The history of mobile PC s

1968

Dynabook Alan Kay developed a
portable computer to introduce children to the
electronic media. The graphical user interface with
icons became a prototype for most operating systems
even today.

1981

Osborne 1 The Osborne Computer
Corp was the first to introduce a portable
computer in the market. It weighed more than 10 kilos
and there was no battery. At that time, the software
that it could load using two 5.25-inch floppies
usually cost more than the computer itself

1982

GriD Compass 1100
With a flat screen integrated into the
hinged lid and an ultra-light magnesium
body, Bill Moggridge’s GRiD was the
undisputed technology leader. However at
$10,000, this mobile PC was so expensive
that only the US military and NASA could
afford it.

1983

Compaq Portable
Compaq introduced the first IBMcompatible
laptop into the market. Heavy and without a battery, it did
not sell very well in spite of running the MS-DOS operating system

1984

Gavilan SC Gavilan introduced
the first touchpad which was attached
to the keyboard. The computer had a typical
foldaway form and used an LCD screen as
well as the MS-DOS compatible Intel-80186 cpu.

1985

Bondwell 2 Even though the
CP/M era was over, the Bondwell 2
became a success. With 64 KB of
memory, a 3.5-inch disk drive and an
LCD screen, it was the top dog in the
early laptop scene.

1988

Compaq SLT 286The SLT286 was equipped
with a battery, hard disk and a flat LCD screen.
The screen offered full VGA resolution. It
was mainly bought by businessmen—no wonder,
considering that the purchase price was the
same as a mid-range car.

1997

USB interface After the USB
interface was introduced, almost
every peripheral device could be
connected to a notebook. Portable
devices suddenly became universally
usable.

1999

Wi-Fi for everyone Thanks to wireless
networking, notebooks finally
became fully free of wires. Hotspots
started springing up, connecting
notebooks to the Internet and to
office networks from almost
anywhere.

2008

MacBook Air More than hardware
and software features, physical
design has started to become an important
consideration for buyers. Multitouch
gestures were a great feature, but this
device sold mainly for its looks and attitude.

The most important steps in hard drive development

1956

The first hard disk weighs 500 kg
IBM launches the very first
hard drive, called the IBM
350 (5 MB, 24 inches, 600
ms access time 1,200 rpm,
500 kg, 10 kW). The drive is
rented out for approx 5,000
dollars per month.

1963

Open disk pack The IBM 1311 was
announced on 11th October. It could store
2 million characters on an interchangeable disk
pack (IBM 1316). The disk packs were 4 inches tall,
weighed 4.5 kg each and used 6 14-inch disks with
10 writable surfaces.


1973

Winchester ‘73
IBM launches the “Winchester” project
with the objective of developing a disk
drive in which the rotating medium is
firmly fixed. The loading mechanism is
problematic—that is also why the name
is similar to that of the legendary rifle.

1979

The first 8-inch Winchester
In 1979, industrially manufactured
Winchester disks were introduced.
They were even heavier and
costlier, but the sales only
increased.

1980

The first 5.25-inch drive Seagate brings the ST506
into the market (6MB, 3,600 rpm, selling price:
$1,000).The model label ST506 was the name for
the interface for years.

1986

SCSI specification SCSI became one of
the first standardized I/O protocols for a
hard disk interface.

1989

IDE standardization Western Digital
standardized the Integrated Drive
Electronics protocol.

1997

Giant magnetoresistance First use of the giant
magnetoresistance effect discovered by Peter Grünberg.
IBM overcomes the 10 GB barrier with the DTTA-351680.

2004

Introduction of NC Q Seagate brought the
first SATA hard disk with Native Command Queuing
to the market.

2005

First hybrid drive Samsung created
the HMO8HHI, a 2.5-inch hybrid
disk made out of a magneticmechanical
component and an NAND flash
memory used asa quicker buffer.

2006

Perpendicular recording
The Momentus 5400.3, a 160 GB
large 2.5-inch hard disk from
Seagate used perpendicular
recording technology.

2007
Terabyte hard drive With the Deskstar
7K1000, Hitachi brought the
first 1 Terabyte hard drive to the
market.

ivention

Apple II
The Apple II used to
cost only $3,000 when it
launched—unbelievably
reasonable for the time. 1978
1980
1981
1982
Fax machine
The first fax machines
were used by the post
office in Europe. Each
device was quite huge in
the beginning.
MS-DOS
The first version of the
MS DOS operating system
was launched. It was first
developed for 8086 PCs.
Donkey Kong
Donkey Kong became one of
the most successful video
games figures created by
Nintendo, even before Mario
made his debut.
Sony Walkman
Sony launched the
first Walkman into the
market. By 2004, more
than 200 million such
devices would be sold.
C64
The Commodore 64 was
lovingly known as the
“bread box” to its 22
million dedicated users.
286 processor
Intel put the 80286
processor on the market.