Essay On Personal Computer

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Recommended: Brief history about personal computers

It was January of 1975 when the first personal computer Altair 8800 was invented by an ex air force officer from Georgia, Ed Roberts. His motivation was his interest of having a personal computer to play with, since computer back then was scarce and was difficult to come across. The Altair 8800 was invented in Albuquerque New Mexico where Ed Roberts was running his calculator business called MITS. It was believed that Ed Robert’s Altair was the spark that started the fire, and gave personal computer a chance to be seen in everyone’s desk. Ed Roberts used a microprocessor (8080), to launch Altair, a chip that he got from Intel, the creator of chips, chips that they saw as useful only for calculators and traffic lights, but Ed Robert’s saw more. Microprocessor was a technological breakthrough that made personal computer possible, without it, the first personal computer would have never existed. Altair did basic computing, but it was a pain to use. Keying in data and instructions strenuously by flipping switches, that was really all that the Altair could do. So, those who had interest in technology decided to form a club called the “Homebrew Computer Club” at Stanford University in Silicon Valley , mainly to talk about computer, and how they could improve it. For Ed Roberts building more innovative personal computer was not the path that he chose to continue on doing, rather he sold his company MITS and pursue doctorate in his hometown, Georgia.

At the very same time that the hobbyist who shared common interest in computers were trying to figure out the next best thing after Altair, Paul Allen and Bill Gates, high school buddies and the founder of Microsoft, whom also were fascinated by technology wrote Basics, the first personal ...

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...as standing before.

The next step after developing a working pc is to make it computer friendly. Graphical user interface (GUI) is the perfect tool to make pc easier to use; using pictures, rather than words.

Xerox was the original creator of GUI, having created the Xerox Alto in 1973, where graphical user interface and laser printer originated. It was the year 1971 when Xerox decided to form Palo Alto research center, the goal was to dominate paperless office of the future. Bob Taylor, former head of the computer science lab in Xerox Parc, Larry Tesler and Adele Goldberg, former Xerox Parc researchers, and lastly John Warnock, co-founder of adobe system, also a member in Xerox Parc are the people who made Macintosh and Windows happen. They are the reason that made using computer user friendly, and they also made printer print exactly how you want it to look.

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