1955 – Harbinger of Early
Operating Systems, Whirlwind’s Director, is Demonstrated
Computer
pioneer Douglas Ross demonstrates “Director, which presaged operating system
for computers, gave instructions to the 4-year-old, 4,500 vacuum tube
computers. The operating system resided on paper tape, and was a precursor to
Job Control Language operating systems widely used in subsequent mainframe
computing systems. Whirlwind’s design influenced many significant computing
innovations, including IBM’s semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) computer
and business and microcomputers of the 1960s.
1978 – The first radio episode of The
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams, was transmitted on BBC
Radio. Some credit Adams with accidentally predicting the PDA and smartphone.
1979 – Philips publicly demonstrated a
prototype of an optical digital audio disk at a press conference called
“Philips Introduces Compact Disc.”
1983 – IBM Introduces PC-XT
IBM
introduces the IBM personal Computer XT, which stands for eXtended Technology.
For a price of $4,995, it features a Intel 8088 processor, a 10MB hard drive,
eight expansion slots, serial port, 128 kB RAM, 40kb ROM, a keyboard, and one
double-sided 360kB floppy drive.
2000 – Apple Settles with
Daewoo, eMachines over iMac Look
Apple
concluded their iMac trade dress infringement against Daewoo and eMachines. The
two companies made machines too similar to the iconic iMac look – the eMachines
eOne computer and Daewoo E-Power.
Apple was granted an injunction for the two machines. Daewoo
didn’t even get their unibody computer form out to the public. eMachines took
out all color, making it a single grey computer, which allowed them to continue
with sales.
Apple changed the look of the iMac with the introduction of
a flat panel in the iMac G4, ultimately discontinuing the G3 CRT computer in
March of 2003.
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