GENWiki

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A LITTLE PC HISTORY

             WHERE WE'VE BEEN WITH NO IDEA WHERE WE'RE GOING! 

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     In the beginning . . . 

     Computing or calculating by machine began in the middle east 
     with the use of pegs or stones in trays or channels. The 
     Babylonians developed the idea of stone or bead counters into 
     the more modern abacus - modern in the sense that the abacus is 
     still in use today and in the hands of an experienced operator 
     can calculate results faster than a computer!  

     The beauty of the abacus is its simplicity in construction and 
     operation. Inexpensive beads of stone or wood and a simple frame 
     make up the abacus and the uneducated could quickly be trained 
     in its use. 

     In the 8th and 9th centuries we note the rise of the Arabic 
     numeral system which slowly spread through Europe and the then 
     civilized world. Although a superior calculating system, Arabic 
     numerals required the user to understand the more complicated 
     numerical theory associated with the system. 

     By the early 1600's Napier (often associated with the 
     development of logarithms and their practical application) 
     introduced a series of rods which could be used for 
     multiplication - a crude slide rule system. 

     Soon, ever more complicated "calculating engines" or primitive 
     mechanical computing devices appeared. One example is the 
     complex Pascaline invented by Blaise Pascal. 

     By 1791 the stage was set. Babbage, an English mathematician and 
     inventor with the help of Ada Byron (daughter of lord Byron, the 
     famous poet) developed the ideas for two mechanical calculators 
     or "number engines." The Difference Engine was a device to solve 
     polynomial equations by the methods of differences. The 
     Analytical Engine (which was never built)) was designed as a 
     general computing device. Both were mechanical in concept using 
     gears, rods and cams to perform calculations. Unfortunately 
     neither machine was built since the tooling and machining 
     technology of the day was imprecise and could not construct the 
     accurate parts needed. 

     However the models and planning of Babbage and Byron did lead to 
     important preliminary computing concepts still in use today. As 
     an aside, we should note from the work of Babbage and Byron that 
     computing even in its infancy was strongly influenced by BOTH 
     women and men - let's face it, computing is NOT gender specific! 

     Next we jump to the United States. By 1880 a problem had arisen 
     with the United States census. By that time, it took 7 years to 
     process all of the information gathered by the Census Bureau 
     since all tabulation was done by hand on paper. It was assumed 
     that the 1890 census might take 10 to 12 years to tabulate. 
     Clearly a better method was needed to crunch the volume of 
     numbers and data. A public competition was held to produce a 
     better indexing or mechanical system to tabulate future census 
     results. Herman Hollerith, a census employee, handily won by 
     suggesting the use of punch cards and a form of punch card 
     reader which tabulated the results in six weeks. Hollerith, wise 
     in the ways of computing devices and seeing a good opportunity 
     went on to found the Tabulating Machine Company (later changed 
     to IBM). Hollerith might be thus thought of as our first 
     computer entrepreneur! 

     The advent of World War II provided the impetus for the 
     development of more refined computing devices. The Mark I was an 
     electromechanical device using relays. IBM built that computer 
     for the Navy. Later, the Colossus was built for the British and 
     used for wartime code breaking of German radio transmissions. 
     The ABC (Atanasoff-Berry Computer) was constructed at Iowa State 
     and was the first fully electronic digital computer. 

     Admiral Grace Hopper, known as "Amazing Grace" to some, was a 
     naval officer and pioneer in the field of computer programming 
     during the 1940's and 50's. An innovative and fundamental 
     thinker, she recognized that computers could be used for 
     business applications - a pioneering insight beyond the then 
     conventional use of computers for scientific and military 
     applications. Her programming language called "Flowmatic" later 
     evolved into COBOL, the most common and still popular language 
     for programming business software. She died in 1992 and is
     buried in Arlington National Cemetery. 
     
     Computing science continued to evolve rapidly . . . 

     Eniac was the most famous of the early computers and contained 
     18,000 vacuum tubes and was used by the Army for ballistics 
     calculations. 

     Edvac was the first stored memory computing device which did 
     away with rewiring tasks associated with changing computer 
     programs and represented a true computer breakthrough. This 
     first generation of machines running from roughly 1951 through 
     1958 featured computers characterized by the use of radio type 
     vacuum tubes. But the pace was increasing . . . 

     Second generation machines such as the famous Univac were 
     designed as true general or universal purpose machines and could 
     process both alphabetic and numeric problems and data. Punch 
     cards still formed the major input path to the machines of this 
     era and all programming was done in complex low level machine 
     language commands. 

     By 1959 with the invention of the transistor, computers began to 
     shrink in size and cost and operate faster and more dependably 
     than the huge vacuum tube models. Programming languages began to 
     feature English-like instructions rather than cumbersome machine 
     code or assembly language. Fortran and Cobol are two modern 
     "high level" languages developed during this period and still in 
     use today.              

     In many respects, the personal computer industry began in 1974 
     when the Intel corporation introduced a CPU integrated circuit 
     chip named the 8080. It contained 4,500 transistors and could 
     address 64K of memory through a 16 bit data bus. The 8080 was 
     the integrated circuit brain behind the early MITS Altair 
     personal computer which fired popular interest in home and small 
     business computing when it appeared on the July 1975 cover of 
     Popular Electronics Magazine. The first MITS Altair contained no 
     keyboard or monitor, only crude LED lights and tiny flip 
     switches to facilitate programming. 

     Four years later in 1978 Intel released the 8086 chip which had 
     a tenfold increase in performance over the 8080 chip. When IBM 
     began the design phase of the first desktop PC units in 1980 and 
     1981, they chose the cousin of the 8086, the Intel 8088 chip, to 
     power the first PC which was designed for modest corporate use 
     but quickly exploded in popularity due to an excellent design, 
     spectacular keyboard and openess to upgrade by the addition of 
     "plug in" boards and cards. 

     Early IBM PC computers retained a link with the past by allowing 
     the addition of a small "Baby Blue" circuit board which could 
     run software programs based on the then dominant CPM operating 
     system. 

     Finally we come to the present decade . . . 

     August 1981. Original IBM PC (personal computer) introduced. Has 
     options for monochrome and CGA color display. Receives generally 
     good reviews and acceptance by business users and a few home 
     users. Original DOS version 1.0 released which supported only 
     single sided disks (160K capacity). Later version 1.1 corrected 
     bugs (problems) in the DOS programming code and provided double 
     sided disks (320K capacity), and faster disk access, date and 
     time stamping and better serial communications. 

     August 1982. Monochrome resolution of PC screen increased with 
     introduction of the Hercules graphics card circuit. Combined 
     with the LOTUS 123 spreadsheet, the IBM PC was now a hot choice 
     for corporate computing. 

     November 1982. Compaq portable arrives. First IBM clone on the 
     market. The IBM PC standard is growing in popularity. Clone 
     makers start to copy the PC in earnest. Software companies such 
     as Phoenix technologies prepare BIOS and SYS programs which run 
     the same as the IBM BIOS program without the copyright violation 
     which every clone computer tries to avoid. BIOS stands for basic 
     input and output system and is the core software essential to 
     keyboard, disk and screen input/output. The BIOS is considered 
     legally protected IBM software code, but can be simulated (or 
     emulated) closely by a clever programmer in an attempt to do the 
     same job, without using exactly the same programming code. 

     March 1983. IBM introduces the PC XT (increased memory and hard 
     drive capability). DOS version 2.0 released. This second DOS 
     version includes hard drive capability, filter commands (sort, 
     find, more), and a new floppy format system for 360K capacity 
     per floppy. IBM bios code upgraded. 

     October 1983. IBM PC JR released. Market disappointment for that 
     IBM entry into the home market with the underpowered PC JR. The 
     larger IBM PC standard is rapidly growing as the standard for 
     personal computers and clones. 

     March 1984. IBM PC portable introduced. Portable clones already 
     on the market with small but growing success. 

     August 1984. IBM PC AT machine arrives. More power, a new 
     processor (Intel 80286). New screen display standard (EGA). Also 
     new version of DOS 3.0. This version of DOS now takes into 
     account the AT high density floppy drive (1.2 meg or million 
     characters of capacity), read only files and a new disk write 
     system for better file recovery in case of errors. Shortly 
     thereafter, DOS 3.1 addresses file sharing. 

     November 1985. Microsoft windows graphic display environment 
     released. NEC multisync monitor is released. 

     December 1985. DOS 3.2 supports the new 3.5 inch 720K diskettes. 
     DOS now addresses up to 32MB on a single hard disk. 

     April 1986. Older IBM PC standard model discontinued for newer 
     models. IBM PC convertible model is released. 

     September 1986. Compaq jumps the gun on IBM with release of new 
     (80386) processor computer with more power than the PC AT. 

     April 1987. IBM PS/2 models 30, 50 and 60 released. DOS 3.3 
     released. VGA video standard arrives. IBM blesses the new 3.5 
     inch minifloppy already in use on Apple Macintosh computers by 
     offering that format on IBM machines. 1.44MB format is supported 
     for high density floppy users. OS/2 operating system announced.

     August 1987. Microsoft windows version 2.0 arrives. 

     November 1988. DOS 4.01 released which includes a shell menu 
     interface system. This release of DOS, largely developed by IBM, 
     generally ignored due to poor performance and large memory 
     requirements. Many users stick with DOS 3.3.

     1988 Laptop computers, smaller versions of desktop computers, 
     are sold in large volumes. Size as well as features become 
     issues in computer sales. 

     1990 Microsoft introduces Windows version 3.0 which includes a 
     superb graphical user interface (GUI) display for the PC. 
     Improves on earlier versions of Windows. Using software is more 
     productive with multiple graphical software windows and the 
     possibility of jumping between several software tasks operating 
     on screen. But windows can only run acceptably on more expensive 
     "high end" machines such as those containing the 386DX or 386SX 
     chip. For many users in small offices or home offices, Windows 
     may not be a necessity where simple DOS applications offer 
     affordable functionality on low priced PC's not equipped to run 
     Windows applications.

     1991 Laptop computers, portable FAX systems, and cellular 
     portable phone technology allow computers to function anywhere 
     on the go for a practical "portable office" concept. Still newer 
     "palmtop" computers about the size of portable calculators now 
     offer full IBM compatable functionality.

     June 1991. DOS 5.0 is released which includes excellent new 
     features including an improved menu interface, full-screen 
     editor which improves on the Edlin editor, some limited task-
     swapping abilities, unformat/unerase utility, improved Basic 
     interpreter, and ability to load system files to High Memory on 
     machines having at least 1MB for improved performance and 
     increased conventional memory availability for primary applications. 
     DOS 5.0 is seen to be a major and highly necessary update to the 
     PC operating system. Generally receives good reviews from computer 
     trade press.
     
     The future? Difficult to predict, but the consensus of industry 
     observers is that the IBM PS/2 computers will migrate into the 
     office scene while many home and home/office users will stay 
     with older XT computers and AT models. Best entry level computer 
     system at this time is judged by many experts to the a 386SX PC
     system which allows many types of software both current and 
     future to work reliably. Prices continue to tumble on AT and XT 
     compatibles ($400 to $500 range) and AT clones ($700 to 
     $900 range). The operating system for AT and higher class machines 
     (using 80286/80386 processors) is called OS/2 but requires more 
     memory and the 80286/80386 processor found only in higher 
     priced computers. OS/2 or Windows may slowly replace the older 
     DOS system, but for many users of home and home/office machines 
     not needing LAN networks (many computers talk to each other and 
     share data), the DOS standard will live a long time. The Microsoft 
     Windows 3.0 system may delay the acceptance of OS/2 for several 
     years. 
  
     In general expect things to happen faster, computers to become 
     still smaller and prices to descend still further! Graphical 
     user interfaces or GUI's will gradually become the standard so 
     that users can point and click at small icon pictures and lists 
     of tasks on screen to accomplish the work at hand rather than 
     fight with terse and cryptic commands. Computing will become a 
     standard in many small and home offices owing to the incredible 
     power, accuracy and affordablity of personal computers. Laptop 
     computers and even smaller palmtop computers will become new 
     standards. Computers and modems linked by wireless cellular 
     radio/telephone technology allow a single computer user the 
     power of "large office computing" on the go from anywhere in the 
     world! Shareware software will make strong inroads into the 
     market as users evaluate commercial "high priced" software 
     against user support "low cost" shareware software.

     Tutorial finished. Be sure to order your FOUR BONUS DISKS which 
     expand this software package with vital tools, updates and 
     additional tutorial material for laptop users! Send $20.00 to 
     Seattle Scientific Photography, Department LAP, PO Box 1506, 
     Mercer Island, WA 98040. Bonus disks shipped promptly! Some 
     portions of this software package use sections from the larger 
     PC-Learn tutorial system which you will also receive with your 
     order. Modifications, custom program versions, site and LAN 
     licenses of this package for business or corporate use are 
     possible, contact the author. This software is shareware - an 
     honor system which means TRY BEFORE YOU BUY. Press escape key to 
     return to menu.