Chronology of Personal Computers

1947

December 23

• Three scientists at Bell Telephone Laboratories, William Shockley, Walter Brattain, and John Bardeen demonstrate their new invention of the point-contact transistor amplifier. The name transistor is short for "transfer resistance". (Miniaturization of electronic circuits via the transistor is a key development making personal desktop computers small, reliable, and affordable.) [185.84] [202.131] [266.9] [1064.237] [1149.69]

1948

(month unknown)

• John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Schockley of Bell Telephone Laboratories file for a patent on the first transistor. [9]

1952

January

• A complaint is filed against IBM, alleging monopolistic practices in its computer business, in violation of the Sherman Act. (The government's antitrust investigations and trial against IBM will drag on for thirty years, finally being dismissed in 1982. IBM will cautiously monitor its microcomputer business practices, fearful of a repeat of government scrutiny.) [569.138]

(month unknown)

• G. W. Dummer, a radar expert from Britain's Royal Radar Establishment presents a paper proposing that a solid block of materials be used to connect electronic components, with no connecting wires. (This technology becomes the integrated circuit, important for miniaturization and speed of computer operation.) [185.86]

1954

May

• Texas Instruments announces the start of commercial production on silicon transistors. [110]

(month unknown)

• Jack Tramiel founds Commodore Business Machines as a typewriter repair service. (Commodore will become one of the top three home computer makers in the 1980s.) [190.81] (1955 [345.160])

1956

January

• A U.S. District Court makes a final judgement on the complaint against IBM filed in January 1952 regarding monopolistic practices. A "consent decree" is signed by IBM, placing limitations on how IBM conducts business with respect to "electronic data processing machines". (Though personal computers are twenty years in the future, this consent decree will limit IBM's success and ability to compete in the marketplace.) [569.138]

(month unknown)

• The Nobel Prize in physics is awarded to John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley for their work on the transistor. [266.xiv] [1064.237] [606.5]
• The first transistorized computer is completed, the TX-O (Transistorized Experimental computer), at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (While not a microcomputer, this is is a step forward in the evolution of reducing the size of conventional vacuum tube-based computers.) [624]

November

• IBM introduces the RAMAC 305, the first hard drive, with 50 two-foot diameter platters. Total capacity is 5 MB. (The first hard drives for personal computers will appear in about 15 years, also with a capacity of around 5 MB.) [798.152] [945.61] (4.4 MB [1089.392]) (350 Disk Storage Unit [838.S2]) (September 1966 [609.89])

1958

September

• At Texas Instruments, Jack Kilby completes building the first integrated circuit, containing five components on a piece of germanium half an inch long and thinner than a toothpick. [110] [556.9] [732.23] [766.151] (October [1064.237]) (1959 [9] [606.5])

1959

January

• Texas Instruments announces the discovery of the integrated circuit. [185.91] [732.23]

(month unknown)

• At Fairchild Semiconductor, Robert Noyce constructs an integrated circuit with components connected by aluminum lines on a silicon-oxide surface layer on a plane of silicon. [732.25] [766.151] [606.5] (1958 [1064.237])
• Fairchild Semiconductor announces their independent discovery of the integrated circuit. [185.91]

1960

(month unknown)

• Digital Equipment introduces the first minicomputer, the PDP-1, for US$120,000. It is the first commercial computer equipped with a keyboard and monitor. PDP stands for Program, Data, Processor. (The minicomputer represents an important size and power step from mainframe toward personal computers.) [203.96] [415.36] [1112.140] [1149.20,31] (minicomputer introduced in 1972 [205.4])
• At Harvard university, Theodor Nelson sets out to write software to implement Vannevar Bush's memex idea, calling it hypertext. (By the mid-1970s, the first draft of Project Xanadu is complete, but by 1990, no hypertext product for a personal computer has come of the project.) [441.31]
• IBM develops the first automatic mass-production facility for transistors, in New York. [202.136]

1961

(month unknown)

• Fairchild Semiconductor releases the first commercial integrated circuit. [556.9]

1962

(month unknown)

• Douglas Engelbart invents the mouse pointing device for computers. [1084.30] (1963 [1112.140])

1963

April

• Charles Tandy buys the Radio Shack Corporation, for free. (The Tandy or Radio Shack company will become one of the main producers of home computers in the late 1970s.) [202.196] (1962 [266.196])

(month unknown)

• Douglas Engelbart receives a patent on the mouse pointing device for computers. [651.79]

1964

(month unknown)

• John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz develop the BASIC programming language at Dartmouth College. BASIC is an acronym for Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code. (BASIC becomes the most popular introductory programming language for microcomputers, often stored in ROM, and executing commands interactively.) [9] [132] [266.140] [801.65] [1038.155] [1069.268] [1149.23] (1965 [1112.142])
• The American Standard Association adopts ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) as a standard code for data transfer. (This standard, defining 7-bit character codes, will be used for most personal computers in the Western world.) [1112.140]
• Texas Instruments receives a patent on the integrated circuit. [110]
• IBM coins the term "word processing". [203.29]

1965

(month unknown)

• Gordon Moore, head of research and development for Fairchild Semiconductor, predicts that transistor density on integrated circuits would double every 12 months for the next ten years. This prediction is revised in 1975 to doubling every 18 months, and becomes known as Moore's Law. [732.18] [29.91] (1965 [876.17] [941.58] [947.102] [1000.20]) (every 18 months [876.17] [947.102]) (every 18-24 months [941.58])

1966

May

• Steven Gray founds the Amateur Computer Society, and begins publishing the ACS Newsletter. (Some consider this to be the birth-date of personal computing.) [208.64]

(month unknown)

• AT&T Bell Labs announces the invention of magnetic bubble memory. [1157.S3.4]

1967

(month unknown)

• IBM builds the first floppy disk. [444.80]

1968

February

• International Research Corp., in San Martin, California, develops the architecture for a computer-on-a-chip modelled on an enhanced PDP-8/S concept. (Until now, the CPU (central processing unit) has been a collection of chips and other components on a circuit board. Moving as many as possible onto a single chip will greatly aid miniaturization, reduce costs, and increase speed.) [773]

May

• Wayne Pickette, of International Research, proposes to Fairchild Semiconductor that they develop his design for a computer-on-a-chip. Fairchild turns down his offer. [773]

June 4

• The US Patent & Trademark Office grants patent 3,387,286 to Dr. Robert Dennard, of the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center. The patent is for a one-transistor DRAM cell and the basic idea in the three-transistor cell. (Dynamic RAM (Random Access Memory) will become the standard short-term storage medium for programs and data during processing.) [911]

(month unknown)

• Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore found Intel Corporation. (Intel begins as a memory chip producer, but will soon switch to the new field of microprocessors.) [346.58]
• Ed Roberts and Forest Mims found Micro Instrumentation Telemetry Systems (MITS). (In a few years, MITS will make a desparate switch from producing calculators to computers, and begin a revolution in hobbyist computing.) [266.28] [346.19]
• Douglas C. Engelbart, of the Stanford Research Institute, demonstrates his system of keyboard, keypad, mouse, and windows at the Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco's Civic Center. He demonstrates use of a word processor, a hypertext system, and remote collaborative work with colleagues. [180.42] [185.98] [716.88] [753]