Chronology of the Personal Computer

Essay by DavidClaudeCollege, UndergraduateA+, September 2009

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I chose to read the article “Chronology of Personal Computer”. While I found most of the data it included to be quite interesting, I was rather overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information in contained. This shows how far the internet has come in the last 30 years. What later would turn out to be great ideas were discarded or rejected on numerous occasions. Some were even discovered by accident. Not only did the personal computer pave the way for the world as we know it today, it also made countless people rich beyond their wildest dreams.

In January of 1975 Bill Gates began to write the “BASIC” software for the Altair computer, and a month later Lunar Lander was the first software program ever to run on Microsoft BASIC. To me this is a landmark date for what is now a huge target market for the personal computer: The Video Game.

Atari joined in on the fun some 10 years later with the Atari 400 and 800 series personal computers. Now we have companies like Blizzard Entertainment who are devoted solely to the development of video game software.

I found it amazing to see how many fantastic ideas were shot down. For example in 1976 Steve Wozniak offered his new “Apple” computer idea to Hewlett-Packard who rejected it as a non-viable product. A few months later Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs incorporate Apple Computer Company, which would later make them two of the richest men on the planet. In 1978 Microsoft recorded its first $1 million sales year. One year later a researcher at Canon accidently discovered the technology for inkjet when he touched a hot soldering iron to a syringe of ink.

Today there is about 161 computers for every 1 million people. We can use our personal computers at home or at the office, at school or even 30,000 feet in the sky on an airplane. I can play a video game with people from 40 different counties. When Bill Gates said “I’m going to make my first million by the age of 25”, do you think he knew exactly what the future of the personal computer had in store for him? I do.

Works Citedhttp://www.davesite.com/webstation/net-history.shtml