Author: boxchronicles
OS/2
In 1980, IBM and Microsoft joined forces. IBM, the venerable computer manufacturer, wanted Bill Gates and Paul Allen, founders of Microsoft, to design an operating system for its PCs. IBM decided to let Microsoft keep the rights to the MS-DOS operating system, allowing Gates and Allen to sell it to…
Philips Electronics
From Philips “History” The foundations for what was to become one of the world’s biggest electronics companies were laid in 1891 when Gerard Philips established a company in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, to manufacture incandescent lamps and other electrical products. The company initially concentrated on making carbon-filament lamps and by the…
IBM System/38
Optical Disks
The storage media of most optical storage systems in production today are in the form of a rotating disk. In general the disks are preformatted using grooves and lands (tracks) to enable positioning an optical pickup and recording head to access information on the disk. A focused laser beam emanating…
UseNet
In 1979, UseNet, a multidisciplinary computer network of news and discussion groups is formed on two campuses in North Carolina. Providing a unique forum to gather information and exchange ideas, Usenet grows from it’s origin as an underground activity among graduate students into a vast international phenomenon. It’s popularity influences…
VisiCalc
VisiCalc was the first spreadsheet program available for personal computers. Conceived by Dan Bricklin, refined by Bob Frankston and distributed by Personal Software Inc. in 1979 (later VisiCorp) for the Apple II computer, it propelled the Apple from being a hobbyist’s toy to being a much-desired, useful financial tool for…
CBBS, The First BBS
A bulletin board system or BBS is a computer system running software that allows users to dial into the system over a phone line and, using a terminal program, perform functions such as downloading software and data, uploading data, playing games, reading news, and exchanging messages with other users.The BBS…
Speak N Spell
Oracle
Oracle Corporation started life as Software Development Laboratories in June of 1977 by Larry Ellison, Bob Miner and Ed Oates. Renamed to Relational Software Inc. two years later, the company sold the first version of the Oracle database to Wright Patterson Air Force Base. Oracle 2 was designed to run…