History of Computers

Excel

A Microsoft application that allows the user to create spreadsheets.

VisiCalc

1983 was the first spreadsheet program for Apple II, was the 'killer app' for the PC turned it from a hobby into a useful tool

IBM PC

An early, commercially successful personal computer system that featured a 4.77 MHz Intel 8088 processor, 64 KB RAM, and a floppy disk drive. Ancestor to today's PCs.

Word Perfect

Based in Utah in the 1980s, created a word processing program. Made by company Satellite Systems International started by two BYU professors originally hired to create a word processing program for the city of Orem. This program had 3 key advantages: 1. when you pulled up the program it had a clean screen (like a blank sheet of paper) 2.it was easy to use, intuitive. 3. Created a free hot-line, this cost a lot to run but ended up being worth it, provided technical support. This put them over Microsoft in terms of customer service. There were good student discounts. Family feel in the work environment. Hired locals, BYU grads, and U of U grads. In 1992 they had close to 4,000 employees. In 1994 it was purchased by Novel for $885 million.

Control Program for Microcomputers (CP/M)

Developed by Gary Kildall; the first Operating system designed for the Intel 8080 chip

Disk Operating System (DOS)

One of the first operating systems used by personal computers. It did not have a graphical user interface (GUI) and commands had to be typed.

TRS-80

Radioshack's. Also Among Apple's competitors. Priced at $594.95 included monochrome display and 4KB of memory

BASIC (Beginners All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code)

Simple Programming

Macintosh

The brand name of a family of personal computers (hardware) and an operating system (software) from Apple, introduced in 1984.

Disk 2

a floppy disk drive which allowed programs to be saved with more efficiency and operating systems to be developed

Altair 8800

a microcomputer designed in 1975 based on the Intel 8080 CPU. Interest grew quickly after it was featured on the cover of the January, 1975, issue of Popular Electronics, and was sold by mail order through advertisements there, in Radio-Electronics and other hobbyist magazines. The designers hoped to sell a few hundred build-it-yourself kits to hobbyists, and were surprised when they sold thousands in the first month

Commodore PET 2001

among Apple's strongest competitors. Introduced in 1977. Featured on cover of Popular Science as "new $595 home computer"

Apple 1

created by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak from the prototype of Steve Wozniak, then formed the Apple Computer Company

Osbourne

first portable computer. 1981. weighed 24.5 lbs. $1,795. included 64 KB memory, 2 floppy disk drives, and preinstalled programs such as spreadsheet software and word processing.

Wordstar

first word processing application in disc form and became available for personal computers in 1978

Word for MS-DOS

introduced in pages of PC World Magazine on first magazine insterted demo disk. Precursor for Microsoft Word.

Xerox

the company that chiefly developed the GUI for microcomputers relative to its major concepts.

Apple 2

was later created after the Apple 1 computer with improvements, such as a colour monitor, sound and game paddles; the operating system was stored in read-only memory (ROM), which allowed users to not have to rewrite the operating system when turned on

PageMaker

was the first true desktop publishing software developed for use on a computer