1980 Date Location Event 29 January United Kingdom (UK) Sinclair ZX80 was released for under £100. 22 May Japan The game Pac-Man was released. June United States (US) Commodore released the VIC-20, which had 3.5 KB of usable memory and was based on the MOS Technology 6502 processor. Magazines became available which contained the code for various utilities and games. A 5¼" disk drive was available, along with a cassette storage system which used standard audio cassette tapes. Also available were a number of games, a color plotter which printed on 6 in (152 mm) wide paper tape, and a graphics tablet (the KoalaPad). A TV screen served as the monitor. The VIC-20 became the first computer to sell 1 million units. July US Tandy released the TRS-80 Color Computer, based on the Motorola 6809E processor and using Microsoft BASIC as its programming language. It was the first Tandy computer to support color graphics, and also supported cartridge programs and games, attempting to bridge both the home computing and video gaming markets. October US Development of MS-DOS/PC DOS began. Microsoft (known mainly for their programming languages) were commissioned to write the operating system for the PC; Digital Research failed to get the contract (there is much legend as to the real reason for this). DR's operating system, CP/M-86, was later shipped, but it was actually easier to adapt programs to DOS rather than to CP/M-86, and CP/M-86 cost $495. As Microsoft did not have an operating system to sell, they bought Seattle Computer Product's 86-DOS which had been written by Tim Paterson earlier that year (86-DOS was also known as QDOS, Quick & Dirty Operating System; it was a more-or-less 16 bit version of CP/M). The rights were actually bought in July 1981. It is reputed that IBM found over 300 bugs in the code when they subjected the operating system to scrutiny and re-wrote much of the code. Tim Paterson's DOS 1.0 was 4000 lines of assembler. ? NetherlandsJapan Red Book on Audio CDs was introduced by Sony and Philips. This was the beginning of the compact disc; it was released in Japan and then in Europe and America a year later. Roland releases the drum machine TR-808 which would end up revolutionizing music of all genres in the 1980s to a more electronic/futuristic sound.
The drum machine Linn LM-1, also released in 1980, was the more expensive alternative to the TR-808. It became a staple of 1980s pop music.
1981 Date Location Event March UK Sinclair ZX81 was released,Crisp, Jason (6 March 1981). "Sinclair launches new personal computer costing only £70". Financial Times. London. p. 6. for a similar price to the ZX80 (see 1980). 8 April US Osborne 1 portable computer introduced; the company sold many units before filing for bankruptcy only two years later. 12 August US IBM announced their open architecture IBM Personal Computer. 100,000 orders were taken by Christmas. The design becomes far more successful than IBM had anticipated, and becomes the basis for most of the modern personal computer industry.
MDA (Monochrome Display Adapter), text only, introduced with IBM PC.
MS-DOS 1.0, PC DOS 1.0.
Microsoft (known mainly for their programming languages) were commissioned by IBM to write the operating system; they bought a program called 86-DOS from Tim Paterson which was loosely based on CP/M-80. The final program from Microsoft was marketed by IBM as PC DOS and by Microsoft as MS-DOS; collaboration on subsequent versions continued until version 5.0 in 1991.
Compared to modern versions of DOS, version 1 was very basic. The most notable difference was the presence of just one directory, the root directory, on each disk. Subdirectories were not supported until version 2.0 (March 1983).
MS-DOS was the main operating system for all IBM-PC compatible computers until Microsoft released Windows 95. According to Microsoft, in 1994, MS-DOS was running on some 100 million computers worldwide. September US The TCP/IP protocol is established. This is the protocol that carries most of the information across the Internet. ? US Richard Feynman proposed quantum computers. The main application he had in mind was the simulation of quantum systems, but he also mentioned the possibility of solving other problems. ? US The Xerox 8010 ('Star') System, the first commercial system to use a WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus and Pointing Devices) graphic user interface. Apple incorporated many of the ideas therein in the development of the interface for the Apple Lisa (see January 1983). ? US Symbolics introduced the LM-2 workstation, a Lisp-based workstation based on the MIT CADR architecture.
1982 Date Location Event January UK Introduction of the BBC Micro, announced in December 1981. Based on the MOS Technology 6502 processor, it was a very popular computer for British schools up to the development of the Acorn Archimedes (in 1987). In 1984 the government offered to pay half the cost of such computers in an attempt to promote their use in secondary education. US Commodore unveils the Commodore 64 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Built in just two months around the VIC-II Video Integrated Circuit and the SID Sound Interface Device chips, the C64 used the 6510 processor to access 64K of RAM plus 16K of switchable ROM. This "epitome of the 8-bit computer" sold up to 22 million units in the next decade. February US On February 1 the 80286 processor was released. It implements a new mode of operation, protected modeallowing access to more memory (up to 16 MB compared to 1 MB for the 8086).
At introduction the fastest version ran at 12.5 MHz, achieved 2.7 MIPS and contained 134,000 transistors. March US MS-DOS 1.25, PC DOS 1.1 April UK The Sinclair ZX Spectrum was announced, released later in the year. It is based on the Zilog Z80 microprocessor, running at 3.5 MHz with an 8 color graphics display. The Spectrum sold with two memory options, a 16 KB version for £125 or a 48 KB version for £175. May US IBM launch the double-sided 320 KB floppy disk drive. July UKUS Timex/Sinclair introduced the first computer touted to cost under $100 marketed in the U.S., the Timex Sinclair 1000. In spite of the flaws in the early versions, half a million units were sold in the first 6 months alone, surpassing the sales of Apple, Tandy, and Commodore combined. August US The Commodore 64 is released, retailing at US$595. The price rapidly dropped, creating a price war and causing the departure of numerous companies from the home computing market. Total C64 sales during its lifetime (from 1982 to 1994) are estimated at more than 17 million units, making it the best-selling computer model of all time. October US MIDI, Musical Instrument Digital Interface, (pronounced "middy") published by International MIDI Association (IMA). The MIDI standard allows computers to be connected to instruments like keyboards through a low-bandwidth (31,250 bit/s) protocol. December US IBM bought 12% of Intel. ? US Introduction of 80186/80188. These are rarely used in personal computers as they incorporate a built-in DMA and timer chipand thus have register addresses incompatible with IBM PCs.
1983 Date Location Event January US Apple introduced its Lisa. The first mass market personal computer with a graphical user interface, its development was central in the move to such systems for personal computers. The Lisa's sloth and high price ($10,000) led to its ultimate failure. The Lisa ran on a Motorola 68000 microprocessor and came equipped with 1 MB of RAM, a 12-inch black-and-white monitor, dual 5¼" floppy disk drives and a 5 MB Profile hard drive. The Xerox Starwhich included a system called Smalltalk that involved a mouse, windows, and pop-up menusinspired the Lisa's designers. USEurope IBM PC gets European launch at Which Computer Show. March US IBM XT released, similar to the original IBM PC but with a hard drive. It had a 10 MB hard disk, 128 KB of RAM, one floppy drive, mono monitor and a printer, all for $5000. US Compaq Portable released, the first IBM PC compatible machine released with an IBM PC compatible BIOS written from scratch. US MS-DOS 2.0, PC DOS 2.0 Introduced with the IBM XT, this version included a Unix style hierarchical sub-directory structure, and altered the way in which programs could load and access files on the disk. May US Thinking Machines Corporation formed. US MS-DOS 2.01 September US Richard Stallman announces the GNU Project, to create a free software alternative to proprietary Unixes, on Usenet. He works towards this goal over the next years, but GNU's own kernel, the GNU Hurd, is delayed indefinitely and GNU only becomes a complete usable alternative to Unix with the creation of the Linux kernel in 1991. October US IBM released the IBM PCjr in an attempt to get further into the home market; it cost just $699. Cheaper alternatives from other companies were preferred by the home buyer, but businesses continued to buy IBM.
PC DOS 2.1 (for PCjr). Like the PCjr this was not a great success and quickly disappeared from the market.
MS-DOS 2.11, MS-DOS 2.25. Version 2.25 included support for foreign character sets, and was marketed in the Far East. US Microsoft Word software released. November US Domain Name System (DNS) introduced to the Internet, which then consisted of about 1000 hosts. RFC 881 (now obsoleted by subsequent revisions)
Microsoft Windows is announced. US Turbo Pascal introduced by Borland. December Serbia Detailed schematic diagrams for build-it-yourself computer Galaksija released in Belgrade. Thousands were soon assembled by computer enthusiasts. 1983 US Borland formed. 1983 Japan Epson QX-10 released; first Japanese computer sold in the US."The Quintessential Computer? Epson's QX-10 hits the high-end market." by Jim Hansen. "Microcomputing" magazine 1983 April ? US Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet software launched. ? Italy Olivetti M24 was put on sale. This personal computer had good success and was later rebranded by AT&T.
1984 Date Location Event January UK Sinclair Research announced its first (and only) personal computer aimed to the business market, the Sinclair QL, at an introductory price of £399. The machine was based on the 68008 CPU of Motorola, the low-cost version of Motorola 68000 with 8-bit external bus. The QL (abbreviation of Quantum Leap) did not become a market success, because of quality issues of the first series and due to the Microdrive used as storage medium instead of the much more reliable floppy discs; its development and production later caused serious financial difficulties for the company. US Apple Macintosh released, based on the 8 MHz version of the Motorola 68000 processor. The 68000 can address 16 MB of RAM, a noticeable improvement over Intel's 8088/8086 family. However the Apple achieved 0.7 MIPS and originally came with just 128 KB of RAM. It came fitted with a monochrome monitor and was the first successful mouse-driven computer with a Graphical user interface. The Macintosh included many of the Lisa's features at a much lower price: $2,500.