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1980s- Seagate ST506 hard disk drive
Seagate Technology creates the first hard disk drive for microcomputers, the ST506. The disk held 5 megabytes of data, five times as much as a standard floppy disk. -
Period: to
1980s
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1981- Osborne 1introduced
Weighing 24 pounds and costing $1,795, the Osborne 1 is the first mass-produced portable computer. It featured a 5-inch display, 64 KB of memory, a modem, and two 5.25-inch floppy disk drives. -
1982- Commodore 64
The C64, as it is better known, sells for $595, comes with 64 KB of RAM and features impressive graphics. Thousands of software titles were released over the lifespan of the C64. -
1983- Apples The Lisa computer
Lisa is the first commercial personal computer with a graphical user interface.It was an important milestone in computing as soon Microsoft Windows and the Apple Macintosh would adopt the GUI as their user interface making it the new paradigm for personal computing. -
1984- Apple computer the Macintosh
The Macintosh was the first successful mouse-driven computer with a graphical user interface and was based on the Motorola 68000 microprocessor. Applications that came as part of the package included MacPaint, which made use of the mouse, and MacWrite. Now we call it a MacBook. -
1985- Denning Sentry robot
Boston-based Denning designed the Sentry robot as a security guard patrolling for up to 14 hours at 3 mph. It radioed an alert about anything unusual in a 150-foot radius. We are now using robots for many things other than security. -
1986- Pixar
Pixar was originally called the Special Effects Computer Group at Lucas film. The group created the computer-animated segments of films such as Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Young Sherlock Holmes. In 1986, Apple Computer co-founder Steve Jobs paid 10 million dollars to Lucas film to purchase the Group and renamed it Pixar. It was bought by Disney in 2006. -
1987- GMS Phone
In 1987, the European Community comes out with the GSM standard for digital mobile telephony, including text messaging also know SMS. -
1988- Laser 128
VTech, founded in Hong Kong, had been a manufacturer of Pong-like games and educational toys they introduce the Laser 128 computer. -
1989- Macintosh Portable
Apple had initially included a handle in their Macintosh computers to encourage users to take their Macs on the go, though not until five years after the initial introduction does Apple introduce a true portable computer. The Macintosh Portable was heavy, weighing sixteen pounds.
