1980s Inventions

  • Introduction of the CCCII

    Introduction of the CCCII
    The Chinese Character Code for Information Interchange, being one of the earliest encodings for Chinese characters, remains used by library systems.
  • The Apple III is announced

    The Apple III is announced
    The Apple III was released in November of the same year, having been started by Doctor Wendell Sander in 1978.
  • The compact disc is unveiled and released.

    The compact disc is unveiled and released.
    In August and October respectively, developed by Philips and Sony, one of the contributors was the Dutch Kees Schouhamer Immink.
  • Project Athena is launched

    Project Athena is launched
    "It created the X Window System, Kerberos, and Zephyr Notification Service. It influenced the development of thin computing, LDAP, Active Directory, and instant messaging." It "was a joint project of MIT, Digital Equipment Corporation, and IBM to produce a campus-wide distributed computing environment for educational use." and lasted through June 30, 1991. It functions a set of Debian packages that makes a thin client.
  • The Famicom is released.

    The Famicom is released.
    In Japan, but is released two years later as the NES.
  • Introduction of Big5

    "The original Big5 character set is sorted first by usage frequency, second by stroke count, lastly by Kangxi radical" and remains used in Macau, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
  • Apple Macintosh/Macintosh 128K

    Apple Macintosh/Macintosh 128K
    The Macintosh first comes out, after the Super Bowl commercial introduced it two days earlier. It was started by Jef Raskin and is in a long line leading to our Macs now.
  • Period: to

    HP LaserJet is unveiled.

    The first successful laser printer is unveiled at COMDEX in Atlanta at a price of $3495, the start of the printers as we know it.
  • The UK receives its first country code

    The UK receives its first country code
    .gb was not widely used, in favor of the other country code.
  • .com is released

    .com is released
    .com, one of the most widely-used top-level domains, comes out, originally run by the Department of Defense, is now run by Verisign
  • .org is released

    .org is released
    An alternative to .com for organizations.
  • .net is released

    .net is released
    .net comes out, as another alternative to .com.
  • .edu is released

    .edu is released
    .edu comes out as another alternative to .com.
  • .gov is released

    .gov is released
    .gov comes out, administered by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, an arm of Homeland Security.
  • .mil is released

    .mil is released
    .mil comes out for the US military's use, but they also use .edu and .gov. and .com.
  • Proposal for text messaging is released

    In February, in Oslo.
  • .arpa is released

    .arpa is released
    A top-level domain for the Advanced Research Projects Agency, which operated a precursor to the internet called ARPANET. One of the six originals.
  • Magneto-optical technology introduced commercially

    Magneto-optical technology introduced commercially
    "In 1983 [...] Kees Schouhamer Immink and Joseph Braat presented the first experiments with erasable magneto-optical compact discs during the 73rd AES Convention in Eindhoven."
  • .us is released

    .us is released
    .us comes out, but remains less used than .com.
  • The UK receives its second country code

    .uk is released, and used more than .gb.
  • The Nintendo Entertainment System is released.

    The Nintendo Entertainment System is released.
    It was first released in 1983 as the Famicom and becomes a best seller.
  • Israel receives its country code

    Israel receives its country code
    Israel now stands independent with its websites.
  • Introduction of the CSIC

    The Chinese Standard Interchange Code/CNS 11643 remains the official standard in Taiwan, deriving from Big5 before it.
  • Switzerland receives its country code

    Switzerland receives its country code
    Switzerland now stands independent with its websites.
  • Spain receives its country code

    Spain receives its country code
    Spain now stands independent with its websites.
  • Portugal receives its country code

    Portugal receives its country code
    Portugal now stands independent with its websites.
  • Belgium receives its country code

    Belgium receives its country code
    Belgium now stands independent with its websites.
  • Thailand receives its country code

    Thailand receives its country code
    Thailand now stands independent with its websites.
  • Singapore receives its country code

    Singapore receives its country code
    Singapore stands independent with its websites.
  • The ODA is invented

    The Open Document Architecture (ODA) and interchange format is introduced and inspires HTML/CSS, XML/XSL, and ODF.
  • Mexico receives its country code

    Mexico receives its country code
    Mexico now stands independent with its websites.
  • Greece receives its country code

    Greece receives its country code
    Greece now stands independent with its websites.
  • The World Wide Web is invented.

    The World Wide Web is invented.
    It was done by Tim Berners-Lee
  • Brazil receives its country code

    Brazil receives its country code
    It was created by Jon Postel and therefore Brazil stands independent in its websites.
  • India receives its country code

    India receives its country code
    India now stands independent with its websites.
  • Taiwan receives its country code

    Taiwan receives its country code
    Taiwan now stands independent with its websites.