Modern Computers

Integrated circuits ushered in a new age of computing, in which huge mainframes gave way to mini computers and later microcomputers. It all began with PDP 8, launched by Digital Equipment Corporation in 1964. This minicomputer, followed by several others, had high processing power and capacity that sufficed the needs of mid-range organizations. In 1970s and 80s, minicomputers filled the mid-range area between low powered microcomputers and high capacity mainframes, and ran full multi-user, multitasking operating systems like VMS and UNIX. Whereas, microcomputers encouraged single user and ran simple program based operating systems like MS-DOS.

Altair 8800

The first Altair 8800 was completed in 1974 by MITS and ran on Microsoft software. The Altair was a capable, inexpensive computer designed around the Intel 8080 microprocessor. It was found that Altair lost its data when the power was shut off, thus restricting the spread of PCs. It was the development of floppy disk, a low cost and simple storage medium Microsoft BASIC allowed programmers to write interesting and, for the first time, serious software for these machines.

Commodore 64, Apple and Macintosh

Altair was followed by two major advances in modern computing- Commodore PET and the Apple 2. The Commodore featured two built-in drives and upto 8 kilobytes of memory, while the Apple 2 succeeded with a printed circuit motherboard, brilliant graphics, game paddles and computer game. Apple 2 was preceded by Apple 1 computer circuit board, which was fully prepared and contained about 30 chips. Apple 2 used fewer chips than the comparable Altair machines, yet it outperformed most of them. It had excellent color graphics capabilities, better than most mainframes or minicomputers.

The PET's chief drawback was its calculator-style keyboard. Commodore was immensely popular in 1982 with C64, which lasted 11 years and is known as the best-selling computer of all time. A year later, Apple introduced Lisa with a graphical user interface. It was expensive and barring NASA couldn't find many takers due to its slowness.

In 1984 Macintosh emerged as the first affordable computer to include a Graphical User Interface. It was built around the new Motorola 68000 chip, which was significantly faster than previous processors, running on 8 MHz.

IBM PC

In1981, IBM released their first IBM Personal Computer based on Intel 8088 processor and Microsoft's MS-DOS operating system. IBM decided to use the Intel 8088 after first considering the Motorola 68000 and the Intel i8086, because the other two were considered to be too powerful. Within a few years of the introduction of fully compatible IBM PC clones, virtually all the rival business personal computer systems, and alternate X86 using architectures, were wiped from the market.

First desktop

In 1986 Compaq released Deskpro 386, the first desktop to use Intel's latest 80386 chip, giving the PC as much speed and power as some of the older mainframes and minicomputers. In 1987 IBM caught up to the 386 world and released the OS/2 operating system as an alternative to DOS, allowing mouse to be used with IBM machines.

Laptop Computer

The computer considered by most historians to be the first true portable computer was the Osborne 1. Adam Osborne, founded Osborne Computer and invented the Osborne 1 in 1981, a portable computer weighing 24 pounds, with a five-inch screen, modem port, two floppy drives, a large collection of bundled software programs, and a battery pack.

Windows 95

Windows 95 integrated Microsoft's MS-DOS and Windows products and was significantly superior to its predecessor, Windows 3.1, particularly in the graphical user interface and in its relatively simplified plug-n-play features. There were also major changes made at lower levels of the operating system, such as moving from a mainly 16-bit architecture to a higher 32-bit model. Windows 95 was a major success, and within a year or two of its release had become the most successful operating system ever produced.