The History of the PC

1. The History of the PC
Arno Huetter

2. About the Author
Arno Huetter
Arno wrote his first lines of code on a Sinclair ZX80 in
1984.
Over the years, he has been programming in C/C++,
Java and C#, and also did quite some database
development.
Today he is Development Lead at Dynatrace (APM
vendor).

4. First computer I ever used (1984):
Sinclair ZX-80
 Zilog Z80, 3,25MHz
 1k RAM (expandable to 16k), 4k ROM
 32x24 characters monochrome
 Storage: Cassette Tape
 Sinclair Basic

5. Also in 1984 (but I had no clue)
It‘s Microsoft Basic

6. Hollerith Tabular Machine
1890
ENIAC (US Army)
1946
IBM Type 3-S Tabulator
1924
Vacuum Tubes Transistors Integrated Circuits MicroprocessorsMechanical Electro-mechanical
UNIVAC
1951
IBM 701/702
1952
Whirlwind (MIT)
1951
DEC PDP-1
1961
IBM System/360
1964
IBM 350 Disk
1956
Intel 4004
1971
MITS Altair 8800
1975
Apple II
1977
IBM PC
1981
Xerox Alto
1974
Apple Mac
1984
SAGE
1958
DEC PDP-8
1965
DEC VAX-11
1977
IBM System/370
1970
Transistor
1947
Mark I (Harvard)
1944
DEC PDP-11
1970
19701960195019401890 1980
IBM 1401
1959
OS/360 Unix CP/M VMS DOS MacOS
SUN-1
1982
Arpanet
1969

7. The 1960s
 IBM and the seven dwarfs

8. The early 1970s -
Revolution waiting to happen
 Mainframes operated by white coat engineers
 Valley electronic components industry (e.g. young Steve Jobs
simply phones HP‘s Bill Hewlett for obtaining parts)
 Technology enthusiasts want their own computer
 Microprocessor innovation
 Venture capital funding
 Personal computer possibilities neglected by big players (e.g.
Woz offered Apple I to HP initially)

9. Famous tech predictions
 Ken Olson (DEC founder) as late as 1977:
“There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his
home.”

13. Microsoft Founding / Altair Basic
 1974/75: Gates and Allen develop Altair Basic on Harvard
University‘s PDP-10 (4k mem footprint). Delivered on paper
tape
 Allen had to implement an Intel 8008 emulator first
 Gates basically sells a non-existing product to MITS
 On the flight to Albuquerque, Allen finds out bootstrapper is
missing, and builds one on the plane
 Microsoft founded April 4th, 1975 in Albuquerque
 Basic ports for most 8bit microcomputers
 Fortran, Cobol, Assembler, Xenix follow

15. Apple Founding / Apple II
 1975/76: Wozniak develops Apple I. Inspired by Altair, IMSAI,
based on MOS Technology 6502
 Wozniak and Jobs show Apple I at Homebrew Computer Club.
Jobs sells 50 fully assembled units to Byte Shop
 Apple founded April 1st, 1976. Working out of Jobs‘ family
garage. In 1977 Markulla steps in as investor
 Wozniak morphs Apple I into Apple II. 1MHz, 4k-64k RAM,
280x192px, Integer Basic. Millions of units sold over the
years. First killer app: VisiCalc

16. IBM PC
 1980: IBM finally awakes due to Apple‘s success
 PC design based on open standards (except BIOS). Intel 8088,
4,77MHz, 16-256k RAM, 5,25“ floppy disks
 IBM approaches Microsoft for providing languages
 Digital Research fumbles opportunity to sell CP/M
 Microsoft steps in, purchases QDOS for 50k and transforms it
into PC DOS. Non-exclusive license opens doors for clone-
makers
 1981: IBM 5150 introduced, sets standards for years to come.
First killer app: Lotus 1-2-3 CP/M Inventor
Gary Kildall
(Digital Research)

18. Apple Macintosh
 1979: Steve Jobs visits Xerox Parc, sees Alto GUI
 Pirate project within Apple, highly dedicated team works in
death-march mode for years
 Motorola 68000, 8MHz, 128k RAM, 3,5“ floppy disk,
384×256px B+W, overlapping windows
 Introduced in famous 1984 Super Bowl TV commercial
 Sold at USD 2,490 initially, sales plummet until 512k
version was introduced
 First killer app: Aldus PageMaker (combined with
LaserWriter)

19. What happened next (1)
 1982: Sun Microsystems founded, C64 launches
 1983: IBM introduces XT (5160). Compaq offers IBM-compatible
Portable, Microsoft creates Word for DOS
 1984: IBM announces AT (5170)
 1985: Apple ousts Steve Jobs. Microsoft introduces Windows 1.0
as well as Word and Excel for Macintosh. Atari ST launches
 1986: First 386-based PC comes from Compaq, not IBM

20. What happened next (2)
 1987: IBM announces PS/2 platform (Microchannel architecture).
Microsoft ships Windows 2.0
 1988: IBM and Microsoft introduce OS/2. Compaq and Gang of
Nine push EISA architecture
 1989: Steve Job‘s NeXT becomes available. Microsoft offers
Word for Windows
 1990: Windows 3.0 hits the market
 1991: Linus Torvalds creates initial Linux version
 1993: Windows NT introduced. IBM in crisis
 1994: Netscape founded, WWW takes off

21. What happened next (3)
 1995: Windows 95 launches
 1996: Sun introduces Java. Apple close to bankruptcy. Jobs sells
NeXtStep to Apple (Mach kernel, foundation for OS X)
 1997: Jobs becomes Apple interim CEO
 1998: Apple introduces iMac
 2000: OS X launches
 2002: HP acquires Compaq

22. Bibliography
 Canion, R.: „Open: How Compaq Ended IBM's PC Domination and Helped
Invent Modern Computing “
 Cringeley, R.: „Triumph of the Nerds“, http://www.pbs.org/nerds/
 Cringeley, R.: „Accidental Empires“
 Freiberger, P.: „Fire in the Valley: The Making of The Personal Computer”
 Hiltzik, M.: „Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the
Computer Age “
 Linzmayer, O.: „Apple Confidential“
 Isaacson, W.: „Steve Jobs“
 Wallace, J.: „Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft
Empire”

23. Thank you!
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ArnoHu
Blog: http://arnosoftwaredev.blogspot.com