Believe it or not, computers made exceptional progress during the 1960s "Swinging Sixties" era even if cultural focus centered on rebellious music and anti-war protests. Yes, room-filling mainframes still dominated research and corporations through much of the decade. However fabricating intricate circuits on silicon wafers instead of bulky discrete components soon enabled remarkable feats of miniaturization. Combine such chips with programming language and interface breakthroughs setting the stage for personal computers just one decade later!
Let‘s embark on a year-by-year retrospective spotlighting key computing innovations which ultimately gave birth to the PCs, laptops, smartphones plus internet infrastructure we depend on today. You‘ll be amazed how short yet consequential this pivotal decade proved for both scientific computing AND businesses! Buckle up for a wild ride…
1960 Kicks Off the Decade By Planting Seeds for Future Growth
Right from January 1960 as calenders flipped to the new decade, groundwork for impending upheavals laid firm roots. First up, J.W. Backus and team completed the initial COBOL compiler after 3 years of development. Why‘s boring old COBOL essential? This English-like programming language enabled corporations to custom write software automating data processing and record-keeping tasks. Imagine sector-wide sighs of relief! Even 72% of critical IT systems still utilize COBOL according to Reuters.
Elsewhere, groups of forward-thinking scientists like John Backus devised ALGOL to share complex formulas and algorithms across otherwise incompatible computers. Though not widespread, ALGOL highly influenced future languages like C++, Java, JavaScript and Python. Finally, 18-year-old MIT hackers programmed the PDP-1 minicomputer to play addictive spaceship battle game "Spacewar!" foreshadowing gaming and computer graphics booms ahead.
IBM Solidifies Its Domination in Early 60s…For Now!
Throughout early years that decade, IBM continually stretched technological feats to extend domination across business, government and research sectors. Revenue figures justified such confidence – by 1965 yearly income approached $5 billion as they hired over 215,000 employees. Nearly every organization relied IBM systems for critical operations. Competitors barely secured leftover crumbs lacking equivalent capabilities.
Customers flocked to their newest flagship System/360 family unveiled in 1964 and deemed "most successful computer system ever introduced” by Fortune Magazine. Impressive flexibility between transaction scale to high performance models running the same software attracted all industries. It also helped major airlines like United relied on IBM mainframes behind reservation system screens allowing travel agents to instantly book flights. 362 clone competitors attempted stealing market share before IBM lawyers halted infringement.
However, smaller organizations realized less expensive minicomputers may better suit modest computing needs and budgets. Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) specifically targeted this niche by introducing the 1966 PDP-8 system costing under $20,000. Buyers appreciated sufficient power in a more accessible package not requiring specialized rooms or staff. This minicomputer popularity let DEC prosper enough to soon rival mighty IBM itselves! But we’re getting ahead of ourselves…
Storage Technology, Memory & Microchips Start Changing Definitions of Computing
Now what good is raw processing potential without being able to retain data, settings or programs? Storage technology advanced equally rapidly through the swinging sixties until unrecognizable by 1969. Core memory using magnetism gave way to cheaper, denser counterparts – most famously the 8-inch floppy disk. 1967’s initial IBM FLOPPY stored just 80 kilobytes yet became a sensation by enabling offline storage plus “sneaker data transfer” between systems! Early microcomputers likely stalled without them.
This fledgling newfangled company named Intel also spoiled engineers by releasing affordable integrated circuits for mere dollars. Suddenly, functions previously requiring cabinets of electronics got reduced to microscopic silicon wafers! Intel 4004 chips contained an astounding 2,300 tiny transistors – compare that against a single human hair! No surprise integrated electronics opened doors for tremendous computing innovation ahead.
And speaking about innovation, a famously groundbreaking demo that December gave the first tantalizing glimpse of our modern graphical computing era…
When Douglas Engelbart Blew Minds With 1968’s “Mother of All Demos”
On an otherwise calm December 1968 afternoon, Douglas Engelbart – director of Stanford Research Institute‘s Augmentation Research Center – unveiled a landscape ofexperimental computer interfaces to help humans collaborate and solve problems.
None other than ARPANET (precursor to today‘s Internet) transmitted footage to audiences across America who squinted at blurry video in disbelief as Engelbart nonchalantly video conferenced a colleague 30 miles away before effortlessly editing documents using an unfamiliar pointing device called a "mouse"! If this failed convincing onlookers of future shock, the same system next displayed multiple movable onscreen windows controlled by that odd rodent!
Jaws surely dropped when his custom system ALSO demonstrated visually interlinked documents that were instantly viewable with a mere click decades prior to the World Wide Web! While we take such innovations for granted in 2023, Engelbart‘s 1968 presentation was arguably THE moment paradigm shifts towards personal graphical computing kicked into high gear. Everything we see as commonplace today from laptop interfaces, groupware, hyperlinking flowed forth into reality from this forward-thinking visionary‘s radical imagination and persistence executing such science fiction!
This seminal event wasn‘t computing’s only inflection point that pivotal year either. While engineers concentrated efforts on business systems heretofore, Engelbart realized computers could instead boost human intellect and problem-solving. Many of his conceptual ideas like efficient text manipulation and document version control languished for years before finally adopted by Xerox PARC and Apple later that decade. Struggling startups took notice that new user-friendly interaction modes could now challenge established players like IBM. The industry was never the same again.
The 60s Also Spawned Networks Foreshadowing Today‘s Cloud and Internet
Lest we assume computers still functioned as isolated islands, 1969 gave birth to foundational networks whose descendants connect your device screen to this page! It began when the US Department of Defense funded ARPANET to reliably exchange data between UCLA and Stanford. Designed to withstand outages by dynamically rerouting packets rather than relying on fragile centralized links, ARPANET soon added more universities at blistering speeds for the era.
While initial access was terminal-based, in 1972 improvements brought remote file editing and email debuted through MIT’s INTRO protocol. Usage exploded as scientists collaborated on research without borders. Inspired by ARPANET’s resilient topology, Britain unveiled Europe’s first packet switched network in 1969 – the NPL network followed by ALOHANET in Hawaii and NorNet in Norway by 1970. The drive towards global data transmission became unstoppable!
From Number Cruncher to Computing Pioneer – Hewlett Packard‘s Meteoric 60s Rise
When discussing computing’s rapid evolution throughout the 1960s, we cannot ignore Hewlett Packard‘s remarkable trajectory from instrumentation company to computer pioneer following their first 2116A minicomputer for engineers. Riding sky-high sales just four years later, HP contemplated prospects for the 9100A programmable calculator unveiled in 1968. Nicknamed “The New Testament” and considered the world‘s first personal computer decades later, this $5,000 scientific sensation could solve equations, plot graphs, analyze finances and even play music!
200,000 units sold as the 9100A became must-have professional equipment just like 2021‘s iPhones! Even NASA sent the 9100A to the moon during Apollo space missions. This mid 60s gamble vaulted HP into the computing stratosphere literally overnight – seemingly improbable mere months before given their relative industry obscurity beyond slide rules and oscilloscopes! While modern HP dissolved into enterprise printers/servers/PCs, its calculating/instrumentation DNA persists serving additional customer bases. Shame about their overpriced ink cartridges however!
Closing Thoughts on a Pivotal Time When Computing Matured
We certainly covered extensive ground exploring the unchecked evolution computers experienced throughout the relatively brief 1960 to 1969 timeframe! Minicomputers like DEC’s trendsetting PDP series popped up across all sectors. IBM itself unveiled mid-range contemporaries chasing this explosive marketsendmail. Minicomputers demonstrated that one needn’t require a massive mainframe anymore to automate business tasks or perform scientific calculations. The seeds of decentralization planted here eventually fruited as microcomputers and PCs just one decade later!
Likewise in the software realm, Beginner‘s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code (BASIC) language also promoted unprecedented growth by enabling less technical users to pickup programming basics without swallowing dense coding manuals! Where early languages seemed optimized for the machines themselves, these new strides like BASIC brought natural language and mathematical expressions to the forefront. Openness and ease-of-use became coding priorities going forward thanks to efforts of John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz of Dartmouth College.
Looking back as we wrap up our time travel tour, all major themes of modern computing solidified throughout the short yet impactful 1969-1969 era. Integrated circuits miniaturized systems while programming languages and networking connected them together in unprecedented ways foreshadowing today‘s cloud-based infrastructure and worldwide Internet. Interactive displays offering graphical control and collaboration emerged from Engelbart’s brilliant vision while scrappy firms like DEC pioneered midrange systems superior to contemporaneous IBM offerings. Behind the scenes, HP rapidly evolved from calculator upstart to computing pioneer on the eve of explosive PC industry growth. Users glimpsed the very first notions of personal computing thanks to these mavericks!
While still just a precocious youngster by 1969, our computing revolution kicked into overdrive thanks to unprecedented hardware miniaturization, easier languages promoting software abundance and most pivotally, failing prices granting accessibility to smaller organizations. As semiconductor fabrication improved price/performance exponentially per Moore’s Law, optimistic experts foresaw incredible progress ahead. The stage was set for an accessible computing revolution to utterly reshape humanity‘s technological fabric for generations hence…
