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1978

The Xerox Corporation created a TCP enhancement: Internet Protocol (IP), a separate program that handles the routing of individual messages.
Combined with the TCP protocol from 1979, the two became known as TCP/IP and represented the standard system used in most large networks.

INTEL introduced the 16-bit-8086 chip and the coprocessor 8087. These chips were causing much excitement. But were not quickly accepted mainly because they were too advanced.⁽³³⁾ In later years though other chips, with a higher magnitude of possibilities, would dominate the market for years to come. It used 16 bit registers, a 16 bit databus, and 28.000 transistors using 3 micron technology. It can access 1 MB of memory. Speed is 0.33 MIPS. Later speeds included 8 and 10 MHz, 0.66 and 0.75 MIPS.

PC's grew into complete systems: keyboard, display, floppy drives, memory, BIOS etc. and memory was expanded up to 16 Kb.

The first 64 Kb (8 Kb) RAM memory chip were being produced in mass by IBM.

A new breed of programs is introduced: the OPERATING SYSTEM (OS)

The Datamaster system/23 was designed by IBM engineers. David J. Bradley wrote the operating system for it. System 23 had two 8 inch Floppy's, a video screen, and a keyboard integrated into one single case.

The experience gained with this project proved to be of great importance at the development of the PC in 1980.

Another one of the first micro computer developments in this field was CP/M (1973); Control Program for Micro computers and developed by Gary Kildall of Digital Research.

An operating System lightens the burdens of a programmer to rewrite a program every time it is going to be used on a different machine, within the limits of a compatible CPU off course.
This so called OS was because of its compactness attractive enough to be accepted by all other manufacturers as a de facto standard.
Now the software industry really could take off and make affordable programs, meaning the price of software could come down. Software was still expensive and only businesses could afford to buy software packages like WordStar and VisiCalc

One question remains: will the hardware industry also start to standardize.

Computer Headware announces WHATSIT the first database manager.

Micro Pro Int. announced Word Master a word processor precursor to Word Star

Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston (USA) developed the first commercial spreadsheet: 'VisiCalc'. The first "useful" (read business type) program for Personal Computers. Of which the next year 900.000 copies will be sold and distributed by Software Ants. Initially available only for Apple II, the program was an instant success.

The first BBS (Bulletin Board System) created by Ward Christen (USA), member of a Chicago went "on air" this year. He wrote the BBS program for a do it your self computer (a Northstar Horizon CP/M-machine) that could answer a 110-bps-modem.
Members (often a computerclub) could dial up a BBS to leave a message or download software^(34). In the future the functionality of a BBS shall not expand much beyond the basics: download directories, interest groups, and electronic mail (e-mail).

There was a lot of resistance in the United Kingdom against the overpriced American computers for private use. Responding on this signal in the market a company called Lynx (subsidiary of NASCO USA) introduced an affordable "computer kit". Instead of using a monitor people had to use their own television. For data storage a cassette recorder was used. The operating system was embedded in an 8Kbyte EPROM⁽³⁵⁾. The kit consisted of a: Mostek Z80 processor, QWERTY keyboard, 16Kbyte of memory and was sold for 250 Sterling Pound. (App. 750 U$)

Oracle's first version of the Oracle database management system (DBMS) was released and became the standard database for mainframe and Client/Server networking.⁽²⁵⁾

Niklaus Wirth developed Modula -2 derived from Pascal with a few improvements. It was implemented one year later on the PDP-11 using the Medos -2 operating system.⁽²⁵⁾

^{TI's speak and spell}

Texas Instruments introduced a computer for kids, the Speak & Spell talking learning aid, for ages 7 and up. In fact a revolutionary idea to have the kids type in the words and the machine spoke it aloud. It meant the perfect learning aid, taking into account the state of the art speech synthesis at that time.

Epson announced the MX-80 dot matrix printer, which established a new standard in high performance printing for a low price. The machine is created by  Chris Rutkowski and will be put on the market in 1980. Chris still has one of the very first machines: serial nr. 0000002 and it sits in a box in his garage. According to Chris number #1 never came to America (38)

Atari 400

Atari announced the Atari 400 and 800 personal computers both with a 6502 CPU

Houston Inst. announced the Hi Plot plotter.

Summagraphics announced Bit Pad the first digitizer.

The first "hypermedia" presentation, the Aspen Movie Map, is created by MIT researchers.(3)

1979

Microsoft developed a database an electronic file system

Texas Instruments introduced the TI 99/4 (not the 4A) for an initial price of US$ 1500. It used the TI 9940 16 bits processor. This is another example of a high tech innovation that was too expensive to become a success. But TI refuses to bring down the price instead started to develop the 99/4A a cheaper model.

Motorola introduced the powerful 16bit 6800 chip which operated internally with 32bit registers. This processor was used in graphical orientated computers.

Intel introduced the 8088 which uses a 32bit data bus, but inside still operated on a 16 bit architecture. The development made the acceptance of the 8086/8087 more easier because they could be used on the much cheaper 8bit versions. This chip formed the basis of the IBM PC.

Sinclair Research introduced the ZX80 on the market. The machine had 1 Kb of memory, 3.25 MHz clock speed, weighed under 300 grams and sold at for those day very low price. The system made use of music cassettes to store data and memory could be expanded up to 16Kbyte. Equipped with an on board BASIC the computer could be directly plugged into your television. Also the keyboard was made from foil contacts with a slightly rugged surface. By pressing the foil which covered the entire "keyboard" surface a contact was closed that was surface mounted right on the PCB. No mechanical parts were needed at all. (1)
The machine could not display images while it was calculating or storing / loading data the screen blanked out during that process.

In this year two famous games were introduced: Space Invaders and Pacman. In the game Space Invaders the earth was under attack by aliens and you had to safe the planet. At first this game was only introduced in amusement arcades but later on it also was available at all kinds of computers even programmers made this game available on mainframes. In the game Pacman you have to eat as many dots as possible before you got caught by ghosts. Both games would last for decades in different versions.

MicroPro, founded by Rob Barnaby and Seymon Rubenstein, developed the program WordStar which will become the most widely spread word processor in this decade. It is written by Rob Barnaby and made available for Intel 8088, Z-80 base CP/M systems ( ported by Seymour Rubenstein)

Personal Software released VisiCalc for the Apple II and sold it for U$100. This combination pushed the sales of the Apple II sky high. A perfect combination and though the Apple II was expensive, the software made it worthwhile.

Dan Bricklin showing VisiCalc on the computer fair to a selected public

In May Sofware Arts demonstrated VisiCalc at the 4th Westcoast Computer Fair. The VisiCalc program was written by Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston during 1978-1979 under the company name Software Arts, under contract to Personal Software.

Xerox, DEC and Intel introduced the "Ethernet" standard for local networks. This network standard made use of a coax cable to send messages / signals between computers.   Ethernet shall be quickly adopted by almost every network manufacturer. Even Intel designed a special chip controller for this type of network.

Hayes Microcomputers Products announced the Micromodem 100 the first commercial modem. It could transmit at 110 to 300 bps.

CompuServe and The Source on-line services open.

The first Computerized Bulletin Board System (CBBS) opened to the public in Chicago.

Three students on two universities of North Carolina  (USA)  used the Unix to UNIX Copy Program (uucp) to put messages in a newsgroup. Usenet was born. By 1991 Usenet hosts more than 35,000 nodes. ⁽²⁵⁾

Magic Wand, a word processor program became a competitor for Word Star. ⁽²⁵⁾

Wayne Ratliff developed the Vulcan database program based on the concept of JPLDIS, a database program that ran on JPL computers. The marketing did not bring the results expected and after a deal with George Tate (from Ashton-Tate) it was renamed into dBase II. (2) There was no dBase I but both thought it better to skip a nomination for marketing reasons. The Ashton-Tate company blew new life in the marketing effort and the program became a huge succes. Mainly because the interfacing was so easy to understand and open ended. In its final version dBase II allowed up to 65,000 records, and up to 32 fields of 1Kb each. ⁽²⁵⁾

Texas Inst. released the first 16-bit processor on the market: 9900

Ada language was developed by US Department of Defense; a highly structured, modular language based on Pascal. Easy to learn, very readable but not very efficient. ⁽²⁵⁾

The first Atari microcomputers Atari 400 and 800 came on the market. They offered 8 Kb RAM (expandable to 48 Kb), a full Keyboard and a Sound and Graphics chips that were designed by Joy Miner.

Last Updated on February 5, 2004

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