-
The Microprocessor
-Intel 4004, the world's first microprocessor is released. This small chip (~ the size of a thumbnail) made it possible to integrate computers into everyday devices. Everything around us is a computer- from phones, to kitchen appliances, to doorbells.
-The 4004 is considered small even today. It was built on 2-inch wafers compared to today's 12-inch wafers.
-It wasn't very powerful though, as it could only represent signed numbers in the range -8 to +7. (A modern 64-bit holds 1.8×10^19 values). -
The Cell Phone
-The first cell phone was demonstrated by Motorola. At the time, cellular technology was being developed by AT&T, but only with cars in mind. However, an engineer named Martin Cooper envisioned the mobile phone as a way for persons to communicate "unfettered by the infamous copper wire."
-The first cell phone weighed 2.5 pounds and was 11 inches tall.
-Cell phones allow users to talk/text with anyone from anywhere. This technology changed us culturally, as most people now communicate via cell. -
The Internet
-All ARPANET hosts convert to TCP/IP, and the internet as we know it is born. TCP/IP allows open architecture networking.
-The concept was originally intended as part of a packet radio program, but became a program in it's own right. The program was called "Internetting."
-One of the initial ideas was to have black boxes connect the networks. These would later be known as gateways and routers. -
The Macintosh
-Apple releases it's first commercially successful computer with a graphical user interface. This paved the way for personal computers, since other computers used a command-line interface and were not user-friendly.
-The first Macintosh board had only 64KB of RAM and supported a 256×256 pixel black-and-white bitmap display.
-It came bundled with two applications: MacWrite and MacPaint. And since the Mac was designed entirely around the GUI, there was an initial lack of software. -
World Wide Web
-The first web browser is completed on a NeXT computer on Christmas. The World Wide Web allows users to view web pages and traverse hyperlinks, as well as retrieve text, images, video, and practically anything that can be digitized. We now have a world of information at our fingertips.
-http://info.cern.ch was the address of the world's first website and web server, which ran on a NeXT computer at CERN.
-Before search engines, searches were made using keywords to access existing info. -
Wireless Networks
-The idea for public-access wireless local area networks is introduced at the NetWorld+Interop conference in San Francisco by Henrik Sjödin. Sjödin did not coin the term "hotsposts," but he did introduce the idea of these internet access points, which allow users to connect from anywhere (so long as there is signal).
-There are security concerns with hotspots though, and a free public hotspot set up by identity thieves or other malicious individuals is known as a "poisoned/rogue hotspot." -
Sources
The Microprocessor
www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/history/museum-story-of-intel-4004.html
The Microprocessor
www.tutorialspoint.com/history-of-microprocessor
The Internet
www.internetsociety.org/internet/history-internet/brief-history-internet
The Internet
https://www.colocationamerica.com/blog/history-of-ip-address-part-2-tcp-ip
The Macintosh
https://history-computer.com/ModernComputer/Personal/Macintosh.html -
Sources Continued
Wireless Networks
https://enacademic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/530840
The Cell Phone
https://guinnessworldrecords.com/news/60at60/2015/8/1973-first-mobile-phone-call-392969
World Wide Web
https://home.cern/science/computing/birth-web/short-history-web
Other
https://en.wikipedia.org
