A Micro History


1946 – The Trackball invented, patented 1947.

1964 – John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz designed the original BASIC language at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.

1969 – Unix development started at Bell labs by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas Mcllroy and Joe Ossanna.

1970 November – The mouse patented

1971 – Intel 4004 The first microprocessor 4-bit

1972 – C development started on the PDP-11 Unix system

1972 – Intel 8008 8-bit microprocessor

1973-74 – Gary Kildall developed CP/M (Control Program/Monitor)

1974 April – Intel 8080 microprocessor

1974 – Motorola MC6800 8-bit Microprocessor

1974 – National Semiconductor SC/MP

1975 -MOS Technology 6502 8 bit microprocessor

1975 September – BYTE magazine first published in the USA

1975 – MITS Altair 8800, Intel 8080 at 2MHz, 256bytes memory, input/output toggle switches and LED’s.

1976 January – First issue of Dr Dobb’s journal

1976 April – Apple 1 personal computer $666.66

1976 – RCA CDP1802

1976 – KIM-1 6502 based single board computer designed by Chuck Peddle.

1976 – Zilog Z80 microprocessor

1977 January – Commodore PET 2001 announced at the winter CES

1977 – Xerox 9700 the first laser printer released

1977 – BSD initial release of the “Berkeley Software Distribution”

1977 – Apple II, 8-bit home computer using a 6502 at 1MHz

1977 – Tandy TRS-80 Model 1, Zilog Z80 at 1.774MHz, 4KB RAM

1977 – Science of Cambridge MK14, Nat Semi SC/MP CPU

1977 December – Nascom 1,

1978 February – Personal Computer World, First British computer magazine to be launched.

1978 – Visicalc the first spreadsheet program

1978 – Intel 8086 16-bit microprocessor released

1978 – Motorola 6809 8-bit microprocessor

1978 – Exidy Sorcerer, Z80 CPU

1978 August – Practical Computing, second British computer magazine to be launched.

1978 November – Transam Triton, intel 8080, 3KB RAM, 1KB video RAM

1978 – AIM-65 by Rockwell, 6502 CPU with till role printer

1978 – Commodore Pet,

1979 – Zilog Z8000 16-bit microprocessor

1979 – Intel 8088 16-bit microprocessor with an external 8 bit bus released

1979 – Motorola 68000 16/32-bit microprocessor

1979 – Microtan 65

1979 – Nascom 1 discontinued

1979 December – Nascom 2 launched

1980 – Sinclair ZX-80, Z80 at 3.25 MHz

1980 – Atari 400/800

1980 – Acorn Computers Atom, 6502 at 1MHz, 2KB memory expandable to 12KB’s.

1980 – Sharp MZ80K, Zilog Z80 at 2MHz, 24KB memory, 10 inch screen and cassette drive.

1981 March – Sinclair ZX-81, Zilog Z80 at 3.25 MHz

1981 August – MSDOS initial release by Microsoft

1981 – IBM PC,

1982 – Motorola MC68010 16/32-bit microprocessor

1982 February – Intel 80286 16-bit microprocessor

1982 – Acorn Computers BBC Model A & B,

1982 – Jupiter Ace,

1983 – Nascom 2 discontinued

1983 – Apple Lisa

1983 – IBM XT,

1983 – Memotech MTX500

1983 – Tangerine Oric-1, 6502 at 1MHz, 16KB RAM

1983 – Grundy NewBrain, Zilog Z80 at 4MHz, 16KB RAM

1983 September – GNU announced by Richard Stallman, a wholly free operating system.

1984 – Motorola 68020 32-bit microprocessor

1984 – Apple Macintosh , Motorola 68000 CPU at 8MHz, 9 inch 512×342 pixel monochrome display, 3.5 inch floppy drive and 128KB of memory.

1984 – Tatung Einstein, Z80 at 4MHz, 64Kbytes RAM & 16Kbytes video memory.

1984 – Sinclair QL, Motorola 68008 at 7.5MHz, 128KB RAM expandable to 640KB and 32KB main memory dedicated to driving a display at 512×256 in four colours or 256×256 in eight with UHF or RGB video out.

1985 February – GEM Desktop 1.0 from Digital Research Inc. released

1985 September – Amstrad PCW, Z80 CPU, 256Kbyte of RAM

1985 November – Windows 1.0 initial release by Microsoft

1985 – Intel 80386 32-bit microprocessor

1985 – Atari 520ST, Motorola 68000 at 8MHz, 512KB of RAM, 3.5 inch floppy drive, TOS & GEM desktop.

1986 – Amstrad PC1512,

1986 – Apple Mac Plus,

1987 – Practical Computing final issue

1987 May – GCC the GNU Compiler Collection initial release

1987 – Archimedes

1987 – Motorola 68030 32-bit microprocessor

1987 – Apple Mac SE,

1987 December – Windows 2.0

1988 May – Windows 2.1

1988 – Computer Shopper a UK magazine first published

1988 – Amstrad PPC640D Laptop, Intel 8086 at 8MHz, 512KB RAM

1989 – Intel 80486 32-bit microprocessor

1990 May – Windows 3.0

1990 – Motorola 68040 32-bit microprocessor

1991 October – The Linux Kernel first released by Linus Torvalds

1992 May – Windows 3.1

1993 – Intel Pentium P5 64-bit microprocessor

1993 – NetBSD initial release

1993 – Mosaic browser

1993 November – FreeBSD 1.0 initial release

1994 – Motorola 68060 32-bit Microprocessor

1995 August – Windows 95

1995 -Intel Pentium Pro P6 64-bit microprocessor

1996 October – OpenBSD initial release

1997

1998 25th June – Microsoft Windows 98 launch

1998 – Amstrad PCW discontinued

1998 August – Apple iMac G3

1999

2000 September – Windows ME

2001 October – Windows XP

2002 January – Apple iMac G4

2003 June – Power Mac G5

2004 August – Apple iMac G5

2005

2006 January – Apple iMac, Intel, plastic case

2006 – MacBook Pro

2006 August – Mac Pro, Intel processor

2006 November – Windows Vista

2007 August – Apple iMac Intel CPUS, aluminium case

2008 – MacBook Air

2009 June – Personal Computer World final issue

2009 July – Windows 7

2009 October – Apple iMac, Intel, aluminium unibody

2010

2011

2012 October – Windows 8

2012 November – Apple iMac, Intel, slim aluminium unibody

2013 – New Mac Pro

2014 October- Apple 27″ iMac 5K released

2015