History of the Minicomputer
The minicomputer lasted from 1960 through 1980. Its purpose was to offer a cost-efficient alternative to room size mainframe computers. It was a third generation computer technology that served as an interim size and solution between mainframes and the personal computer. Eventually the minicomputer was replaced by the microprocessor.
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Earlier Inventions
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Before the invention of minicomputers, two major inventions paved its way. The transistor, developed by Bell Labs in 1947 and the integrated circuit of the late 1950s, improved the efficiency and reduced the size of electronic components. The integrated circuit was first introduced in 1958 by Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments. It was further developed on silicon six months later by Robert Noyce, co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor.
Core Memory
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Core memory was introduced in the late 1940s by An Wang, whose patent was later bought by IBM. The fact that electric current can move in one direction or another, led to the idea that a bit could be stored as 0 or 1. One other invention that opened the door for the minicomputer was Jay Forrester's development of a system that allowed a large group of wires to be controlled by a small group of wires.
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Early Minicomputer
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The minicomputer first hit the market in 1960 with Digital Equipment's PDP-1, which sold for $120,000.
The model name stood for "program, data, processor." It was the first commercial computer that came with a monitor and keyboard. This machine bridged the evolution from room size mainframes to personal computers.
Moore's Law
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In 1965 Gordon Moore, a Fairchild Semiconductor research leader, published his idea about how the number of transistors that can be put on a chip would continue to grow over time. His article appeared in April in Electronics Magazine. Moore wrote about how transistor density on chips would double every year for the next decade. Later he revised the prediction, known as Moore's Law, to doubling every year and a half.
Random Access Memory
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Dr. Robert Dennard of IBM was granted a patent in 1968 for an invention that paved the way for Random Access Memory, also known as RAM. His invention was a one-transistor DRAM (dynamic RAM) cell, which led to the three-transistor cell. DRAM went on to be the solution for short-term data storage.
Semiconductor Industry
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In 1968, Gordon Moore co-founded Intel with Robert Noyce, who became known as the "father of Silicon Valley." At first Intel made memory chips but then shifted its focus on microprocessors. Chip competitors in the late 1960s included Tandy, which owned Radio Shack, Texas Instruments and AMD.
Early Personal Computers
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In December 1968, Stanford Research Institute scientist Douglas C. Engelbard demonstrated a computer system that included a mouse, keyboard, keypad, windows, word processor and a hypertext system for linking files at the Fall Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco. The following year Intel produced the first microprocessor, which contained more than 2,000 transistors on a chip smaller than a finger nail. A wave of hand-held calculators was followed by personal computers hitting the market in 1976 with the Apple I.
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