First Cray Supercomputer Shipped

Cray-1March 4, 1977

The first Cray-1 supercomputer is shipped to the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. This supercomputer, which cost nineteen million dollars, will be used to design sophisticated weapons systems. The system is a cylindrical tower seven feet tall, nine feet in diameter, and weighs about 5.5 tons. The machine produced so much heat that it required a built-in freon-based refrigeration system. It required its own electrical substation to power it, at a cost of about US$35,000 a month.

Michael Dell Steps Down as CEO

Michael DellMarch 3, 2004

Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell Computers, announces that he will step down from his his CEO role while retaining his position as Chairman of the Board. Dell president and COO, Kevin Rollins will assume his role. On January 31, 2007, (about 1 year after Dell fell behind Apple in market capitalization) Rollins will resign and Dell will resume his role as CEO due to the poor performance of the company.

 

On The First Day …

Apple I AdMarch 1, 1976

Steve Wozniak completes the basic design for the circuit board of a (relatively) easy-to-use personal computer. The next day he shows it to the Homebrew Computer Club, which Steve Jobs attends. Jobs realizes the potential and convinces Wozniak not to give away the schematics but instead produce printed circuit boards to sell. The two Steves form a company, which they name Apple, and Wozniak’s design becomes the basis of the Apple I computer. The rest, as they say, is history.

 

V.92 Introduced

ModemFebruary 27, 2001

US Robotics introduces the V.92 modem standard. Given that broadband Internet had begun to take significant hold and that supporting V.92 required ISPs to upgrade their infrastructure, V.92 never really made much of an impact in the marketplace.

 

First Warrant to Search Computer Data

Computer CrimeFebruary 19, 1971

The first warrant is issued to search a computer’s storage. The warrant allowed the searching of:

  1. Key Punch Computer Cards, punched with a proprietary remote plotting program
  2. Computer Printout sheets of a proprietary remote plotting program
  3. Computer memory bank and other data storage devices magnetically imprinted with the proprietary computer program.

This event would lead to increasingly sophisticated methods of encryption to hide computer files from law enforcement agents.

Windows 2000 Introduced

Windows 2000February 17, 2000

Microsoft introduces the latest version of the Windows NT line of operating systems, Windows 2000. While Windows 2000 did bring plug and play to the Windows NT line, it was targeted to the business market and not the consumer. It was not until Windows XP that Microsoft merged the NT line with the Windows 95/98 line. Unfortunately, Microsoft unleashed Windows ME upon unsuspecting consumers in the meantime. Sigh.

IBM Portable PC Introduced

IBM Portable PCFebruary 16, 1984

IBM introduces the IBM Portable Personal Computer, an early portable computer. It featured a 4.77MHz Intel 8088 processor, 256KB RAM, a 9 inch amber monitor, a 5.25″ floppy drive, and the DOS 2.1 operating system. It weighed 30 pounds and cost $2,795. Try setting that on your lap.

The First BBS Goes Live

CBBSFebruary 16, 1978

The first computer bulletin board system is created (CBBS in Chicago, Illinois). BBS systems were where a lot of us were first introduced to the concept of e-mail, years before the Internet went mainstream. OK, maybe not “a lot” of us. Just the geeky ones. In the time before computers were cool. Computers are cool now, aren’t they?

Windows Refund Day

Windows Refund Day T-ShirtFebruary 15, 1999

Hundreds of computer owners (dominated by Linux users) march on Microsoft’s offices demanding refunds for the copies of Windows that came pre-installed on their computers. This day came to be known as Windows Refund Day.

ENIAC Dedicated

ENIACFebruary 15, 1946

ENIAC, the first general purpose electronic computer, was formally dedicated at the University of Pennsylvania. It was one thousand times faster than electro-mechanical computing machines of the time, an increase in computing power that no machine has since matched.