| In the mid-1970s, scientists developed a method of putting thousands of integrated circuits on one tiny silicon chip. The chip itself is so small that it can fit through the eye of a needle. It is difficult to imagine so many circuits on such a tiny surface. It takes many delicate instruments and special scientific techniques to create this "miracle" chip, called an integrated circuit chip. | |
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Cray-1 Supercomputer 1976 |
| Integrated circuit chips, or ICCs, are smaller and less expensive than the integrated circuits used in third-generation computers. So, the fourth-generation of computers are even smaller and less expensive than the third-generation computers. Computers built with these chips can perform over 10 million calculations in one second. They are 10 times faster than third-generation computers. (That's 1,000 times faster than second-generation computers and 10,000 times faster than first-generation computers!) | |
 Apple2 -1977 |
Price $970 (4K RAM), $1795 (48K RAM) -Units Shipped, More than 2 million Technologies - Mostek 1 MHz 6502 processor, open architecture, floppy disk drive,color graphics Software - VisiCalc, Basic, Easy Writer |
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Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniac inventors of the Apple II and founders of Apple Computer. |
The Apple II was one of three prominent personal computers that came out in 1977. Despite its higher price, it quickly pulled away from the TRS-80 and the Commodore Pet to lead the pack in the late 70s and become the symbol of the personal computing phenomenon. The Apple II's success has been attributed to many factors including its name, attractive packaging and astute management. And, unlike the TRS-80, the Apple II featured high quality and a number of technical differentiators. It had an open architecture, used color graphics, and most importantly, had an elegantly designed interface to a floppy disk drive, something only mainframes and minis could use for storage until then. Another key to success was the software: the Apple II was chosen by entrepreneurs Daniel Bricklin and Bob Frankston to be the desktop platform for the first "killer app" of the business world -- the VisiCalc spreadsheet program. That created a phenomenal business market for the Apple II; and the corporate presence attracted many software and hardware developers to the platform. The rise of Apple Computer is one of America's great success stories. Behind the business and technical savvy of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, and the marketing expertise of Mike Markulla, Apple dominated the personal computer industry between 1977 and 1983. | |
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Screen shot of Visicalc on an Apple II monitor |
