1984

Apple shows the famous Orwellian commercial, which is aired during the Superbowl(50) , and marked the introduction of the Macintosh.

the collage shown above is the remake of the 1984 add with the iPad attached to the waste but for the rest is is the same; the entire ad can be found at: http://www.apple.com/hardware/ads/1984/1984_480.html

But the superbowl advertisement nearly did not make it to the screens.

The Apple MacIntosh is introduced. The Apple Macintosh (named after the apple variety: Mac Intosh) is put on the market and based on the design of the Alto made by Rank Xerox. Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs were specifically invited to study this design of Xerox. And based on what they saw there the Mac Intosh is designed with a full windows based interface. This user interface is completely graphical orientated and is controlled by a mouse. Many techniques of the predecessor Apple LISA are integrated in the design of the Macintosh (like the GUI, Graphical User Interface).(45) This computer differs compared to the IBM and IBM-clone computers. The computer is designed around the Motorola 68000 which is more suitable for a graphical environment than the 80X86 Intel family. When the retail price drops to a more affordable (compared to the Lisa) 2495 US$ within six months the Apple company sells more than 100.000 Macintosh computers

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Hewlett Packard introduces the first inkjet printer.

A inkjet printer injects small drops of ink on the paper in the shape of letters just like a matrix printer. Because of the special quality of the ink the small dots of ink flows together giving the letter a solid appearance.

Hewlett Packard also introduces the first laser printer (HP Laser Jet) intended for the personal computer user. Rank Xerox the inventor of this type of printer failed to recognize the potential and misses the boat here by denying the power of the personal computer market.

Sinclair Research released the QL computer (Quantum Leap)

The QL is based around the 8Mhz 68008 processor. The chip is a 32-bit processor but outside this processor the computer has still a 8-bit architecture. The machine contains 128 Kb memory and a multitasking operating system, which is very special in this period of time. But this machine was not very successful because of difficulties in the supply chain.

INMOS develops the first limited test version of a transputer.

IBM introduces the AT (Advanced Technology) computer It contains an Intel 6Mhz 80286 CPU. It supports 1 Mb of memory. It is possible to set the CPU in the so called "enhanced mode", which makes it technically possible to run programs which are larger than 640 Kb. However this mode is very difficult to use which the result that very few programs which are specially designed for the 286 CPU. Quartedeck, a software company, designed an virtual memory extender so that even programmes not designed for this enhanced mode could run in it. MS-DOS 3.0 supports the new AT computer. It is possible now to read 1.2 Mb 5.25inch diskettes and 20Mb hard disks.

In 1984 science-fiction author William Gibson coined the term "cyberspace" in his novel Neuromancer.

FIDO bulletin Board System (BBS)(46) becomes active. This is a network where messages and software can be exchanged on world-wide scale. The network is divided in several zone-nodes and regional-nodes. Via these nodes it is possible to send messages and software to other nodes in other regions of the world. If you want to send a message you have to log into a local node via modem. By using and electronic address of a specific region a message jumps via several nodes to the place of destination. Within one year there will be approximately 100 nodes available 24 hours a day.

The system is more or less similar to the ARPA net launched in 1970. The big difference between ARPA and FIDO is that everyone is allowed to use FIDO. The use of the system is free of charge, only in some cases the system operator (SYSOP) asks a small membership fee. Most of the time the SYSOP is also the owner of the BBS equipment.

Apr 1, Stewart Brand and Larry Brilliant launched the Well (Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link) in Sausalito. In La Jolla, Ca., Larry Brilliant, physician and head of Network Technologies Int'l. in Michigan, pitched the idea for a public computer conferencing system to Stewart Brand, publisher of the Whole Earth Catalog. Their meeting led to the 1985 founding of "The Well" online service that operated as a collection of conferences. It used the PicoSpan conferencing software. In 2001 Katie Hafner authored "The Well: A Story of Love, Death and Real Life in the Seminal Online Community."(1)

1985

The Compact Disk Read Only Memory, a k a the CD-ROM, first grew out of the audio Compact Disk.

1 Mb of RAM becomes a standard in 286 computers. The new 286 CPU is able to address 16 Mb of memory and has a clock speed that varies between 8 to 20 MHz. The processor supports 1024 colors but only 16 to 32 colors (depending on the amount of video memory) can be displayed at once.

INMOS introduces the first Transputer, the T414. A micro processor which is especially designed for parallel processing of data. It is the fastest 32-bit CPU at this moment: 20 million instructions per second (MIPS) and 2 million floating point calculation per second (FLOPS).
The basic idea behind the Transputer is simple: put on a CPU some extra memory and four fast DMA / serial communication "links" on a chip. Put these chips in a network and let them all simultaneously (parallel) work on the same problem.
It was only until IBM developed a expansion card containing the program language OCCAM that made "parallel computing" more popular.

Windows 1.0 released
Microsoft ships Windows 1.0, nearly a year later than expected. The interface allows rudimentary pointing and clicking. Although several companies had raced to develop point-and-click interfaces, in the end, they cede the victory to Microsoft. However, Windows doesn't catch on widely until the introduction of Windows 3.1 in March 1992. (6)

Control Video changes name to Quantum Computer Services
An online gaming company changes its name to Quantum Computer Services. Quantum creates online services for Apple, Commodore, and other computer manufacturers. In 1989, the company will change its name again, this time to America Online. (6)

Microsoft announces Excel
Microsoft unveils plans for a new spreadsheet program designed for the Apple Macintosh. The new product, called Excel, gives the Apple a badly needed business application. (6)

The WELL launches
The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link (WELL), a California-based online company owned by Whole Earth Catalog publisher Steward Brand, launches. The service provides bulletin boards for online discussions and attracts a hip, intellectual crowd. The discussion group later provides Internet services to its members. Salon.com, an online magazine, will buy the discussion group portion of the company in the mid-1990s. (6)

The first domain names are registered
Symbolics.com becomes the first registered domain (15-mar-1985) and is quickly followed by cmu.edu, purdue.edu, ucl.edu, and others. (6)

Quantum launches Q-Link
Quantum Computer Services launches Q-Link, an online service for users of Commodore's Amiga computers. The company also develops AppleLink, a network for Apple users. Quantum will later change its name to America Online. (6)

The Motorola 68000 is quickly succeeded by 68010/ 68020 and 68030 processors. These kind of chips are mainly used in computers which are more graphical orientated. Such as: Apple Macintosh IIe and Atari ST series.

VisiCalc is the first successful spreadsheet program in the world. Lotus Development (producer of Lotus 1-2-3) looked at VisiCalc as one of their strongest competitors. In the vision of "If you can’t beat them join them"⁽⁴⁷⁾ Lotus bought a few years ago the VisiCalc company. As everyone expected, in the year 1985 Lotus removed VisiCalc of the market.

The prototype of the Amiga is developed by an independent company. Because a long designing process the company has a shortage of funds to continue the project. Commodore takes over the company and launches this year the Commodore Amiga 1000. The Amiga caused an enormous shock among the users. The computer is so advanced for its time that even the marketing department of Commodore did not knew what they are up to. The computer integrated almost everything: Video, graphic and sound chips. Also external sound and video sources could be connected to this machine. The operating system of the Amiga was designed by Carl Sassenrath and was also advanced for its time: multi tasking environment, graphical user interface. Equipped with 256Kb RAM the Amiga was sold at a retail price of 1200 US$. Looking back in time you could say that the Amiga was the first Multi Media computer.

IBM develops the first Megabit RAM.

Hewlett Packard introduces the HP LaserJet on the market. This will become one of their most successful products. Thanks to HP, laser printer technology becomes within reach of smaller companies. Also the use of desktop publishing is given a big impulse.

MS-DOS 3.1 supports a network environment.

Aldus company introduces the first Desktop Publishing program called Page Maker.⁽⁴⁸⁾ Pagemaker drives the success of the Macintosh. The page layout software launches the desktop publishing industry virtually overnight. The software is designed for the Apple Macintosh and was the first program that enabled a single individual to write, make a layout and print a book or newspaper, including illustrations on a personal computer and a printer. In 1989 the program will be published for IBM compatible PC’s.

Intel announced the 32-bit 80386 processor which is also downward compatible with the 80286. Details of the CPU are: Registers, Address and Data bus are 32bit, addressable memory of 4Gbyte, Virtual Mode which allowed Real Mode simulation in Protected Mode. The chip contained 275.000 transistors and reached a speed up to 8 MIPS. With this kind of speed the PC came in range of low end Main Frame computers.
Amongst the first machines that used the 80368 technology were the Compaq Deskpro 386 and the IBM’s System 2. Compaq was way ahead on the development of 386 computers compared to IBM. It is therefore that the Compaq company was responsible for the explosion in sales of 80386 computers. Compaq wanted to produce best quality computers and accertain a leading role in computer development the price of a Compaq computer is 30% higher than one of the competitor.

MS-DOS 3.2 is made compatible for 3.5 inch micro floppies with a capacity of 720Kb.

this screendump is of a later quickbasic version but the screen stayed pretty much the same over the years

Microsoft's Quick BASIC revolutionized BASIC and legitimized it as a serious development language for the DOS environment. Quick BASIC is a compiled language. Microsoft started to ship an interpreted version of this with each version of DOS called GW-BASIC.

Last Updated on October 25, 2004

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