A Brief History of Computing between 1990 and 1999
1990
Consortium of major SVGA card manufactures (called Video Electronic Standard Association, VESA) was formed and then introduced VESA SVGA Standard.
1990 - March
Macintosh IIfx released. Based on a 40 MHz version of the 68030 it achieved 10 MIPs. It also featured a faster SCSI adapter, which could transfer 3.0 Mb/sec.
1990 - May 22
Introduction of Windows 3.0 by Bill Gates & Microsoft. It is true multitasking (or pretends to be on computers less than an 80386, by operating in 'Real' mode) system. It maintained compatibility with MS-DOS, on an 80386 it even allows such programs to multitask - which they were not designed to do. This created a real threat to the Macintosh and despite a similar product, IBM's OS/2, it was very successful. Various improvements were made, versions 3.1, 3.11 - but the next major step did not come until Windows '95 in 1995 which combined technology from Windows 3.x with that from Windows NT (a 32-bit operating system, mainly used for file-servers).
1990 - October
Macintosh Classic released, an identical replacement to the Macintosh Plus of January 1986. Also came the Macintosh IIsi which ran a 68030 processor at 20 MHz to achieve 5.0 MIPs, and also a 256 colour video adapter.
1990 - November
Macintosh LC released. This ran a 68020 processor at 16 MHz to achieve 2.6 MIPs, it had a slightly improved SCSI adapter and a 256 colour video adapter.
1990 - November
MPC (Multimedia PC) Level 1 specification published by a council of companies including Microsoft and Creative Labs. This specified the minimum standards for a Multimedia IBM PC. The MPC level 1 specification originally required a 80286/12 MHz PC, but this was later increased to a 80386SX/16 MHz computer as an 80286 was realised to be inadequate. It also required a CD-ROM drive capable of 150 KB/sec (single speed) and also of Audio CD output. Companies can, after paying a fee, use the MPC logo on their products.
1990 - November
ATA spec. final proposal submitted to ANSI.
1991
Introduction of ISA standard, although it was simply called the AT bus until after competing standards were launched that needed differentiating.
1991
Borland took over Ashton-Tate Corporation & the Dbase program used by many businesses and individuals.
1991 - April 22
80486 SX released as cheaper alternative to 80486 DX - the key difference being the lack of an integrated F.P.U. The authors family used this opportunity to replace their Amstrad PC 1512 with a new machine in August 1991. It cost £1210.26 and had a 20 MHz 486sx, 4 Mb of RAM. a 212 Mb IDE hard disk, and a 1 Mb SVGA card. It ran MS-DOS 5.00 and Windows 3.1 (at up to 1024x768x256 colours). It was soon upgraded to 8 MB of RAM and 500 MB hard disk, then a Sound Card and triple speed CD-ROM were added.
1991 - May
Introduction of Sound Blaster Pro.
1991 - June
MS-DOS 5.0PC-DOS 5.0
In order to promote OS/2 Bill Gates took every opportunity after it's release to say 'DOS is dead', however the development of DOS 5.0 lead to the permanent dropping of OS/2 development. This version, after the mess of version 4, was properly tested through the distribution of Beta versions to over 7,500 users. This version included the ability to load device drivers and TSR programs above the 640KB boundary (into UMBs and the HMA), freeing more RAM for programs. This version marked the end of collaboration between Microsoft and IBM on DOS.
1992
"Windows NT addresses 2 Gigabytes of RAM which is more than any application will ever need". Microsoft on the development of Windows NT
1992
Introduction of CD-I launched by Phillips.
1992 - April
Introduction of Windows 3.1
1992 - May
Wolfenstein 3D released by Id Software Inc.
1992 - June
Sound Blaster 16 ASP Introduced.
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.
1993
Doom was released by Id Software Inc. 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".
1993
Novell purchased Digital Research, DR-DOS became Novell DOS.
1993 - March 22
Pentium released. At the time it was only available in 60 & 66 MHz versions which achieved up to 100 MIPs, with over 3.1 million transistors.
1993 - May
MPC Level 2 specification introduced (see November 1990). This was designed to allow playback of a 15 fps video in a window 320x240 pixels. The key difference is the requirement of a CD-ROM drive capable of 300KB/sec (double speed). Also with Level 2 is the requirement for products to be tested by the MPC council, making MPC Level 2 compatibility a stamp of certification.
1993 - December
MS-DOS 6.0. This included a Hard-Disk compression program called DoubleSpace, but a small computing company called 'Stac' claimed that DoubleSpace was partly a copy of their Compression Program, Stacker. After paying damages Microsoft withdrew DoubleSpace from MS-DOS 6.2, releasing a new program - DriveSpace - with MS-DOS version 6.22. In operation and programming interface DriveSpace remains virtually identical to DoubleSpace. MS-DOS 6.22 remains the last version of MS-DOS released, since Microsoft turned its efforts to Windows '95.Windows '95 DOS shell reports itself as DOS 7 - and includes a few enhancements, e.g. support for long filenames. N.B. The DOS shell in Windows '95 reports itself as version 7.0, Windows '95 OSR2 reports 7.10.
1994 - March 7
Intel Release the 90 & 100 MHz versions of the Pentium Processor.
1994 - September
PC-DOS 6.3
1994 - October 10
Intel Release the 75 MHz version of the Pentium Procesor. 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.
1994
Doom II released. This reflected the rapidly increasing quality of games available for the PC - an opinion supported by other major releases in 1994, such as "Alone in the Dark 2", "Theme Park", "Magic Carpet" and "Little Big Adventure" which also helped demonstrate the diversity of games available on the platform. This success of the PC as a games platform was partly due to and partly a cause of significantly increase PC ownership among the 'general public' during the early/mid 1990s.
1994
Netscape 1.0 was written as an alternative browser to NCSA Mosaic.
1994
Command & Conquer released. Other (less significant releases) for the PC included Star Trek 'The Next Generation', Full Throttle, Descent and Terminal Velocity. The advent of 3D graphics cards from Videologic and 3Dfx helped the platform's games status further.
1995 - March 27
Intel release the 120 Mhz version of the Pentium processor.
1995 - June 1
Intel release the 133 Mhz version of the Pentium processor.
1995 - August 21 [poss. 23]
Windows '95 was launched by Bill Gates & Microsoft. Unlike previous versions of Windows, Windows '95 is an entire operating system - it does not rely on MS-DOS (although some remnants of the old operating system still exist). Windows '95 was written specially for the 80386 and compatible computers to make 'full' use of its 32 bit processing and multitasking capabilities, and thus is much similar to Windows NT than Windows 3.x. Windows 95 and NT 4 are almost indistinguishable - both in terms of User Interface and API. Despite being remarkable similar in function to OS/2 Warp (produced by IBM and Microsoft several years earlier, but marketed by IBM), Windows '95 has proved very popular.
1995 - 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), but is basically the same as the Pentium in terms of instruction set and capabilities. 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.
1995 - December 28
CompuServe blocked access to over 200 sexually explicit sites, partly to avoid confrontation with the German Government. Access to all but 5 was restored on Feb. 13 1996.
1995 - December
JavaScript development announced by Netscape.
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 it's advertising had to be censored.
1996 - January
Netscape Navigator 2.0 released. First browser to support JavaScript.
1996 - January 4M
Intel release the 150 & 166 MHz versions of the Pentium Processor. They contain the equivalent of over 3.3 million transistors.
1996
Windows '95 OSR2 (OS 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 OSR2 before the introduction of Windows '98, the second of which contained both USB and FAT32 support - the main selling points of Windows '98.
1996 - October 6
Intel release the 200 Mhz verison of the Pentium Processor.
1997
Tim Berners-Lee awarded the Institute of Physics' 1997 Duddell Medal for inventing the World Wide Web (see 1989).
1997
"Grand Theft Auto", "Quake 2" and "Blade Runner" were all 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 games players.
1997 - January 8
Intel released Pentium MMX (origionally 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 in 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.
1997 - April
IBM's Deep Blue, the first computer to beat a reigning World Chess Champion, Gary Kasparov, in a full chess match.
1997 - May 7
Intel Release their Pentium II processor (233, 266 and 300 Mhz versions). It featured, as well as an increased intruction set, a much larger on-chip cache.
1997 - June 2
Intel release the 233 MHz Pentium MMX.
1997 - August 6
After 18 months of losses Apple were 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 were to drop their long running court case - attempting to sue Microsoft for copying the look and feel of their operating system when designing Windows. It must be pointed out that Apple copied the XEROX Start system when designing their WIMP.
1998 - February
Intel released of 333 MHz Pentium II processor. Code-named Deschutes these processors use the new 0.25 micro manufacturing process to run faster and generate less heat than before.
1998 - April
A U.S. court has finally banned the long-running game of buying domain names relating to trademarks and then at selling them for extortionate prices to the companies who own the trademark. The case was based around a man from Illinois who bought www.panavision.com in 1995 and has just tried to sell it for $13,000. The current going commercial rate for domain name registration is around $100.
1998 - June 25
Microsoft released Windows '98. Some U.S. attorneys tried to block it's release since the new O/S interlaces with other programs such as M.S.I.E. 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 it's industry allies say that a delay in the release of the new O/S could damage the U.S. economy.
1999 - Jan 25
Linux Kernel 2.2.0 Released. The number of people running Linux is estimated at over 10million, making it an not only important operating system in the Unix world, but an increasingly important one in the PC world.
1999 - Feb 22
AMD release K6-III 400MHz version, 450 to OEMS. In some tests it outperforms soon-to-be released Intel P-III. It contains approximately 23 million transistors, and is based on 100Mhz super socket 7 motherboards, an improvement on the 66MHz buses their previous chips were based on. This helps it's performance when compared to Intel's Pentium II - which also uses a 100MHz bus speed.
1999 - Nov 29
AMD release Athlon 750MHz version.
