1	Personal Computing Thomas J. Bergin ©Computer History Museum American University
2	Recap: Context By 1977, there was a fairly robust but fragmented hobbyist-oriented microcomputer industry: Micro Instrumentation Telemetry Systems (MITS) Processor Technology Cromemco MicroStuf Kentucky Fried Computers Two things were needed for the personal computer revolution: 1) a way to store and retrieve data, and 2) a programming language in which to write applications.
3	Homebrew Computer Club March 5, 1975: the Amateur Computer Users Group (Lee Felsenstein, Bob Marsh, Steve Dompier, BobAlbrecht and 27 others) met in Gordon French’s garage, Menlo Park, CA 3^rd meeting drew several hundred people and was moved to the Coleman mansion Stanford Linear Accelerator Center’s auditorium Steve Wozniak shows off his single board computer Steve Jobs attends meetings
4	Homebrew-ed 21 companies formed: Apcose Apple Cromemco Morrow North Star Osborne West Coast Computer Faire Byte magazine, September 1975 Byte Shop
5	And then there was Traf-O-Data October 28, 1955: William H. Gates III born father: attorney mother: schoolteacher Lakeside School: Lakeside Programming Group Mothers Club: access to time-shared system at GE Students hired by local firm to debug software First computer program: Tic-Tac-Toe (age 13) Traf-O-Data to sell traffic mgt. software (age 16) 1973, Bill Gates enrolls at Harvard in pre-law. Paul Allen is in his second year.
6	January 1975, Popular Electronics: Altair Allen shows Popular Electronics to Gates Decide to write a BASIC compiler 4K of memory; mixture of Dartmouth and DEC features, including a machine language interface Allen flies to Phoenix and demonstrates it to Ed Roberts (works the first time) March 1, 1975, Allen joins MITS as Director of Software; Gates remains at Harvard April 7: Altair BASIC "up and running!" July 1: Altair BASIC 2.0 ships
7	Homebrew Computer Club newsletter February 23, 1976 Open Letter to Hobbyists To me, the most critical thing in the hobby market right now is the lack of good software courses, books and software itself. Without good software and an owner who understands programming, a hobby computer is wasted. Will quality software be written for the hobby market? Almost a year ago, Paul Allen and myself, expecting the hobby market to expand, hired Monte Davidoff and developed Altair BASIC. Through the initial work took only two months, the three of us have spent most of the last year documenting, improving and adding features to BASIC. Now we have 4K, 8K, EXTENDED , ROM and DISK BASIC. The value of the computer time we have used exceeds $40,000.
8	"The feedback we have gotten..." The feedback we have gotten from hundreds of people who say they are using BASIC has all been positive. Two surprising things are apparent, however. 1) Most of these "users" never bought BASIC (less than 10% of Altair owners have bought BASIC), and 2) The amount of royalties we have received from sales to hobbyists makes the time spent of Altair BASIC worth less than $2 an hour. Why is this? As the majority of hobbyists must be aware, most of you steal your software. Hardware must be paid for, but software is something to share. Who cares if the people who worked on it get paid? Is this fair? One thing you don't do by stealing software is get back at MITS for some problem you may have had. MTS doesn't make money selling software. The royalty paid to us, the manual, the tape and the overhead make it a break-even operation. One thing you do do is prevent good software from being written. Who can afford to do professional work for nothing? What hobbyist can put 3-man years
9	"into programming," into programming, finding all the bugs, documenting his product and distribute for free? The fact is, no one besides us has invested a lot of money in hobby software. We have written 6800 BASIC and are writing 8080 APL and 6800 APL, but there is very little incentive to make this software available to hobbyists. Most directly, the thing you do is theft. What about the guys who re-sell Altair BASIC, aren't they making money on hobby software? Yes, but those who have been reported to us may lose in the end. They are the ones who give hobbyists a bad name, and should be kicked out of any club meeting they show up at. I would appreciate letters from any one who wants to pay up, or has a suggestion or comment. Just write me at 1180 Alvarado Se, #114, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87108. Nothing would please me more than being able to hire ten programmers and deluge the hobby market with good software. Bill Gates, General Partner, Micro-Soft
10	"Mar 27," Mar 27, 1976: Gates gives opening address to First Annual World Altair Convention Nov 1, 1976: Allen joins Microsoft full time Nov 26, 1976: "Microsoft" registered trade name Feb 3, 1977: partnership agreement signed July 1, 1977: FORTRAN-80 available Dec 31, 1978: sales exceed $1 million Jan 1, 1979: Microsoft moves to Bellevue, WA April 2, 1980: Z-80 SoftCard - circuit board for Apple II allowing CP/M programs to run
11	Intergalactic Digital Research 1972, Gary Kildall is a computer science professor at U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA 1973: visits Intel; begins working with the I-8008 and the Intel development system Wrote PL/M (a version of PL/1) Intel gave him a display monitor and a high-speed paper tape reader; Shugart gave him a disk drive Late 1973, Kildall writes a simple operating system in PL/M and called it Control Program/Monitor
12	"With Ben Cooper," With Ben Cooper, Gary Kildall develops the software for an astrology machine: Writes a BASIC compiler to do the application Allows the testing of his operating software Talked about microcomputers…. Sold a copy of his development system for $90 1976: Intergalactic Digital Research incorporated President: Dorothy McEwen (Gary's wife) Name later shortened to Digital Research 1977 IMSAI licensed CP/M for $25,000 DR became a full-time business
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14	Critical Mass By 1977, the critical ingredients for personal computing were in place: Altair S-100 bus Powerful microprocessors: I-8080 Microsoft BASIC Digital Research's CP/M An ethic of charging for software Standard serial and parallel ports
15	Steve Wozniak
16	Steve Jobs
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18	Steve Jobs' garage in Cupertino, CA
19	Steve Wozniak and Steven Jobs
20	Apple 1 single board computer
21	And then there was
22	Apple I Motorola 6502 4K expandable to 8K Could drive a TV Designed in late 1975 Produced July 1976 $666.00 (150 produced)
23	Apple II (1978) introduced at West Coast Computer Faire in 1977 $1295 + peripherals Motorola 6502 @ 1MHz 4K expandable to 64 K Drive b/w or color TV 24 lines X 40 characters (lc) 80 char u/l case (later) integral 52 key keyboard Cassettes (5 1/4disk intro at Second West Coast Computer Faire, March 1978
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25	Apple II Software 1. Super Invader 2. Adventure 3. VisiCalc 4. Sargon II 5. Asteroids in Space 6. Flight Simulator 7. Hi-Res Adventure #2: The Wizard and the Princess 8. Odyssey: the Compleat Adventure 9. DOS 3.3 10. Apple Writer 11. Bill Budge's Space Album 12. Temple of Apshai 13. HR A #3 Mystery House 14. Cyber Strike 15. Easy Writer Also: Apple Plot Data Management System
26	VisiCalc: the first “killer application”
27	VisiCalc (1979) Bob Frankston and Dan Bricklin Software Arts Ran on an Apple II Perhaps the single most important reason for the personal computer revolution! People could use this capability People could build their own applications Dan Fylstra: Personal Software
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30	Publishers get on the bandwagon!
31	Games for the Apple II
32	Woz “To me, a personal computer should be small, reliable, convenient to use, and inexpensive.” Byte magazine, May 1977
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35	Apple Subculture Washington Apple Pi starts in 1978
36	One of thousands of user groups Washington Apple Pi is an international user group, with a history spanning three decades to the dawn of personal computing. "The Pi" continues to serve users of the very first personal computers as well as users of the most modern, advanced systems through its meetings, magazine, computer bulletin board and Internet services.
37	Apple III 6502A at 1.4 MHz 96 K to 256K 12 inch monitor Built-in 5 1/4 floppy National Computer Conference: Sept. 1980 $3,495 to $8,000 Plagued with reliability problems and ultimately unsuccessful
38	Legitimization and Proliferation In the corporate world, there are three things to remember about buying a computer: 1. IBM 2. IBM 3. IBM "No one ever got fired for buying IBM!" August 12, 1981: IBM Personal Computer August-Sept. 1981: 13,000 IBM Personal Computers sold
39	IBM 5150 Personal Computer (1981)
40	IBM Personal Computer Intel 8088 @ 4.77 MHz 16K expandable to 64K PC1 expandable to 256K 11.5 inch monitor 25 rows by 80 characters Cassette or 5.24 floppy drives at 160 KB 512 K, color monitor, 2 floppies, dot-matrix printer $6,000 (TJB)
41	Key Decisions Developed at IBM's research facility in Boca Raton, FL (little corporate oversight) Off the shelf components from outside suppliers Open architecture (to allow others to create hardware and software) PC DOS and BASIC from Microsoft Wide range of languages, utilities and application software
42	Legitimacy!!! ComputerLand stores Sears Business Centers Macys' Computer stores in shopping malls Software: Volkswriter, Lotus 1-2-3, dBase III And hundreds of other applications programs
43	Lotus 1-2-3: PC Killer Ap! Mitch Kapor, 1983 Integrated spreadsheet, database and graphics $599
44	PC-DOS 1.0 IBM tries to get Gary Kildall to adapt his CP/M operating system for the Personal Computer Kildall balks at the IBM nondisclosure agreement 1980 IBM offers Microsoft Corporation founder Bill Gates the opportunity to develop an operating system for their new microcomputer: PC-DOS Tim Patterson, working for Seattle Computer Products, created QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System) Microsoft bought the rights and developed it into PC-DOS Microsoft later negotiates the right to sell MS-DOS to the makers of IBM clones.
45	Time's Man of the Year (1982)
46	Meanwhile…. 1982 Compac unveils an IBM-compatible portable PC 1983 IBM PC-XT (80286 at 6 MHz 20 MB hard drive and 1.2 MB floppy $2495 1983 PC Jr. (Intel 80888 at 4.77 MHz) color TV; "Chicklet" keyboard used infrared transmission: $669 to $1289
47	Systems Software Control Program for Microprocessors (CPM) Microsoft Disk Operating System (MS-DOS) Apple DOS TRS-DOS Other proprietary operating systems: GEM, etc.
48	MS-DOS DIR a: DIR a:/p OPEN a:oldfile for input as #1 OPEN b:newfile for output as #2 LIST a:myfile LLIST a:myfile RENAME a:myfile:oldfile KILL a:myfile
49	Directory
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51	Need for Standards Every software package had its own user interface, the commands used to manipulate data. Learning one package did not help with another: F1 F2 F3 F4 ** F10 WordPerfect Cancel Search Help Indent Save Lotus 1-2-3 Help Edit Name Abs Graph Reflex Help Edit Row Column Choices
52	Xerox: Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) Douglas Englebart: mouse Robert Metcalf writes a memo on "ether acquisition" leads to Ethernet (1^st local area network) Graphical User Interface (GUI) Charles Simonyi writes the first WUSIWYG application, Bravo Alan Kay: Smalltalk Xerox Alto (1973) Never sold commercially; less than 2000 produced
53	Alan Kay's "Office Computer" Smalltalk (object oriented language) GUI: Icons desktop metaphor "The best way to predict the future is to invent it!" Alan Kay
54	Dynabook Kay did post graduate studies at the University of Utah Defined the Dynabook as "a portable interactive personal computer, as accessible as a book". Later realized as the Apple Newton which was not successful.
55	Meanwhile, back at Steve Jobs visits PARC and sees the Alto Returns to Apple and heads up the Lisa project graphical user interface mouse icons pull down menus Launched in May 1983 $ 10,000
56	Macintosh (1984) introduced during the Super Bowl
57	Macintosh Motorola 68000 at 7.83 MHz 128 K RAM 9" B/W bitmapped display 512 by 342 pixels 3.5 inch, 400 K floppy $2,495 Macintosh 512 "Fat Mac" September 1984 512 K RAM
58	Jobs, Scully and Wozniak
59	Apple Apple III introduced at National Computer Conference in May 1980, Anaheim, CA February 7, 1981, Woz crashes his four-seater single-engine airplane at Scotts Valley Airport: suffers from physical problems and amnesia; leaves Apple in fall 1981 1981: Steve Jobs named Chairman of the Board at age 26! Lisa project: May 1983 Macintosh: February 1984 Friction between Jobs and Sculley Steven Jobs is sacked by the Board, May 24, 1985
60	1985 Microsoft ships retail version of Windows 1.0, and brings Macintosh-like features to DOS-compatible machines Intel (October) introduces the 80386 chip with 32-bit processing and on-chip memory management Paul Brainard's PageMaker becomes first PC desktop publishing program (first on Macintosh and later on IBM compatibles)
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62	Intel processors CPU Year Data Memory MIPS 8080 1974 8 64K 8088 1980 8 1M .33 80286 1982 16 1M 3 80386 1985 32 4G 11 80486 1989 32 4G 41 Pentium 1993 64 4G 111
63	Microsoft 1987: M and IBM announce OS/2 1987 Releases Excel for Windows 1988: Microsoft surpasses Lotus Development Corporation as the world’s top software vendor 1989 Office, general business software for Macintosh available on CD-ROM 1990 Windows 3.0 1990 15^th Anniversary: revenues of $1.18 billion
64	August 5, 1991
65	December 6, 1993
66	December 1997
67	References Bunch and Hellemans, The Timetables of Technology, Simon and Schuster, 1993 Freiberger and Swaine, Fire in the Valley: The Making of the Personal Computer, Osborne/McGraw-Hill, 1984
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69	References Thomas F. Haddock, A Collector's Guide to Personal Computers and Pocket Calculators, Florence, AL, Books Americana, Inc. (1993) Stan Veit, Stan Veit's History of the Personal Computer, copyright Stan Veit (1993) The Computer Museum: slide sets 13-17
70	Biographies J.A.N. Lee, Computer Pioneers, IEEE Press, 1995 Robert Slater, Portraits in Silicon, MIT Press, 1987 Mary Northrup, American Computer Pioneers, Enslow Publishers, 1998 Doug Garr, WOZ: The Prodigal Son of Silicon Valley, Avon (paperback), 1984 (paper) Steven Manes and Paul Andrews, GATES, How Microsoft’s Mogul Reinvented an Industry-and Made Himself the Richest Man in America, Doubleday, 1993 Jeffrey S. Young, Steve Jobs: The Journey is the Reward, Scott, Foresman and Company, 1988
71	Corporate Biographies John Scully (with John A. Byrne), Odyssey: Pepsi to Apple…The Journey of a Marketing Impresario, Harper & Row, 1987 (paper) Jim Carleton, APPLE: The Inside Story of Intrigue, Egomania, and Business Blunders, Random House, 1997 Frank Rose, West of Eden: The End of Innocence at Apple Computer, Penguin Books, 1990 (paper)
72	"Jonathan Littman," Jonathan Littman, Once Upon A Time in ComputerLand, Simon & Schuster, 1987 Ted G. Lewis, Microsoft Rising…and other tales of Silicon Valley, IEEE Computer Society, 1999 (paper)