Software Revolution: Timeline (In 1970’s)

By: William L. Apuli II

Amdahl Corporation introduces the Amdahl 470

Gene Amdahl with 470V/6 model

 Computers

Gene Amdahl, father of the IBM System/360, starts his own company, Amdahl
Corporation, to compete with IBM in mainframe computer systems. The 470V/6 was the
company’s first product and ran the same software as IBM System/370 computers but
cost less and was smaller and faster.
Banking Automation Reaches the Customer

Tittle the Teller, Wells Fargo Bank

 Networking & The Web

The ERMA system had revolutionized behind-the-scenes check processing in the

1950s, spawning the funny letters still at the bottom of checks today. During the 1960s
researchers in various countries have been working on bringing automation – and
online transactions – to customers in the form of an Automated Teller Machine (ATM).
Barclay’s Bank in the UK has likely been the first to put one in operation, in 1967. By
decade’s end many systems are up or being planned in Europe and North America. The
paper used by some of the first ATMs is slightly radioactive, to be machine readable.
The 1970s will also see rapid growth in behind-the-scenes financial transaction
networks, like SWIFT for wire transfers.

First IBM computer to use semiconductor memory

IC memory on top of core

 Memory & Storage

In a departure from using magnetic core memory technology, IBM introduces the
System 370 Model 145 mainframe computer, the company's first all-semiconductor
memory computer. The Model 145 could store an equivalent amount of data in half the
space, compared to a computer using core memory.
Pascal is introduced

Niklaus Wirth

 Software & Languages

The Pascal programming language, named after Blaise Pascal, a French physicist,
mathematician and inventor turned philosopher, is introduced by Professor Niklaus
Wirth. His aim with Pascal was to develop a programming language applicable to both
commercial and scientific applications, and which could also be used to teach
programming techniques to college students. It was closely based on ALGOL 60, which
Wirth had also helped to develop.
Shakey the robot

SRI’s Shakey

 AI Robotics

SRI International´s Shakey robot becomes the first mobile robot controlled by artificial
intelligence. Equipped with sensing devices and driven by a problem-solving program
called STRIPS, the robot found its way around the halls of SRI by applying information
about its environment to a route. Shakey used a TV camera, laser range finder, and
bump sensors to collect data, which it then transmitted to a DEC PDP-10 and PDP-15.
The computer sent commands to Shakey over a radio link. Shakey could move at a
speed of 2 meters per hour.
Software Revolution: Timeline (In 1980’s)
By: William L. Apuli II

Commodore introduces the VIC-20

Commodore VIC-20
 Computers

Commodore releases the VIC-20 home computer as the successor to the Commodore
PET personal computer. Intended to be a less expensive alternative to the PET, the
VIC-20 was highly successful, becoming the first computer to sell more than a million
units. Commodore even used Star Trek television star William Shatner in
advertisements.
Enquire

Enquire Screenshot
 Networking & The Web

In 1980 Tim Berners-Lee at the CERN physics laboratory creates Enquire, a networked
hypertext system used for project management but with far greater ambitions. It seeks
to categorize hyperlinks in a way that can be read by computers as well as people. He
later claims he hadn't been aware of earlier hypertext work at the time, so it may be an
independent reinvention. He names the program after a Victorian advice book and
encyclopedia he had loved as a child, *Enquire Within (about Everything)." Berners-Lee
will go on to invent the World Wide Web, partly based on Enquire.

 
Seagate ST506 hard disk drive

ST506 MB HDD
 Memory & Storage

Seagate Technology creates the first hard disk drive for microcomputers, the ST506.
The disk held 5 megabytes of data, five times as much as a standard floppy disk, and fit
in the space of a floppy disk drive. The hard disk drive itself was a rigid metallic platter
coated on both sides with a thin layer of magnetic material that stores digital data.

Seagate Technology grew out of a 1979 conversation between Alan Shugart and Finis
Conner, who had worked together at Memorex. The two men decided to found the
company after developing the idea of scaling down a hard disk drive to the same size as
the then-standard 5 ¼-inch floppies. Upon releasing its first product, Seagate quickly
drew such big-name customers as Apple Computer and IBM. Within a few years, it sold
4 million units.
The Sinclair ZX80 introduced

Sinclair ZX80
 Computers

This very small home computer is available in the UK as a kit for £79 or pre-assembled
for £99. Inside was a Z80 microprocessor and a built-in BASIC language interpreter.
Output was displayed on the user’s home TV screen through use of an adapter. About
50,000 were sold in Britain, primarily to hobbyists, and initially there was a long waiting
list for the system.
Software Revolution: Timeline (In 1990’s)
By: William L. Apuli II

IBM 9345 hard disk drive

“Sawmill” disk drive cutaway

 Memory & Storage

IBM's 9345 hard disk drive is introduced. Codenamed "Sawmill," it was the first hard
disk drive to use magneto-resistive heads. Magneto-resistive heads gave the 9345 an
advantage over its competitors, as the bits could be stored more densely. The first
model of this 5 ¼-inch disk drive had two 1 GB hard disk assemblies (HDAs) and the
second model had two 1.5 GB HDAs.
Intel's Touchstone Delta supercomputer system comes online

Intel Touchstone Delta Supercomputer

 Computers

Reaching 32 gigaflops (32 billion floating point operations per second), Intel’s
Touchstone Delta has 512 processors operating independently, arranged in a two-
dimensional communication “mesh.” Caltech researchers used this supercomputer
prototype for projects such as real-time processing of satellite images, and for
simulating molecular models in AIDS research. It would serve as the model for several
other significant multi-processor systems that would be among the fastest in the world.
 
Magneto-Optical Discs

Surface close-up of a Magneto-Optical disc

Memory & Storage

Magneto-Optical Discs are introduced. Housed in cartridges, they are a combination a

magnetic and optical storage, as their name suggests. They could be rewritten up to
one million times. Faster than CD/RWs and DVD-RAMs, M-O discs used lasers that
heated up the bits on the disc, after which a magnet would change the bit's polarity
according to what was being written, thereby storing the information.

Microsoft ships Windows 3.0

Windows 3.0 screenshot

 Software & Languages

Microsoft ships Windows 3.0. Compatible with DOS programs, the first successful
version of Windows finally offered good enough performance to satisfy PC users. For
the new version, Microsoft updated the interface and created a design that allowed PCs
to support large graphical applications for the first time. It also allowed multiple
programs to run simultaneously on its Intel 80386 microprocessor. Microsoft lined up a
number of other applications ahead of time that ran under Windows 3.0, including
versions of Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. As a result, PC users were exposed to
the user-friendly concepts of the Apple Macintosh, making the IBM PC more popular.

 
Photoshop is released

Photoshop 1.0 for Macintosh

 Software & Languages

Photoshop is released. Created by brothers John and Thomas Knoll, Photoshop was an
image editing program and the most popular software program published by Adobe
Systems. Thomas, while earning a PhD at the University of Michigan, had created an
early version of the program in 1987, and John saw a practical use for it as a special
effects staff member at Industrial Light & Magic. It was then used for image editing in
the “pseudopod” scene in the movie The Abyss. When Adobe saw potential in the
project they bought a license for distribution in 1989 and released the product on
February 19, 1990.

The "WorldWideWeb" is born

First Web browser-editor, 1990

 Networking & The Web

At the world’s biggest physics laboratory, CERN in Switzerland, English programmer

and physicist Tim Berners-Lee submits two proposals for what will become the Web,
starting in March of 1989. Neither is approved. He proceeds anyway, with only unofficial
support from his boss and his coworker Robert Cailliau. By Christmas of 1990 he has
prototyped “WorldWideWeb” (as he writes it) in just three months on an advanced NeXT
computer. It features a server, HTML, URLs, and the first browser. That browser also
functions as an editor—like a word processor connected to the Internet – which reflects
his original vision that the Web also incorporate authoring and personal organization
tools. The idea is that a Web of useful links will grow and deepen as people create them
in the course of their daily lives. The Web had been partly inspired by his earlier Enquire
program, which had combined networked hypertext with ideas that would later evolve
into the Semantic Web.

Video Toaster is introduced by NewTek

Video toaster editing and production system

 Graphic & Games
The Video Toaster is a video editing and production system for the Amiga personal
computers and includes custom hardware and software. Much more affordable than any
other computer-based video editing system, the Video Toaster was not only for home
use. It was popular, for example, with public access stations and was even good
enough to be used for broadcast television shows like Home Improvement.

William Gibson and Bruce Sterling publish The Difference Engine

The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling
 Popular Culture

William Gibson and Bruce Sterling are known as two of the leading lights in developing
Cyberpunk literature in the 1980s. In 1990, the pair collaborate on what many consider
to be the first blockbuster "Steampunk" novel. Imagining a word where Charles
Babbage's Analytical Engine was built and the pace of technology greatly
accelerated, The Difference Engine featured many historical characters, such as Lord
Byron, Ada Lovelace, and John Keats, placed in an alternate history where rival factions
competed to capture a stack of secret punched cards containing an important program.