The History Of Computers During My Lifetime
by Jason
Patterson
(jason@pattosoft.com.au)
In this document I take a quick look at the great moments in the history of
computers during my lifetime. Over time it should hopefully build up to become a
fascinating look back into history. In fact it is already quite interesting,
even though I'm still a youngster!
PS: If you think I've missed something, or you find a mistake, please email
me...
PPS: All the prices are in US dollars.
- The 1970's
- From the world's first general purpose microprocessor to the Apple II,
Commodore PET and TRS-80. UNIX, the C programming language, the VAX and the Cray
1 at the high end.
- The 1980's
- The Commodore 64, the IBM PC, the Apple Macintosh and the Commodore Amiga.
Graphical user interfaces and the birth of multimedia. The Intel 80386. The C++
language. RISC architectures. The SPARCstation 1, the Silicon Graphics IRIS, and
the NeXT.
- The 1990's
- Microsoft Windows 3. Virtual Reality. The Alpha, the PowerPC and the
Pentium. The PowerMacintosh. The Internet and the World Wide Web. OS/2 Warp.
Windows '95. Toy Story.
Help Wanted...
As with any document of this type, there are still a few pieces of
information I'd like to add.
Perhaps you can answer the following
questions:
- When was the Apple vs Microsoft case officially decided?
- What was the normal configuration of the first 386-based PC (Compaq's
Deskpro 386), and how much did it cost?
I'm also looking for good pictures of the following:
- The Lotus 1-2-3 user interface (not the Windows version)
- The Macintosh II
- The Compaq Deskpro 386
- The MIPS R2000 processor
- The Intel 80386 processor
- The Word Perfect user interface (not the Windows version)
- The TRS-80
- The VAX 11/780 (processor or system unit)
- The Acorn Archimedes
And of course I'm always looking for interesting facts and comments to add
to the text, so please feel free to email me.
All the trademarks mentioned in the above document are trademarks of
their respective companies.
