History of Computers The 60’s and 70’s Created by Chasidy Loosier Clark

1960 Digital Equipment introduced the first minicomputer, the PDP-1, for $120,000. It was the first commercial computer equipped with a keyboard and monitor.

1961 According to Datamation Magazine, IBM had an 81.2 % share of the computer market in 1961, the year it introduced the 1400 Series. The 1401 mainframe, the first in the series, replaced the vacuum tube with smaller, more reliable transistors and used a magnetic core memory. According to Datamation Magazine, IBM had an 81.2 % share of the computer market in 1961, the year it introduced the 1400 Series. The 1401 mainframe, the first in the series, replaced the vacuum tube with smaller, more reliable transistors and used a magnetic core memory. IBM 1401

1962 The LINC (Laboratory Instrument Computer) offered the first real time laboratory data processing. Designed by Wesley Clark at Lincoln Laboratories, Digital Equipment Corp. later commercialized it as the LINC-8. LINC-8

1963 ASCII- American Standard Code for Information Interchange-permitted machines from different manufacturers exchange data. ASCII consists of 128 unique strings of ones and zeros. Each sequence represents a letter of the English alphabet, an Arabic numeral, an assortment of punctuation marks and symbols, or a function such as a carriage return. ASCII- American Standard Code for Information Interchange-permitted machines from different manufacturers exchange data. ASCII consists of 128 unique strings of ones and zeros. Each sequence represents a letter of the English alphabet, an Arabic numeral, an assortment of punctuation marks and symbols, or a function such as a carriage return.

1964 CDC’s 6600 supercomputer, designed by Seymour Cray, performed up to 3 million instructions per second- a processing speed three times faster than that of it’s closest competitor, the IBM Stretch. The speed of the computer came from it’s design, which had 10 small computers, known as peripheral processors, funneling data to a large processing unit. CDC’s 6600 supercomputer, designed by Seymour Cray, performed up to 3 million instructions per second- a processing speed three times faster than that of it’s closest competitor, the IBM Stretch. The speed of the computer came from it’s design, which had 10 small computers, known as peripheral processors, funneling data to a large processing unit. CDC 6600

1965 Object Oriented languages got and early boost with Simula, written by Kristen Nygaard and Ole-John Dahl. Simula grouped data and instructions into blocks called objects, each representing one facet of a system intended for simulation.

1966 Hewlett-Packard entered the general purpose computer business with its HP for computation, offering a computational power formerly found only in much larger computers. It supported a wide variety of languages, among them BASIC, ALGOL, and FORTRAN. HP-2115

1967 Seymour Papert designed LOGO as a computer language for children. Initially a drawing program, LOGO controlled the actions of a mechanical “turtle,” which traced it’s path with pen on paper. Electronic turtles made their designs on a video display monitor. Seymour Papert designed LOGO as a computer language for children. Initially a drawing program, LOGO controlled the actions of a mechanical “turtle,” which traced it’s path with pen on paper. Electronic turtles made their designs on a video display monitor. “People give lip service to learning to learn, but if you look at curriculum in schools, most of it is about dates, fractions, and science facts; very little of it is about learning. I like to think of learning as an expertise every one of us can acquire.”

1968 The Apollo Guidance Computer made its debut orbiting the Earth on Apollo 7. A year later, it steered Apollo 11 to the lunar surface. Astronauts communicated by punching two-digit codes and the appropriate syntactic category into the display and keyboard unit. Apollo Guidance Computer

1969 Xerox Corp. bought Scientific Data Systems for nearly $1 billion- 90 times the latter’s earnings. The SDS series of minicomputers in the early 1960’s logged more sales than did the Digital Equipment Corp. Xerox changed the series to the XDS computers but eventually closed the division and ceased to manufacture the equipment. Xerox Corp. bought Scientific Data Systems for nearly $1 billion- 90 times the latter’s earnings. The SDS series of minicomputers in the early 1960’s logged more sales than did the Digital Equipment Corp. Xerox changed the series to the XDS computers but eventually closed the division and ceased to manufacture the equipment.

1970 Computer-to-computer communication expanded when the Department of Defense established four nodes on the ARPANET: the University of California Santa Barbara and UCLA, SRI International, and the University of Utah. Viewed as a comprehensive resource-sharing network, ARPANET's designers set out with several goals: direct use of distributed hardware services; direct retrieval from remote, one-of-a-kind databases; and the sharing of software subroutines and packages not available on the user’s primary computer due to incompatibility of hardware or languages. ARPANET topology

1971 The first advertisement for a microprocessor, the Intel 4004, appeared in Electronic News. Federico Faggin, Ted Hoff, and others at Intel designed the 4004 while building a custom chip for Busicom, a Japanese calculator maker. The 4004 had 2,250 transistors, handling data in four-bit chunks, and could perform 60,000 operations a second. The first advertisement for a microprocessor, the Intel 4004, appeared in Electronic News. Federico Faggin, Ted Hoff, and others at Intel designed the 4004 while building a custom chip for Busicom, a Japanese calculator maker. The 4004 had 2,250 transistors, handling data in four-bit chunks, and could perform 60,000 operations a second. Intel 4004

1972 Hewlett-Packard announced the HP-35 as “ a fast, extremely accurate electronic slide rule” with a solid-state memory similar to that of a computer. The HP- 35 distinguished itself from its competitors by its ability to perform a broad variety of logarithmic and trigonometric functions, to store more immediate solutions for later use, and to accept and display entries in a form similar to standard scientific notation. HP-35

1973 The TV Typewriter, designed by Don Lancaster, provided the first display of alphanumeric information on an ordinary television set. It used $120 worth of electronics components. The original design included two memory boards and could generate and store 512 characters as 16 lines of 32 characters. A 90- minute cassette tape provided supplementary storage for about 100 pages of text. The TV Typewriter, designed by Don Lancaster, provided the first display of alphanumeric information on an ordinary television set. It used $120 worth of electronics components. The original design included two memory boards and could generate and store 512 characters as 16 lines of 32 characters. A 90- minute cassette tape provided supplementary storage for about 100 pages of text. TV Typewriter

1974 Scelbi advertised its 8H computer, the first commercially advertised U.S. computer based microprocessor, Intel’s Scelbi aimed the 8H, available both in kit form and fully assembled, at scientific, electronic, and biological applications. It had 4 kilobytes of internal memory and a cassette tape, with both teletype and oscilloscope interfaces. Scelbi 8H

1975 The visual display module (VDM) prototype, designed in 1975 by Lee Felsenstein, marked the first implementation of a memory mapped alphanumeric video display for computers. Introduced at the Altair Convention in Albuquerque in March 1976, the VDM allowed use of personal computers for interactive games. The visual display module (VDM) prototype, designed in 1975 by Lee Felsenstein, marked the first implementation of a memory mapped alphanumeric video display for computers. Introduced at the Altair Convention in Albuquerque in March 1976, the VDM allowed use of personal computers for interactive games. Felsenstein’s VDM

1976 The Cray I made its name as the first commercially successful vector processor. The fastest machine of its day, its speed came partly from its shape, a C, which reduced the length of wires and thus the time signals needed to travel across them. Cray I

1977 The Apple II became and instant success when released in 1977 with its printed circuit motherboard, switching power supply, keyboard, case assembly, manual, game paddles, A/C power cord, and cassette tape with the computer game “Breakout”. When hooked up to a color television set, the Apple II produced brilliant color graphics. The Apple II became and instant success when released in 1977 with its printed circuit motherboard, switching power supply, keyboard, case assembly, manual, game paddles, A/C power cord, and cassette tape with the computer game “Breakout”. When hooked up to a color television set, the Apple II produced brilliant color graphics. Apple II

1978 June 8 th - Intel 8086 June 8 th - Intel 8086 Arcade Video game “Space Invaders” Arcade Video game “Space Invaders”

1979 Harvard MBA candidate Daniel Bricklin and programmer Robert Frankston developed VisiCalc, the program made a business machine of a personal computer, for the Apple II. VisiCalc (for Visible Calculator) automated the recalculation of spreadsheets. A huge success, more than 100,000 copies sold in one year. Bob Frankston & Dan Brinklin