Computer History: Before Personal Computers

Background and History of Computers

CP/M

It is an operating system developed for microcomputers, an OS inspired by the new processor.

Apple I

Computer introduced by Apple in 1976

Integrated Circuit

A semiconductor circuit containing multiple components on the same base, credited to Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments and Robert Noyce at Fairchild in 1958 and 1959.

Transistor

A solid-state electronic switch that replaced vacuum tubes, offering smaller size, lower power consumption and increased efficiency.

Atanasoff - Berry Computer (ABC)

It was the first true digital electronic computer created by John V. Atanasoff and Clifford Berry, introducing binary arithmetic and logic circuits.

ENIAC

It was the first large - scale electronic computer built by John P. Eckert, John W. Mauchly, and their associates.

Registers

Served as adders and quick-access read/write storage.

ERA 1101

Built by Engineering Research Associates in 1950, was one of the first commercially produced computers.

5 ¼ Floppy Disk Drive

Introduced in 1976 by Shugart Associates.

Kenbak-1

One of the first personal computers, advertised for $750 in 1971.

Adam Osborne

Introduced the first portable computer, the Osborne I, in 1981.

Xerox Star

It was the first personal computer with a graphical user interface (GUI).

802.11a

Operates in the 5GHz band with 54 Mbps speed.

802.11b

Operates in the 2.4 GHz band with 11Mbps speed.

World Wide Web (WWW)

It was born when Tim Berners-Lee developed HTML, revolutionizing the way information is shared and accessed on the internet.

Wintel

Used to describe the dominance of Intel and Microsoft in the PC industry, highlighting their significant influence on PC hardware and software standards.

S-100 bus

The ______ had 100 pins per slot, allowing anyone to develop boards to fit in the slots and interface with the system.

Moore’s Law

Formulated by Intel cofounder Gordon Moore, states that processor performance and disk-storage capacity double every one and a half to two years, driving exponential growth in computing power.

Intel 8088

This was chosen for the IBM PC due to its larger memory address limit and internal 16-bit data bus, which allowed for easy interfacing with the DataMaster designs.

Compaq Deskpro 386

First computer on the market to use Intel’s 32- bit 386 chip.