| Mini Texas Instruments and Fairchild
semiconductor both announce the integrated circuit in 1959.
Ivan Sutherland demonstrates a program called Sketchpad on a TX-2
mainframe at MIT's Lincoln Labs in 1962. It allows him to make engineering
drawings with a light pen. A typical minicomputer costs about $20,000.
1965: An IC that cost $1000 in 1959 now costs less than $10. Gordon Moore
predicts that the number of components in an IC will double every year.
This is known as Moore's Law.
Doug Engelbart demonstrates in 1968 a word
processor, an early hypertext system and a collaborative application:
three now common computer applications.
Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce
found Intel in 1968. Xerox creates its Palo Alto Research Center - Xerox
PARC - in 1969. Its mission is to explore the "architecture of
information." Fairchild Semiconductor introduces a 256-bit RAM chip in
1970. In late 1970 Intel introduces a 1K RAM chip and the 4004, a 4-bit
microprocessor. Two years later comes the 8008, an 8-bit microprocessor. |