SWG.LPRESS@usc-isi.arpa (03/30/83)
Precursors of Personal Computing
Contrary to what you may read in Business Week or the Wall
Street Journal, the personal computer was not "invented" in 1977
by Apple Computer; the important ideas and technology were
developed by many innovative workers, beginning before World War
II. Three "streams" of development come to mind. Most obvious
is the nearly magical progress in digital electronics, beginning
with patents on adders and other circuit components in the early
1940's and running through todays VLSI chips. Second is work on
the evolving concept of interactive problem solving, beginning
with Bush's speculation on a "memex" machine in 1945 and running
through the modern conception of a computer providing a window
onto a virtual memory, containing text, drawings, data files and
even musical scores. Third, has been the development of
interactive problem solving technology, including early single-
user computers, time sharing systems, interactive languages,
graphics and communications. The personal computer and office
automation industries of today are the (perhaps inevitable)
entrepreneurial manifestations of the invention which made them
possible; they have their basis in this history.
The following outline mentions some of the significant
contributions in these three areas. The final section lists
several of the recent product-oriented milestones in the personal
computer industry.
I know that the outline is arbitrary and incomplete; it only
lists people I happen to know or have heard about. I would like
some FEEDBACK on it, dates, anecdotes, references, missed people
and projects, etc. I would like to get a good bibliography
together and write an article to give these folks the credit due
them. Whatever you send me, I will collate and redistribute.
Larry Press
Box 5429
Santa Monica, CA 90405
(213) 392-1234
I. What is a Personal Computer?
single-user
interactive operation
relatively small, quiet and generally unobtrusive
II.... Interactive Computing, the Ideas
1945: Bush, image of a personal system for document
indexing, retrieval, annotation and writing as an aid to a
scientist. A virtual document database viewed and updated
through a console. His 1945 article was reprinted in SigPC
Notes.
196?: Engelbart, began the development of computer-based
tools designed to augment the productivity of "knowledge
workers," in the spirit of Bush. Movement in a virtual
memory via mouse and keyboard.
196?: Licklider, interactive problem solving on timesharing
systems. His IEEE paper on man-machine symbiosis was the
standard reference for all time sharing papers. He advanced
both the ideas and implementation. Also the idea of a
collaborative community of users.
196?: Albrecht, began working with children on CDC 160 and
developed the idea of computers for the "people" through
walk-in computer centers and informal publications.
1965: Steel, predicted $25,000, 7090-powered personal
computer by 1975, based on trends in hardware development.
A paper by Steel was reprinted in Sig PC Notes.
197?: Kay, began the development of a prototype "Dynabook,"
a portable personal computer, with a large virtual memory for
images, sounds and documents.
197?: Felsenstein and colleagues formed Community Memory
project, providing community access to bulletin board data
bases.
III. Interactive Problem Solving Technology
A. Early Time sharing systems
1963: Shaw, JOSS at Rand
1963: Morrisey, Quicktran at IBM
1963: Corbato, Project MAC at MIT
B. Early Higher-Level, Interpretive Languages
1963: JOSS
196?: TINT for the Q32 at SDC
1960: GOTRAN for the IBM 1620, Charles Davidson, U of
Wisconsin
1964: BASIC at Dartmouth, Kemeny and Kurtz
C. Some Early Single-User Computers
19??: TX-O at MIT (Jack Dennis)
19??: Lincoln Lab's "Link"
1961: PDP-1
19??: LGP-30
19??: IBM 1620
196?: CDC 160
196?: SDS was it the 910? We had one at UCLA
D. Communications
1940: Thornton C. Fry and George Stibitz demonstrate the
"complex number computer" via phone connection from
Bell Labs to Dartmouth.
1950: Remote demonstrations of SEAC at two sites
1969: Roberts and colleagues established the ARPA net, which
has led to the emphasis on local networks of personal
computers and their use in accessing networks.
E. Interactive Graphics
1958: Willy Higinbotham, dedicated video game at Brookhaven
National Labs
196?: Sutherland, interactive graphics using "Sketchpad"
IV. Hardware
A. Micro-electronics
1954: Shockley, transistor
1959: TI, commercial integrated circuit
1974: Intel (Ted Hoff), programmable microprocessor
19??: ?, IC memory
B. Disk
197?: IBM, floppy disk (for 370 console I/O?)
197?: IBM, Winchester disk drive
C. Keyboard
18??: Morse, telegraph key
1878: Christopher Sholes, patented typewriter
19??: Teletype
D. Character printer
19??: ?, tickertape
19??: Teletype
19??: ?, first dot-matrix printer
E. Video display
1940s: oscilloscopes for display of digital informaion
F. Architecture and Component Design
1940s: Dickinson, Attanasof, Von Neuman, Burks,
Goldstein, Eckert, Mauchley, etc.
V. Recent Products
195?: An Wang, programmable electronic calculator
1967: Hewlett Packard 9100 desk calculator (Tom Osborne)
1968: IBM MTST word processor
196?: ?, first commercial, display-oriented word processor
1973: Nolan Bushnell, Pong. The first commercial video
game.
197?: Packet Communications, Inc., attempted commercial
network
1975: Roberts, Altair computer. The first general purpose
computer designed to be marketed to (technically
sophisticated) individuals.
197?: IBM 5100, portable computer with BASIC and APL in ROM
1976: Processor Technology (design based on Felsenstein's
"Tom Swift" terminal (197?), Polymorphic Systems and Compal,
first attempts to design personal computers for non-technical
managers and professionals.
197?: Apple, first system designed for the home and
non-professional market. Ads showing computers on kitchen
tables being used by housewives and children.
1975: Gates and Allen, BASIC interpreter for the Altair.
1976: Kildall, CP/M operating system. With John Torrode,
of Digital Microsystems, Kildall was the first to
(commercially) realize the importance of floppy disk as a
secondary storage media.
1977: Shrayer, Electric Pencil, the first display-oriented
word processor for a personal computer and the first major
product developed by a user (Shrayer is a film maker).
1979: Bricklin and Frankston, Visicalc, a non-word proces
sing program that embodied the metaphor of a personal comp
uter as a window onto a virtual document.
1981: Sony Typecorder and Osborne computer, first portable
products.
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