGrass-32 IBM AT

Kaycomp II Coleco Vision Olivetti M20 Wang Professional Computer Victor 9000 Timex Sinclair 1000 PC-Clones Apple II Epson HX-20 Handheld Hitachi 16000 Digital Equipment Corporation Rainbow 100

Franklin Ace 1000 SordM23P Aval AVC-777J2 LISA

Apple is first PC company to hit $1 billion in sales

1982: AT&T agrees to give up 22 Bell System companies in settling a 13-year-old lawsuit brought by the Justice Department.

1982: Compaq Computer incorporates.

1982: Sun Microsystems is founded.

1982: Microsoft licenses MS-DOS to 50 microcomputer manufacturers in the first 16 months of availability.

1982: TIME magazine features the ‘PC’ as "Man of the Year".

1983: Compaq ships its first computer in January and sells $111M, the greatest first-year sales in the history of American business.

1983: Cray 2 computer introduced with one billion FLOPs (floating point operations per second) performance rating.

1983: Mitch Kapor introduces LOTUS 1-2-3 Lotus 1-2-3 replaces VisiCalc as the spreadsheet software of choice for microcomputers.

1983: NEC announces the SX-1 and SX-2 supercomputers.

1983: Total computers in use in the U.S. exceed ten million units.

US Dept of Defense announces the Ada language after five years of successive refinements - the high-order language is widely criticized for its complexity.

ARPANET spins off MILNET for Defense Network

Apple produces the 1,000,000th Apple II

IBM & Microsoft begin joint development of OS/2

Wang announces single in-line memory module (SIMM)

AT&T Bell Labs designs C++

MS Windows formally announced - IBM not interested, has Top View plans

From 1984 to 1990

1984

Steve Jobs delivers the MAC after "seeing the light" at Xerox PARC. The mouse and icon come to the people.

Appleworks - one of the first integrated office packages written by Rupert Lissner.

# 2,000,000 Apple II sold

3rd and final demo of Windows to IBM - still no interest

1000 hosts on the ARPANET

1984: Apple introduces the Macintosh computer.

1984: IBM introduces the PC AT (Advanced Technology). IBM merges with Rolm Corp., which becomes a telecommunications subsidiary.

1984: The Tandy 1000 personal computer becomes the #1 selling IBM PC-compatible in its first year.

1985: IBM delivers the new 3090 Sierra systems.

1985: Aldus introduces PageMaker for the Macintosh and starts the desktop publishing era.

IBM discontinues PC jr

Computer Crackers come to forefront when"414 Hackers" of Milwaukee break into the Los Alamos Laboratory computer system.

Steve Jobs is unimpressed with preview of MS Excel, prefers Lotus Jazz

Apple Computer reports first quarterly loss

Jobs ‘leaves’ Apple Computer - forms NeXT Inc.

Ted Waitt founds Gateway 2000 in Sioux City, IA

Windows 1.0 ships (November)

IBM announces Token Ring Architecture

Microsoft purchases all rights to DOS from SCP - $925,000

Nintendo is introduced to the U.S. market

1985

Intel announces the 80386 chip

32-bit registers,

32-bit bus

16-MHz

-275,000 transistors,

4Gig bytes address space

-$299 in quantity

1986: Burroughs merges with Sperry to form Unisys Corporation, second only to IBM in computer revenues.

1986: Compaq makes the Fortune 500 list. Introduces its first Intel 80386-based PC.

1986: Computerworld publishes its 1,000th issue on November 3.

1986: HP introduces its Spectrum line of reduced instruction set computers (RISC).

1986: Tandy has over 7300 retail outlets including more than 4800 company-owned Radio Shack stores in the U.S.

1986: The number of computers in the U.S. exceeds 30 million.

1987: IBM introduces its PS/2 family and ships over 1 million units by year end.

1987: Cray Research introduces the Cray 2S which is 40% faster than the Cray 2.

1987: ETA Systems introduces its ETA-10 family of supercomputers.

1987: Sun Microsystems introduces its first workstation based on a RISC microprocessor.

1987: Apple introduces the Macintosh II and Macintosh SE and HyperCard.

1987: IBM introduces its Systems Applications Architecture (SAA).

1987: DEC introduces Vaxstation 2000 workstation computer, and the MicroVAX 3500 and 3600.

1987: Aldus introduces PageMaker for the IBM PC and compatible computers.

1987: Compaq reaches a billion dollar in sales in its fifth year of operation.

1987: Conner Peripherals beats Compaq's first year sales record: $113M vs $111M.

1987: Computer Associates acquires UCCEL in the largest ever software acquisition ($780M).

1987: IBM invests in Steve Chens Supercomputer Systems, Inc.

1987: Apple spins off its application software business as a separate company and names it Claris.

1987: Texas Instruments introduces the first AI microprocessor chip.

1988: DEC introduces VAXstation 8000.

1988: Cray Research introduces the Cray Y-MP, a $20M supercomputer.

1988: IBM introduces a new mainframe computer operating system called MVS/ESA.

1988: IBM announces its long awaited Silverlake mid-range computers called AS/400.

1988: Motorola announces the 88000, a RISC microprocessor.

1988: The first graphics supercomputers are announced by Apollo, Ardent and Stellar. These computers are aimed at 3D graphics applications.

1988: The first PS/2-compatible computers are announced by Tandy, Dell Computer and others.

1988: Unisys introduces the 2200/400 family to replace its mid-range 1100 series.

1988: AT&T announces plan to acquire 20% of Sun Microsystems, and that Sun will help AT&T develop the next version of UNIX.

1988: In response to the AT&T-Sun cooperation, IBM, DEC, HP, Apollo and several other major computer companies form the Open Software Foundation to set a UNIX counterstandard.

1988: Sun Microsystems surpasses the $1 billion sales mark, and introduces 80386-based workstations.

1988: IBM and Sears joint videotex venture starts operation under the PRODIGY name.

1988: Sematech picks Austin, TX as its headquarters and the consortium will be headed by Robert Noyce.

1988: A consortium of PC companies led by Compaq introduces the EISA counter standard to IBM's PS/2 MicroChannel bus.

1988: IBM introduces the ES/3090 S series mainframe computer.

1988: IBM wins a $3.6B contract to build the next generation air traffic control system.

1988: Unisys acquires Convergent Technologies for $350M.

1988: Computer Associates acquires Applied Data Research for $170M from Ameritech.

1988: Next unveils its innovative workstation computer which is the first computer using erasable optical disks as the primary mass storage device. IBM license Next's graphics user interface.

1988:

A nondestructive worm spreads via the Internet network and brings several thousand computers to their knees.

1988

Compaq Computer reports sales of $1.2 billion - quickest a company has ever reached that mark

Apple sues Microsoft & Hewlett Packard - MAC OS issues

Ashton-Tate sues Fox - Dbase language

DEC begins development of 64-bit, 150-MHz alpha chip

W.H. Sim forms Creative Labs, Inc.

HP introduces the DeskJet inkjet printer - $1000

1989

Intel announces the 80486 chip combines

386 & 387 math coprocessor & cache

1.2 million transistors

$900

NeXT, Inc. ships its first machine

Creative Labs releases 8-bit mono Sound Blaster card

Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA) is formed to develop standards for PCs.

LOTUS Development quote: "We don’t see Windows as a long term graphical interface for business."

Apple announces a new font standard - it will become "TrueType"

First relays between a commercial e-mail carrier and the Internet - MCI/CRNI & Compuserve/OSU

100,000 hosts on Internet

1989: Solbourne Computer introduces the first Sun 4-compatible computer.

1989: DEC announces a workstation using Mips Computer's RISC microprocessor.

1989: Microsoft buys a 20% stake in Santa Cruz Operation, a major UNIX software developer.

1989: Intel announces the 80486 microprocessor and the I860 RISC/coprocessor chip. Both chips have over one million transistors.

1989: Hewlett-Packard acquires Apollo for $476M.

1989: Sun Microsystems introduces its SPARCstation, a low-end RISC workstation with an entry price of only $9,000.

1989: Control Data discontinues its ETA supercomputer subsidiary.

1989: IBM announces the Officevision software using the SAA protocol, which runs on PS/2s, PS/2 LANs, AS/400 and mainframe computers.

1989: Cray restructures itself into two companies: Cray Research which continues with its current business and Cray Computer Corp. headed by Seymour Cray, which will develop a gallium arsenide-based supercomputer.

1989: Next sells a 16.6% share to Canon for $100M.

1989: Seagate buys Control Data's Imprimis disk drive subsidiary for $450M.

1989: Computer Associates acquires Cullinet for $333M.

1989: Prime Computer agrees to be bought by a J.H. Whitney-formed company, ending a long and acrimonious takeover battle by MAI Basic.

1989: Apple introduces its long awaited portable Macintosh.

1989:

The worldwide number of computers in use surpasses 100M units.

1989: Poqet announces the first pocket sized MS-DOS compatible computer.

1989: Grid introduces a laptop computer with a touch sensitive pad that recognizes handwriting--the GridPad.

1989: The battery-powered notebook computer becomes a full function computer including hard and floppy disk with the arrival of Compaq's LTE and LTE/286.

1989: Digital Equipment extends the VAX-family into the mainframe arena with the VAX 9000.

1989: The first EISA-based personal computers arrive.

1989: The first 80486-based computers are introduced.

1989: Dun & Bradstreet acquires MSA in a major software acquisition worth $333M.

1990: Motorola introduces the 68040 microprocessor.

1990: IBM announces its RISC Station 6000 family of high performance workstations.

1990: Digital Equipment introduces a fault-tolerant VAX computer.

1990: Cray Research unveils an entry-level supercomputer, the Y-MP2E, with a starting price of $2.2M.

1990: Microsoft introduces Windows 3.0.

1990: Lotus wins its look and feel suit against Paperback Software's spreadsheet program.

1990: IBM ships the PS/1, a computer for consumers and home offices.

1990: IBM announces the System 390 (code name Summit), its mainframe computer for the 1990s.

1990: Microsoft's fiscal year revenue ending 6/30/90 exceeds $1B.

1990: NCR abandons its proprietary mainframes in favor of systems based on single or multiple Intel 486 and successor microprocessors.

1990: Apple introduces its low-end Macintoshes: The Classic, LC and IISI.

1990: Intel launches a parallel supercomputer using over 500 860 RISC microprocessors.

1990: Sun Microsystems brings out the SPARCstation 2.

1990: Microsoft along with IBM, Tandy, AT&T and others announced hardware and software specifications for multimedia platforms.

1990: The first SPARC compatible workstations are introduced.

1990

ARPANET ceases to exist - NSF assumes funding

Microsoft releases Windows 3.0 $3 million 1st day announcement for $10,000,000 plan

Microsoft annual sales reach $1 billion,

first personal software company to do so.

Gilbert Hyatt is granted a basic patent for the microprocessor, 20 years after his first application for patent.

IBM & Microsoft end cooperative work agreement

From 1991 to 2000

1991:

Compaq reports billion dollar quarter

Apple & IBM sign technology sharing agreement

Brad Silverberg, MSC VP, "DOS is here forever."

Commercial Internet Exchange (CIX) is formed

Wide Area Information Service (WAIS) - Kahle

Gopher - Lindner & McCahill

PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) - Zimmerman

World Wide Web (WWW)

Tim Berners-Lee CERN releases the first Web server

Business spending on computing exceeds spending for industrial, mining, farming and construction equipment.

1991: Go Corp. releases PenPoint, an operating system for pen-based computers.

1991: Advanced Micro Devices announces its AMD 386 microprocessor to compete with Intel's 386 chips.

1991: Notebook PCs are introduced by most PC vendors.

1991: HP unveils its RISC-based 9000 Series 700 workstations with exceptional price-performance.

1991: Compaq leads a group of 21 companies to launch the Advanced Computing Environment (ACE) to establish a new standard for high-end PCs and workstations.

1991: The Federal Trade Commission launches an investigation into Microsoft's business practices.

1991: Intel introduces the 486SX, a lower priced 486 chip.

1991: NCR agrees to be acquired by AT&T in a deal valued at $7.4B.

1991: Apple releases the System 7.0 operating system for Macintosh.

1991: Wang will resell IBM's PS/2, RS/6000 and minicomputers. IBM will invest $100M in Wang.

1991: Microsoft rolls out DOS 5.0 with great success.

1991: Major changes among PC dealers as:

ComputerLand acquires Nynex's computer stores,

CompuCom acquires Computer Factory,

ValCom and Inacomp merge;

JWP buys Businessland;

Intelligent Electronics acquires BizMart.

1991: Borland buys Ashton-Tate for $440M.

1991: SunSoft, a Sun Microsystems subsidiary, announces Solaris which is a UNIX operating system for SPARC workstations and 386/486 PCs.

1991:- The Bell companies receive permission to enter the on-line information services market.

1991: Apple and IBM sign a historic deal--including two joint ventures: Kaleida will develop multimedia products, Taligent will develop object-oriented operating software.

1991: Apple rolls out its PowerBook notebook and Quadra Macintosh PCs.

1991: Wavetracer introduces its Zephyr massively parallel computer system with up to 8192 processors.

1991: IBM reorganizes itself into more autonomous business units and several divisions become wholly-owned subsidiaries.

1991: AT&T/NCR agrees to acquire Teradata for $520M.

1991: Many major computer companies have quarterly or full-year loses including Compaq, DEC, IBM, Lotus and Unisys, primarily due to work force reduction costs.

1991: The first general purpose pen-based notebook computers are introduced.

1991: IBM has its first revenue decline in 45 years.

1992

IBM reports first ever year end loss $564 million on sales of $64.8 billion

Intel announces ‘clock doubler’ - debuts 486DX2

IBM announces ThinkPad laptop computer

Apple & Sharp agree to co-develop the Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)

1,000,000 hosts on the net

1992

Solomon Waters of Altadena, CA, a six year old first grader, comes home from school and reports that he has written on "a machine that looks like a computer but has no TV screen." His mother asks if it was a "typewriter?"

"Yeah! That's what it was!" is his reply. L.A.Times

1992: IBM invests $100M in Groupe Bull.

1992: Silicon Graphics buys Mips Computer in a $400M stock swap.

1992: IBM releases OS/2 Version 2.0 and ships over 1M units.

1992: Microsoft introduces Windows 3.1 and ships nearly 10M units.

1992: The core of Apple's lawsuit versus Microsoft Windows is dismissed.

1992: Sun Microsystems launches a new generation of SPARC computers--the SPARCstation 10 family.

1992: Compaq announces several new lines of PCs and becomes a price trend setter. Its low-price strategy is very successful.

1992: Ken Olsen resigns from Digital Equipment after 25 years at the helm.

1992: Sears and IBM forms a new venture, named Advantis, to compete in the value added network service market.

1992: Wang Laboratories files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

1992: IBM makes the IBM PC Co. a subsidiary.

1992: IBM follows Compaq's strategy and introduces aggressively priced PCs--also with good success.

1992: Compaq enters the Japanese market with aggressively priced PCs--as much as 50% lower than Japanese PC prices.

1992: Digital Equipment announces its next generation computer architecture--the RISC-based Alpha.

1992: Microsoft introduces Windows for Workgroups..

1992: Intel says its next microprocessor will be called Pentium instead of 586.

1992: Hewlett-Packard ships the LaserJet 4, a 600 by 600 dots per inch resolution laser printer.

1992: Novell to acquire UNIX Systems Laboratory, including Univel, from AT&T for $350M.

1993: IBM reports its worst year in history with a loss of $4.97B on revenues of $64.5B.

1993: IBM chairman John Akers resigns and after the most executive search publicity ever, Louis Gerstner becomes the new chairman & CEO.

1993: General Magic, an Apple spin-off, debuts Telescripts, a communications-intensive operating system for PDAs.

1993: Next sells its hardware business to Canon and will concentrate its effort on the Nextstep software business.

1993: Novell unveils NetWare 4.0.

1993: IBM introduces the F series of the AS/400.

1993: Lotus announces Notes 3.0.

1993: Motorola start shipping the first PowerPC microprocessor.

1993: IBM's storage division, Adstar, becomes a subsidiary.

1993: - Microsoft unveils Windows NT.

1993: Pentium-based systems start shipping.

60-MHz Pentium

64-bit bus

32-bit registers

3.2 million transistors

$878

MS-DOS 6.0 sells 1 million retail copies in first 40 days.

Gateway ships # 1,ooo,ooo

InterNIC created by NSF to provide specific Internet services

White House & United Nations come on-line

Mosaic (NCSA) takes off - co-developer, Marc Andreesen

WWW has 341,634% annual growth rate

Microsoft ships Windows NT & reports a $1 billion quarter

1993: Microsoft outlines the Plug and Play and Microsoft at Work (MAW) initiatives

1993: EPA's Energy Star Initiative is unveiled and most PC vendors support the program with announcements of energy efficient PCs.

1993: Apple ships the Newton MessagePad--its first Personal Digital Assistant.

1993: AT&T announces it will acquire McCaw Cellular for $12.6B.

1993: Compaq introduces the Presario, a PC family targeted for the home market.

1993: FTC ends its probe of Microsoft without any actions, but the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice will launch its investigation.

1993: IBM debuts its first workstations based on the PowerPC chip.

1993: Novell transfer the UNIX trademark to X/Open and X/Open will certify that an operating system is UNIX compliant.

1993: IBM announces OS/2 for Windows, which upgrades the Windows environment to OS/2.

1993: Sun Microsystems license NextStep and makes a $10M investment in Next.

1993: IBM say it will sell its Federal Systems division ($2.2B in yearly revenue) to Loral for $1.6B.

1994: John Sculley leaves Apple after 10 years at the helm.

1994

US District Court rules Microsoft violated patents held by Stac Electronics for disk compression. Ordered to remove or replace the technology, buys $40 mil stock + pays $43 mil royalties.

Microsoft settles lawsuit alleging monopolistic licensing.

Dr. Thomas R. Nicely, Lynchberg College, notices the Intel Pentium sometimes produces ‘reduced accuracy’ results. Intel confirms flaw, Andy Grove offers apologies to 2 million Pentium owners, later offers to replace all defective floating-point chips. Remedy costs Intel ~$475 million.

1994: Apple enters the on-line service market by announcing eWorld.

1994: HP becomes a Taligent partner and buys 15% from Apple and IBM.

1994: MCI invests $1.3B in Nextel Communications, a wireless service provider.

1994: Macintoshes using the PowerPC start shipping.

1994: Intel introduces the 486DX4 clock-tripling microprocessor.

1994: Aldus and Adobe agree to merge in a transaction worth $525M and will form a $0.5B+ software company.

1994: Novell says it will acquire WordPerfect for $1.14B and will buy Borland's Quattro Pro for $145M.

1995

Apple ships 1 millionth Power Mac.

IBM announces 1 million copies OS/2.

Windows 95 is released with no small fanfare 1 million copies sold through retail in first 4 days.

NSFNET reverts back to research network - commercial providers begin carrying the backbone Internet traffic.

Compuserve, AOL and Prodigy begin Internet access.

Registration of Domain names - no longer free - now $50.

August 9 - Netscape becomes 3rd largest NASDAQ IPO offering ever - Jim Clark, Mark Andreesen, James Barksdale.

Intel Pentium Pro at

150-200 MHz

$974 - $1682

9,000,000 hosts connected WWW

Moore's Second Law

The cost of building chip fabrication plants will continue to increase (and the return on investment to decrease) until it becomes fiscally untenable to build new plants.

1995 - Gordon Moore, Co-Founder, INTEL Corp.

1996

Microsoft ships 30 millionth copy of Windows 95.

Digital announces 433 MHz and 500 MHz Alpha processors.

Intel delivers the $55 million "Teraflop" machine to Sandia National Labs - Dept of Energy.

7,264 Pentium 200’s in parallel

July 1996
12,880,000 hosts connected to the Internet

1996: October - DPMA members elect to change the Association's to the "ASSOCIATION of INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY PROFESSIONALS"

As before, the changing nature of the industry seemed to dictate a more inclusive and progressive name.

January 1997

Intel announces 200-MHz Pentium MMX

64-bit bus

32-bit registers

32 Kb on-board cache

4.5 million transistors

$550 ea. qty 1000

January 1, 1997

DPMA officially becomes the "ASSOCIATION of INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY PROFESSIONALS"

1997 :

Release of Microsoft Windows 95's updated version

Microsoft Office 97 Released

1998 :

First FAT32 operating system MS windows 98 released

1999 :

Linux picking the pace.

The Red hat releases Red hat Linux 6.1 and immediately after 6.2 with latest kernel update.

Corel Announces to introduce coral Linux

Microsoft releases the MS Office 2000.

2000 :

Corel Released a Corel Linux

On 17th February Microsoft release newer version of Windows NT 4.0 But this time it is known as

Windows 2000.( Initially it was named as Windows NT 5.0)

Bill Gates step-down from the chairmanship of the Microsoft Corporation.

7 June : Microsoft lost the case of monopoly. Though they challenge it in highercourt.