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Invention of the Internet
In 1969, the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), a branch of the military that developed top secret systems and weapons, created the Internet, called ARPAnet at the time. The ARPAnet expanded into what is the Internet today to allow global communication and file transfer between computers. -
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Decade of Technological Advances
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First available dynamic RAM chip
The first dynamic random access memory (DRAM) computer chip was invented by Intel in 1970. DRAM is faster than previous memory chips which is ideal for gaming and video editing, where speed is necessary. DRAM is also high density, which means that more bits can be stored in less space. Less space leads to smaller chips, which is ideal for a device like a smartphone. -
Invention of the "Floppy" Disk
IBM invented the "floppy" disk in 1971. The disk was used to store information for later use, thus, being known as a "memory disk". The original disk was 8 inches; but by 1981, Sony invented a much smaller 3 1/2 inch disk. The "floppy" disk allowed information to be stored for later use, and allowed information to be transported to a different computer as well. -
The First Computer Word Processor
In 1979, Seymour Rubenstein and Rob Barnaby from Micropro International invented WordStar, the first commercially successful word processing program for computers. Word processing allowed people to write and edit documents by using a computer. -
The first computer spreadsheet
Bricklin and Bob Frankston invented the spreadsheet VisiCalc to use on an Apple computer in 1979. Before VisiCalc, companies were using manually calculated spreadsheets. Changing a single number resulted in recalculating every single cell on the sheet. VisiCalc allowed them to change any cell in the spreadsheet, and the entire sheet would be automatically recalculated. This increased worker production.