The Invention of the Personal Computer

• Precursors
• Imagining a new kind of computing
• Ivan Sutherland and "Sketchpad" (1963)
• Doug Englebart's "Augmenting Human Intellect" Project (1962-1968)
• "Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Approach (Stanford Research Institute, 1962)
• Demonstration (San Francisco, 1968)
• Countercultural visions
• Stewart Brand
• "Fanatic Life and Symbolic Death Among the Computer Bums," Rolling Stone (December, 1972)
• First use of the term "personal computer"
• Lee Felsenstein
• Founding Member and Director, The Home Brew Computer Club (HBCC) (1975-1986)
• The People's Computer Company (PCC)
• The Technology that made it possible: the Microprocessor
• Ted Hoff, Frederico Faggin, and Stanley Mazor at Intel (1971)
• Intel releases the first commercial microprocessor, the 8 bit 8080 (1974)
• The First Personal Computers
• The Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (Xerox PARC) founded 1970
• Bob Taylor
• Alan Kay
• The Alto Computer
• The MITS Altair 8800 (1975)
• Ed Roberts, MITS, and the origins of the Altair
• Altair on the Cover of Popular Electronics (January, 1975); "Inside the Altair"
• Bill Gates and Microsoft
• Microsoft BASIC for the Altair (Paul Allen and Bill Gates)
• Micro-Soft Corporation founded in Spring, 1975 (Bill Gates, Paul Allen, and Steve Ballmer)
• Headquarters: Albequerque, NM, across the street from MITS
• Bill Gates's "Open Letter to Hobbyists" (February, 1976)
• Microsoft moves to Seattle, WA (1977)
• The Apple I and II
• Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs and the Apple I
• Apple Computer: The First Mass-Market PC Company
• Jobs and Wozniak meet at Homestead High School, Cupertino, CA
• Jobs and Woz return to Silicon Valley in 1972 after dropping out of college
• Jobs, after leaving Reed College, joins Atari Corporation as a computer game designer
• Woz, after leaving the University of Colorado, Boulder, joins Hewlett-Packard Corporation as a Research Engineer
• Jobs and Woz collaborate on computer game design
• Jobs and Woz begin attending the meetings of the Home Brew Computer club from its inception in 1975
• Woz debuts the Apple I at the HBCC (April, 1976)
• Hewlett-Packard offered machine, turns it down.
• Apple Computer created to sell the Apple I (April, 1976)
• Price for kit: $666.66
• 50 units sold by the Byte Shop, Silicon Valley computer hobbyist store
• Work begins on the Apple II (1977)
• Markkula becomes chief business officer
• First West Coast Computer Faire, April 15-17, 1977
• Apple II creates sensation, begins selling publicly at $1295
• Arthur Rock offers significant venture capital to Apple Computer
• Apple soars into the Fortune 500 in less than five years (1977-1981): fastest ascent ever in American business history
• Apple stock offering makes multimillionaires of Jobs, Wozniak and founding employees (1980)
• Apple annual sales reach a billion dollars (1983)
• The Spreadsheet: The "Killer App" of the Personal Computer
• Dan Bricklin: Inventor of VisiCalc (1979)
• Lotus 1-2-3 (1982)
• Other Personal Computers (A good archive of old PCs)
• The Tandy TRS-80: Sold out of Radio Shack stores (August, 1977)
• Another good TRS-80 site
• Nolan Bushnell and Atari
• Nolan Bushnell founds Atari to manufacture and sell "Pong" video game (1972)
• Company headquarters: San Carlos, CA
• Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak among first employees
• Atari releases first "Video Computer System" (TV video game system) (October, 1977)
• Huge commercial success
• Atari releases two personal computers, the Atari 400 and the Atari 800 (1978)
• Commercial flops
• Atari acquired by Warner Communications for unprecedented sum
• Company soars to record profits then crashes
• Nolan Bushnell leaves. Founds successful Chuck E. Cheese Restaurant chain
• Lee Felsenstein and the Osborne
• Commodore Computer Company
• The Commodore PET (1977)
• The Commodore 64 (1982)
• The IBM PC (1981)

Back to Syllabus