Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Technology

529

The following chronology lists some significant events in the
history of computing. Although the first

calculator

s (i.e.,

the abacus) were known in ancient times, the chronology
begins with the development of modern mathematics and the
first calculators in the 17th century.

1617

John Napier published an explanation of “Napier’s bones,”
a manual aid to calculation based on logarithms, and the
ancestor to the slide rule.

1624

William Schickard invented a mechanical

calculator

that

can perform automatic carrying during addition and sub-
traction. It can also multiply and divide by repeated addi-
tions or subtractions.

1642

Blaise Pascal invented a

calculator

that he calls the Pas-

caline. Its improved carry mechanism used a weight to allow
it to carry several places. A small batch of the machines was
made, but it did not see widespread use.

1673

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (co-inventor with Isaac Newton
of the calculus) invented a

calculator

called the Leibniz

Wheel. He also wrote about the binary number system that
eventually became the basis for modern computation.

1786

J. H. Muller invented a “difference engine,” a machine that
can solve polynomials by repeated addition or subtraction.

1822

Charles B

aBBage

designed and partially built a much more

elaborate difference engine.

1832

aBBage

sketched out a detailed design for the Analytical

Machine. This machine was to have been programmed by

punched

cards

, storing data in a mechanical

memory

, and

•

even including a

printer

. Although it was not built during

his lifetime, Babbage’s machine embodied most of the con-
cepts used in modern computers.

1843

Ada Lovelace provided extensive commentary on a book by
B

aBBage

’s Italian supporter Menabrea. Besides being the

first technical writer, Lovelace also wrote what might be
considered the world’s first computer program.

1844

Samuel  Morse  demonstrated  the  electromagnetic  telegraph
by  sending  a  message  from  Washington  to  Baltimore.  The
telegraph  inaugurated  both  electric  data  transmission  and
the use of a binary character code (dots and dashes).

1850

Amedee Mannheim created the first modern slide rule. It
will become an essential accessory for engineers and scien-
tists until the inexpensive electronic

calculator

arrived in

the 1970s.

1854

George Boole’s book

The Laws of Thought described what is

now called Boolean algebra. B

oolean

operators

are essen-

tial for the

Branching

statements

and

loops

that control

the operation of computer programs.

1884

W. S. Burroughs marketed his first adding machine, begin-
ning what will become an important

calculator

(and later,

computer) business.

1890

Herman h

ollerith

’s

punched

card

tabulator enabled

the U.S. government to complete the 1890 census in record
time.

1896

ollerith

founded the Tabulating Machine Company,

which will become the Computing, Tabulating, and Record-

•

Appendix ii

a c

hronology

omputing

530 Appendix II

ing company (CTR) in 1911. In 1924, it will become Interna-
tional Business Machines (iBm).

1904

J. A. Fleming invented the diode vacuum tube. Together with
Lee de Forest’s invention of the triode two years later, this
development defined the beginnings of electronics, offering a
switching mechanism much faster than mechanical relays.

1919

The “flip-flop” circuit was invented by two American physi-
cists, W. H. Eccles and R. W. Jordan. The ability of the cir-
cuit to switch smoothly between two (binary) states would
form the basis for computer arithmetic logic units.

1921

Karl Capek’s play

R.U.R. introduced the term robot. Robots

will become a staple of science fiction “pulps” starting in the
1930s.

1930

Vannevar B

ush

’s elaborate

analog

computer

, the Differen-

tial Analyzer, went into service.

1936

Alonzo c

hurch

developed the lambda calculus, which can

be used to demonstrate the

computaBility

of mathematical

problems.
Konrad Z

use

built his first computer, a mechanical machine

based on the binary system.

1937

Alan t

uring

provided an alternative (an equivalent) demon-

stration of

computaBility

through his Turing Machine, an

imaginary computer that can reduce any computable prob-
lem to a series of simple operations performed on an endless
tape.
B

ell

aBoratories

mathematician George Stibitz created

the first circuit that could perform addition by combining
B

oolean

operators

1938

In a key development in

roBotics

, Doug T. Ross, an Ameri-

can engineer, created a robot that can store its experience in

memory

and “learn” to navigate a maze.

G. A. Philbrick developed an electronic version of the

ana

log

computer

Working in a garage near Stanford University, William
Hewlett and David Packard began to build audio oscillators.
They called their business the Hewlett-Packard Company.
Fifty years later, the garage would be preserved as a histori-
cal landmark.

1939

John a

tanasoff

and Clifford Berry built a small electronic

binary computer called the Atanasoff-Berry Computer
(ABC). A 1973, court decision would give this machine pre-
cedence over ENIAC as the first electronic digital computer.

•

George Stibitz built the Complex Number Calculator, which
is controlled by a keyboard and uses relays.

1940

Claude s

hannon

introduced the fundamental concepts of

data

communications

theory.

George Stibitz demonstrated remote computing by control-
ling his Complex Number Calculator in New York from a
Teletype

terminal

at Dartmouth College in New Hamp-

shire.

1941

Working in isolation in wartime Germany, Konrad Z

use

completed the Z3. Although still mechanical rather than
electronic, the machine used sophisticated floating-point

numeric

data

1943

The British-built Colossus, an electronic (vacuum tube) spe-
cial-purpose computer that can rapidly analyze permuta-
tions to crack the German Enigma cipher.

1944

Howard a

iken

completed the Harvard Mark I, a large pro-

grammable calculator (or computer) using electromechani-
cal relays.
John

von

eumann

and Stanislaw Ulam developed the

Monte Carlo method of probabilistic

simulation

, a tool

that would find widespread use as computer power becomes
available.

1945

use

continued computer development and created a

sophisticated matrix-based programming language called
Plankalkül.
Vannevar B

ush

envisioned

hypertext

and knowledge link-

ing and retrieval in his article “As We May Think.”
Alan t

uring

developed the concept of using

procedures

and

functions

(subroutines) called with parameters. His

team also developed the Pilot ACE (Automatic Comput-
ing Engine), which would help the development of a British
computer industry.

1946

ENIAC went into service. Developed by J. Presper e

ckert

and John m

auchly

, the machine is widely considered to

be the first large-scale electronic digital computer. It used
18,000 vacuum tubes.
In the “Princeton Reports” based upon the ENIAC work, John

von

eumann

, together with Arthur W. Burks and Herman

Goldstine described the fundamental operations of modern
computers including the stored program concept—the hold-
ing of all program instructions in memory, where they can be
referred to repeatedly and even manipulated like other data.

1947

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) was
founded.

•

Appendix II 531

ckert

and m

auchly

formed the Eckert-Mauchly Corpo-

ration for commercial marketing of computers based on the
ENIAC design.
John

von

eumann

began development of the EDVAC

(Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Calculator) for
the U.S. government’s Ballistic Research Laboratory. This
machine, completed in 1952, would be the first to use pro-
grams completely stored in memory and able to be changed
without physically changing the hardware.
Richard Hamming developed

error

correction

algorithms.

Alan t

uring

’s paper on “Intelligent Machinery” began lay-

ing the groundwork for

artificial

intelligence

research.

In Britain, Manchester University built the first electronic
computer that can store a full program in

memory

. It was

called “baby” because it was a small test version of a planned
larger machine. For its main memory it used a CRT-like tube
invented by F. C. Williams.
IBM under Thomas J. Watson, Sr. decided to enter the new
computer  field  in  a  big  way  by  beginning  to  develop  the
Selective  Sequence  Electronic  Calculator  (SSEC)  as  a  com-
petitor to ENIAC and the Harvard Mark I. The huge machine
used thousands of both vacuum tubes and relays.
Tom Kilburn and M. H. A. Newman invented the index reg-
ister, which would be used to keep track of the current loca-
tion in memory of instructions or data.
The  transistor  was  invented  at  B

ell

Labs by John Bard-

een, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley. The solid-state
device could potentially replicate all the functionality of the
vacuum tube with much less size and power consumption.
It would be some time before it was inexpensive enough to
be used in computers, however.
Norbert W

iener

coined the term

cybernetics to refer to con-

trol and feedback systems.
Claude s

hannon

formally introduced statistical informa-

tion theory.

1949

The Cambridge EDSAC demonstrated versatile stored-pro-
gram computing. Meanwhile, e

ckert

and m

auchly

work

on BINAC, a successor/spinoff of ENIAC for Northrop Air-
craft Corporation.
Frank Rosenblatt developed the perceptron, the first form of

neural

netWork

, for solving pattern-matching problems.

An Wang patented “core memory,” using an array of magne-
tized rings and wires, which would become the main mem-
ory (RAM) for many

mainframes

in the 1950s.

1950

Alan t

uring

proposed the Turing Test as a way to demon-

strate

artificial

intelligence

Development began of the high-speed computers Whirlwind
and SAGE for the U.S. military. The military also began to
use computers to run war games or simulations.
Claude s

hannon

outlined the algorithms for a chess-play-

ing program that could evaluate positions and perform heu-
ristic calculations. He would build a chess-playing computer
called Caissac.

•

•
•

•

Japan began development of electronic computers under the
leadership of Hideo Yamashita, who would build the Tokyo
Automatic Calculator.
Approximately 60 electronic or electromechanical comput-
ers were in operation worldwide. Each was built “by hand”
as there were no production models yet.

1951

ckert

and m

auchly

marketed Univac I, generally consid-

ered the first commercial computer (although the Ferranti
Mark I is sometimes given co-honors).
An Wang founded Wang Laboratories, which would become
a major computer manufacturer through the 1970s.
Grace h

opper

at Remington Rand coined the word

com

piler

and began developing automatic systems for creating

machine codes from higher-level instructions.

1952

Alick Glennie developed autocode, generally considered to
be the first true high-level

programming

language

Magnetic core

memory

began to come into use.

election  night  a  Univac  I  predicted  that  Dwight  D.  Eisen-
hower  would  win  the  1952  U.S.  presidential  election.  It
made  its  prediction  an  hour  after  the  polls  closed,  but  its
findings  were  not  released  at  first  because  news  analysts
insisted the race was closer.
MANIAC was On developed to do secret nuclear research in
Los Alamos.
The  iBm  701  went  into  production.  It  was  one  of  the  first
computers  to  use  magnetic

tape

drives

as primary means

of data storage.
IBM was accused of violating the Sherman Antitrust Act
in its computer business. Litigation in one form or another
would drag on until 1982.
John

von

eumann

described self-reproducing automata.

The symbolic

assemBler

was introduced by Nathaniel

Rochester.
IBM and Remington Rand (Univac) dominated the young
computer industry.

1954

The

iBm

650 was marketed. It was the first truly mass-pro-

duced computer, and relatively affordable by businesses and
industries. It used a magnetic drum memory.
In Britain, the Lyons Electronic Office (LEO) became the
first integrated computer system for use for

Business

appli

cations

, primarily accounting and payroll.

1955

Grace h

opper

created Flow-matic, the first high-level lan-

guage designed for

Business

applications

computers

The Computer Usage Company (CUC) was founded by John
W. Sheldon and Elmer C. Kubie. It is considered to be the
first company devoted entirely to developing computer soft-
ware rather than hardware.
Bendix marketed the G-15, its competitor to the IBM 650 in
the “small” business computer market.

•

•
•

•

•
•

•

532 Appendix II

Users of the new IBM 704

mainframe

, frustrated at the

lack of technical supported, formed the first computer

user

group

, called SHARE.

The large

iBm

705

mainframe

is marketed by IBM. It uses

magnetic core

memory

1956

The iBm 704 and Univac 1103 introduced a new generation
of commercial

mainframes

with magnetic core storage.

John m

arthy

coined the term

artificial

intelligence

or AI.
The Dartmouth AI conference brought together leading
researchers such as McCarthy, Marvin m

insky

, Herbert

Simon, and Allen Newell. It would set the agenda for the field.
Newell, Shaw, and Simon developed Logic Theorist, the first
program that can prove theorems.
A. I. Dumey described

hashing

, a procedure for quickly

sorting or retrieving data by assigning calculated values.
The infant transistor industry began to grow as companies
such as IBM began to build transistorized calculators.
IBM signed a consent decree ending the 1952 antitrust com-
plaint by restricting some of its business practices in selling
mainframe computers.

1957

John Backus and his team released

fortran

, which would

become the most widely used language for

scientific

com

puting

applications

Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) was founded by Ken
Olsen and Harlan Anderson. The company’s agenda involved
the development of a new class of smaller computer, the

minicomputer

Minicomputer development would be inspired by the MIT
TX-0 computer. While not yet a “mini,” the machine was the
first fully transistorized computer.
The hard drive came into service in

iBm

’s 305 RAMAC.

IBM developed the first dot matrix

printer

1958

The I/O interrupt used by devices to signal their needs to
the CPU was developed by

iBm

. It would be used later in

personal computers.
China  began  to  build  computers  based  on  Soviet  designs,
which  in  turn  had  been  based  upon  American  and  British
machines.
Sperry  Rand  introduced  the  Univac  II,  a  huge,  powerful,
and surprisingly reliable computer that used 5,200 vacuum
tubes, 18,000 crystal diodes, and 184,000 magnetic cores.
Jack  Kilby  of  Texas  Instruments  built  the  first  integrated
circuit, fitting five components onto a half-inch piece of ger-
manium.
As the cold war continued, the U.S. Air Force brought SAGE
on-line.  This  integrated  air  defense  system  featured

real

time

processing

and graphics displays.

1959

John m

arthy

developed l

isp

, a language based on

Alonzo c

hurch

’s lambda calculus and including extensive

•

•
•

•

facilities for

list

processing

. It would become the favorite

language for

artificial

intelligence

research.

coBol

was introduced, with much of the key work and

inspiration coming from Grace h

opper

iBm

marketed the 7090

mainframe

, a large transistorized

machine that could perform 229,000 additions a second. The
smaller IBM 1401 would prove to be even more popular. IBM
also introduced a high-speed

printer

using type chains.

Robert Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductor built a different
type of integrated circuit, using aluminum traces and layers
deposited on a silicon substrate.

1960

Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) marketed the PDP-1,
generally considered the first commercial

minicomputer

Control Data Corporation (CDC) impressed the industry
with its CDC 1604, designed by Seymour c

ray

. It offered

high speed at considerably lower prices than

iBm

and the

other major companies.
The a

lgol

language demonstrated block structure for better

organization of programs. The report on the language intro-
duced BNF (B

ackus

-n

aur

form

) as a systematic descrip-

tion of computer language grammar.
Donald Blitzer introduced PLATO, the first large-scale
interactive

computer

aided

instruction

system. It would

later be marketed extensively by Control Data Corporation
(CDC).
Paul Baran of RAND developed the idea of packet-switching to
allow for decentralized information

netWorks

; the idea would

soon attract the attention of the U.S. Defense Department.
In an advance in practical

roBotics

, the remote-operated

“Handyman” robot arm and hand was put to work in a
nuclear power plant.
The U.S. Navy began to develop the Naval Tactical Data
System (NTDS) to track targets and the status of ships in a
combat zone.

1961

Time-sharing computer systems came into use at MIT and
other facilities. Among other things, they encouraged the
efforts of the first

hackers

to find clever things to do with

the computers.
Leonard Kleinrock’s paper “Information Flow in Large Com-
munication Nets” was the first description of the packet-
switching message transfer system that would underlie the
i

nternet

Arthur Samuel’s ongoing research into

computer

games

design culminated in his checkers program reaching mas-
ter level. The program includes learning algorithms that can
improve its play.
The

iBm

STRETCH (IBM 7030) is installed at Los Alamos

National  Laboratory.  Its  advanced  “pipeline”  architecture
allowed  new  instructions  to  begin  to  be  processed  while
preceding  ones  were  being  finished.  It  and  Univac’s  LARC
are sometimes considered to be the first

supercomputers

IBM made a major move into scientific computing with
its modular 7040 and 7044 computers, which can be used

•

Appendix II 533

together with the 1401 to build a “scalable” installation for
tackling complex problems.
Unimation introduced the industrial robot (the Unimate).
Fairchild Semiconductor marketed the first commercial
integrated circuit.

1962

The discipline of

computer

science

began to emerge

with the first departments established at Purdue and Stan-
ford.
MIT students created

Spacewar, the first video

computer

game

, on the PDP-1.

On a more practical level, MIT programmers Richard Green-
blatt and D. Murphy develop TECO, one of the first

text

editor

J. C. R. Licklider described the “Intergalactic Network,”
a universal information exchange system that would help
inspire the development of the i

nternet

Douglas e

ngelBart

invented the computer

mouse

at SRI.

IBM developed the SABRE online ticket reservation system
for  American  Airlines.  The  system  will  soon  be  adopted
by  other  carriers  and  demonstrate  the  use  of  networked
computer  systems  to  facilitate  commerce.  Meanwhile,

iBm

earned $1 billion from its computer business, which by then
had overtaken its traditional office machines as the compa-
ny’s leading source of revenue.

1963

Joseph W

eiZenBaum

’s

Eliza program carried on natural-

sounding conversations in the manner of a psychotherapist.
Ivan Sutherland developed

Sketchpad, the first computer

drawing system.
Reliable Metal Oxide Semiconductor (MOS) integrated cir-
cuits were perfected, and would become the basis for many
electronic devices in years to come, including computers for
space exploration.

1964

The

iBm

System/360 was announced. It would become the

most successful

mainframe

in history, with its successors

dominating business computing for the next two decades.
IBM introduced the MT/ST (Magnetic Tape/Selectric Type-
writer), considered to be the first dedicated

Word

pro

cessing

system. While rudimentary, it allowed text to be

corrected before printing.
Seymour c

ray

’s Control Data CDC 6600 is announced.

When completed, it ran about three times faster than IBM’s
STRETCH, irritating Thomas Watson, head of the far larger
IBM.
J. Kemeny and T. Kurtz developed

Basic

to allow students to

program on the Dartmouth time-sharing system.
At the other end of the scale, IBM introduced the complex,
feature-filled PL/1 (Programming Language 1) for use with
its System/360.
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) officially
adopted the ASCII (American Standard Code for Informa-
tion Interchange) character code.

•
•

•

•
•

•

Paul Baran of SRI wrote a paper, “On Distributed Commu-
nication  Networks,”  further  describing  the  implementation
of packet-switched network that could route around disrup-
tions.  The  work  began  to  attract  the  attention  of  military
planners concerned with air defense and missile control sys-
tems surviving nuclear attack.
Jean  Sammet  and  her  colleagues  developed  the  first  com-
puter program that can do algebra.
Gordon  m

oore

(a founder of Fairchild Semiconductor and

later, of Intel Corporation) stated that the power of CPUs
would continue to double every 18 to 24 months. “Moore’s
law” proved to be remarkably accurate.

1965

iBm

introduced the

floppy

disk

(or diskette) for use with its

mainframes.
Edsgar d

ijkstra

devised the semaphore, a variable that two

processes can use to synchronize their operations and aid-
ing the development of

concurrent

programming

The APL language developed by Kenneth Iverson provided
a powerful, compact, but perhaps cryptic way to formulate
calculations.
The s

imula

language introduced what will become known

oBject

oriented

programming

The  DEC  PDP-8  became  the  first  mass-produced  minicom-
puter,  with  over  50,000  systems  being  sold.  The  machine
brings  computing  power  to  thousands  of  universities,
research  labs,  and  businesses  that  could  not  afford  main-
frames. Designed by Edson deCastro and engineered by Gor-
don  Bell,  the  PDP-8  design  marked  an  important  milestone
on the road to the desktop PC.
NASA  uses  an  IBM  onboard  computer  to  guide  Gemini
astronauts in their first rendezvous in space.
The  potential  of  the

expert

system

was demonstrated by

Dendral,  a  specialized  medical  diagnostic  program  that
began  development  by  Edward  Feigenbaum,  Joshua  Leder-
berg, and Bruce Buchanan.
The  U.S.  Defense  Department’s  ARPA  (Advanced  Research
Projects  Agency)  sponsored  a  study  of  a  “co-operative  net-
work  of  time-sharing  computers.”  A  testbed  network  was
begun by connecting a TX-2 minicomputer at MIT via phone
line  to  a  computer  at  System  Development  Corporation  in
Santa Monica, California.
Ted Nelson’s influential vision of universal knowledge shar-
ing through computers introduced the term

hypertext

1966

In the first federal case involving

computer

crime

(

U.S. v.

Bennett), a bank programmer is convicted of altering a bank
program to allow him to overdraw his account.
The first ACM Turing Award is given to Alan Perlis.
The New York Stock Exchange automated much of its trad-
ing operations.

1967

The memory

cache

(a small amount of fast memory used

for instructions or data that are likely to be needed) was
introduced in the IBM 360/85 series.

•

•
•

•

534 Appendix II

iBm

developed the first

floppy

disk

drive.

Seymour p

apert

introduced l

ogo

, a l

isp

-like language that

would  be  used  to  teach  children  programming  concepts
intuitively.
A  chess  program  written  by  Richard  Greenblatt  of  MIT,
Mac Hack IV, achieved the playing skill of a strong amateur
human player.
Fred  Brooks  did  early  experiments  in  computer-mediated
sense perception, laying groundwork for

virtual

reality

1968

Edsger d

ijkstra

’s little letter entitled “GO TO Considered

Harmful” argued that the GOTO or “jump” statement made
programs hard to read and more prone to error. The result-
ing discussion gave impetus to the

structured

program

ming

movement. Another aspect of this movement was the

introduction of the term

software

engineering

Robert Noyce, Andrew g

rove

, and Gordon m

oore

founded

ntel

, the company that would come to dominate the

microprocessor

industry by the early 1980s.

iBm

introduced the System/3, a lower-cost computer system

designed for small businesses.
Bolt,  Beranek  and  Newman  (BBN)  was  awarded  a  govern-
ment  contract  to  build  “interface  message  processors”  or
IMPs  to  translate  data  between  computers  linked  over
packet-switched networks.
Alan  k

prototyped the Dynabook, a concept that led

toward both the

portaBle

computer

and the graphical

user

interface

Stanley Kubrick’s movie

2001 introduced Hal 9000, the

self-aware (but paranoid) computer that kills members of a
deep-space exploration crew.

1969

Ken Thompson and Dennis r

itchie

began work on the

unix

operating

system

. It will feature a small

kernel

that

can be used with many different command

shells

, and will

eventually incorporate hundreds of utility programs that
can be linked to perform tasks.
Edgar F. Codd introduced the concept of the relational sys-
tem that would form the foundation for most modern

data

Base

management

system

iBm

was sued by the U.S. Department of Justice for antitrust

violations. The voluminous case would finally be dropped in
1982. However, government pressure may have led the com-
puter giant to finally allow its users to buy software from
third parties, giving a major boost to the software industry.
ARPANET is officially launched. The first four nodes of the
ARPANET came online, prototyping what would eventually
become the i

nternet

SRI researchers developed Shakey, the first mobile robot
that could “see” and respond to its environment. The actual
control computer was separate, however, and controlled the
robot through a radio link.
Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin successfully made the
first human landing on the Moon, despite problems with the
onboard Apollo Guidance Computer.
The first automatic teller machine (ATM) was put in service.

•
•

•

1970

Gene a

mdahl

left

iBm

to found Amdahl Corporation, which

would compete with IBM in the mainframe “clone” market.
An i

ntel

Corporation team led by Marcian E. Hoff began to

develop the Intel 4004

microprocessor

Digital Equipment Corporation announced the PDP-11, the
beginning of a series of 16-bit minicomputers that will sup-
port time-sharing computing in many universities.
John Conway’s “Game of Life” popularized

cellular

automata

The ACM held its first all-computer chess tournament in
New York City. Northeastern University’s Chess 3.0 topped
the field of six programs competing.
Charles Moore began writing programs to demonstrate the
versatility of his programming language f

orth

Xerox Corporation established the Palo Alto Research Cen-
ter (PARC). This laboratory will create many innovations in
interactive computing and the graphical

user

interface

1971

Niklaus W

irth

formally announced p

ascal

, a small, well-

structured language that will become the most popular
language for teaching

computer

science

for the next two

decades.
The IEEE Computer Society was founded.
The

iBm

System/370 series ushered in a new generation of

mainframes using densely packed integrated circuits for
both

cpu

and

memory

1972

Dennis r

itchie

and Brian Kernighan developed

, a com-

pact language that would become a favorite for

systems

pro

gramming

, particularly in

unix

The creation of an

mail

program for the ARPANET

included the decision to use the at (@) key as part of e-mail
addresses.
Alan k

developed s

malltalk

, building upon SIMULA

to create a powerful, seamless

oBject

oriented

program

ming

language and

operating

system

. The language would

eventually be influential although not widely used. Kay also
prototyped the Dynabook, a notebook computer, but Xerox
officials showed little interest.
Seymour c

ray

left CDC and founded Cray Research to

develop new

supercomputer

ntel

introduced the 8008, the first commercially available

8-bit

microprocessor

The 5.25-inch diskette first appeared. It would become a
mainstay of personal computing until it was replaced by the
more compact 3.5-inch diskette in the 1990s.
Nolan Bushnell’s Atari Corp. had the first commercial

com

puter

game

hit,

Pong. It and its beeping cousins would soon

become an inescapable part of every parent’s experience.

1973

Alain Colmerauer and Philippe Roussel at the University of
Marseilles developed p

rolog

(Programming in Logic), a

language that could be used to reason based upon a stored

•

•
•

•

Appendix II 535

base of knowledge. The language would become popular for

expert

systems

development.

ell

aBoratories

established a group to support and pro-

mulgate the

unix

operating

system

The Ethernet protocol for LANs (

local

area

netWorks

)

was developed by Robert Metcalfe.
In a San Francisco hotel lobby Vinton c

erf

sketched the

architecture for an Internet gateway on a napkin.
Don Lancaster published his “TV Typewriter” design in
Radio Electronics. It would enable hobbyists to build displays
for the soon-to-be available microcomputer.
The Boston Computer Society (BCS) was founded. It became
one of the premier computer user groups.
Gary Kildall founded Digital Research, whose CP/M

oper

ating

system

would be an early leader in the microcom-

puter field.
A federal court declared that the Eckert-Mauchly ENIAC
patents were invalid because John a

tanasoff

had the same

ideas earlier in his ABC computer.

1974

The Alto graphical workstation was developed by Alan
k

and others at Xerox PARC. It did not achieve commer-

cial success, but a decade later something very much like it
would appear in the form of the a

pple

acintosh

An international computer chess tournament is won by the
Russian KAISSA program, which crushed the American
favorite Chess 4.0.
Computerized product scanners were introduced in an Ohio
supermarket.
i

ntel

released the 8080, a

microprocessor

that had 6,000

transistors, could execute 640,000 instructions per second,
was able to access 64 kB of memory, and ran at a clock rate
of 2 MHz.
David Ahl’s

Creative Computing magazine began to offer an

emphasis on using small computers for education and other
human-centered tasks.
Vinton c

erf

and Robert Kahn began to publicize their

tcp

internet

protocol.

A group at the University of California, Berkeley, began to
develop their own version of the

unix

operating

system

The 1974 Privacy Act began the process of trying to protect
individual

privacy

the

digital

age

1975

Fred Brooks published the influential book

The Mythical

Man-Month. It explained the factors that bog down soft-
ware development and focused more attention on

softWare

engineering

and its management.

Electronics hobbyists were intrigued by the announcement
of the MITS Altair, the first complete

microcomputer

sys-

tem available in the form of a kit. While the basic kit cost
only $395, the keyboard, display, and other peripherals were
extra.
MITS founder Ed Roberts also coined the term

personal

computer

. Hundreds of hobbyists built the kits and yearned

for more capable machines. Many hobbyists flocked to

•

meetings of the Homebrew Computer Club in Menlo Park,
California.

iBm

introduced the first commercially available laser

printer

. The very fast, heavy-duty machine was suitable

only for very large businesses.
The first ARPANET discussion mail list was created. The
most popular topic for early mail lists was science fiction.
In Los Angeles, Dick Heiser opened what is believed to be
the first retail store to sell computers to “ordinary people.”

1976

Seymour c

ray

’s sleek, monolithlike Cray 1 set a new stan-

dard for

supercomputers

Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman announced a public-
key

encryption

system that allowed users to securely send

information without previously exchanging keys.

iBm

developed the first (relatively crude) inkjet

printer

for

printing address labels.
Shugart Associates offered a

floppy

disk

drive to microcom-

puter builders. It cost $390.
Steve W

oZniak

proposed that Hewlett-Packard fund the cre-

ation of a

personal

computer

, while his friend Steve j

oBs

made a similar proposal to Atari Corp. Both proposals were
rejected, so the two friends started a

pple

Computer Com-

pany.
Chuck Peddle of MOS Technology developed the 6502

microprocessor

, which would be used in the Apple, Atari,

and some other early personal computers.
Bill g

ates

complained about software piracy in his “Open

Letter to Hobbyists.” People were illicitly copying his BASIC
language tapes.

copy

protection

would soon be used in an

attempt to prevent copying of commercial programs for per-
sonal computers.
Computer enthusiasts found an erudite forum in the
magazine

Dr. Dobb’s Journal of Computer Calisthenics and

Orthodontia: Running Light without Overbyte. The more main-
stream

Byte magazine also became a widely known forum

for describing new projects and selling components.
William Crowther and Don Woods at Stanford University
developed the first interactive

computer

game

involving

an adventure with monsters and other obstacles. Univer-
sity administrators would soon complain that the game was
wasting too much computer time.

1977

Benoit Mandelbrot’s book on

fractals

computing

pop-

ularized a mathematical phenomenon that would find uses
in computer graphics, data compression, and other areas.
The Data

encryption

Standard (DES) was announced. Crit-

ics charged that it was too weak and probably already com-
promised by spy agencies.
Vinton c

erf

demonstrated the versatility and extent of

the Internet Protocol (IP) by sending a message around the
world via radio, land line, and satellite links.
The Charles B

aBBage

Institute was founded. It would

become an important resource for the study of computing
history.

•

536 Appendix II

Bill g

ates

and Paul Allen found a tiny company called

icrosoft

. Its first product was a

Basic

interpreter

for

the newly emerging

personal

computer

systems.

Radio Shack began selling its TRS-80 Model 1 personal
computer.
The a

pple

II was released. It will become the most success-

ful of the early (pre-iBm)

personal

computer

1978

Diablo Systems marketed the first daisy-wheel

printer

Atari announced its Atari 400 and Atari 800

personal

com

puter

s. They offered superior graphics (for the time).

Daniel Bricklin’s VisiCalc

spreadsheet

is announced. It will

become the first software “hit” for the Apple II, leading busi-
nesses to consider using personal computers.
Ward Christiansen and Randy Suess developed the first soft-
ware for

Bulletin

Board

systems

(BBS).

The first West Coast Computer Faire was organized in San
Francisco.  The  annual  event  became  a  showcase  for  inno-
vation and a meeting forum for the first decade of personal
computing.
The  BSD  (Berkeley  Software  Distribution)  version  of  unix
was  released  by  the  group  at  the  University  of  California,
Berkeley, under the leadership of Bill j

The

aWk

(named for Aho, Weinberger, and Kernighan)

scripting

language

appeared.

1979

medical

applications

computing

were highlighted

when Allan M. Cormack and Godfrey N. Hounsfield
received the Nobel Prize in medicine for the development of
computerized tomography (CAT), creating a revolutionary
way to examine the structure of the human body.
The Ashton-Tate company began to market dBase II, a

data

Base

management

system

that became the leader in per-

sonal computer databases during the coming decade.
i

ntel

’s new 16-bit processors, the 8086 and 8088, began to

dominate the market.
Hayes marketed the first

modem

, and the CompuServe

line

service

and early bulletin boards gave a growing num-

ber of users something to connect to.

unix

users Tom Truscott, Jim Ellis, and Steve Bellovin devel-

oped a program to exchange news in the form of files copied
between the Duke University and University of North Caro-
lina computer systems. This gradually grew into USENET
(or

netneWs

), providing thousands of topical newsgroups.

The first networked computer fantasy game, MUD (Multi-
User Dungeon), was developed.
The first COMDEX was held in Las Vegas. It would become
the PC industry’s premier trade show.
Boston’s Computer Museum was founded. This perhaps sig-
naled the computing field’s consciousness of coming of age.

1980

, a modular descendent of p

ascal

, was announced. The

language was part of efforts by the U.S. Defense Department
to modernize its software development process.

•

•
•

•

RISC (

reduced

instruction

set

computer

) microproces-

sor architecture was introduced.
a

pple

’s initial public offering of 4.6 million shares at $22

per share sold out immediately. It was the largest IPO since
that of Ford Motor Company in 1956. Apple founders, Steve
j

oBs

and Steve W

oZniak

, became the first multimillionaires

of the microcomputer generation.
XENIX, a version of

unix

for

personal

computer

s, was

offered. It met with limited success.
Shugart Associates announced a

hard

disk

drive for per-

sonal computers. The disk stored a whopping 5 megabytes.

1981

The

iBm

PC was announced. a

pple

“welcomed” its competi-

tor in ads, but the IBM machine would soon surpass its com-
petitors as the personal computer of choice for business. Its
success is aided by a version of the VisiCalc

spreadsheet

that sells more than 200,000 copies.
Osborne introduced the

portaBle

(sort of)

computer

, a

machine with the size and weight of a heavy suitcase.
Apple tried to market the Apple III as a more powerful desk-
top computer for business, but the machine was plagued
with technical problems and did not sell well.
Digital Equipment Corporation introduced its DECmate
dedicated word-processing system.
Xerox PARC displayed the Star, a successor to the Alto with
512 kB of RAM. It was intended for use in an Ethernet

net

Work

A network called BITNET (“Because It’s Time Network”)
began to link academic institutions worldwide.
Tracy Kidder’s best-selling

The Soul of a New Machine

recounted the intense Silicon Valley working culture as seen
in the development of Data General’s latest

Workstation

the Eclipse.
Japan announced a 10-year effort to create “Fifth Generation”
computing based on application of

artificial

intelligence

1982

icrosystems

was founded. It would specialize in

high-performance

Workstations

AT&T began marketing

unix

(System III) as a commercial

product.
Compaq became one of the most successful makers of
“clones” or

iBm

PC-compatible computers, introducing a

portable (luggable) machine.
The AutoCad program brought CAD (

computer

aided

design

and

manufacturing

) to the desktop.

The

Time magazine “man of the year” was not a person at

all—it was the

personal

computer

1983

Business use of personal computers continued to grow.

Word

processing

leaders WordStar and WordPerfect were

joined by the first version of Microsoft Word. Lotus 1-2-3
became the new

spreadsheet

leader.

Borland International introduced Turbo p

ascal

, a speedy, easy

to use programming environment for personal computers.

•

Appendix II 537

An industry pundit introduced the term

vaporware to refer

to much-hyped but never-released software, such as a prod-
uct called Ovation for

iBm

PCs.

IBM tried to market the PC Jr., a less-expensive PC for home
and school users. It failed to gain a foothold in the market.
More successfully, IBM offered the PC XT, the first

per

sonal

computer

that had a built-in hard drive.

Radio Shack introduced the Model 100, the first practical
notebook computer.
a

pple

introduced the Lisa, a $10,000 computer with a

graphical

user

interface

. Its high price and slow perfor-

mance made it a flop, but its ideas would be more success-
fully implemented the following year in the m

acintosh

John Sculley became president of Apple Computer, begin-
ning a bitter struggle with Apple cofounder Steve j

oBs

Richard s

tallman

began the GNU (GNU’s not UNIX) proj-

ect to create a version of UNIX that would not be subject to
AT&T licensing.
The movie

War Games portrayed teenage

hackers

taking

control of nuclear missile facilities.

1984

A classic Super Bowl commercial introduced the a

pple

acintosh

, the computer “for the rest of us.” Based largely

on Alan k

’s earlier work at Xerox PARC, the “Mac” used

menus, icons, and a mouse instead of the cryptic text com-
mands required by MS-DOS.
Meanwhile, iBm introduced a more powerful personal com-
puter, the PC/AT with the Intel 80286 chip.
Steve j

oBs

leaves Apple Computer to found a company called

NeXT.
m

icrosoft

CEO Bill g

ates

was featured on a

Time maga-

zine cover.
The

domain

name

system

began. It allows i

nternet

users

to connect to remote machines by name without having to
specify an exact network path.
British institutions develop JANET, the Joint Academic
Network.
Science fiction writer William Gibson coined the word

cyberspace

in his novel

Neuromancer. It began a new SF

genre called

cyberpunk, featuring a harsh, violent, immer-

sive high-tech world.

1985

Desktop publishing was fueled by several developments
including John Warnock’s p

ost

cript

page description lan-

guage and the Aldus PageMaker page layout program. The
m

acintosh

’s graphical interface gave it the early lead in this

application.
m

icrosoft

indoWs

1.0 was released, using many of the

same features as the Macintosh, although not nearly as
well.
There was increasing effort to unify the two versions of

unix

(AT&T and BSD), with guidelines including the Sys-

tem V Interface Standard and POSIX.
Commodore introduces the Amiga, a machine with a sophis-
ticated

operating

system

and powerful color graphics. The

•

machine had many die-hard fans but ultimately could not
survive in the marketplace.

iBm

marketed the IBM 3090, a large, powerful

mainframe

that cost $9.3 million.
The Cray 2

supercomputer

broke the 1-billion-instruc-

tions-a-second barrier.
A

conferencing

system

called the Whole Earth ‘Lectronic

Link (WELL) was founded. Its earliest users are largely
drawn from Grateful Dead fans and assorted techies.

1986

The  National  Science  Foundation  funded  NSFNET,  which
provides  high-speed  Internet  connections  to  link  universi-
ties and research institutions.
Borland  released  a  PROLOG  compiler,  making  the

artifi

cial

intelligence

language accessible to PC users. A PC

version of s

malltalk

also appeared from another company.

pple

beefed up the relatively anemic m

acintosh

with the

Macintosh Plus, which has more

memory

1987

Bjarne s

troustrup

’s c++ language offered

oBject

oriented

programming

in a form that was palatable to the legions of

C programmers. The language would surpass its predecessor
in the coming decade.
Sun marked its first

Workstation

based on RISC (

reduced

instruction

set

computing

) technology.

pple

sold its one millionth m

acintosh

. Apple also brought

out a new line of Macs (the Macintosh SE and Macintosh II)
that, unlike the original Macs, were expandable by plugging
in cards.
Apple also introduced Hypercard, a simple

hypertext

authoring

system

that became popular with educators.

iBm

introduced a new line of personal computers called the

PS/2. It featured a more efficient BUS called the Microchan-
nel and some other innovations, but it sold only modestly.
Most of the industry continued to further develop standards
based upon the IBM PC AT.
The Thinking Machines Corporation’s Connection Machine
introduced massive parallel processing. It contained 64,000

microprocessors

that could collectively perform 2 billion

instructions per second.

1988

Robert Morris Jr.’s “worm” accidentally ran out of control on
the i

nternet

, bringing concerns about

computer

crime

and

security

to public attention. The Computer Emergency

Response Team (CERT) was formed in response.
Wolfram’s Mathematica program was a milestone in math-
ematical computing, allowing users to not merely calculate
but also to solve symbolic equations automatically.
Cray introduced the Cray Y-MP

supercomputer

. It could

process 2 billion operations per second.

iBm

announced a new midrange

mainframe

, the AS/400.

Sandia National Laboratory began to build a massively par-
allel “hypercomputer” that would have 1,024 processors
working in tandem.

•

•
•

538 Appendix II

A consortium called the Open Software Foundation was
established to promote

open

source

shared software devel-

opment.

1989

The i

nternet

now had more than 100,000 host computers.

Deep Thought defeated Danish chess grandmaster Bent
Larsen, marking the first time a grandmaster had been
defeated by a computer.
i

ntel

announced the 80486 CPU, a chip with over a million

transistors.
Astronomer Clifford s

toll

’s book

The Cuckoo’s Egg

recounted his pursuit of German hackers who were seeking
military secrets. Stoll soon became a well-known critic of
computer technology and the Internet.
The ARPANET officially ends, having been succeeded by the
NSFNET.

1990

icrosoft

indoWs

became truly successful with version

3.0, diminishing the user interface advantages of the m

acin

tosh

At s

icrosystems

, James Gosling developed the Oak lan-

guage to control

emBedded

systems

. After the original proj-

ect was canceled, Gosling redesigned the language as j

ava

iBm

announced the System/390

mainframe

iBm

and m

icrosoft

developed OS/2, an operating system

intended to replace ms-dos. Microsoft withdrew in favor of
Windows,  and  despite  considerable  technical  merits,  OS/2
never really takes hold.
Secret Service agents raided computer systems and bulletin
boards,  seeking  evidence  of  illegal  copying  of  a  BellSouth
manual, disrupting an innocent game company. In response,
Mitch  Kapor  founded  the  Electronic  Frontier  Foundation
to  advocate  for  civil  liberties  of  computer  users.  Another
group, the Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility,
filed  a  Freedom  of  Information  Act  (FOIA)  request  for  FBI
records involving alleged government surveillance of

Bulle

tin

Board

systems

1991

The Science Museum in London exhibited a reconstruction
of Charles B

aBBage

’s never-built difference engine.

A Finnish student named Linus t

orvalds

found that he

couldn’t afford a

unix

license, so he wrote his own

unix

kernel

and combined it with GNU utilities. The result

would eventually become the popular l

inux

operating

system.
Developers at the University of Minnesota created Gopher,
a system for providing documents over the i

nternet

using

linked menus. However, it was soon to be surpassed by the
W

orld

ide

, created by Tim B

erners

-l

at the

CERN physics laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland.
a

dvanced

icro

evices

began to compete with Intel by

making IBM PC-compatible CPU chips.
a

pple

and

iBm

signed a joint agreement to develop technol-

ogy in areas that include object-oriented

operating

sys

•

•
•

•

•
•

•

tems

, multimedia, and interoperability between m

acintosh

and IBM networks.

1992

Reports of the Michelangelo

computer

virus

frightened

computer users. Although the virus did little damage, it
spurred more users to practice “safe computing” and install
antivirus software.
m

otorola

announced the Power PC, a 32-bit RISC

micro

processor

that contains 28 million transistors.

An estimated 1 million host computers were on the i

nter

net

. The Internet Society is founded to serve as a coordina-

tor of future development of the network.

1993

pple

’s Newton handheld computer created a new cat-

egory of machine called the

pda

, or personal digital assis-

tant.
m

icrosoft

indoWs

NT was announced. It is a version of

the

operating

system

designed especially for network serv-

ers.
Steve j

oBs

announced that his NeXT company would

abandon its hardware efforts and concentrate on market-
ing its innovative

operating

system

and development

software.
Leonard Adleman demonstrated

molecular

computing

using DNA molecules to solve the Traveling Salesman prob-
lem.
The Cray 3

supercomputer

continued the evolution of that

line. It could be scaled up to a 16-processor system.
The Mosaic graphical W

BroWser

popularized the W

orld

ide

The Clinton administration announced plans to develop a
national “Information Superhighway” based on the i

nter

net

. Volunteer “Net Day” programs would begin to connect

schools to the network.
The White House established its Web site, www.whitehouse.
gov.

1994

Mosaic’s developer, Marc a

ndreessen

, left NCSA and joined

Jim Clark to found Netscape. Netscape soon released an
improved browser called Netscape Navigator.
a

pple

announced that it would license the Mac operating

system to other companies to make m

acintosh

“clones.”

Few companies would take them up on it, and Apple would
soon withdraw the licensing offer.
i

ntel

orporation

was forced to recall millions of dollars

worth of its new Pentium

chip

s when a mathematical flaw

was discovered in the floating-point routines.
Marc Andreessen and Jim Clark founded Netscape and
developed a new W

BroWser

, Netscape Navigator. It

would become the leading Web browser for several years.
Red Hat released a commercial distribution of l

inux

1.0.

Search engines such as Lycos and Alta Vista started help-
ing users find Web pages. Meanwhile, a graduate student
named Jerry Yang started compiling an online list of his

•

•
•

Appendix II 539

favorite Web sites. That list would eventually become
y

ahoo

Advertising in the form of banner ads began to appear on
Web sites.

1995

icrosoft

indoWs

95 gave a new look to the operating

system and provided better support for devices, including

plug

and

play

device configuration.

icrosoft

began its own on-line service, the Microsoft

Network (MSN). Despite its startup icon being placed on
the Windows 95 desktop, the network would trail industry
leader a

merica

nline

, which had overtaken CompuServe

and Prodigy.
Jeff B

eZos

’s online bookstore, Amazon.com, opened for busi-

ness. It would become the largest e-commerce retailer.
The major online services began major promotion of access
to the W

orld

ide

NSFNET retired from direct operation of the i

nternet

which had now been fully privatized. The agency then
focused on providing new

BroadBand

connections between

supercomputer

sites.

announced the j

ava

language. It would become one of

the most popular languages for developing applications for
the World Wide Web.
m

otorola

announced the Power PC-602, a 64-bit

cpu

chip.

Compaq ranked first in personal computer sales in the
United States, followed by a

pple

Physicists  Peter  Fromherz  and  Alfred  Stett  of  the  Max
Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Munich, Germany, dem-
onstrated  the  direct  stimulation  of  a  specific  nerve  cell  in
a  leech  by  a  computer  probe.  This  conjured  visions  of  the
“jacked-in” neural implants foreseen by science fiction writ-
ers such as William Gibson.
The  next  generation  of  Cray

supercomputer

s, the T90

series, could be scaled up to a rate of 60 billion instructions
per second.

streaming

(real-time video and audio) began to become

popular on the W

Computer-generated imagery (CGI) was featured by Holly-
wood in the movie

Toy Story.

1996

A product called Web TV attempted to bring the W

orld

ide

to home consumers without the complexity of

full-fledged computers. The product achieved only modest
success as the price of

personal

computer

s continued to

decline.
The U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp honoring the 50th
anniversary of ENIAC.
The Boston Computer Society, one of the oldest

computer

user

groups

, disbanded.

World chess champion Garry Kasparov won his first match
against iBm’s Deep Blue chess computer, but said the match
had been unexpectedly tough.
y

ahoo

! offered its stock to the public, running up the sec-

ond-highest first-day gain in NASDAQ history.

•

•
•

•

Seymour c

ray

’s Cray Research (a developer of

supercom

puter

s) was acquired by Silicon Graphics.

Pierre o

midyar

turned a small hobby auction site into

and was soon attracting thousands of eager sellers and buy-
ers to the site.
In one of its infrequent ventures into hardware, m

icrosoft

announced the NetPC, a stripped-down diskless PC that
would run software from a

netWork

. Such “network com-

puters” never really caught on, being overtaken by the ever-
declining price for complete PCs.

1997

The chess world was shocked when world champion Garry
Kasparov was defeated in a rematch with Deep Blue.
A single i

nternet

domain name, business.com, was sold for

$150,000.
a

maZon

com

had a successful initial public offering (IPO).

A technology called “push” began to be hyped. It involved
Web sites continually feeding “channels” of news or enter-
tainment to user’s desktops. However, the idea would fail to
make much headway.
i

nternet

users banded together to demonstrate

distriB

uted

computing

by cracking a 56-bit DES cipher in 140

days.
The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) cele-
brated its 50th anniversary.

1998

icrosoft

indoWs

98 provided an incremental improve-

ment in the

operating

system

pple

announced the iMac, a stylish machine that rejuve-

nated the m

acintosh

line.

’s IPO was wildly successful, making Pierre o

midyar

Meg Whitman, and other eBay executives instant million-
aires.
Merger-mania hit the online service industry, with a

merica

nline

buying CompuServe’s online service (spinning off

the network facilities to WorldCom). AOL then acquired
Netscape and its Web hosting technology.
In another significant merger, Compaq acquired Digital
Equipment Corporation (DEC).

1999

Federal Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson found that m

icro

soft

violated antitrust laws. The case dragged on with

appeals,  with  the  process  of  crafting  a  remedy  (such  as
possibly  the  split-up  of  the  company)  still  unresolved  in
2002.
Another virus, Melissa, panicked computer users.
Some  companies  began  to  offer  “free”  computers  to  people
who  agreed  to  sign  up  for  long-term,  relatively  expensive
i

nternet

service.

Computer scientists and industry pundits debated the possi-
bility of widespread computer disasters due to the

proB

lem

. Companies spent millions of dollars trying to find and

fix old computer code that used only two digits to store year
dates.

•

•
•

•

•
•

•

540 Appendix II

pple

released

, a new

unix

-based

operating

system

for the m

acintosh

2000

New Year’s Day found the world to be continuing much as
before, with only a few scattered

proBlems

Unknown  hackers,  however,  brought  down  some  commer-
cial Web sites with denial-of-service (DOS) attacks.
AOL  merged  with  Time-Warner,  creating  the  world’s  larg-
est  media  company.  Critics  worried  about  the  affects  of
growing  corporate  concentration  on  the  diversity  of  the
i

nternet

icrosoft

indoWs

2000 began the process of merging

the consumer Windows and Windows NT lines into a single
family of operating systems that would no longer use any of
the underlying

dos

code.

The W

orld

ide

was estimated to have about 1 bil-

lion pages online.
Tech stocks (and particularly

commerce

companies)

began to sharply decline as investors became increasingly
skeptical about profitability.
A growing number of Web users were beginning to switch
to much faster

BroadBand

connections using

dsl

caBle

modems

2001

The decline in

commerce

stocks continued, with tens of

thousands of jobs lost. One of the many failures was Web-
van, the i

nternet

grocery service. a

maZon

com

suffered

losses but continued trying to expand into profitable niches.
Only

among the major e-commerce companies contin-

ued to be profitable.
m

icrosoft

indoWs

XP offered consumer and “profes-

sional” versions of Windows on the same code base.

iBm

researchers created a seven “qubit” quantum computer

to execute Shor’s algorithm, a radical approach to factoring
that could potentially revolutionize cryptography.
Among the specters raised in the wake of the September 11
terrorist attacks was

cyBerterrorism

having the potential

to disrupt vital infrastructure, services, and the economy.

Biometrics

and more sophisticated database techniques

were enlisted in the war on terrorism while civil liberties
groups voiced concerns.

2002

Wireless  networking  using  the  faster  802.11  standard
became  increasingly  popular  as  an  alternative  to  cabled  or
phone line networks for homes and small offices.
Consumer digital cameras began to approach “professional”
quality.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that “virtual” child pornogra-
phy (in which no actual children were used) was protected
by the First Amendment.
Continuing  stock  market  declines  threaten  growth  in  the
computer and i

nternet

sectors.

The music-sharing service Napster goes out of business,
when it is forced to stop distributing copyrighted music.

•

2003

The  U.S.  economy  begins  to  recover,  including  the  tech-
nology sector. However, there is a growing concern about
jobs  being  “outsourced”  to  countries  such  as  India  and
China.
Weblogs,  or

Blogs

, are an increasingly popular form of

online expression. Some journalists even use them to
“break” major stories.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) files
hundreds of lawsuits against individual users of music file-
sharing systems.
a

pple

and AMD introduce the first 64-bit microprocessors

in the

personal

computer

market.

2004

Security remains an urgent concern as viruses and worms
flood the i

nternet

in vast numbers.

spam

also floods users’

mail

boxes.

phishing

messages

trick users into revealing credit card numbers and other
sensitive information.
a

pple

’s iPod dominates the portable media player market,

while its iTunes store sells over 100 million songs.
Bloggers become a political force, winning access to major
party conventions.
Enthusiastic response to g

oogle

’s initial public stock offer-

ing signals that investors may have regained confidence in
the strength of the i

nternet

sector.

2005

“W

2.0” becomes a buzzword with W

services

being

designed to be leveraged into new applications to be deliv-
ered to users’ browsers.
s

ony

’s flawed CD copy protection leaves users vulnerable to

hackers

; consumers increasingly demand an end to restric-

tions on use of media they buy.
Concerns about the security of new

electronic

voting

systems

grow.

2006

pple

begins selling i

ntel

-based Macs; meanwhile most

PCs now have dual processors.
g

oogle

buys the phenomenally successful video site y

uBe

for $1.65 billion.

icrosoft

releases its delayed Windows Vista operating

system, but response is lukewarm.
New versions of l

inux

such as Ubuntu attract enthusiasts,

but are slow in making inroads on the desktop.

2007

social

netWorking

sites such as MySpace and FaceBook

are used by millions of students, but raise concerns about
privacy and bullying.
W

ikipedia

now has more than 9 million articles in 252 lan-

guages.
CNN and y

uBe

join to sponsor presidential political

debates, and candidates respond to questions posed in vid-
eos submitted by the public.

•