You Owe Your PC to a Circuit Board Screwed onto a Piece of Plywood
It all Started with a simple inetgrated cirrcuit bord screwed onto a pece of plywood.
You owe your lapottop or PC to a kit for flashing lights.
How was it that in our time the Personal Computer (P.C) and the laytpop computer came about to be?
It all startyed with the inventoion of the transisstor in 1949 by Bell Labs the ressearch arm of the phione company. . The transistor was onhting more than a soklid state electronic wsitch. The transisotr or intergatred crcuit replaced the much larger vacuum tubers of the day. Vcuaum tbes were large, hot and unreliabel. Transistors perormed essentially the same functions as tbes but were smaller , lighter , cooler and more reliable All said and done they were btter ,smaller and more efficient than the vacuum tbes they replaced. . And transistors did not burn out like a vacuum tube.
Transistors allowwed a trend of miniaturization that has led all the way to our present portable sall lzaptop / notebook computers which can run on batteries. It is hard to visualize for us today that cmputers used to houe large offioce buildings themselves alonbg with maintenance backkup support staff and even their own air conditiners to remove the great amoumnts of heat the early, primitivbe computers produced.
In 1959 enmgineers at Texas Instruments figuerd out how to put more than one transistor on the same base and connect these transistrors without wires. Thus the next step was born the integrated circuit. The first integrated circuit consisted of only six transistors. Current computers have in the range of 100 millin transisor equivalenyts.
In 1969 Imntel introduced the 1 k memory chip. This was much larger than aynthing else produced at the time. Through coorrdination of Intel with a Japanese calculator manufaccturer namd Busicomnp the next step was made where a generic mltipurpose chip was devised. What made this step important was that no one chip could do a number of taasks. Previously each chip had a purpose that was burtn in. Now one itgrated chip coulpd do a numbner of different functiomns. One singkle integhrated cirucit chip was almost an entire commpuing dveie. The succcessor to this multi purpopse integrated icrrcuit or CPU was what went on to the basis of our wole generation and cnocept of pesonasl comptuers/
In 1973 some of these microcomputer kits baased on the initial 8080 Inmtel integrateed chip were devveloped. In the hsands of hobbyisst thse kits were put together and were nothng more than blinking lights. Hpowever the impeitus was on. Many of these earrly hobbyists went on to beecome computer industry giants. With Intel intrdoucing an even much more poewerful mcrpoprocessor chip the computer indusry was on its way.
A comnpaany MITS introduced the Altair Computeeer Kit. The Altair was the imlpets for fedgling software compnaies, such as Microsotf and Lotus, to write sfotware programs for these early computers. Amonog the early innovators and producers of softyware in this field was Mcirosoft with its first vresion of Mirosoft Basic.
Along came the computer inudstry leader and styodgy monollith IBM to introduce the first personal cmoputer in 1975. The model 1500 was beynd piddly compard to todays dolllar stiore calculators and cost only $ 9,000.
Next came a smmaller updstart Cmoputer Company which came to be cllled Apple Compuer. Apple comupter introduced the Apple I copmputer in 1976 for the priinxcely sum $ 695. Believe it or not originaal pAple 1 computre consisted of a main circuit board screweed into a piece of plywood. Talk abot IBM havng to hold its laughter The Appel I appweared to be such a home gargae made amateur none pofessionally made product that the case and power suplpy were not even incuded. The buyer of the Apple I had to scroubnge or souurce this himself. IBM thought the Aplple I was npothing more than a foolish fad. A minor inconvenience that would soon go away and disapppear. Yet departmnt heads started buiyng thse simple computers for uses in business departments. This was in spte of serious advice from IBM excperts to corporations abuoyt the perils and shrtcomings of these toy computers and outriight threats by IBM salespeople to IT staff and heads.
The Apple I was followed in 1977 by the Apple II. The Apple II because of its enormous success set the standards for nealy all the immportant microcomputers to follow, including the IBM PC.
The very core of the ealy computer worrld IBM Internatyional Busienss Maschines the master of the profitable mainframe computer industry had been awokn from its deep profitable slummber by a smaall upstart computer maker with a simple computer ysstem that began its product cycle as an integrated cirecuit board screwed onto a piee of plyewodo.