PC Timeline
This is a very large timeline that covers the development of computers, computing companies, major break-throughs in computing, and the history of the computer from 1971 to present. It is fairly extensive in it's explanations, but it gives a lot of information. A good strategy would be to use the find command in your browser to find a specific date or event in this extensive timeline. We have a list of years below that will link you to the corresponding page of that year. On this page we have included the years 1971 through 1976.
1977-1980
1980-1983
1983-1985
1986-1989
1990-1992
1993-1995
1995-PresentMicroprocessors, computer kits, pocket calculators
1971
February •Intel ships copies of the 4004 microprocessor to Busicom.
June • Gary Boone, of Texas Instruments, files a patent application relating to a single-chip computer.
November • Intel introduces its 4-bit bus, 108-KHz 4004 chip - the first microprocessor. Initial price is US$200. Speed is 60,000 operations per second. It uses 2300 transistors, based on 10-micron technology. It can address 640 bytes. Documentation manuals were written by Adam Osborne. The die for the chip measures 3x4 mm. •Intel announces the first microcomputer, the MCS-4 system. It uses the 4004 microprocessor, 4001 ROM chip, 4002 RAM chip, and 4003 shift register chip.
•(summer) Steve Wozniak and Bill Fernandez build a computer with lights and switches, from parts rejected by local companies. They call it the Cream Soda Computer.
•(fall) Electronic News publishes an ad from Intel promoting the 4004 chip.
•Intel renegotiates its contract with ETI, gaining Intel the right to market the 4004 microprocessor openly.
•The National Radio Institute introduces the first computer kit, for US$503.
•The Kenback Corporation introduces the Kenback-1 computer, for US$750. It uses a 1KB MOS memory made by Intel.
•Niklaus Wirth invents the Pascal programming language. (1969)
•IBM introduces the "memory disk", or "floppy disk", an 8-inch floppy plastic disk coated with iron oxide.
•Wang Laboratories introduces the Wang 1200 word processor system.
•Intel introduces the 1101 chip, a 256-bit programmable memory, and the 1701 chip, a 256-byte erasable read-only memory (EROM).
1972
April •Intel introduces its 200-KHz 8008 chip, the first 8-bit microprocessor. It accesses 16KB of memory. The processor was originally developed for Computer Terminal Corporation (later called Datapoint). It uses 3500 transistors, based on 10-micron technology. Speed is 60,000 instructions per second.
August •Scelbi Computer Consulting Company begins design work on what would be the Scelbi-8H microcomputer.
October •The first issue of People's Computer Company is released.
November •Atari is founded by Nolan Bushnell, and ships Pong, the first commercial video game.
•(late) Texas Instruments introduces the TMS1000 one-chip microcomputer. It integrates 1KB ROM and 32 bytes of RAM with a simple 4-bit processor.
•National Semiconductor introduces the IMP-16 microprocessor.
•Canada's Automatic Electronic Systems introduces the world's first programmable word processor with a video screen, the AES 90. The computer system uses magnetic disks for storage, and a custom-built microprocessor.
•Gary Kildall implements PL/I on the Intel 4004 processor.
•The People's Computer Company is founded.
•Bill Gates and Paul Allen form the Traf-O-Data company. They had developed an 8008-based computer hardware/software system for recording automobile traffic flow on a highway.
•5.25 inch diskettes first appear.
•Xerox decides to build a personal computer to be used for research. The result is the Alto computer.
1973
January •Intel files a patent application for a "memory system for a multichip digital computer".
May •Design work is completed on the Micral, the first non-kit computer based on a microprocessor (the Intel 8008). Built in France, the Micral is advertised in the U.S., but is not successful there.
June •The term "microcomputer" first appears in print, in reference to the Micral.
•(late) Gary Kildall writes a simple operating system in his PL/M language. He calls it CP/M (Control Program/Monitor).
•Bill Millard founds IMS.
•Michael Cowpland and Terence Matthews found Mitel, in Canada.
•Stephen Wozniak joins Hewlett-Packard.
•Gary Kildall creates PL/M for the Intel 8008, based on PL/I.
•IBM develops a cheap disk and drive.
•IBM introduces the IBM 3340 hard disk unit, known as the Winchester, IBM's internal development code name. The recording head rides on a layer of air 18 millionths of an inch thick.
•David Ahl protests Digital Equipment cutbacks of educational products, and is fired. He is soon rehired.
•Gary Kildall begins consulting work at Intel.
•Scelbi Computer Consulting Company offers the first computer kit in the U.S. using a microprocessor, the Intel 8008-based Scelbi-8H, for US$565, with 1KB programmable memory. An additional 15KB is available for US$2760.
•Bob Metcalfe invents the Ethernet connectivity system.
•The Alto workstation computer is built at Xerox' Palo Alto Research Center. It uses the advanced Smalltalk language, a mouse input device, and the Ethernet technique of linking Alto computers to each other. Less than 2000 are built in total. (completed in 1974)
1974
April •Intel releases its 2-MHz 8080 chip, an 8-bit microprocessor. It can access 64KB of memory. It uses 6000 transistors, base on 6-micron technology. Speed is 0.64 MIPS.
June •Intel receives a patent for a "memory system for a multichip digital computer".
July •Radio Electronics magazine publishes an article on building a Mark-8 microcomputer, designed by Jonathan Titus, using the Intel 8008.
September •Creative Computing, the first magazine for home computerists, is founded. •Hal Singer starts the Micro-8 Newsletter for enthusiasts of the Mark-8. •Bravo is developed for the Xerox Alto computer. It is the first WYSIWYG program for a personal computer. •Despite being US$300,000 in debt, Ed Roberts is able to borrow an additional US$65,000 from the bank to complete work on what would be the Altair.
November •Hal Chamberlin and others begin publishing The Computer Hobbyist magazine.
December •Scelbi sells its last Scelbi-8H, discontinuing hardware to concentrate on software. •Popular Electronics publishes an article by MITS announcing the Altair 8800 computer for US$439 in kit form. It uses the Intel 8080 processor. The Altair pictured on the cover of the magazine is actually a mock-up, as an actual computer was not available. •Les Solomon, publisher of Popular Electronics, receives Altair number 0001.
•(spring) In a desperate act to save his failing calculator company, MITS company owner Ed Roberts begins building a small computer based on Intel's new 8080 chip, with plans to sell it for the unheardof price of US$500.
•Southwest Technical Products Company introduces the TVT-11 kit for US$180, and ASCII keyboard kit for US$40.
•Gary Kildall, of Microcomputer Applications Associates, develops the CP/M operating system for Intel 8080-based systems.
•Motorola introduces its 6800 chip, an early 8-bit microprocessor used in microcomputers and industrial and automotive control devices. The 6800 was designed by Chuck Peddle and Charlie Melear.
•Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie develop the C programming language.
•RCA releases the 1802 processor, running at a blazing 6.4 MHz. It is considered one of the first RISC chips. It is used on a variety of devices, from video games to NASA space probes.
•Engineer David Ahl suggests Digital Equipment produce an inexpensive version of its PDP-8 minicomputer, for US$5000. Top management call the idea foolish.
•Xerox releases the Alto computer.
•Gary Kildall and John Torode begin selling the CP/M disk operating system for microcomputers.
•Lauren Solomon, 12 year old daughter of Les Solomon, publisher of Popular Electronics, suggests the name "Altair" for Ed Robert's new microcomputer. Altair was the name of where Star Trek's Enterprise was going that night on TV.
•Railway Express loses Ed Robert's only prototype Altair computer, en route to New York for review and photography for publishing by Popular Electronics.
•(1975?) IBM scientist John Cocke completes a prototype high-reliability, low-maintenance computer called the ServiceFree. It incorporates a RISC architecture, achieving at least 80 MIPS, 50 times faster than IBM's fastest mainframe at the time. However, the project is later canceled due to the massive "Future Systems" project consuming much of IBM's resources.
1975
January •Harry Garland and Roger Melen receive Altair number 0002. They had proposed in December to attach their Cyclops camera to the Altair, for use as a security camera.
February •Paul Allen meets with Ed Roberts to demonstrate the newly written BASIC interpreter for the Altair. Despite never having touched an Altair before, the BASIC works flawlessly. •Bill Gates and Paul Allen license their newly written BASIC to MITS, their first customer. This is the first computer language program written for a personal computer.
March •Fred Moore and Gordon French hold the first meeting of a new microcomputer hobbyist's club in French's garage, in Menlo Park, California. 32 people meet, including Bob Albrect, Steve Dompier, Lee Felsenstein, Bob Marsh, Tom Pittman, Marty Spergel, Alan Baum, and Steven Wozniak. Bob Albrect shows off an Altair, and Steve Dompier reports on MITS, and how they had 4000 orders for the Altair. •Stephen Dorsey, founder of Automatic Electronic Systems, sells his 25% of the company for $135,000. •Stephen Dorsey and Louis Miller found Micom Data Systems, in Canada. •Ed Roberts hires Paul Allen as director of software at MITS.
April •The 3rd meeting of the Homebrew Computer Club is held. •Bill Gates and Paul Allen found Micro-Soft (the hyphen is later dropped). •MITS delivers the first generally-available Altair 8800, sold for US$375 with 1KB memory. •Bob Marsh and Gary Ingram found Processor Technology.
May •The Amateur Computer Group of New Jersey is formed.
June •MOS Technology announces the MC6501 at US$20 and the MC6502 at US$25. At this point, the Intel 8080 costs about US$150. •Bob Marsh delivers the first Processor Technology 4KB memory boards for the Altair. •The Southern California Computer Society is formed. •The National Computer Conference is held in Anaheim, California. •Paul Terrell signs a deal with MITS in which Terrell would receive a 5% commission on every Altair sold in Northern California, for promoting and selling the Altair.
July •Bill Gates and Paul Allen sign a licensing agreement with MITS, for their implementation of the BASIC language. •Bill Gates and Paul Allen ship 4K and 8K version of BASIC v2.0. • Heiser opens Arrow Head Computer Company, subtitled "The Computer Store", in Los Angeles, selling assembled Altairs, boards, peripherals, and magazines. •Micom Data Systems ships its first product, the Micom 2000 word processing computer.
September •IBM's Entry Level Systems unit unveils "Project Mercury", the IBM 5100 Portable Computer. It is a briefcase-size minicomputer with BASIC, 16KB RAM, tape storage, and built-in 5-inch screen. Price: US$9000. Weight: 55 pounds. (Price over US$10,000) •The first issue of Byte magazine is published.
October •MITS releases a version of MicroSoft BASIC 2.0 for its Altair 8800, in 4K and 8K editions.
December •Paul Terrell opens the Byte Shop, in Mountain View, California, one of the first computer stores in the US. •IMSAI hires Ed Faber as Director of Sales. (1976 January) •Lee Felsenstein and Bob Marsh begin work on a complete computer, 8080-based with a keyboard and color video display capabilities built-in.
•(summer) IMSAI announces the IMSAI 8080 microcomputer.
•The second meeting of Fred Moore/Gordon French's computer hobbyists group is held at the Stanford AI lab. 40 attend. The name for the group is chosen: Bay Area Amateur Computer Users Group - Homebrew Computer Club.
•The 4th meeting of the Homebrew Computer Club is held at the Peninsula School in Menlo Park. Steve Dompier plays the music "Fool on the Hill" and "Daisy" using the Altair and a radio.
•Wavemate releases the Jupiter II computer kit.
•Southwest Technical Products releases the M6800 computer kit.
•Microcomputer Associates releases the JOLT computer kit.
•Canadian microchip maker Microsystems International shuts down, after accumulating losses of over $50 million.
•Gates and Allen's Traf-O-Data company is renamed Micro-Soft.
•IBM's John Cocke begins work on project "801", to develop a scalable chip design that could be used in small computers as well as large.
•IMSAI begins working on the IMSAI 8080.
•Zilog is founded.
•MITS begins work on a Motorola 6800-based Altair.
•Sphere Corporation introduces its Sphere I computer kit, featuring a Motorola 6800 CPU, 4KB RAM, ROM monitor, keyboard, and video interface, for US$650.
•Cromemco is founded, by Harry Garland and Roger Melen. The company is named after the Crowthers Memorial dorm at Stanford.
1976
January •David Jackson founds Altos Computer Systems. •Paul Terrell begins signing dealership agreements, allowing Byte Shop franchises to open elsewhere in the US.
February •Bill Gates write software routines for BASIC on the Altair to use diskettes for storage. •Lee Felsenstein and Bob Marsh deliver the first Processor Technology Sol computer to Popular Electronics magazine publisher Les Solomon. •David Bunnell publishes an open letter from Bill Gates to the microcomputer hobbyists, complaining of software piracy.
March •Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs finish work on a computer circuit board, that they call the Apple I computer. •By the end of its first year in business, Micom Data Systems ships 180 Micom 2000 computers, worth $2 million. •The First World Altair Computer Convention is held in Albuquerque, New Mexico. •Paul Terrell incorporates Byte, Inc. •Intel introduces the 5-MHz 8085 microprocessor. Speed is 0.37 MIPS. It uses 6500 transistors, based on 3-micron technology. It supports an 8-bit bus. Operates on a single 5-volt power supply.
April •Bill Gates writes a second open letter to computer hobbyists, condemning software piracy.•Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak form the Apple Computer Company, on April Fool's Day. •National Semiconductor releases the SC/MP 8-bit microprocessor, providing early advanced multiprocessing.
May •Digital Research copyrights CP/M, its industry-standard microcomputer operating system, created by company founder Gary Kildall. •The Trenton Computer Festival is held, in New Jersey.
June •The Western Digital MCP-1600 3-chip CPU appears. •Texas Instruments introduces the TMS9900, the first 16-bit microprocessor. The microprocessor implemented Texas Instrument's 16-bit architecture on the TI 990 minicomputer. •The Midwest Area Computer Club conference is held. •Processor Technology unveils the Sol-20 to the public at PC '76 at the Shelbourne Hotel in Atlantic City. It is sold in kit form, using the Intel 8080 CPU.
July •The Apple I computer board is sold in kit form, and delivered to stores by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Price: US$666.66. •Paul Terrell orders 50 Apple computers from Steve Jobs, for his Byte Shop. •Zilog releases the 2.5-MHz Z80, an 8-bit microprocessor whose instruction set is a superset of the Intel 8080. (early 1975 ) (1975) (1975 December) •Micom Data Systems ships its first product, the Micom 2000 word processing computer.
August •Paul Terrell receives his order for 50 Apple computers. •iCOM advertises their "Frugal Floppy" in BYTE magazine, an 8-inch floppy drive, selling for US$1200. •Several computer hobbyist clubs hold their first convention at the Personal Computing Festival, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. •Steve Wozniak begins work on the Apple II.
September •Computer Shack is incorporated. The name is later changed to ComputerLand, due to objections from Radio Shack. (ComputerLand is incorporated)
October •Commodore International buys MOS Technology. •Mike Markkula, ex-marketing wizard at Intel, visits Steve Jobs' garage, to see the Apple computers. •Steve Wozniak decides to remain at Hewlett-Packard, but is soon convinced that he should leave and join Apple Computer permanently.
November •The tradename "Microsoft" is registered. •ComputerLand opens a pilot store in Hayward, California, as a retail outlet and a training facility for franchise owners. •Paul Allen resigns from MITS.
December •Bill Gates drops out of Harvard. •Michael Shrayer completes writing Electric Pencil, the first popular word-processing program for microcomputers. •Shugart announces its 5.25 inch "minifloppy" disk drive for US$390. • Wilcox demonstrates his Alpha Micro, a multi-user CPU board, at a meeting of the Homebrew Computer Club. •Don French and Steve Leininger are given official blessings to develop a microcomputer for Radio Shack. •Management at Radio Shack finally approves of a proposal to build and sell a mocrocomputer. •Steve Wozniak and Randy Wigginton demonstrate the first prototype Apple II at a Homebrew Computer Club meeting.
•(early) Hewlett-Packard begins Project Capricorn, to build a computer-like calculator.
•Advanced Micro Devices and Intel sign a patent cross-license agreement, giving Advanced Micro Devices the right to copy Intel's microcode.
•Fairchild introduces the Channel F, the first programmable (via plug-in cartridges) home video game system. Price: US$170.
•Processor Technology releases VDM, a video display module. It works on the Altair, IMSAI, Sol, Polymorphic computers, and any other with an S-100 bus.
•Dynalogic of Canada creates its own advanced microcomputer.
•Gary Kildall founds Intergalactic Digital Research.
•Tom Snyder's "Tomorrow" TV show features the Sol computer, playing a game called "Target".
•IMS is renamed IMSAI.
•John Martin sells Bill Millard on the idea of a chain of computer stores. Bill promises John shares in the company in exchange for the idea. The chain later becomes ComputerLand.
•U.S. Robotics is founded, in Skokie, Illinois.
•MOS Technology ships the 6502 microprocessor. The 6502 was developed by Chuck Peddle.
•MOS Technology Inc. announces the KIM-1 Microcomputer System, with 1-MHz 6502 CPU, 1KB RAM, 2KB ROM monitor, 23-key keypad, LED readout, cassette and serial interfaces, for US$245. (1975)
•MITS unveils the Altair 680, based on the Motorola 6800 microprocessor.
•Steve Wozniak proposes that Hewlett-Packard create a personal computer. Steve Jobs proposes the same to Atari. Both are rejected.
•Warner Communications buys Atari from Nolan Bushnell for US$26 million. (US$28 million)
•Lore Harp and Carole Ely form Vector Graphic Incorporated, selling memory boards for S-100 bus systems.
•George Morrow founds MicroStuf.
•The first issue of Dr. Dobbs is published.
•IMSAI begins shipping the IMSAI 8080.
•Polymorphic Systems introduces the Poly-88.
•Stephen Wozniak demonstrates the Apple I at the Homebrew Computer Club.
•The bus of the Altair is named (or renamed) the S-100 bus.
1977-1980 Home Computers
Apple, Commodore, Radio Shack, Microsoft, more microprocessors, VisiCalc, Sinclair
1977
January •The Apple Computer Company is incorporated. (March) •Apple employees move into an office on Stevens Creek Boulevard in Cupertino, California. •A working model of the first Radio Shack computer is demonstrated to company president, Charles Tandy. •Commodore's Chuck Peddle shows the first PET to Radio Shack, hoping to have Radio Shack sell it. •Xerox puts David Liddle in charge of developing the Alto computer into a marketable product.
February •The first ComputerLand franchise is opened in Morristown, New Jersey, under the name Computer Shack. (Tandy franchise ) •Apple Computer moves from Jobs' garage to an office in Cupertino. •Bill Gates and Paul Allen sign a partnership agreement to officially create the Microsoft company.
April •The First West Coast Computer Faire is held, in San Francisco's Brooks Civic Auditorium. Nearly 13,000 attended the weekend event. •Commodore Business Machines Inc. unveils its PET computer at the West Coast Computer Faire. The PET includes a 6502 CPU, 4KB RAM, 14KB ROM, keyboard, display, and tape drive, for US$600. (US$800) (March) (June) •Apple Computer introduces the Apple II at the West Coast Computer Faire. The computer features a 6502 CPU, 4KB RAM, 16KB ROM, keyboard, 8-slot motherboard, game paddles, graphics/text interface to color display, and built-in BASIC, for US$1300. It is the first personal computer with color graphics. (March) •Apple Computer delivers its first Apple II system. (May)
May •10 months after its introduction, 175 Apple I kits have sold. •Pertec buys MITS and the Altair line for US$6 million in stock.
June •Camp Retupmoc, the first week-long computer camp, is held in Terre Haute, Indian
End of 1971-1977 Microprocessors, computer kits, pocket calculators