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Evolution of the Computer
by Kathy Maynard
staff writer
 Have you ever watched I Dream of Jeanie and
seen the computers at NASA? They were huge! Not the
biggest in the world, but absolutely one of the most
recognizable fictional computers shown to the American
public in the 60's. The first general purpose electronic
computer, built in 1945 for the United States military,
and was fifty feet long, weighed 30 tons, used 18,000
vacuum tubes as digital circuits and cost $486,804.
Let us take a walk down memory lane of the evolution
of the computer.
Computers have advanced a long way since a couple of kids named Steve built their first Apple computer in a California garage and two geeky college drop-outs started their own little Microsoft company in the 1970s. Modern PCs represent the fourth generation of the modern electronic computer and those young innovators stood on the shoulders of traditional scientists and major corporations to fulfill Bill Gate's vision of "a personal computer on every desk and in every home."
The second generation of computers emerged in the late 1950s when transistors replaced vacuum tubes to make computers smaller, cheaper, faster, and more reliable. These mainframe computers, connected to hundreds or thousands of individual workstations, were still so large and expensive that only major corporations, educational and governmental organizations used them.
Integrated circuits, built by combining many miniaturized transistors onto silicon chips called semiconductors, ushered in the third generation of much cheaper, faster, more efficient computers in the 1960s. "Minicomputers" small enough to fit inside a closet were far more accessible to a much larger audience than mainframes, but their size and cost was still prohibitive to smaller businesses, much less individuals.
The invention of the microprocessor, which put thousands of integrated circuits onto a single silicon chip, was the basis of the fourth generation of small, affordable, personal computers. In 1971, Intel developed the 8080 processor by combining all the components of a computer onto a single chip. The torch of computer evolution passed from scientists employed by major corporations through the hands of hobbyists en route to the mass consumer market.
In 1975, the Altair 8800, the first commercial microcomputer using the Intel 8080 microprocessor was sold as a kit for hobbyists to assemble and program on their own. The response was so overwhelming that in 1977, the Apple II, Commodore PET and Radio Shack TRS-80 personal computers entered the market, all with their own operating systems.
The Apple II became one of the hottest computers in the industry, with many developers writing software for Apple. That year, an estimated 500,000 computers were in use in the United States.
The IBM PC entered the market in 1981 with the DOS operating system developed by Microsoft and soon standardized the personal computer industry. Third parties started writing quality software products for the format, including Lotus 1-2-3 Spreadsheet and WordPerfect for word processing. IBM dominated the industry so thoroughly within two years of its entrance that Business Week magazine declared IBM the winner of the race for the Personal Computer market in October 1983.
The tide turned, however, in 1984 after Apple introduced the Macintosh "for the rest of us" in an ad aired during the Super Bowl. The Mac was totally different than anything else on the market, featuring a Graphical User Interface with icons, handheld mouse and network capabilities. In six months, sales reach 100,000 and before long, the personal computer world was divided in a rivalry between Macs and "IBMs" (they weren't called "PCs" yet) that continues to this day.
Steve Jobs developed the Macintosh's Graphic User Interface by improving on a concept he had seen at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center in 1979. Bill Gates had also visited the PARC facility in 1980, and agreed that concept was the wave of the future. While working with both Apple and IBM on various projects, Microsoft developed its own Graphical User Interface and released Windows I in 1985, and Windows 2 in 1987.
By 1986, more than 30 million personal computers had been sold in the US. PCs were commonplace in most offices, supported by a wide variety of affordable integrated word processing, spreadsheet, database and accounting software. By 1988, that number had grown to 45 million.
Microsoft stopped developing operating systems with IBM and went on to introduce Windows 3.0 in 1990, Windows 3.01 in 1993. The last version of MS-DOS 6.22 was released in 1994 and by the time Windows 95 was released in 1995, even the most diehard DOS fans were growing accustomed to using a mouse.
 If most PCs were purchased for business in the 1980s, it looks like more consumers started bringing them home in the 1990s. The rise of the internet created all new software and businesses. The first commercial Internet dial-up provider came online on 1990 and the World Wide Web was launched in 1991. The Netscape Internet Browser arrived in 1994, the same year as Yahoo. Amazon.com opened in 1995, Microsoft launched Internet Explorer in 1997 and the Google search engine came online in 1998. The number of internet users worldwide exploded from three million in 1994 to 200 million by 1999.
The personal computer has become an integral part of our daily lives, both at work and home. Professionally, most businesses communicate via e-mail, use integrated word processing, spread sheet and data processing programs, do their accounting on computer and use specialized software suited for their specific business. At home, we use e-mail, check stocks and weather, book travel reservations, balance checkbooks, transfer money, pay bills, shop (or at least do research before purchasing), print photos from digital cameras, download music, and play games.
It is estimated that one billion personal computers
had been sold worldwide between the mid 1970s and 2002.
Terms like "download," and "online" have entered everyday
vocabulary while "spam" and "virus" have taken on entirely
new meanings. Computers continue to improve, getting
smaller, cheaper, and more efficient faster. Increasing
portability and wireless technology allow us to use
our personal computers and stay connected beyond our
homes and offices. The personal computer has changed
so many things about the way we live, work and play
that most of us cannot imagine managing our busy lives
without it. Today you can buy a hand held Personal Data
Assistant (PDA) for under $100. These modern PDA's hold
more information than the first computers introduced
almost fifty years ago.
Contact the Kathy Maynard at
kmaynard@connectednow.com
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