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                              A LITTLE PC HISTORY 
               WHERE WE'VE BEEN WITH NO IDEA WHERE WE'RE GOING! 

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       In the beginning . . . 

       Computing or calculating by machine began in the middle east 
       with the use of pegs or stones in trays or channels. The 
       Babylonians developed the idea of stone or bead counters into 
       the more modern abacus - modern in the sense that the abacus is 
       still in use today and in the hands of an experienced operator 
       can calculate results faster than a computer!  

       The beauty of the abacus is its simplicity in construction and 
       operation. Inexpensive beads of stone or wood and a simple frame 
       make up the abacus and the uneducated could quickly be trained 
       in its use. 

       In the 8th and 9th centuries we note the rise of the Arabic 
       numeral system which slowly spread through Europe and the then 
       civilized world. Although a superior calculating system, Arabic 
       numerals required the user to understand the more complicated 
       numerical theory associated with the system. 

       By the early 1600's Napier (often associated with the 
       development of logarithms and their practical application) 
       introduced a series of rods which could be used for 
       multiplication - a crude slide rule system. 

       Soon, ever more complicated "calculating engines" or primitive 
       mechanical computing devices appeared. One example is the 
       complex Pascaline invented by Blaise Pascal. 

       By 1791 the stage was set. Babbage, an English mathematician and 
       inventor with the help of Ada Byron (daughter of lord Byron, the 
       famous poet) developed the ideas for two mechanical calculators 
       or "number engines." The Difference Engine was a device to solve 
       polynomial equations by the methods of differences. The 
       Analytical Engine (which was never built)) was designed as a 
       general computing device. Both were mechanical in concept using 
       gears, rods and cams to perform calculations. Unfortunately 
       neither machine was built since the tooling and machining 
       technology of the day was imprecise and could not construct the 
       accurate parts needed. 

       However the models and planning of Babbage and Byron did lead to 
       important preliminary computing concepts still in use today. As 
       an aside, we should note from the work of Babbage and Byron that 
       computing even in its infancy was strongly influenced by BOTH 
       women and men - let's face it, computing is NOT gender specific! 

       Next we jump to the United States. By 1880 a problem had arisen 
       with the United States census. By that time, it took 7 years to 
       process all of the information gathered by the Census Bureau 
       since all tabulation was done by hand on paper. It was assumed 
       that the 1890 census might take 10 to 12 years to tabulate. 
       Clearly a better method was needed to crunch the volume of 
       numbers and data. A public competition was held to produce a 
       better indexing or mechanical system to tabulate future census 
       results. Herman Hollerith, a census employee, handily won by 
       suggesting the use of punch cards and a form of punch card 
       reader which tabulated the results in six weeks. Hollerith, wise 
       in the ways of computing devices and seeing a good opportunity 
       went on to found the Tabulating Machine Company (later changed 
       to IBM). Hollerith might be thus thought of as our first 
       computer entrepreneur! 

       The advent of World War II provided the impetus for the 
       development of more refined computing devices. The Mark I was an 
       electromechanical device using relays. IBM built that computer 
       for the Navy. Later, the Colossus was built for the British and 
       used for wartime code breaking of German radio transmissions. 
       The ABC (Atanasoff-Berry Computer) was constructed at Iowa State 
       and was the first fully electronic digital computer. 

       Admiral Grace Hopper, known as "Amazing Grace" to some, was a 
       naval officer and pioneer in the field of computer programming 
       during the 1940's and 50's. An innovative and fundamental 
       thinker, she recognized that computers could be used for 
       business applications - a pioneering insight beyond the then 
       conventional use of computers for scientific and military 
       applications. Her programming language called "Flowmatic" later 
       evolved into COBOL, the most common and still popular language 
       for programming business software. She died in 1992 and is
       buried in Arlington National Cemetery. 
       
       Computing science continued to evolve rapidly . . . 

       Eniac was the most famous of the early computers and contained 
       18,000 vacuum tubes and was used by the Army for ballistics 
       calculations. 

       Edvac was the first stored memory computing device which did 
       away with rewiring tasks associated with changing computer 
       programs and represented a true computer breakthrough. This 
       first generation of machines running from roughly 1951 through 
       1958 featured computers characterized by the use of radio type 
       vacuum tubes. But the pace was increasing . . . 

       Second generation machines such as the famous Univac were 
       designed as true general or universal purpose machines and could 
       process both alphabetic and numeric problems and data. Punch 
       cards still formed the major input path to the machines of this 
       era and all programming was done in complex low level machine 
       language commands. 

       By 1959 with the invention of the transistor, computers began to 
       shrink in size and cost and operate faster and more dependably 
       than the huge vacuum tube models. Programming languages began to 
       feature English-like instructions rather than cumbersome machine 
       code or assembly language. Fortran and Cobol are two modern 
       "high level" languages developed during this period and still in 
       use today.              

       In many respects, the personal computer industry began in 1974 
       when the Intel corporation introduced a CPU integrated circuit 
       chip named the 8080. It contained 4,500 transistors and could 
       address 64K of memory through a 16 bit data bus. The 8080 was 
       the integrated circuit brain behind the early MITS Altair 
       personal computer which fired popular interest in home and small 
       business computing when it appeared on the July 1975 cover of 
       Popular Electronics Magazine. The first MITS Altair contained no 
       keyboard or monitor, only crude LED lights and tiny flip 
       switches to facilitate programming. 

       Four years later in 1978 Intel released the 8086 chip which had 
       a tenfold increase in performance over the 8080 chip. When IBM 
       began the design phase of the first desktop PC units in 1980 and 
       1981, they chose the cousin of the 8086, the Intel 8088 chip, to 
       power the first PC which was designed for modest corporate use 
       but quickly exploded in popularity due to an excellent design, 
       spectacular keyboard and openess to upgrade by the addition of 
       "plug in" boards and cards. 

       Early IBM PC computers retained a link with the past by allowing 
       the addition of a small "Baby Blue" circuit board which could 
       run software programs based on the then dominant CPM operating 
       system. 

       Finally we come to the present decade . . . 

       August 1981. Original IBM PC (personal computer) introduced. Has 
       options for monochrome and CGA color display. Receives generally 
       good reviews and acceptance by business users and a few home 
       users. Original DOS version 1.0 released which supported only 
       single sided disks (160K capacity). Later version 1.1 corrected 
       bugs (problems) in the DOS programming code and provided double 
       sided disks (320K capacity), and faster disk access, date and 
       time stamping and better serial communications. 

       August 1982. Monochrome resolution of PC screen increased with 
       introduction of the Hercules graphics card circuit. Combined 
       with the LOTUS 123 spreadsheet, the IBM PC was now a hot choice 
       for corporate computing. 

       November 1982. Compaq portable arrives. First IBM clone on the 
       market. The IBM PC standard is growing in popularity. Clone 
       makers start to copy the PC in earnest. Software companies such 
       as Phoenix technologies prepare BIOS and SYS programs which run 
       the same as the IBM BIOS program without the copyright violation 
       which every clone computer tries to avoid. BIOS stands for basic 
       input and output system and is the core software essential to 
       keyboard, disk and screen input/output. The BIOS is considered 
       legally protected IBM software code, but can be simulated (or 
       emulated) closely by a clever programmer in an attempt to do the 
       same job, without using exactly the same programming code. 

       March 1983. IBM introduces the PC XT (increased memory and hard 
       drive capability). DOS version 2.0 released. This second DOS 
       version includes hard drive capability, filter commands (sort, 
       find, more), and a new floppy format system for 360K capacity 
       per floppy. IBM bios code upgraded. 

       October 1983. IBM PC JR released. Market disappointment for that 
       IBM entry into the home market with the underpowered PC JR. The 
       larger IBM PC standard is rapidly growing as the standard for 
       personal computers and clones. 

       March 1984. IBM PC portable introduced. Portable clones already 
       on the market with small but growing success. 

       August 1984. IBM PC AT machine arrives. More power, a new 
       processor (Intel 80286). New screen display standard (EGA). Also 
       new version of DOS 3.0. This version of DOS now takes into 
       account the AT high density floppy drive (1.2 meg or million 
       characters of capacity), read only files and a new disk write 
       system for better file recovery in case of errors. Shortly 
       thereafter, DOS 3.1 addresses file sharing. 

       November 1985. Microsoft windows graphic display environment 
       released. NEC multisync monitor is released. 

       December 1985. DOS 3.2 supports the new 3.5 inch 720K diskettes. 
       DOS now addresses up to 32MB on a single hard disk. 

       April 1986. Older IBM PC standard model discontinued for newer 
       models. IBM PC convertible model is released. 

       September 1986. Compaq jumps the gun on IBM with release of new 
       (80386) processor computer with more power than the PC AT. 

       April 1987. IBM PS/2 models 30, 50 and 60 released. DOS 3.3 
       released. VGA video standard arrives. IBM blesses the new 3.5 
       inch minifloppy already in use on Apple Macintosh computers by 
       offering that format on IBM machines. 1.44MB format is supported 
       for high density floppy users. OS/2 operating system announced.

       August 1987. Microsoft windows version 2.0 arrives. 

       November 1988. DOS 4.01 released which includes a shell menu 
       interface system. This release of DOS, largely developed by IBM, 
       generally ignored due to poor performance and large memory 
       requirements. Many users stick with DOS 3.3.

       1988 Laptop computers, smaller versions of desktop computers, 
       are sold in large volumes. Size as well as features become 
       issues in computer sales. 

       1990 Microsoft introduces Windows version 3.0 which includes a 
       superb graphical user interface (GUI) display for the PC. 
       Improves on earlier versions of Windows. Using software is more 
       productive with multiple graphical software windows and the 
       possibility of jumping between several software tasks operating 
       on screen. But windows can only run acceptably on more expensive 
       "high end" machines such as those containing the 386DX or 386SX 
       chip. For many users in small offices or home offices, Windows 
       may not be a necessity where simple DOS applications offer 
       affordable functionality on low priced PC's not equipped to run 
       Windows applications.

       1991 Laptop computers, portable FAX systems, and cellular 
       portable phone technology allow computers to function anywhere 
       on the go for a practical "portable office" concept. Still newer 
       "palmtop" computers about the size of portable calculators now 
       offer full IBM compatable functionality.

       June 1991. DOS 5.0 is released which includes excellent new 
       features including an improved menu interface, full-screen 
       editor which improves on the Edlin editor, some limited task-
       swapping abilities, unformat/unerase utility, improved Basic 
       interpreter, and ability to load system files to High Memory on 
       machines having at least 1MB for improved performance and 
       increased conventional memory availability for primary applications. 
       DOS 5.0 is seen to be a major and highly necessary update to the 
       PC operating system. Generally receives good reviews from computer 
       trade press.
       
       The future? Difficult to predict, but the consensus of industry 
       observers is that the IBM PS/2 computers will migrate into the 
       office scene while many home and home/office users will stay 
       with older XT computers and AT models. Best entry level computer 
       system at this time is judged by many experts to the a 386SX PC
       system which allows many types of software both current and 
       future to work reliably. Prices continue to tumble on AT and XT 
       compatibles ($400 to $500 range) and AT clones ($700 to 
       $900 range). The operating system for AT and higher class machines 
       (using 80286/80386 processors) is called OS/2 but requires more 
       memory and the 80286/80386 processor found only in higher 
       priced computers. OS/2 or Windows may slowly replace the older 
       DOS system, but for many users of home and home/office machines 
       not needing LAN networks (many computers talk to each other and 
       share data), the DOS standard will live a long time. The Microsoft 
       Windows 3.0 system may delay the acceptance of OS/2 for several 
       years. 
    
       In general expect things to happen faster, computers to become 
       still smaller and prices to descend still further! Graphical 
       user interfaces or GUI's will gradually become the standard so 
       that users can point and click at small icon pictures and lists 
       of tasks on screen to accomplish the work at hand rather than 
       fight with terse and cryptic commands. Computing will become a 
       standard in many small and home offices owing to the incredible 
       power, accuracy and affordablity of personal computers. Laptop 
       computers and even smaller palmtop computers will become new 
       standards. Computers and modems linked by wireless cellular 
       radio/telephone technology allow a single computer user the 
       power of "large office computing" on the go from anywhere in the 
       world! Shareware software will make strong inroads into the 
       market as users evaluate commercial "high priced" software 
       against user support "low cost" shareware software.

       Tutorial finished. Be sure to order your FOUR BONUS DISKS which 
       expand this software package with vital tools, updates and 
       additional tutorial material for laptop users! Send $20.00 to 
       Seattle Scientific Photography, Department LAP, PO Box 1506, 
       Mercer Island, WA 98040. Bonus disks shipped promptly! Some 
       portions of this software package use sections from the larger 
       PC-Learn tutorial system which you will also receive with your 
       order. Modifications, custom program versions, site and LAN 
       licenses of this package for business or corporate use are 
       possible, contact the author. This software is shareware - an 
       honor system which means TRY BEFORE YOU BUY. Press escape key to 
       return to menu. 
       

