18 Remarkable Developments Throughout the History of Computers

IBM 370-145

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IBM 370 was first released in 1970. In 1971 IBM 370-145 was introduced with floppy disk for loading microcodes into the controller of the disk pack file. The first floppies were 8 inches in diameter and could hold 80 kilobytes of data.

Intel 4004

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Intel 4004 was the first single chip micro processor designed by Intel engineers in 1971. This was new development in the history of computers by placing all the parts like CPU, memory, input and output controls on one small chip.

Xerox Alto

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Xerox Alto was developed at Xerox PARC in 1973. It was the first computer to use the desktop metaphor and graphical user interface. It was not a commercial product but several thousand units were built and used at Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) and at several universities. Ethernet facility available at the Center and the usage of mouse began.

Altair 8800

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Altair 8800 was considered the world’s first personal computer developed by Micro Instrumentation Telemetry Systems in 1975. This computer had an Intel 8080 processor and switches on the front panel for input and rows of neon light bulbs for the output. But due to lack of enough memory it could not perform any useful tasks. Due to its limitations, it was not successful commercially and helped other companies to refine the computer. This company led to the development of new software and programming languages like BASIC.

Apple II

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Apple II was the first efficient personal computer with color and high resolution graphics modes. The first Apple II computer was sold in 1977 with MOS technology. It was the beginning of personal computer revolution and microcomputers. This computer was appealing to customers with its abundance of appealing software and well-written manuals. This was also able to be plugged into a standard household outlet.

TRS 80

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TRS 80 was developed as low cost home computer in 1980 (of course some models were developed in 1977). Till then the computers worked with only the specific software. TRS 80 made it easy to load the required software. This led to the launch of many software companies.

Osborne I

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Osborne I was the world’s first portable computer invented by Adam Osborne in 1981. It had a carrying handle and an optional battery pack so that there was no need to be plugged into the outlet for power. It was designed with transportation in mind.

IBM PC 3

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IBM PC made the personal computer more affordable. Company brought Microsoft DOS into market with IBM PC as IBM compatibility in 1981. This PC was released with Intel 8088 processor which allowed up to 1 MB of RAM while still maintaining an 8-bit wide path to memory and peripherals. Because of this PC the usage of 8-bit-compatible chips became easy.

Connection Machine

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Connection machine was introduced by Danny Hillis in 1983. It was the first supercomputer used for artificial intelligence, symbolic processing and fluid-flow simulations.

HP-150

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First touch sensor was developed by Dr. Sam Hurst, founder of Elo Touch Systems in 1971; however the true touch screen technology was developed in 1974 by him and the company. HP-150 was the first computer to use 3.5” rigid diskette and also one of the world’s earliest commercialized touch screen computer in 1983. It worked on the Intel 8088.

Apple MAC 2

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Introduced in 1987 MAC 2 was developed with “user friendliness” in mind. It was the first Macintosh to have the Chimes of Death accompany the sad logo whenever a serious hardware error occurred.

CDs

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Though the compact disk (CD) was invented by James Russell in 1965, it was not popular until 1980. The CD was jointly developed by Sony and Philips and became an important storage method for computer users. It is a popular form of digital storage media used for pictures, music and computer files. It comes in several varieties including CD-ROM, CD-R and CD-RW.

IBM Via Voice Millennium

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IBM Via Voice Millennium released in 1999. Before that IBM Voice type was released in 1997. It made navigating desktop and browsing the web easier with its voice recognition technology.

Face Recognition Technology in Computers

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Face recognition technology was first developed by Mathew Turk and Alex Pentland in 1987. There are many methods of facial recognition. They involve a series of steps to capturing, analyzing and comparing a face to a database of stored images. Some related software was designed to recognise similarities through pattern recognition. This face recognition software was used by the Mexican Government in the 2000 presidential election to prevent voter fraud. It is widely used in shopping malls, cinema halls, many crowded places. Many web cameras are also designed using this technology.

Mac OS X

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Considered by many the revolution in OS, Mac OS X delivers new features and designs that make almost every user say wow! Out of many features that were newly included, the “Aqua” design is probably the most famous one. It even motivated many software companies to starting making applications that can convert the look of other OS into something close to Aqua. Other prominent features included Dashboard, Time Machine auto-backup system, Spotlight, Voice commands for navigating menus and dealing applications, Spaces, and of course the one I like personally – the Cover Flow feature of iTunes, iPhoto and many other Apple applications, a 3D GUI that allows you to visually skim through your digital media files and photos (introduced in v10.5)

One can never stop writing about all the features that are there, particularly with the speed with which technology is improving these days. But these are what I thought some of the major steps in making computers that way they are existing today.