- Timeline of computing 1990–present
This article presents a timeline of events in the history of computing from 1990 to the present. For a narrative explaining the overall developments, see the related history of computers and history of computer science.
Computing timelines: 2400 BC-1949, 1950-1979, 1980-1989, 1990-present
1990
* Consortium of major SVGA card manufactures (called Video Electronic Standard Association, VESA) was formed and then introduced VESA SVGA Standard.
* Motorola released the 68040.
1993
* Commercial providers were allowed to sell internet connections to individuals. Its use exploded, especially with the new interface provided by the World-Wide Web (see 1989) and NCSA Mosaic.
* First web magazine, "The Virtual Journal", is published but fails commercially.
* "Doom" was released by id Software. The PC began to be considered as a serious games playing machine. This was reinforced by another release in 1993 - "Sam and Max Hit the Road".
* Novell purchased Digital Research, DR-DOS became Novell DOS.
1994
* Several major PC games are released, such as "Command & Conquer", "Alone in the Dark 2", "Theme Park", "Magic Carpet", "Descent" and "Little Big Adventure". Other, less significant releases for the PC included "", "Full Throttle" and "Terminal Velocity". This success of the PC as a games platform was partly due to and partly a cause of significantly increased PC ownership among the 'general public' during the early/mid 1990s. This also reflected the rapidly increasing quality of games available for the PC, as well as the diversity of games available on the platform. The advent of 3D graphics cards from VideoLogic(PowerVR) and 3Dfx helped the platform's games status further.
* Peter Shor devises an algorithm which lets quantum computers determine the factorization of large integers quickly. This is the first interesting problem for which quantum computers promise a significant speed-up, and it therefore generates a lot of interest in quantum computers.
* DNA computing "proof of concept" on toy travelling salesman problem; a method for input/output still to be determined.
* Netscape Navigator 1.0 was written as an alternative browser to NCSA Mosaic.
* Motorola released the 68060 processor.
March 7
* Intel released the 90 & 100 MHz versions of the Pentium Processor.
March 14
* Linus Torvalds released version 1.0 of the Linux kernel.
April 29
* Commodore International declares bankruptcy. Commodore's assets were eventually sold to German PC manufacturer ESCOM in 1995.
eptember
* PC-DOS 6.3 Basically the same as version 5.0 this release by IBM included more bundled software, such as Stacker (the program that caused Microsoft so much embarrassment) and anti-virus software.
October 10
* Intel releases the 75 MHz version of the Pentium Processor.
1995
March
* Linus released Linux Kernel v1.2.0 (Linux'95).
March 27
* Intel releases the 120 MHz version of the Pentium processor.
May 23
* Sun Microsystems first announces Java at the SunWorld conference.
June 1
* Intel releases the 133 MHz version of the Pentium processor.
eptember 1
* Sony releases its first Playstation - To date, over 100 million have been sold.
October 3
* Be Inc. launch the BeBox, featuring two PowerPC 603 processors running at 66 MHz, and running their new operating system BeOS.
November 1
* Pentium Pro released. At introduction it achieved a clock speed of up to 200 MHz (there were also 150, 166 and 180 MHz variants released on the same date), and was the first product built around Intel's P6 architecture, later used in the Pentium II, Pentium III, Pentium M, Core and Core 2 processors. It achieves 440 MIPs and contains 5.5 million transistors - this is nearly 2400 times as many as the first microprocessor, the 4004 - and capable of 70,000 times as many instructions per second.
November 6
*3dfx releases Voodoo, the first consumer 3D accelerator, capable of rendering scenes in real time and in high resolution. QuakeGL (a GL port of Quake) is the first popular game utilising this new technology. Other games soon follow, including Tomb Raider. [http://groups.google.com/group/comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.video/msg/06c0465eaa2c0261?dmode=source&hl=en]
December
* JavaScript development announced by Netscape.
December 28
* CompuServe blocked access to over 200 sexually explicit Usenet newsgroups, partly to avoid confrontation with the German government. Access to all but 5 was restored on 13 February 1996.
1996
* Quake released - representing the dramatic increases in both software and hardware technology since Doom, of 3 years previous. Other notable releases included "Civilization 2", "Command & Conquer - Red Alert", "Grand Prix 2" and "Tomb Raider". On the more controversial front "Battle Cruiser 3000" was also released, but its advertising had to be censored.
January
* Netscape Navigator 2.0 released. First browser to support JavaScript.
* Windows 95 OSR2 (OEM System Release 2) was released - partly to fix bugs found in release 1 - but only to computer retailers for sale with new systems. There were actually two separated releases of Windows 95 OSR2 before the introduction of Windows '98, the second of which contained both USB and FAT32 support - the main selling points of Windows '98. FAT32 is a new filing system that provides support for disk partitions bigger than 2.1 GB and is better at coping with large disks (especially in terms of wasted space).
January 4
* Intel released 150 and 166 MHz versions of the Pentium Processor.
April 17
* Toshiba released the Libretto sub-notebook. With a volume of 821.1 cm³ and a weight of just 840 g, it was the smallest PC compatible computer to be released.
June 9
* Linux 2.0 released. 2.0 was a significant improvement over the earlier versions: it was the first to support multiple architectures (originally developed for the Intel 386 processor, it now supported Digital's Alpha architecture and would very soon support the SPARC architecture in addition to many others). It was also the first stable kernel to support SMP, kernel modules, and much more.
July 4
* Hotmail, founded by Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith, is commercially launched on Independence Day in the United States, symbolically representing "freedom" from Internet service providers. (Hotmail is now owned and operated by Microsoft.)
July 14
* The first public release of Opera, version 2.1 for Windows.
October 6
* Intel released the 200 MHz version of the Pentium Processor.
December
*id Software releases QuakeWorld, a version of Quake designed for Internet multiplayer games. A number of innovativeFact|date=August 2008 features such as movement prediction make the game playable even over low-speed and high-latency Internet connections.
1997
* Tim Berners-Lee awarded the Institute of Physics' 1997 Duddell Medal for inventing the World Wide Web (see 1989).
* "Grand Theft Auto" and "Quake 2" were released while Lara Croft returned in "Tomb Raider 2". As the standards for graphics kept increasing, 3d graphics cards were beginning to become mandatory for game players.
January 8
* Intel released Pentium MMX (originally 166 and 200 MHz versions), for games and multimedia enhancement. To most people MMX is simply another 3-letter acronym and people wearing coloured suits on Intel ads, and to programmers it meant an even further expanded instruction set that provides, amongst other functions, enhanced 64-bit support - but software needs to be specially written to work with the new functions. A major rival clone, the AMD-K6-MMX containing a similar instruction set, caused a legal challenge from Intel on the right to use the trademarked name MMX — it was not upheld.
May 11
* IBM's Deep Blue became the first computer to beat a reigning World Chess Champion, Garry Kasparov, in a full chess match. The computer had played him previously — losing 5/6 games in February 1996.
May 7
* Intel releases the Pentium II processor (233, 266 and 300 MHz versions). The Pentium II features a larger on-chip cache as well as an expanded instruction set.
June 2
* Intel releases the 233 MHz Pentium MMX.
August 6
* After 18 months of losses Apple Computer was in serious financial trouble. Microsoft invested in Apple, buying 100,000 non-voting shares worth $150 million — a decision not approved of by many Apple owners. One of the conditions was that Apple was to drop the long running court case — attempting to sue Microsoft for copying the look and feel of their operating system when designing Windows.
eptember
* Internet Explorer 4.0 was released.
1998
January
* Compaq Computer Corporation announces pending acquisition of Digital Equipment Corporation for $9.6 billion.
February
* Intel released the 333 MHz Pentium II processor. Code-named Deschutes, these processors used the new 0.25 micrometre manufacturing process, which allowed them to run faster and generate less heat.
March
* Be Inc. released BeOS R3. This was the first version of BeOS to be available for x86 PCs as well as PowerMacs.
April
* A U.S. court has finally banned the long-running practice of "cybersquatting" or buying domain names relating to trademarks and then selling them for extortionate prices to the companies who own the trademark. The case was based around a man from Illinois who bought panavision.com in 1995 and tried to sell it for $13,000. The current going commercial rate for domain name registration is around $100.
May
* Apple announces the iMac, an All-in-One with integral 15 inch (381 mm) multiscan monitor, 24x CDROM, 2x available USB ports, 56 kbit/s modem, 2 stereo speakers, and Ethernet but no floppy drive. It was encased in translucent Bondi Blue and Ice plastic. Quantity shipping began in August. Designed by Jonathan Ive, it was the model that put Apple back on the road to profitability.
June 25
* Microsoft released Windows 98. Some U.S. attorneys tried to block its release since the new O/S interlaces with other programs such as Microsoft Internet Explorer and so effectively closes the market of such software to other companies. Microsoft has fought back with a letter to the White House suggesting that 26 of its industry allies say that a delay in the release of the new O/S could damage the U.S. economy. The main selling points of Windows '98 were its support for USB and its support for disk partitions greater than 2 GB with FAT32 (although FAT32 was actually released with Windows 95 OSR2).
eptember
* Upstart eMachines announces two home PCs priced at $399 and $499, creating the sub-$600 market and launching a price war. Within four months, the new company becomes the #5 computer maker at retail.
1999
January 25
* Linux Kernel 2.2.0 released. The number of people running Linux is estimated at over 10 million, making it not only an important operating system in the Unix world, but an increasingly important one in the PC world.
February 22
AMD releases a K6-III clocked at 400 MHz and a 450 MHz version for OEMs. It contains approximately 23 million transistors, and is requires motherboards using the Super Socket 7 socket, which supports a 100 MHz front side bus (FSB), an improvement over AMD's previous chips that used a 66 MHz FSB. The use of a 100 MHz FSB brought technological equivalency with the 100 MHz FSB featured on the Intel Pentium II.
August 31
* Apple releases the PowerMac G4. It's powered by the PowerPC G4 chip from Motorola. Available in 400 MHz, 450 MHz and 500 MHz versions, Apple claimed it to be the first personal computer to be capable of over one billion floating-point operations per second.
November 29
* AMD releases an Athlon clocked at 750 MHz.
December 2
*Quake III Arena, an exclusively multiplayer first-person shooter, is released by id Software. A number of other multiplayer-only titles soon follow, including Unreal Tournament and .
2000
January 14
* US Government announce restrictions on exporting cryptography are relaxed (although not removed). This allows many US companies to stop the long running process of having to create US and international copies of their software.
January 19
* Transmeta releases the Crusoe microprocessor. The Crusoe was intended for laptops and consumed significantly less electricity than most microprocessors of the time, while providing comparable performance to the mid-range Pentium II microprocessors. Transmeta and Crusoe, new competitors to Intel and their products, initially appeared exciting and promising.
February 17
* Official Launch of Windows 2000 - Microsoft's replacement for Windows 95/98 and Windows NT. Claimed to be faster and more reliable than previous versions of Windows. It is actually a descendant of the NT series, and so the trade-off for increased reliability is that it won't run some old DOS-based games. To keep the home market happy Microsoft has also released Windows ME, the newest member of the 95/98 series.
March
* Be Inc. released BeOS R5 for PowerPC and x86, which was the first release of BeOS for x86 to have a freely downloadable version which could be fully installed on a user's hard drive.
March 4
* Sony releases the PlayStation 2.
March 6
* AMD released an Athlon clocked at 1.0 GHz.
March 8
* Intel releases very limited supplies of the 1 GHz Pentium III chip.
June 20
* British Telecom (BT) claim the rights to hyperlinks on the basis of a US patent granted in 1989. Similar patents in the rest of the world have now expired. Their claim is widely believed to be absurd since Ted Nelson wrote about hyperlinks in 1965, and this is where Tim Berners Lee says he got the ideas for the World Wide Web from. This is just another in the line of similar incredible cases — for example amazon.com's claim to have patented '1-click ordering'.
eptember 6
* RSA Security Inc. released their RSA algorithm into the public domain, in advance of the US patent (#4,405,829) expiring on the 20th Sept. of the same year. Following the relaxation of the US government restrictions earlier in the year (January 14) this removed one of the last barriers to the world-wide distribution of much software based on cryptographic systems. It should be noted that the IDEA algorithm is still under patent and also that government restrictions still apply in some places.
November
* Intel releases the Pentium 4
2001
January 4
* Linux kernel version 2.4.0 released.
March 24
* Apple released Mac OS X. At its heart is "Darwin", an Open Source operating system based on BSD. Mac OS X finally gave Mac users the stability benefits of a protected memory architecture along many other enhancements, such as pre-emptive multitasking. The BSD base also makes porting Unix applications to Mac OS easier and gives Mac users a full-featured command line interface alongside their GUI.
October 25
*Microsoft released Windows XP, based on Windows 2000 and Windows NT kernel.
2002
May 30
* United Linux officially formed.
2003
February
*nVidia releases GeForce FX, a family of DirectX 9.0-compatible 3D cards with extensive support for pixel and vertex shaders. With this new product nVidia makes an emphasis on image quality, proclaiming a "dawn of cinematic computing", illustrated with the popular Dawn demo utilising extremely realistic skin and wing shaders.
March 6
* SCO Group announces it will sue IBM for 1 billion US dollars. The claim is that Linux contains code inserted by IBM that was the copyrighted property of SCO.
December 17
* Linux kernel version 2.6.0 is released.
2004
November 9
*Mozilla Firefox 1.0 released, Microsoft Internet Explorer's biggest competitor since Netscape Navigator.
April 14
*nVidia releases GeForce 6800, claiming it is the biggest leap in graphics technology the company ever made. Independent reviews show more than 100% increase in productivity compared with the fastest card on the market. Continuing the tradition, nVidia demonstrates Nalu, a mermaid with extremely realistic hair. A few weeks later nVidia's main rival ATi announces X800 with nearly the same level of performance and feature support. The card is showcased by the Ruby demo, delivering a smooth real-time rendering of what was previously in the exclusive realm of prerendered cinematics. [http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_12687.html]
October 20
*Infineon Technologies pleads guilty to charges of DRAM price fixing, resulting in a $160 million fine. Hynix Semiconductor, Samsung and Elpida would later plead guilty to the same.
2005
February 26
* Jef Raskin, who in 1979 envisioned and established the Apple Macintosh project at Apple Computer, dies at the age of 61.
April 29
* Apple Computer releases Mac OS X v10.4 for the Apple Macintosh at 6:00PM (Pacific Time).
June 1
* AMD starts shipping their first dual-core 64-bit desktop processor, the Athlon 64 X2.
June 6
* Apple announces they are going to use Intel processors in upcoming Macintosh computers. [http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2005/jun/06intel.html]
July 22
* Microsoft announces their next consumer operating system, Windows Vista, to be released in early 2007.
2006
January 10
* Apple Computer introduces the MacBook Pro, their first Intel-based, dual-core mobile computer, as well as an Intel-based iMac.
July 27
* Intel introduces the Core 2 processors, marking the retirement of Intel's Pentium brand name.
June 19
*Researchers create experimental processor that delivers 350 GHz at room temperature. [http://www.technewsworld.com/story/51228.html] [http://www.news.com/Chip+breaks+speed+record+in+deep+freeze/2100-1006_3-6085568.html]
September 26
*Intel announces plans for an 80-core processor that would exceed 1 TFLOP, planned to be available in 2011. [http://www.news.com/2100-1006_3-6119618.html]
November 17
*Sony releases the Playstation 3.
November 19
*Nintendo releases The Wii.
2007
January 30
* Microsoft Corporation launches Windows Vista more than 5 years after their last major, new operating system, Windows XP, was released.
October 26
* Apple launches Mac OS X (10.5) with built in file navigation features aimed at boosting productivity.
ee also
* Computing timelines: 2400 BC-1949, 1950-1979, 1980-1989, 1990-present...
*Informational Revolution
*Programming language timeline
*Operating systems timeline
*History of the graphical user interface
*History of the Internet
External links
* [http://ox.compsoc.net/~swhite/history.html "A Brief History of Computing,"] by Stephen White. An excellent computer history site; the present article is a modified version of his timeline, used with permission.
Wikimedia Foundation.
2010.
