Computer history - 1971
Major computer events in 1971
Intel with the help of Ted Hoff introduced the first microprocessor, the Intel 4004 on November 15, 1971. The 4004 had 2,300 transistors, performed 60,000 OPS (operations per second), addressed 640 bytes of memory, and cost $200.00. Intel also introduced the 4-bit bus.
First edition of Unix released on November 03, 1971. The first edition of the Unix PROGRAMMER'S MANUAL by Ken Thompson and Dennis M. Ritchie is released. It includes over 60 commands like: b (compile B program); boot (reboot system); cat (concatenate files); chdir (change working directory); chmod (change access mode); chown (change owner); cp (copy file); ls (list directory contents); mv (move or rename file); roff (run off text); wc (get word count); who (who is one the system). The main thing missing was pipes.
Other computer events in 1971
The term Silicon Valley appeared in print for the first time on January 11, 1971, in Electronic News by journalist Don Hoefner.
Ray Tomlinson sends the first e-mail, the first messaging system to send messages across a network to other users.
Bob Bemer published world's first warning on the Year 2000 problem in 1971.
While at Intel, Dov Frohman invents and patents (#3,660,819) the EPROM.
The first laser printer is developed at Xerox PARC, and Alan Kay sketches the first concepts of what today we consider a tablet computer.
In 1971, a UHF wireless packet network was used in Hawaii, called ALOHAnet, to connect the islands. This development helped create the foundation to wireless networking, and later the birth of Wi-Fi.
FTP was first purposed on April 16, 1971, by Abhay Bhushan of MIT in RFC 114.
Steve Wozniak and Bill Fernandez develop a computer called the Cream Soda Computer.
LSI (large-scale integration) chips begin being developed.
Memristor is first theorized by Leon Chua.
The first microcontroller was created by Texas Instruments engineer Gary Boone in 1971.
The computer gets a voice, IBM introduces its first speech recognition program capable of recognizing about 5,000 words. IBM also develops an experimental terminal that prints computer responses in Braille for the blind.
In 1971, Mario Cardullo developed the first predecessor to today's RFID (radio frequency identification) devices.
The IBM System/370 Model 195 is announced, the most powerful computer to date in IBM's product line. By year end, more than 1,300 System/370 deliveries are made worldwide.
IBM introduced the 3410 magnetic tape subsystem
IBM released the 3670 brokerage communications system
IBM introduced the 2730 transaction validation terminal for checking credit at point of sale
IBM released the "Selectric" II Typewriter with dual pitch
IBM introduced the Communicating Mag Card "Selectric" Typewriter.
New computer products and services introduced in 1971
Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney create the first arcade game called "Computer Space" in 1971.
The first 8" floppy diskette drive and floppy diskette was introduced in 1971.
Project Gutenberg was founded in 1971 with a reproduction of the Declaration of Independence.
Schadt and Helfrich developed twisted nematic in 1971.
The Unix ed command was introduced in 1971.
Niklaus Wirth invented the Pascal programming language in 1971.
A B-tree is a variation of a binary tree that was invented by Rudolf Bayer and Ed McCreight at Boeing Labs in 1971.
Computer companies founded in 1971
Luanne Johnson founded Argonaut Information Systems to sell payroll and accounts payable software in 1971.
Datatronics was founded in 1971.
Delta Electronics was founded in 1971 by Bruce Cheng.
Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney founded an engineering firm, Syzygy Engineering in 1971.
SMC was founded in 1971.
Computer pioneers born in 1971
Becky Worley was born on February 4, 1971.
Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971.
Julian Assange was born on July 3, 1971.
Marc Andreessen was born on July 9, 1971.
Sky Dayton was born on August 8, 1971.
Computer pioneer deaths in 1971
Philo Farnsworth passed away on March 11, 1971 (Age: 64).
Wallace Eckert passed away on August 24, 1971 (Age: 69).