History - Fourth generation (1971-present)

IT evolution | Timeline

Information technology evolution

Hardware

Large Scale Integration (LSI) and very Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI), where hundreds of thousands of components placed in a Silicon Chip.

Development of the microprocessor

Milestones;

1977 Apple II
1979 TRS-80 Model II
1980 IBM PC

Shift from Mainframes to Microcomputers

Software

VisiCalc on the Apple

Lotus 1-2-3 on the IBM PC

CP/M Operating System

MS-DOS operating system

ADA a common language for all US DoD applications developed.

Data

Microcomputer Network storage

Public Bulletin boards

People

End-user computing


Timeline

1971

Ted Hoff of Intel develops the first microprocessor, the Intel 4004

 

Lexitron introduces a CRT-based word Processor

1973

Xerox develops the Smalltalk, the first "user-friendly" software

1974

Intel develops a general purpose microprocessor, the Intel 8080

1975

MITS, Inc develops Altair, the first commercially successful personal computer

 

Paul Allen and Bill Gates form Microsoft Corporation

 

The U.S. Department of Defence sponsors the effort to design the ADA programming language

1976

Gary Kildall forms Digital Research to sell CP/M, the first commercially successful microcomputer operating system

 

WANG introduces a mulituser word processing computer system

 

Michael Schrayer develops Electric Pencil, the first microcomputer word processing software.

1977

Steven Jobs and Steven Wozniak form Apple Corporation

1979

Dan Bricklin and Dan Fylstra develop Visicalc, the first electronic spreadsheet

 

Seymour Rubenstein of MicroPro develops WordStar, the first successful microcomputer word processing software.

 

Tandy Corporation introduces the TRS-80 Model II, the first commercially successful business microcomputer

1980

The U.S. Department of Justice deregulates the communications industry

1981

IBM introduces its personal computer, the IBM PC, using ISA (Industry standard Architecture).

 

Adam Osborne introduces the Osbourne 1, the first portable microcomputer

1982

The U.S. Department of Justice drops its Antitrust suit against IBM

1983

The U.S. Department of Justice allows AT&T to compete in the computer industry

 

Apple introduces the Lisa microcomputer

1984

Apple introduces the Macintosh microcomputer

1985

Founders Steven Jobs and Steven Wozniak leave Apple Corporation

 

Expert systems and other application software packages applying artificial intelligence concepts appear

1986

IBM introduces its "laptop" computer the PC convertible

 

Intel introduces the 80386 chip, the 32-bit microprocessor for MS-DOS microcomputers

 

Compaq introduces the Deskpro 386, the first MS-DOS computer to use the 80386 chip

1987

Apple introduces the Macintosh SE and Macintosh II

 

IBM introduces the PS/2 family of microcomputers, using Micro channel architecture (MCA).

[Rev 31/7/98] © 1996 V/2-Com (Verhaart), P O Box 8415, Havelock North, New Zealand.