Computers

December 19, 1974

Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems, otherwise known as MITS, begins selling the Altair 8800 microcomputer kit. As the base computer used toggle switches for input and LEDs for output, it was far from a personal computer as we know it today. However, it is one of the most important computers in history, for it inspired the first generation of entrepreneurs that created the personal computer industry. After the Altair 8800 appeared on the cover of Popular Electronics magazine in December of 1974 for the January 1975 issue, MITS was flooded with orders. Expecting to sell at most 800 units, MITS sold over 5,000 units by August of 1975. A young Bill Gates and Paul Allen, excited by the possibility of small computers that could be used in the home, wrote the BASIC programming language for the Altair, their first software product which formed the basis of their future company, Microsoft. The Altair was also popular with the Homebrew Computing Club, where Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs began their partnership selling their own computer kit, the Apple I.

December 9, 1987

The Christmas Tree Worm begins to affect IBM mainframe computers around the world. The worm was delivered by e-mail and drew a Christmas tree text graphic on the user’s monitor and searched out other network users to e-mail. Named CHRISTMA EXEC because IBM systems only supported eight-character filenames, it was the world’s first widely disruptive computer worm. While the worm was not intentionally destructive, the volume of e-mails it created could disrupt a user’s work and began to overload e-mail systems. It reached IBM’s VNet e-mail network on December 15th and two days later had crippled it to the point they had to shut it down to eradicate the worm.

December 9, 1968

Douglas Englebart and his team of researchers present a 90-minute public technology demonstration including such innovations as hypertext, video conferencing, and most famously, the computer mouse. This is the first public demonstration of the mouse, witnessed by about 1,000 computer professionals in attendance.

November 30, 1959

IBM delivers the first two IBM 7090 mainframe computers. One of the first commercially produced fully-transistorized computers, the 7090 and the later 7094 were notable for being used by NASA to control the Mercury and Gemini space flights along with many other significant scientific and government applications in the 1960’s. Some 7090’s were even used through the 1970’s into the 1980’s.

November 29, 1974

The January Issue of Popular Electronics is published, featuring the MITS Altair 8800 microcomputer kit on its cover. The magazine would begin arriving on newsstands and to subscribers in the first part of December. The Altair 8800 itself would begin shipping on December 19th. The visibility that the Altair received helped make it an extremely popular computer for its time, as MITS forecasted selling 800 computers over the course of one year and ended up selling 5,000 units by August. As the magazine started reaching readers, MITS was flooded with inquires and orders for the Altair to the point where they had to hire more people just to answer their phones. The success of the Altair helped popularize the concept of the microcomputer, which then inspired early technology innovators such as Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs who created the Apple I personal computer, as well as Microsoft founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen who wrote software for the Altair and other early micro and personal computers.

The story behind the collaboration of MITS and Popular Electronics for this particular issue is interesting. The recently hired editor of the magazine wanted more computer projects to be featured yet knew that existing microcomputer projects of the time were somewhat daunting for hobbyists to complete. They were looking for something that was a complete kit in a professional-looking enclosure. Another editor knew that MITS was working on a project that could fit their need and collaborated with them to have the kit ready for the January issue publication. While the first prototype was ready in October and was shipped to Popular Electronics, it never reached them due to either a strike by the shipping company or simply being lost or stolen (the story varies depending on the source). The article was actually written using pictures of an empty mock-up of the Altair and a prototype circuit board layout that was different than the finished product. Additionally, MITS left the naming of the microcomputer kit to the magazine. One of the editors claims that the inspiration for the name came from this 12-year old daughter who suggested calling it Altair after the location where the Star Trek Enterprise would be traveling in that night’s episode. However, other sources claim it was a technical editor of the magazine who came up with Altair when it was suggested the computer be named after a star. Whatever the truth is, the Altair 8800 was one of the most important computers in technology history and we all owe a great deal to this particular magazine issue for publicizing it.

November 17, 1970

Douglas Engelbart receives US patent 3,541,541 for his “X-Y Position Indicator For A Display System”, more commonly known as the computer mouse. Engelbart called his device a “mouse” because the cord looked like a tail. The mouse was first prototyped in 1964, but wasn’t demoed until 1968, and was not included with a commercial computer until the Xerox 8010 Star Information System in 1981. Apple first brought the mouse to a personal computer with the Lisa in 1983. However the mouse did not become ubiquitous until after 1984, when Apple’s Macintosh popularized the device.

The prototype of the first mouse

November 15, 1971

An advertisement in the magazine Electronic News announces the Intel 4004, the first commercially available microprocessor. The 4004 was primarily used in calculators, the first being the Busicom 141-PF. In fact, it was Busicom that actually developed the design of what would become the Intel 4004. Busicom approached Intel to help them finalize the design and manufacture their “calculator engine”. Intel’s engineers reduced the 12 integrated circuit design Busicom had come up with to 4 ICs and delivered the finished product in January 1971. Busicom had exclusive rights to that design until later in that year, when Busicom and Intel renegotiated their contract with Intel lowering their prices to Busicom in exchange for rights to the design of the microprocessor.

By offering the first general-purpose programmable processor to the general market, Intel spurred the rapid development of electronic devices in the 1970s, culminating in the development of personal computers during that decade. However, Intel wasn’t the clear leader in the microprocessor market until the IBM PC and clones helped catapult Intel to that title in the 1980’s.