View source for Timeline of computing 1980–1989

{{short description|None}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2018}}
{{More citations needed|date=December 2008}}

{{computing timeline|[[computing]] from 1980 to 1989}}

==1980==
{| class="wikitable sortable"

! Date
! Location
! class="unsortable" | Event
|- valign="top"
| 29 January 
| [[United Kingdom]]
(UK)
| [[Sinclair Research|Sinclair]] [[ZX80]] was released for under £100.<ref>{{cite web |title=Sinclair ZX80 Launched |url=http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/5445/Sinclair-ZX80-Launched/ |access-date=23 December 2018 |website=Centre for Computing History}}</ref>
|- valign="top"
| 22 May
| [[Japan]]
| The game [[Pac-Man]] was released.<ref>{{cite web|title=Behind a pizza-slice smile: the dark side of Pac-Man|url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/may/22/behind-a-pizza-slice-smile-the-dark-side-of-pac-man|website=The Guardian|access-date=September 22, 2017|date=May 22, 2015}}</ref>
|- valign="top"
| June
| [[United States]]
(US)
| Commodore released the [[VIC-20]], which had 3.5 KB of usable memory and was based on the [[MOS Technology 6502]] processor. Magazines became available which contained the code for various utilities and games. A 5¼" [[Floppy disk|disk drive]] was available, along with a cassette storage system which used standard audio cassette tapes. Also available were a number of games, a color plotter which printed on 6 in (152 mm) wide paper tape, and a graphics tablet (the [[KoalaPad]]). A TV screen served as the monitor. The VIC-20 became the first computer to sell 1 million units.
|- valign="top"
| July
| US
| Tandy released the [[TRS-80 Color Computer]], based on the Motorola 6809E processor and using [[Microsoft BASIC]] as its programming language.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1981-03/1981_03_BYTE_06-03_Programming_Methods?view=theater#page/n91/mode/2up |title=Byte Magazine Volume 06 Number 03 - Programming Methods |date=1981}}</ref> It was the first Tandy computer to support color graphics, and also supported cartridge programs and games, attempting to bridge both the home computing and video gaming markets.
|- valign="top"
| October
| US
| Development of [[MS-DOS]]/[[IBM PC DOS|PC DOS]] began. Microsoft (known mainly for their programming languages) were commissioned to write the operating system for the PC; Digital Research failed to get the contract (there is much legend as to the real reason for this{{Original research inline|date=June 2021}}). DR's operating system, CP/M-86, was later shipped, but it was actually easier to adapt programs to DOS rather than to CP/M-86, and CP/M-86 cost $495. As Microsoft did not have an operating system to sell, they bought Seattle Computer Product's [[86-DOS]] which had been written by [[Tim Paterson]] earlier that year (86-DOS was also known as QDOS, Quick & Dirty Operating System; it was a more-or-less 16 bit version of CP/M). The rights were actually bought in July 1981. It is reputed that IBM found over 300 bugs in the code when they subjected the operating system to scrutiny and re-wrote much of the code.
Tim Paterson's DOS 1.0 was 4000 lines of assembler.
|- valign="top"
| ?
| [[Netherlands]]<br>Japan
| [[Red Book (audio CD standard)|Red Book]] on Audio CDs was introduced by Sony and Philips.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2007-08-17 |title=How the CD was developed |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6950933.stm |access-date=2025-02-14 |language=en-GB}}</ref> This was the beginning of the compact disc; it was released in Japan and then in Europe and America a year later.
Roland releases the drum machine [[TR-808]] which would end up revolutionizing music of all genres in the 1980s to a more electronic/futuristic sound.<ref name="Fact-2014">{{Cite web |date=16 January 2014 |title=Everything you ever wanted to know about the Roland TR-808 but were afraid to ask |url=http://www.factmag.com/2014/01/16/roland-tr-808-beginners-guide-everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-introduction/ |access-date=16 January 2017 |website=[[Fact (UK magazine)|Fact]] |publisher=[[The Vinyl Factory]]}}</ref>

The drum machine [[Linn LM-1]], also released in 1980, was the more expensive alternative to the [[TR-808]]. It became a staple of 1980s pop music.<ref name=":0">{{cite web |last=McNamee |first=David |date=2009-06-22 |title=Hey, what's that sound: Linn LM-1 Drum Computer and the Oberheim DMX |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/jun/22/linn-oberheim-drum-machines |access-date=2018-02-09 |website=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref>
|}

==1981==
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Date
! Location
! class="unsortable" | Event
|- valign="top"
| March
| UK
| Sinclair [[ZX81]] was released,<ref>Crisp, Jason (6 March 1981). "Sinclair launches new personal computer costing only £70". ''Financial Times''. London. p. 6.</ref> for a similar price to the ZX80 (see 1980).
|- valign="top"
| 8 April 
| US
| [[Osborne 1]] portable computer introduced;<ref name="hogan19810413">{{cite magazine |author=Hogan, Thom |date=April 13, 1981 |title=Osborne Introduces Portable Computer |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dj4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA1 |access-date=April 4, 2011 |magazine=InfoWorld |publisher=IDG |pages=1, 44 |volume=3 |issue=7}}</ref> the company sold many units before filing for bankruptcy only two years later.
|- valign="top"
| 12 August
| US
| IBM announced their [[open architecture]] [[IBM Personal Computer]].<ref name="OAPC">{{cite web|url=https://forwardthinking.pcmag.com/pc-hardware/286065-why-the-ibm-pc-had-an-open-architecture |title=Why the IBM PC Had an Open Architecture|author=Michael J. Miller|date=August 8, 2011|work=[[pcmag.com]] |quote=''"In some ways, the most far-reaching decision made by the team that built the IBM PC was to use an open architecture, rather than one that was proprietary to IBM. That decision led to the market for add-in boards, for large numbers of third party applications, and eventually to a large number of competitors all creating "IBM-compatible" machines. [[William C. Lowe|Bill Lowe]] went to IBM's Corporate Management Committee in July 1980 to propose the project"''}}</ref>  100,000 orders were taken by Christmas. The design becomes far more successful than IBM had anticipated, and becomes the basis for most of the modern personal computer industry.<ref name="OAPC"/>{{Clarify|reason=1. There is no 'computer industry'. 2. What is meant by 'becomes the basis for'?|date=June 2021}}

[[IBM Monochrome Display Adapter|MDA (Monochrome Display Adapter)]], text only, introduced with IBM PC.

[[MS-DOS]] 1.0, PC DOS 1.0.

Microsoft (known mainly for their programming languages) were commissioned by IBM to write the operating system; they bought a program called 86-DOS from Tim Paterson which was loosely based on CP/M-80. The final program from Microsoft was marketed by IBM as PC DOS and by Microsoft as MS-DOS; collaboration on subsequent versions continued until version 5.0 in 1991.

Compared to modern versions of DOS, version 1 was very basic. The most notable difference was the presence of just one directory, the root directory, on each disk. Subdirectories were not supported until version 2.0 (March 1983).

[[MS-DOS]] was the main operating system for all IBM-PC compatible computers until Microsoft released Windows 95. According to Microsoft, in 1994, MS-DOS was running on some 100 million computers worldwide.
|- valign="top"
| September
| US
| The [[TCP/IP]] protocol is established. This is the protocol that carries most of the information across the Internet.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=rfc793|url=https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc793|access-date=2021-06-28|website=datatracker.ietf.org|date=September 1981}}</ref>
|- valign="top"
| ?
| US
| [[Richard Feynman]] proposed [[quantum computer]]s.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Feynman |first1=Richard |author-link=Richard Feynman |date=June 1982 |title=Simulating Physics with Computers |url=https://people.eecs.berkeley.edu/~christos/classics/Feynman.pdf |url-status=dead |journal=International Journal of Theoretical Physics |volume=21 |issue=6/7 |pages=467–488 |bibcode=1982IJTP...21..467F |doi=10.1007/BF02650179 |s2cid=124545445 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190108115138/https://people.eecs.berkeley.edu/~christos/classics/Feynman.pdf |archive-date=8 January 2019 |access-date=28 February 2019}}</ref> The main application he had in mind was the simulation of quantum systems, but he also mentioned the possibility of solving other problems.
|- valign="top"
| ?
| US
| The [[Xerox Star|Xerox 8010 ('Star') System]], the first commercial system to use a WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus and Pointing Devices) graphic user interface. Apple incorporated many of the ideas therein in the development of the interface for the [[Apple Lisa]] (see January 1983).
|- valign="top"
| ?
| US
| [[Symbolics]] introduced the LM-2 workstation, a [[Lisp (programming language)|Lisp]]-based workstation based on the MIT CADR architecture.
|}

==1982==
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Date
! Location
! class="unsortable" | Event
|- valign="top"
|rowspan="2"| January
| UK
| Introduction of the [[BBC Micro]], announced in December 1981. Based on the [[MOS Technology 6502]] processor, it was a very popular computer for British schools up to the development of the [[Acorn Archimedes]] (in 1987). In 1984 the government offered to pay half the cost of such computers in an attempt to promote their use in secondary education.
|- valign="top"
| US
| Commodore unveils the Commodore 64 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Built in just two months around the VIC-II Video Integrated Circuit and the SID Sound Interface Device chips, the C64 used the 6510 processor to access 64K of RAM plus 16K of switchable ROM. This "epitome of the 8-bit computer" sold up to 22 million units in the next decade.
|- valign="top"
| February
| US
| On February 1 the [[Intel 80286|80286]] processor was released.<ref>{{cite web |title=CPU History - The CPU Museum - Life Cycle of the CPU |url=https://www.cpushack.com/life-cycle-of-cpu.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210720004826/https://www.cpushack.com/life-cycle-of-cpu.html |archive-date=July 20, 2021 |access-date=September 6, 2021 |website=cpushack.com}}</ref> It implements a new mode of operation, protected mode{{Snd}}allowing access to more memory (up to 16 [[megabyte|MB]] compared to 1 MB for the 8086).

At introduction the fastest version ran at 12.5&nbsp;MHz, achieved 2.7 [[Million instructions per second|MIPS]] and contained 134,000 transistors.
|- valign="top"
| March
| US
| MS-DOS 1.25, PC DOS 1.1{{Context needed|date=June 2021}}
|- valign="top"
| April
| UK
| The Sinclair [[ZX Spectrum]] was announced, released later in the year. It is based on the [[Zilog Z80|Z80]] microprocessor from [[Zilog]], running at 3.5&nbsp;MHz with an 8 color graphics display. The Spectrum sold with two memory options, a 16 [[kilobyte|KB]] version for £125 or a 48 KB version for £175.
|- valign="top"
| May
| US
| IBM launch the [[Double-sided disk|double-sided]] 320 KB floppy disk drive.
|- valign="top"
| July
| UK<br>US
| Timex/Sinclair introduced the first computer touted to cost under $100 marketed in the U.S., the [[Timex Sinclair 1000]]. In spite of the flaws in the early versions, half a million units were sold in the first 6 months alone, surpassing the sales of Apple, Tandy, and Commodore combined.
|- valign="top"
| August
| US
| The [[Commodore 64]] is released, retailing at US$595. The price rapidly dropped, creating a price war and causing the departure of numerous companies from the home computing market. Total C64 sales during its lifetime (from 1982 to 1994) are estimated at more than 17 million units{{Citation needed|date=March 2007}}<!-- link to groups.google.com/group/alt.c64/msg/d5b890f317d972fd?q=commodore+annual+report+1986&start=10&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&rnum=13 removed, not a source per [[WP:RS#Bulletin_boards.2C_wikis_and_posts_to_Usenet]]) -->, making it the best-selling computer model of all time.
|- valign="top"
| October
| US
| [[MIDI]], Musical Instrument Digital Interface, (pronounced "middy") published by International MIDI Association (IMA). The MIDI standard allows computers to be connected to instruments like keyboards through a low-bandwidth (31,250 [[bit]]/s) protocol.
|- valign="top"
| December
| US
| IBM bought 12% of Intel.
|- valign="top"
| ?
| US
| Introduction of 80186/80188.{{Clarify|reason=What do these numbers refer to?|date=June 2021}} These are rarely used in personal computers as they incorporate a built-in DMA and timer chip{{snd}}and thus have register addresses incompatible with IBM PCs.
|}

==1983==
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Date
! Location
! class="unsortable" | Event
|- valign="top"
|rowspan="2"| January 
| US
| [[Apple Inc.|Apple]] introduced its [[Apple Lisa|Lisa]]. The first mass market personal computer with a [[graphical user interface]], its development was central in the move to such systems for personal computers. The Lisa's sloth and high price ($10,000) led to its ultimate failure. The Lisa ran on a [[Motorola 68000]] microprocessor and came equipped with 1 MB of RAM, a 12-inch black-and-white monitor, dual 5¼" [[floppy disk]] drives and a 5 [[megabyte|MB]] Profile hard drive. The [[Xerox Star]]{{snd}}which included a system called [[Smalltalk]] that involved a mouse, windows, and pop-up menus{{snd}}inspired the Lisa's designers.
|- valign="top"
| US<br>[[Europe]]
| IBM PC gets European launch at Which Computer Show.
|- valign="top"
|rowspan="3"| March
| US
| [[IBM XT]] released, similar to the original [[IBM PC]] but with a hard drive. It had a 10 MB hard disk, 128 KB of RAM, one floppy drive, mono monitor and a printer, all for $5000.
|- valign="top"
| US
| [[Compaq Portable]] released, the first IBM PC compatible machine released with an IBM PC compatible BIOS written from scratch.
|- valign="top"
| US
| MS-DOS 2.0, PC DOS 2.0<br>
Introduced with the IBM XT, this version included a [[Unix]] style hierarchical sub-directory structure, and altered the way in which programs could load and access files on the disk.
|- valign="top"
|rowspan="2"| May
| US
| [[Thinking Machines Corporation]] formed.
|- valign="top"
| US
| MS-DOS 2.01
|- valign="top"
| September
| US
| [[Richard Stallman]] announces the [[GNU Project]], to create a [[free software]] alternative to [[proprietary software|proprietary]] [[Unix]]es, on [[Usenet]]. He works towards this goal over the next years, but GNU's own kernel, the [[GNU Hurd]], is delayed indefinitely and GNU only becomes a complete usable alternative to Unix with the creation of the [[Linux kernel]] in 1991.
|- valign="top"
|rowspan="2"| October
| US
| IBM released the [[IBM PCjr]] in an attempt to get further into the home market; it cost just $699. Cheaper alternatives from other companies were preferred by the home buyer, but businesses continued to buy IBM.

[[PC DOS]] 2.1 (for PCjr). Like the PCjr this was not a great success and quickly disappeared from the market.

MS-DOS 2.11, MS-DOS 2.25. Version 2.25 included support for foreign character sets, and was marketed in the Far East.
|- valign="top"
| US
| [[Microsoft Word]] software released.<ref name=ford2014>{{citation |title=The Great Works of Software |author=Paul Ford |date=April 2014 |url=https://medium.com/message/the-great-works-of-software-705b87339971 |via= [[Medium (publishing platform)|Medium]] }}</ref>
|- valign="top"
|rowspan="2"| November
| US
| [[Domain Name System]] (DNS) introduced to the Internet, which then consisted of about 1000 hosts. [http://ftp.rfc-editor.org/in-notes/rfc881.txt RFC 881] (now obsoleted by subsequent revisions)

Microsoft Windows is announced.
|- valign="top"
| US
| [[Turbo Pascal]] introduced by [[Borland]].
|- valign="top"
| December
| [[Serbia]]
| Detailed schematic diagrams for build-it-yourself computer [[Galaksija (computer)|Galaksija]] released in [[Belgrade]]. Thousands were soon assembled by computer enthusiasts.
|- valign="top"
| 1983
| US
| [[Borland]] formed.
|- valign="top"
| 1983
| Japan
| [[Epson QX-10]] released; first Japanese computer sold in the US.<ref>
"The Quintessential Computer? Epson's QX-10 hits the high-end market."
by Jim Hansen.
"Microcomputing" magazine 1983 April
</ref>
|- valign="top"
| ?
| US
| [[Lotus 1-2-3]] spreadsheet software launched.<ref name=null2007>{{citation |url=http://www.pcworld.com/article/130207/article.html?page=0 |date=April 2007 |work= [[PC World]] |location=USA |title=50 Best Tech Products of All Time |author=[[Christopher Null]] }}</ref>
|- valign="top"
| ?
| [[Italy]]
| [[Olivetti M24]] was put on sale. This personal computer had good success and was later rebranded by [[AT&T]].
|}

==1984==
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Date
! Location
! class="unsortable" | Event
|- valign="top"
|rowspan="2"| January
| UK
| [[Sinclair Research]] announced its first (and only) personal computer aimed to the business market, the [[Sinclair QL]], at an introductory price of £399. The machine was based on the [[Motorola 68008|68008]] CPU of [[Motorola]], the low-cost version of [[Motorola 68000]] with 8-bit external bus. The QL (abbreviation of Quantum Leap) did not become a market success, because of quality issues of the first series and due to the [[ZX Microdrive|Microdrive]] used as storage medium instead of the much more reliable [[Floppy disk|floppy discs]]; its development and production later caused serious financial difficulties for the company.
|- valign="top"
| US
| [[Apple Macintosh]] released, based on the 8&nbsp;MHz version of the [[Motorola 68000]] processor. The 68000 can address 16 MB of RAM, a noticeable improvement over Intel's 8088/8086 family. However the Apple achieved 0.7 MIPS and originally came with just 128 KB of RAM. It came fitted with a monochrome monitor and was the first successful mouse-driven computer with a [[Graphical user interface]]. The Macintosh included many of the Lisa's features at a much lower price: $2,500.
Applications that came as part of the package included [[MacPaint]], which made use of the mouse, and [[MacWrite]], which demonstrated WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) word processing.
|- valign="top"
| May
| US
| [[Hewlett-Packard]] release the immensely popular [[LaserJet]] printer; by 1993 they had sold over 10 million LaserJet printers and over 20&nbsp;million printers overall.{{Citation needed paragraph|date=July 2021|reason=The preceding claims need references to reliable sources.}} HP were also pioneering [[inkjet technology]].
|- valign="top"
| June
| UK
| [[Amstrad CPC]] was introduced first in Britain, later in other European markets as well. The machine was based on the popular 8 bit [[Z80]] CPU. The mainboard (i.e. the computer itself) and a cassette recorder (Datacorder) were both integrated in the keyboard. The CPC could be bought in a bundle with a monochrome (GT64) monitor for £249 or a colour (CTM640) monitor for £359. The monitor also served as the power supply to have only one plug to connect to the wall outlet. The CPC became very popular in France and Spain, and in Germany where it was marketed by [[Schneider Rundfunkwerke AG]] under its own label. In 1985 two further models (CPC 664 and 6128) with built-in 3-inch [[floppy disc drive]] were released.
|- valign="top"
| August
| US
| MS-DOS 3.0, PC DOS 3.0
Released for the IBM AT, it supported larger hard disks as well as High Density (1.2 MB) 5¼" floppy disks.
|- valign="top"
| September
| US
| Apple released a 512KB version of the Macintosh, known as the "Fat Mac".
|- valign="top"
| End
| US
| Compaq started the development of the [[Integrated drive electronics|IDE]] interface (see also 1989). This standard was designed specially for the IBM PC and can achieve high data transfer rates through a 1:1 interleave factor and caching by the actual disk controller{{snd}}the bottleneck is often the old AT bus and the drive may read data far quicker than the bus can accept it, so the cache is used as a buffer. Theoretically 1 MB/s is possible but 700 kB/s is perhaps more typical of such drives. This standard has been adopted by many other models of computer, such as the Acorn Archimedes A4000 and above. A later improvement was EIDE, laid down in 1989, which also removed the maximum drive size of 528 MB and increased data transfer rates.
|- valign="top"
| ?
| US
| [[Motorola]] released the [[Motorola 68020|68020]] processor.
|}

==1985==
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Date
! Location
! class="unsortable" | Event
|- valign="top"
| January
| US
| [[PostScript]] introduced by Adobe Systems. It is a powerful page description language used in the Apple Laserwriter printer. Adopted by IBM for their use in March 1987.
|- valign="top"
|rowspan="2"| March
| US
| MS-DOS 3.1, PC DOS 3.1
This was the first version of DOS to provide network support, and provides some new functions to handle networking.
|- valign="top"
| US
| [[Symbolics]] registered the [[symbolics.com]] domain, the first [[.com]] domain in the world.
|- valign="top"
| April
| US
| [[Expanded memory]] specification, a memory paging scheme for PCs, was introduced by Lotus and Intel.
|- valign="top"
|rowspan="3"| June
| US
| [[Commodore 128]] was released. Based on a complex multi-mode architecture, this was Commodore's last 8-bit computer. Cost: $299.95 for each of the CPU unit and accompanying 1571 disk drive.
|- valign="top"
| US
| The [[Atari ST]], an inexpensive 8&nbsp;MHz [[Motorola 68000]]-based computer, appeared. Nicknamed the "Jackintosh", after Atari owner [[Jack Tramiel]], it featured 512 KB of memory and used [[Graphics Environment Manager|GEM]] graphical interface from [[Digital Research]]. It was priced under US$1,000.
|- valign="top"
| [[USSR]]
| [[Tetris]] was written by Russian [[Alexey Pajitnov]].<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2024-06-24 |title=Anniversary: Is Tetris Really 40 This Year? |url=https://www.timeextension.com/news/2024/06/anniversary-is-tetris-really-40-this-year |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240717140506/https://www.timeextension.com/news/2024/06/anniversary-is-tetris-really-40-this-year |archive-date=2024-07-17 |access-date=2025-02-14 |website=Time Extension |language=en-GB}}</ref> It was later released for various western games machines, the crown jewel being its inclusion with Nintendo's [[Game Boy]] in 1989. Alexey made nothing from the game, since under the Communist Regime it was owned by the people. However, after the collapse of Communism he was able to move to the US where he now works for [[Microsoft]].
|- valign="top"
| July
| US
| [[Commodore International|Commodore]] released the [[Amiga]], based on a 7.16&nbsp;MHz [[Motorola 68000]] and a [[Original Amiga chipset|custom chipset]]. It was the first home computer to feature pre-emptive multitasking operating system. It used a Macintosh-like GUI. Cost: US$1,295 for a system with a single 880 KB 3.5 in disk drive and 256 KB of RAM.
|- valign="top"
| September
| UK
| [[Amstrad]] introduced [[Amstrad PCW]] 8256/8512, an 8 bit, [[Z80]] based computer system with 256 or 512 KB of RAM, dedicated to word processing and promoted as the alternative of electronic typewriters. PCW was the abbreviation of personal computer for word processing (or personal computer word processor). 8&nbsp;million PCWs were sold until 1998 when Amstrad discontinued this range of computers.
|- valign="top"
| 17 October
| US
| [[Intel 80386DX|80386 DX]] released. It supports clock frequencies of up to 33&nbsp;MHz and can address up to 4 [[gigabyte|GB]] of memory (and in theory virtual memory of up to 64 [[terabyte|TB]], which was important for marketing purposes). It also includes a bigger instruction set than the 80286.
At the date of release the fastest version ran at 20&nbsp;MHz and achieved 6.0 MIPS. It contained 275,000 transistors.
|- valign="top"
| November
| US
| [[Microsoft Windows]] launched. Not really widely used until version 3, released in 1990, Windows required DOS to run and so was not a complete operating system (until Windows 95, released on August 24, 1995). It merely provided a [[GUI]] similar to that of the Macintosh. It was so similar that Apple tried to sue Microsoft for copying the 'look and feel' of their operating system. This court case was not dropped until August 1997.
|- valign="top"
| December
| US
| MS-DOS 3.2, PC DOS 3.2
This version was the first to support 3½" disks, although only the 720 KB ones. Version 3.2 remained the standard version until 1987 when version 3.3 was released with the IBM PS/2.
|- valign="top"
| ?
| Netherlands<br>Japan
| [[CD-ROM]], invented by [[Philips]], produced in collaboration with [[Sony]].
|- valign="top"
| ?
| US
| [[Enhanced Graphics Adapter]] released.
|- valign="top"
| ?
| UK
| [[Meiko Scientific]] formed.
|}

==1986==
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Date
! Location
! class="unsortable" | Event
|- valign="top"
| January
| US
| Apple released another enhanced version of the Macintosh (the [[Macintosh Plus]] personal computer)<ref name=null2007 />{{snd}}this one could cope with 4 MB of RAM (for the first time, upgradable via [[SIMM]]s) and it had a built-in SCSI adapter based on the [[NCR 5380]].
|- valign="top"
| February
| UK
| Sinclair ZX Spectrum 128 released. It had 128 KB of RAM, but little other improvement over the original ZX (except improved sound capabilities). Later models were produced by [[Amstrad]]{{snd}}but they showed no major advances in technology.
|- valign="top"
|rowspan="2"| April
| US
| Apple released another version of the Macintosh (the [[Macintosh 512Ke]])<ref>{{cite web |title=Macintosh 512Ke: Specifications (Discontinued) (8/94) |url=http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=1970 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110516051336/http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=1970 |archive-date=16 May 2011}}</ref> equipped with a double sided 3.5 inch Floppy Disk drive.
|- valign="top"
| UK
| On April 7 it was officially announced that [[Amstrad|Amstrad Plc]] acquired the computer division of [[Sinclair Research Ltd]] including the marketing and development rights of all [[ZX Spectrum]] models and the exclusive right to use the well-known ''Sinclair'' brand itself. As ZX Spectrum still had 40% market share and CPC also had some 20%, by the merger a very strong player was established in the British home computer market.
|- valign="top"
| June
| France
| [[LISTSERV]], the first automated mailing list management application, was invented by Eric Thomas.<ref name=Manjoo2010>{{citation |url=http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2010/08/the_joy_of_listservs.html |author= Farhad Manjoo |date=August 2010 |title=The Joy of Listservs, One of the Internet's earliest innovations is still one of its best.|work= [[Slate (magazine)|Slate]] |location=USA }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.lsoft.com/products/listserv-history.asp | title=History of LISTSERV@BITNIC and LISTSERV email list management software, 1985–1995}}</ref>
|- valign="top"
|rowspan="2"| September
| UK
| [[Amstrad]] announced [[Amstrad PC1512]], a cheap and powerful PC. It had a slightly enhanced CGA graphics adapter, 512 KB RAM (upgradable to 640KB), 8086 processor (upgradable to NEC V30) and a 20 MB hard disk (optional). To ensure the computer was accessible they made sure the manuals could be read by everyone, and also included DR's GEM desktop (a WIMP system) and a mouse to try to make the machine more user friendly. It was sold in many high street shops and was bought by business and home users alike.
|- valign="top"
| Netherlands
| At the EUSPICO '86 conference the [[RIPAC (microprocessor)|RIPAC]] was presented, a microprocessor specialized for speech-recognition designed by [[CSELT]], Elsag and manufactured by [[STMicroelectronics|SGS]]. It was used for telephone dialogue-based services in Italy.
|-
|9 September
|US
|[[Compaq Deskpro 386]] was released<ref name="Duke1986">{{cite journal |last=Duke Jr. |first=Paul |date=September 9, 1986 |title=Compaq to Introduce Two Computers Using Intel's State-of-the-Art 386 Chip |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/398049612 |journal=The Wall Street Journal |publisher=Dow Jones & Company |page=1 |id={{ProQuest|398049612}} }}</ref> and is the first implementation of the 80386 processor in a computer system for sale to the public.
|- valign="top"
| November
| US
| At Comdex Las Vegas Atari invited [[Gene Mosher]] to introduce his touchscreen point of sale graphic user interface with direct manipulation widget toolkit editing, including the Atari ST's 12" CRT with a Microtouch capacitance touchscreen overlay, 320x200 resolution graphics and a 16-color bitmapped display.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Comdex_1986.png|title=English: Eugene 'Gene' Mosher photographed by Barbara Mosher at the Atari Booth, ComDex, Las Vegas, Nevada on 17 November, 1986. Shown in the photograph is ViewTouch® a Graphical Touchscreen Point of Sale software running on an Atari ST computer attached to a 12" Atari SC1224 color display which he enhanced with a MicroTouch capacitance touch screen. A Star Micronics DP8340 printer is also shown at the top of the custom wooden enclosure. The ViewTouch® widget engine used to create the application is a very early direct manipulation interface|date=September 11, 2012}}</ref>
|}

==1987==
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Date
! Location
! class="unsortable" | Event
|- valign="top"
| 2 March
| US
| Macintosh II and Macintosh SE released. The SE was based on the 68000, but could cope with 4 MB of RAM and had an internal and external SCSI adapter. It offered a high performance PDS interrupt slot which provided some of the first expandability on a Mac. The SE also offered the capability of displaying color with a third-party video card with its new ROM.

The Macintosh II was based on the newer Motorola 68020, that ran at 16&nbsp;MHz and achieved a much more respectable 2.6 MIPS (comparable to an 80286). It too had a SCSI adapter but was also fitted with a colour video adapter.
|- valign="top"
|rowspan="3"| April
| US
| On April 2 [[IBM PS/2|PS/2]] Systems were introduced by IBM. The first 4 models were released on this date. The [[IBM PS/2 Model 30|PS/2 Model 30]] based on an 8086 processor and an old XT bus, [[IBM PS/2 Model 50|Models 50]] and [[IBM PS/2 Model 60|60]] based on the 80286 processor and the [[IBM PS/2 Model 80|Model 80]] based on the 80386 processor. These used the 3½" [[floppy disk]]s, storing 1.44 MB on each (although the Model 30 could only use the low 720KB density). These systems (except the Model 30, released in September 1988) included a completely new bus, the MCA (Micro Channel Architecture) bus, which did not catch on as it did not provide support for old-style 16 bit AT bus expansion cards. The MCA bus did show many improvements in design and speed over the ISA bus most PCs used, and IBM (if no one else) still use it in some of their machines. The PS/2 models were very successful{{snd}}selling well over 2&nbsp;million machines in less than 2 years.
|- valign="top"
| US
| MS-DOS 3.3, PC DOS 3.3
Released with the IBM PS/2 this version included support for the High Density (1.44 MB) 3½" disks. It also supported hard disk partitions, splitting a hard disk into 2 or more logical drives.
|- valign="top"
| US
| [[OS/2]] Launched by Microsoft and IBM. A later enhancement, OS/2 Warp provided many of the 32 bit enhancements boasted by Windows 95{{snd}}but several years earlier, yet the product failed to dominate the market in the way Windows 95 did 8 years later.
|- valign="top"
| June
| UK
| Introduction of [[Acorn Archimedes]].<ref name="acornuser198708_risc_revealed">{{cite magazine |date=August 1987 |title=RISC revealed |url=https://archive.org/details/AcornUser061-Aug87/page/n12/mode/1up |access-date=26 April 2021 |magazine=Acorn User |pages=11}}</ref>
|- valign="top"
|rowspan="2"| August
| Canada
| AD-LIB soundcard released. Not widely supported until a software company, Taito, released several games fully supporting AD-LIB{{snd}}the word then spread how much the special sound effects and music enhanced the games.

[[Ad Lib, Inc.]], a Canadian Company, had a virtual monopoly until 1989 when the SoundBlaster card was released.
|- valign="top"
| US
| [[LIM EMS]] v4.0
|- valign="top"
| October–<br>November
| US
| Compaq DOS (CPQ-DOS) v3.31 released to cope with disk partitions &gt;32Mb. Used by some other OEMs, but not Microsoft.
|- valign="top"
| 9 December
| US
| [[Windows 2.0|Microsoft Windows 2]] released.
|- valign="top"
| ? 
| US
| [[Connection Machine]], an interesting{{Attribution needed|date=July 2021|reason=The word 'interesting' is a value judgement and cannot be used in Wikipedia's voice. It should be attributed to a source or removed.}} supercomputer which instead of integration of circuits operates up to 64,000 fairly ordinary microprocessors{{snd}}using parallel architecture{{snd}}at the same time; in its most powerful form it can do somewhere in the region of 2&nbsp;billion operations per second.
|- valign="top"
| ?
| UK
| Fractal Image Compression Algorithm invented by English mathematician [[Michael Barnsley]], allowing digital images to be compressed and stored using fractal codes rather than normal image data.
|- valign="top"
| ?
| US
| [[Motorola]] released the [[Motorola 68030|68030]] processor.
|- valign="top"
| ?
| US
| [[HyperCard]] software released.<ref name=Kirschenbaum2013>{{citation |url=http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/07/30/_10_most_influential_software_programs_of_all_time_from_sabre_to_minecraft.html |author= Matthew Kirschenbaum |date=July 2013 |title=10 Most Influential Software Programs Ever |work= [[Slate (magazine)|Slate]] |location=USA }}</ref>
|- valign="top"
| ?
| US
| Commodore released the [[Amiga 500]] and the [[Amiga 2000]]. The Amiga 500 was similar to the original [[Amiga 1000]], but in an all-in-one case with 512 KB of RAM and at a lower price. The Amiga 2000 was built in a large PC-style case and included 1 MB of RAM and [[Zorro II]] expansion slots.
|- valign="top"
| ?
| US
| [[VGA]] released (designed for the PS/2) by IBM.
|- valign="top"
| ?
| US
| [[IBM Multicolor Graphics Adapter|MCGA]] released (only for low end PS/2s, i.e. the Model 30) by IBM.
|- valign="top"
| ?
| US
| The [[IBM 8514|8514/A]] introduced by IBM. This was a graphics card that included its own processor to speed up the drawing of common objects. The advantages included a reduction in CPU workload.
|}

==1988==
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Date
! Location
! class="unsortable" | Event
|- valign="top"
| January
| Italy
| Foundation of the [[MPEG]] group by [[Leonardo Chiariglione]] and [[Hiroshi Yasuda]].
|- valign="top"
| 16 June
| US
| 80386SX was released as a cheaper alternative to the 80386DX. It had a narrower (16 bit) time multiplexed bus. This reduction in pins, and the easier integration with 16 bit devices, made the cost savings.
|- valign="top"
| July–<br>August
| US
| PC DOS 4.0, MS-DOS 4.0<br>
Version 3.4{{snd}}4.x are confusing due to lack of correlation between IBM and Microsoft and also the US and Europe. Several 'Internal Use only' versions were also produced.

This version reflected increases in hardware capabilities; it supported hard drives greater than 32 MB (up to 2 GB) and also EMS memory.

This version was not properly tested and was bug ridden, causing system crashes and loss of data. The original release was IBM's, but Microsoft's version 4.0 (in October) was no better and version 4.01 was released (in November) to correct this, then version 4.01a (in April 1989) as a further improvement. However many people could not trust this and reverted to version 3.3 while they waited for the complete re-write (version 5{{snd}}3 years later). Betas of Microsoft's version 4.0 were apparently shipped as early as 1986–1987.
|- valign="top"
| September
| US
| IBM PS/2 Model 30 286 released, based on an 80286 processor and the old AT bus{{snd}}IBM abandoned the MCA bus, released less than 18 months earlier. Other IBM machines continued to use the MCA bus.
|- valign="top"
|rowspan="2"| October
| ?
| Common Access Method committee (CAM) formed. They invented the [[Parallel ATA|ATA]] standard in March 1989.
|- valign="top"
| US
| Macintosh IIx released. It was based on a new processor, the Motorola 68030. It still ran at 16&nbsp;MHz but now achieved 3.9 MIPS. It could be expanded to 128 MB of RAM and had 6 NuBus expansions slots.
|- valign="top"
| November
| US
| [[MS-DOS 4.01]], PC DOS 4.01<br>
This corrected many of the bugs seen in version 4.0, but many users simply switched back to version 3.3 and waited for a properly re-written and fully tested version{{snd}}which did not come until version 5 in June 1991. Support for disk partitions &gt;32 MB. 
|- valign="top"
| ?
| ?
| First [[Optical computing|optical chip]] developed, it uses light instead of electricity to increase processing speed.
|- valign="top"
| ?
| ?
| [[Extended memory|XMS]] Standard introduced.
|- valign="top"
| ?
| ?
| [[Extended Industry Standard Architecture|EISA]] Bus standard introduced.
|- valign="top"
| ?
| US
| [[Write once read many|WORM]] (Write Once Read Many times){{snd}}disks marketed for first time by IBM.
|- valign="top"
| ?
| US
| [[Adobe Photoshop]] software created.<ref name=Kirschenbaum2013 />{{clarify|date=June 2021|reason=Began development or released?}}
|}

==1989==
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Date
! Location
! class="unsortable" | Event
|- valign="top"
| January
| US
| [[Apple Computer]] released [[Macintosh SE/30]]. Like the SE of March 1987 it only had a [[monochrome]] [[display adapter]] but was fitted with the newer 68030 processor.
|- valign="top"
| March
| ?
| Command set for [[E-IDE]] [[disk drive]]s was defined by CAM (formed Oct. 1988).{{citation needed|date=May 2012}} This supports drives over 528 [[megabyte|MB]] in size. Early controllers often imposed a limit of 2.1 [[gigabyte|GB]], then later ones 8.4GB. Newer controllers support much higher capacities. Drives greater in size than 2.1GB must be [[drive partition|partition]]ed under [[DOS]] since the drive structure (laid down in MS-DOS 4) used by DOS and even [[Windows 95]] prevents partitions bigger than 2.1 GB. EIDE controllers also support the [[ATAPI]] interface that is used by most [[CD-ROM]] drives produced after its introduction. Newer implementations to EIDE, designed for the [[PCI bus]], can achieve data transfer at up to 16.67 [[MB/s]]. A later enhancement, called [[UDMA]], allows transfer rates of up to 33.3 MB/s.
|- valign="top"
| March
| US
| The [[Macintosh IIcx]] released, with the same basic capabilities of the [[Macintosh IIx]] but in a more compact half-width case.
|- valign="top"
| March
| [[Switzerland]]
| [[Tim Berners-Lee]] submitted a memorandum, titled "''Information Management: A Proposal''" to the management at [[CERN]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Berners-Lee |first1=Tim |title=Information Management: A Proposal |url=https://www.w3.org/History/1989/proposal.html |access-date=16 February 2025 |website=w3.org |publisher=The World Wide Web Consortium |archive-date=1 April 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100401051011/https://www.w3.org/History/1989/proposal.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The proposal talks of "...  a "web" of notes with links (like references) between them ...".

Tim Berners-Lee submitted a further proposal on 12 November 1990 which coined the term [[World Wide Web|WorldWideWeb]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Berners-Lee |first1=Tim |author-link1=Tim Berners-Lee |last2=Cailliau |first2=Robert |author-link2=Robert Cailliau |date=12 November 1990 |title=WorldWideWeb: Proposal for a HyperText Project |url=http://w3.org/Proposal.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150502080527/http://www.w3.org/Proposal.html |archive-date=2 May 2015 |access-date=16 February 2025}}</ref>
|- valign="top"
| 10 April
| US
| [[80486DX]] released by [[Intel]]. It contains the equivalent of about 1.2&nbsp;million [[transistors]]. At the time of release the fastest version ran at 25&nbsp;MHz and achieved up to 20 [[Million instructions per second|MIPS]].

Later versions, such as the DX/2 and DX/4 versions achieved internal clock rates of up to 120 [[MHz]].
|- valign="top"
| July-October
| US
| The [[Video Electronics Standards Association]], an industry consortium of major [[SVGA]] card manufacturers, was formed and introduced the [[VESA BIOS Extensions]] standard.<ref name="CA SOS VESA Entity Detail">{{cite web|title=Business Entity Detail: Video Electronics Standards Association|url=http://kepler.sos.ca.gov|author=California Secretary of State|author-link=Secretary of State of California|id=Entity Number C1645094|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150315010639/http://kepler.sos.ca.gov/|archive-date=March 15, 2015|access-date=July 4, 2022|df=mdy-all}}To retrieve the information, search for Entity Number C1645094.</ref>
|- valign="top"
| September
| US
| [[Apple Computer]] [[Macintosh IIci]] released based on a faster version of the 68030{{snd}}now running at 25&nbsp;MHz, and achieved 6.3 MIPS. Apple also released the [[Macintosh Portable]]{{snd}}the first [[notebook computer]] Mac, which went back to the original 68000 processor (but now ran it at 16&nbsp;MHz to achieve 1.3 MIPS). It had a [[monochrome display]].
|- valign="top"
| November
| [[Singapore]]
| Release of [[Sound Blaster Card]], by [[Creative Labs]], its success was ensured by maintaining compatibility with the widely supported [[AdLib]] [[soundcard]] of 1987.
|- valign="top"
| ?
| US
| [[Lotus Notes]] software launched.<ref name=Kirschenbaum2013 />
|- valign="top"
| ?
| US
| [[Open Architecture System Integration Strategy]] is presented by [[Apple Computer]] as the philosophy behind the Mac in marketing beginning in 1989.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Tebbutt |first=David |date=1989 |title=Apple philosophy is an Oasis for users |url=http://tebbo.com/archive/pd890701.htm |access-date=2025-02-14 |website=tebbo.com}}</ref>
|}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20010605232405/http://www.ox.compsoc.net/~swhite/history.html ''A Brief History of Computing''], by Stephen White. The present article is a modified version of his timeline, used with permission.
{{Timelines of computing}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Timeline Of Computing 1980-1989}}
[[Category:Computing timelines|1980]]
[[Category:1980s in computing| 01]]
[[Category:1980s in technology|C01]]