THE TI-99 HOME COMPUTER TIMELINE
Bill Gaskill
Bill Gaskill
1993 marks the 10th anniversary of the decision by Texas Instruments to abandon the Home Computer. I have compiled the information in this timeline not in celebration of TI's decision to orphan the 99/4A, but rather to honor the community that remains ten years after TI's decision. I hope you enjoy the reading.
THE BIRTH OF THE MICROCOMPUTER INDUSTRY
1947: Bell Labs engineers John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley invent the transistor, which paves the way for the creation of smaller computers.
1955: IBM becomes the first computer manufacturer to offer plug-in peripherals for their computers. Although the computers are of the mainframe type, the concept will catch on and become an integral part of microcomputer technology.
1959: Texas Instruments releases the first integrated circuit after its engineers figure out how to put more than one transistor on the same material and connect them without wires.
1964: John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz develop the BASIC programming language at Dartmouth College. BASIC will become a mainstay in the microcomputer world.
1969: Intel, then a one-year old company, releases a 1K-bit RAM chip, which is the largest amount of RAM ever put on an integrated circuit up to that time.
1972: Intel introduces the 8008 chip in April 1972. It becomes the first 8-bit microprocessor to hit the market.
- Nolan Bushnell founds Atari and ships the Pong game.
1973: The first "mini" floppy disk is introduced.
1974: Intel introduces the 8080 chip in April 1974. The 8080 is the first microprocessor capable of addressing 64K bytes of memory.
-Texas Instruments releases the TMS 1000 4-bit chip. It becomes an immediate success as over 100 million are sold for use in video games, microwave ovens, calculators and other electronics products.
- In an article appearing in the July 1974 issue of Radio Electronics, author Jonathan Titus tells readers how to build the Mark 8 "personal minicomputer."
- Motorola begins work on the M6800 chip, designed by Chuck Peddle. Peddle would later leave Motorola to join MOS Technology, the creators of the 6502 chip. Peddle ultimately became Commodore's Systems Division Director, responsible for the release of the PET 2001 in October 1977, after Commodore acquired MOS Technology in order to have its own chip source.
- Naval Post-graduate School instructor Gary Kildall creates a new operating system for Intel's 8080 microprocessor called CP/M, an acronym for Control Program for Microcomputers. It sells for $70.
- Creative Computing magazine is founded by David H. Ahl in Morristown New Jersey.
THE BIRTH OF THE MICROCOMPUTER INDUSTRY
1947: Bell Labs engineers John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley invent the transistor, which paves the way for the creation of smaller computers.
1955: IBM becomes the first computer manufacturer to offer plug-in peripherals for their computers. Although the computers are of the mainframe type, the concept will catch on and become an integral part of microcomputer technology.
1959: Texas Instruments releases the first integrated circuit after its engineers figure out how to put more than one transistor on the same material and connect them without wires.
1964: John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz develop the BASIC programming language at Dartmouth College. BASIC will become a mainstay in the microcomputer world.
1969: Intel, then a one-year old company, releases a 1K-bit RAM chip, which is the largest amount of RAM ever put on an integrated circuit up to that time.
1972: Intel introduces the 8008 chip in April 1972. It becomes the first 8-bit microprocessor to hit the market.
- Nolan Bushnell founds Atari and ships the Pong game.
1973: The first "mini" floppy disk is introduced.
1974: Intel introduces the 8080 chip in April 1974. The 8080 is the first microprocessor capable of addressing 64K bytes of memory.
-Texas Instruments releases the TMS 1000 4-bit chip. It becomes an immediate success as over 100 million are sold for use in video games, microwave ovens, calculators and other electronics products.
- In an article appearing in the July 1974 issue of Radio Electronics, author Jonathan Titus tells readers how to build the Mark 8 "personal minicomputer."
- Motorola begins work on the M6800 chip, designed by Chuck Peddle. Peddle would later leave Motorola to join MOS Technology, the creators of the 6502 chip. Peddle ultimately became Commodore's Systems Division Director, responsible for the release of the PET 2001 in October 1977, after Commodore acquired MOS Technology in order to have its own chip source.
- Naval Post-graduate School instructor Gary Kildall creates a new operating system for Intel's 8080 microprocessor called CP/M, an acronym for Control Program for Microcomputers. It sells for $70.
- Creative Computing magazine is founded by David H. Ahl in Morristown New Jersey.
1978: The Plato computer aided instruction system is developed at the University of Illinois. Control Data Corporation would license these applications to Texas Instruments late in 1983, but by then, the fate of the Home Computer was already sealed.
- Machine and operating system independent UCSD Pascal is released by the Regents of the University of California at San Diego for $200.
- In March, Texas Instruments begins trying to recruit personal computer specialists by running full page ads entitled "Your Experience with personal computers is going to open an unlimited career at TI." in trade publications. The ads seek qualified applicants for Personal Computer Product Marketing Managers, Systems Programmers, Digital Design Engineers, Product Design Engineers, Application Software Specialists and Marketing Support Engineers. The recruitment efforts are largely unsuccessful when potential applicants discover the job is in Lubbock, Texas rather than close to the center of the microcomputer industry, which is northern California's Silicon Valley, situated only an hour's drive from San Francisco.
- In April, Texas Instruments releases a recreational Solid State Software Leisure Library module for the TI58 and 59 programmable calculators, coining and trademarking the term Solid State Software.
- Intel introduces the 8086 microprocessor.
- In August MICROpro releases Seymour Rubenstein's Word-Master word processor, which is the predecessor to WordStar.
- Illinois residents Ward Christensen and Randy Suess create the first microcomputer bulletin board system, conceived, designed, built, programmed, tested and installed in the 30 day period between January 16th and February 16th 1978.
- The $895 Exidy Sorcerer is released in October by Exidy Computers of Sunnyvale, California. The machine sports 8K RAM, a 64 column by 30 row screen and the ability to use plug-in modules which are the size of 8-track tapes. The Sorcerer appears to be the first "Home Computer" to support ROM cartridge use.
- In December Axiom Corporation introduces the EX-801 printer and EX-820 printer/plotter for $495 and $795 respectively. Both have available interfaces for the Apple II, TRS-80, PET and Exidy personal computers.
- Epson introduces the MX-80 dot matrix printer, shocking the industry with its low price and high performance.
- Over 14 million microprocessors are manufactured by year's end, with the 8-bit 6502 chip and TI's 4-bit TMS 1000 chip leading the pack.
JAN 1979: Double sided disk drives are announced but few are available as manufacturers run into difficulty gearing up for production.
FEB 1979: Rumors begin to fly about TI's new personal computer, despite the fact that it has not been formally announced. The rumors say the computer will have 40K of ROM, it will generate 20 lines of 40 characters on a standard television, have provisions for accommodating video disk players and video tape recorders, and it will have support for sophisticated sound production.
- Machine and operating system independent UCSD Pascal is released by the Regents of the University of California at San Diego for $200.
- In March, Texas Instruments begins trying to recruit personal computer specialists by running full page ads entitled "Your Experience with personal computers is going to open an unlimited career at TI." in trade publications. The ads seek qualified applicants for Personal Computer Product Marketing Managers, Systems Programmers, Digital Design Engineers, Product Design Engineers, Application Software Specialists and Marketing Support Engineers. The recruitment efforts are largely unsuccessful when potential applicants discover the job is in Lubbock, Texas rather than close to the center of the microcomputer industry, which is northern California's Silicon Valley, situated only an hour's drive from San Francisco.
- In April, Texas Instruments releases a recreational Solid State Software Leisure Library module for the TI58 and 59 programmable calculators, coining and trademarking the term Solid State Software.
- Intel introduces the 8086 microprocessor.
- In August MICROpro releases Seymour Rubenstein's Word-Master word processor, which is the predecessor to WordStar.
- Illinois residents Ward Christensen and Randy Suess create the first microcomputer bulletin board system, conceived, designed, built, programmed, tested and installed in the 30 day period between January 16th and February 16th 1978.
- The $895 Exidy Sorcerer is released in October by Exidy Computers of Sunnyvale, California. The machine sports 8K RAM, a 64 column by 30 row screen and the ability to use plug-in modules which are the size of 8-track tapes. The Sorcerer appears to be the first "Home Computer" to support ROM cartridge use.
- In December Axiom Corporation introduces the EX-801 printer and EX-820 printer/plotter for $495 and $795 respectively. Both have available interfaces for the Apple II, TRS-80, PET and Exidy personal computers.
- Epson introduces the MX-80 dot matrix printer, shocking the industry with its low price and high performance.
- Over 14 million microprocessors are manufactured by year's end, with the 8-bit 6502 chip and TI's 4-bit TMS 1000 chip leading the pack.
JAN 1979: Double sided disk drives are announced but few are available as manufacturers run into difficulty gearing up for production.
FEB 1979: Rumors begin to fly about TI's new personal computer, despite the fact that it has not been formally announced. The rumors say the computer will have 40K of ROM, it will generate 20 lines of 40 characters on a standard television, have provisions for accommodating video disk players and video tape recorders, and it will have support for sophisticated sound production.
2. a regional bank might decide to buy six server instead of one supercomputer fo two reasons:
1. because a super computer isonly use in major company and the regional bank need many computer for there employees to help people who are in need of services and to shorten there work.
2.A regional bank need six server computer rather than a supercomputer because a supercomputer is only one computer rather than a six server computer that many employee of the bank can use.
No comments:
Post a Comment