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Computers - a timeline


1975: The Altair 8800, a build-it-yourself computer kit, appears in U.S. homes in 1975. Complete with an Intel 8080 processor and 256 bytes (not kilobytes) of memory, it can run BASIC programming language.

1977: A revolution in computing begins in 1977 when the first fully assembled personal computer, the Apple II, is made available to the public. Within twenty years, two out of five households will have a computer.

1989: Making use of LCD (liquid crystal displays) and ever smaller components, laptop computers see more and more use in the late 1980s.

1994: Spurred by the introduction of Mosaic, interest in the World Wide Web rapidly takes off starting in 1994. Within four years, an estimated 30 million people (including you) are browsing the Web.

 

 

In the 1940's and 1950's, computers were so big they took up whole rooms! Now look at how small they are. Just pop it on your knee, and off you go!

Do you realize that the old Apple IIe computers, which this school threw away in 1998 because they were too old to run our software, were more powerful than the computers that were in the Apollo spacecraft when they went to the moon?

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