TeraMedia
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5: CPU on a chip. Before this, a central processing unit was a module of connected circuits. Without this, a PC would not be financially feasible. Intel made several. Zilog and others made a few as well.
4: IBM PC. That platform - though far from the best-performing - was the "gold standard" of compatibility for both HW and SW for roughly a decade. What it brought to business was interoperability of hardware, software, and data. That's why clones were so prevalent - because it was possible for them to be. Before this, Apple SW ran only on Apples (and only on certain models at that), and the same held for Unix, Zilog-based computers, Atari computers, MITS-Altair home-builds, and nearly all others. Once the ecosystem was in place, it made it economical for SW developers to develop SW that they could sell to hundreds of thousands, rather than just hundreds of customers. The same held for HW vendors. So the true development here is the standard, and not the equipment itself. It's the equivalent of the iPhone platform and appStore today, but with HW upgrade capabilities and openness thrown into the mix.
3: PC Multi-tasking. Those of you complaining about phones that can't multitask... imagine if your COMPUTER couldn't even do that? Even after Win 3.1, it didn't work all that well. Only with the advent of true 32-bit O/Ses did multi-tasking work in the PC arena, and that was to some extent because of limitations in the CPU itself.
Mainframes did multi-tasking for decades, but it took PCs a while to get there. And people were far less productive without it.
2: Ethernet. Long before I started using the internet, I was using something called "AppleTalk". It allowed every computer on campus to talk to every other computer. We had IM, email, file sharing, printer sharing, and many other capabilities that were rare in the PC arena at the time. Then a few years later I went to a business not far from campus, and they struggled to share files and use email, using Windows 3.11. But they got it, and the impact on their business was huge. Connecting a workplace is far more effective at improving productivity than connecting the internet to a workplace. When computers can't talk to each other, and disks only hold 1.44 MB at best, it becomes a burden to have more computers, rather than a benefit, where teamwork is concerned.
1: WWW. Any of us can think of thousands of ways that this has changed our lives, and it is also clear that without this or a similar technology, those changes would not have been possible.
I left off WiFi, mobility, the mouse, the touchpad, LCD technology, and many other developments that have indeed changed the PC world. My decision was based on the question, "Can you work around the absence of a given technology?" I can carry a HDD or FD instead of a laptop from work to home. I can use a long ethernet cable rather than WiFi, though I certainly would not prefer to. I can use hot keys instead of a mouse (and often do...). And I can use a bulky monitor instead of a small and light LCD. But I can't do any of the things I do today on a PC without those 5 inventions.
4: IBM PC. That platform - though far from the best-performing - was the "gold standard" of compatibility for both HW and SW for roughly a decade. What it brought to business was interoperability of hardware, software, and data. That's why clones were so prevalent - because it was possible for them to be. Before this, Apple SW ran only on Apples (and only on certain models at that), and the same held for Unix, Zilog-based computers, Atari computers, MITS-Altair home-builds, and nearly all others. Once the ecosystem was in place, it made it economical for SW developers to develop SW that they could sell to hundreds of thousands, rather than just hundreds of customers. The same held for HW vendors. So the true development here is the standard, and not the equipment itself. It's the equivalent of the iPhone platform and appStore today, but with HW upgrade capabilities and openness thrown into the mix.
3: PC Multi-tasking. Those of you complaining about phones that can't multitask... imagine if your COMPUTER couldn't even do that? Even after Win 3.1, it didn't work all that well. Only with the advent of true 32-bit O/Ses did multi-tasking work in the PC arena, and that was to some extent because of limitations in the CPU itself.
Mainframes did multi-tasking for decades, but it took PCs a while to get there. And people were far less productive without it.
2: Ethernet. Long before I started using the internet, I was using something called "AppleTalk". It allowed every computer on campus to talk to every other computer. We had IM, email, file sharing, printer sharing, and many other capabilities that were rare in the PC arena at the time. Then a few years later I went to a business not far from campus, and they struggled to share files and use email, using Windows 3.11. But they got it, and the impact on their business was huge. Connecting a workplace is far more effective at improving productivity than connecting the internet to a workplace. When computers can't talk to each other, and disks only hold 1.44 MB at best, it becomes a burden to have more computers, rather than a benefit, where teamwork is concerned.
1: WWW. Any of us can think of thousands of ways that this has changed our lives, and it is also clear that without this or a similar technology, those changes would not have been possible.
I left off WiFi, mobility, the mouse, the touchpad, LCD technology, and many other developments that have indeed changed the PC world. My decision was based on the question, "Can you work around the absence of a given technology?" I can carry a HDD or FD instead of a laptop from work to home. I can use a long ethernet cable rather than WiFi, though I certainly would not prefer to. I can use hot keys instead of a mouse (and often do...). And I can use a bulky monitor instead of a small and light LCD. But I can't do any of the things I do today on a PC without those 5 inventions.
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