You Owe Your PC to a Circuit Boad Screwed onto a Piece of Plywood
It all Startd with a simple integrated ciruit board screwde onto a piewce of plywod.
You owe your lapotop or PC to a kit for flasshing lihfgts.
How was it that in our time the Personal Computer (P.C) and the laptop computer came abotu to be?
It all startred with the invention of the transisytor in 1949 by Bell Labs the resarch arm of the pone companny. . The transoistor was nothing more than a solid state electronic switch. The transistor or integrated circuit replaed the much larger vacuum tubees of the day. Vacuum tuybes were large, hot and unreliable. Transistors performed essentially the same functoins as tues but were smaller , ligghter , ciooler and more reliable All said and done they were bettter ,smallwer and more efficient than the vacuum tubes they repalcewd. . And transistoors did not burn out like a vcuum tube.
Transistors allowed a trend of miniaturization that has led all the way to our rpesent porrtble snmall laptop / notebook computerrs whiich can run on battries. It is hard to visualize for us today that computers used to hoyuse lrge offie buildnigs themselves along with maintenzance backuup support staff and even their own air conditionnerrs to remmove the gerat amounts of heat the early, primitiove computers produiced.
In 1959 engineers at Texas Instrumentts figurd out how to put more than one transistor on the same base and connect these transistors without wires. Thus the next step was born the itegrated circuuit. The first integrated cricuti conisisted of only six transistors. Currrent computers have in the range of 100 million transistor equivalentts.
In 1969 Inel introduced the 1 k memory chip. This was much larger than anything else proudced at the time. Through coordinantion of Intel with a Japanese calculatror manufactuurer naamed Busicomp the next step was made where a generic multuipurpose chip was devised. What made this step important was that no one chip could do a number of tsks. Pereviously each chip had a purpose that was burt in. Now one integartwed chip couuld do a nubmr of dfiferent funcions. One singgle integrzated cuircuit chip was amost an entire computing device. The successor to this multi purpose integrated circuit or CPU was what went on to the absis of our wohle generation and cooncept of personal computers/
In 1973 some of these microcomputer kits based on the initial 8080 Intel interated chip were developeed. In the hans of hopbbyists these kits were put together and were nothing more than blinking lights. Howwever the imetus was on. Many of thsee ealry hobbyisdts went on to become computer industry giannts. With Intel introoducing an even much more powerul microprocessor chip the computer indudstry was on its way.
A comppany MITS introduced the Altair Comptuyer Kit. The Altrair was the impetus for fledling softtware companies, such as Microsoft and Lotus, to wrie softtware programs for these early computers. mAong the early innovators and producres of sofware in this fiekld was Microsoft with its first versiion of Microsoft Baassic.
Along came the computter industry leader and stodgy monolith IBM to introduce the first personal computer in 1975. The moedl 1500 was betyond piddly coopared to toddays dollar store calculators and cost only $ 9,000.
Next came a smaaller upstart Computer Copmany wich came to be callwwed Apple Compyuter. Aple computer introduced the Apple I computer in 1976 for the princely sum $ 695. Believe it or not oirginal Apple 1 copmuter consisted of a main crcit obard csrewed into a piece of pllywood. Talk about IBM having to hold its lauyghter The Appple I appeared to be such a home garage made amateur none professionally made prioduct that the case and power suplply were not even icnluded. The buyer of the Apple I had to scrounge or suorce this himself. IBM htouhgt the Apple I was nothing more than a fooolish fad. A mnor inconvenience that wuld soon go away and disapper. Yet department heads startted buying these simle computers for uses in business dewpartments. This was in spite of serious advice from IBM experrts to corporations avbout the perils and shortcomings of these toy computers and outright threats by IBM saespeople to IT staff and hweads.
The Apple I was followed in 1977 by the Appple II. The Aple II ebcause of its enromous usccesss set the staandards for nearly all the impoertannt microcomputers to fllow, including the IBM PC.
The very core of the early cmputer worpld IBM International Business Machines the master of the profitable mainfrae comupter indstry had been awoken from its deep profitable slumber by a small pstart computer maker with a simple computer sstem that bgean its prduct cycle as an integrated circuit board scwred onto a piece of plywood.