"Computer power in the first decade of the 21st century is 1,000 times greater and 1,000 times less expensive than it was in 1970," explained Intel co-founder Gordon Moore in 2005. His famous Moore‘s Law predicted back in 1965 that computers would rapidly become smaller, cheaper, and more powerful over time at an exponential pace—a prophecy that rang incredibly true throughout the transformative 1970s.
If the 1950s marked computers becoming fixtures in the workplace and the 1960s brought mainframes out of the lab and into many large businesses, then the 1970s democratized computing in an unprecedented way. Through pioneering innovations in microchip technology, programming languages, networking, and interface design, the groundwork was laid for the personal computer revolution that exploded in the following decade.
Let‘s dive deeper into the key milestones that made the 1970s such a progressively pivotal period for computing history.
1970: Dynamic RAM and Intel‘s Humble Beginnings
Founded just two years prior in 1968, Silicon Valley startup Intel unveiled its first product in 1970—the 1103. This 1024-bit dynamic RAM chip boasted major improvements over previous options, being faster, cheaper, and needing less supporting circuitry.
Though seemingly minute now, this small memory module "gave the company its first taste of success" and cemented Intel as an up-and-coming force to be reckoned with. The engineers there were just getting started making their indelible mark on the computing landscape.
1971: Microprocessors, Email, and PARC‘s Laser Printer Prototype
If 1970 was big for Intel, 1971 was absolutely massive. They introduced the world‘s first microprocessor, the 4-bit 4004. Costing $60 and about the size of a fingernail, this tiny chip could perform approximately 92,000 instructions per second—putting a processor on one integrated circuit and paving the way for microcomputers.
Another computing first in 1971 came from ARPAnet developer Ray Tomlinson, who sent the inaugural email on that early internet network between two computers side-by-side. His technology enabled typing messages remotely between users on linked machines—and email was born.
And at pioneering R&D facility Xerox PARC, Gary Starkweather modified a Xerox copier to create the first working laser printer prototype using a laser beam to imprint images on paper. Executives were uninterested and cut funding, but Starkweather and his colleagues continued developing the technology on their own time anyway. Their persistence eventually paid off once Xerox realized the immense potential.
1972: Arcade Gaming Begins with Pong
The 1970s saw computers become about more than just business or government use, but also entertainment. Atari kicked things off by debuting their genre-defining game Pong in 1972. Designed by Allan Alcorn and using a custom hardware architecture, this two-dimensional simulated table tennis game ushered in the age of arcade gaming mania.
By 1975, Atari was selling Pong home console units, with people eager to play the addicting black-and-white electronic tennis game against friends and family on their televisions. And this helped propel forward the idea of consumers wanting computers in their homes.
1973: TCP/IP Network Protocol Standardized
Building digital networks through the 60s allowed researchers to share expensive computing resources between locations. However, there was no common language enabling cross-communication between various networks.
Vint Cerf and Robert Kahn solved this problem by penning the fundamental paper, "A Protocol for Packet Network Intercommunication," in 1973. It formally specified TCP/IP—a unified transmission protocol and internetworking protocol to allow different networks to transmit packets reliably between one another.
TCP/IP turned disjointed connections into the early ad-hoc version of today‘s globe-spanning internet. The foundations for an interconnected world were set.
1974: PARC Alto Introduces the Modern GUI
Building on their laser printer breakthrough, the computer scientists at Xerox PARC created a revolutionary new prototype computer in 1974 named Alto that embodied multiple aspects of modern computers still used today.
The Xerox Alto workstation boasted a portrait display with high visual fidelity, a mouse for point-and-click interaction, networking capabilities allowing file sharing with other Alto units, and an easy-to-use graphical interface letting users control programs by manipulating icons rather than typing commands.
PARC‘s significant advancements provided key inspiration for Steve Jobs when designing Apple‘s first personal computers just a few years later, changing the face of home computing forevermore.
1975: The Altair 8800 Kickstarts the Homebrew PC Movement
Up until the mid-1970s, computers were largely custom-built machines reachable only by big organizations. So when magazine Popular Electronics featured the Altair 8800 personal computer kit on their January 1975 cover, it sparked major public curiosity.
Enthusiasts could order this "do-it-yourself" machine starting from $400 and assemble everything right at home. Despite minimal processing power and memory, it opened the doorway for computing enthusiasts and hobbyists. Within weeks MITS sold thousands of Altair kits, fueling interest in the personal computer transformation just getting started.
Bill Gates and Paul Allen leveraged the Altair to launch Microsoft too, after licensing their BASIC programming language for the system later that year.
1976: Apple I Personal Computer First Goes on Sale
Childhood friends Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started developing computers as hobbyists themselves in the Bay Area hacker community. When Wozniak succeeded in designing a single-board computer with a monitor interface in 1976, they decided to officially found Apple Computer Inc. together and sell it.
Dubbed Apple I, their inaugural machine boasted 4KB RAM and used a TV as a display. Offered as a $666.66 assembled board or $475 for DIY build, it quickly developed a cult following as one of the earliest personal home computers available to regular consumers. Only 200 were produced, but it heralded major innovations ahead for the duo.
1977: Apple II Raises Accessibility for Average Users
While Apple I represented a milestone, it still centered on highly technical hobbyists comfortable wielding soldering guns and rigging peripherals. So Steve Jobs focused the 1977 follow-up model Apple II on maximum usability and broad consumer appeal.
Retailing for $1298 fully configured, the mass-produced Apple II shipped with a keyboard and color graphics built-in. And instead of requiring machine language and toggling switches, this all-in-one unit enabled applications through the BASIC language. Their intuitive design earned high praise and quickly became a bestseller, cementing Apple‘s meteoric rise.
Within two years, 50,000 Apple IIs flew off the shelves into schools or household den offices. Teachers used the systems to teach students coding fundamentals—inspiring a generation of programmers who‘d fuel the software side of the PC explosion as that market ignited.
1978: Spreadsheets as Killer Business App Emerge on the Apple II
While games drove plenty of enthusiasm in personal systems, raw computing horsepower still centered around costly mainframes. The Apple II delivered enough processing and storage capacity at an approachable price point for serious business uses though.
In 1978 former Harvard Business School student Dan Bricklin was inspired to create VisiCalc—the first spreadsheet program aimed directly at financial users. Running on an Apple II with just 5K or RAM and 8K of storage, this killer app let number crunchers easily set up column/row matrices for formulas tied to specific cells. What-if scenarios became dead simple by instantly recalculating outputs as you tweaked inputs.
Bricklin co-founded Software Arts specifically to develop and market VisiCalc for $100, quickly selling over 700,000 licenses. The software single-handedly justified business investments into purchasing Apple IIs to leverage its accounting power.
1979: Word Processing Leaps Forward with WordStar
If VisiCalc sparked business interest in personal computers as a must-have tool, the release of pioneering word processor WordStar the following year in 1979 showed their expanding utility even further.
Originally coded by Rob Barnaby for CP/M systems in just 28K of space, this software from MicroPro International enabled secretaries and writers to compose and edit "what-you-see-is-what-you-get" documents easily without needing to embed manual typesetting formats.
Retailing at $395, Wordstar saw sales rapidly eclipse 600,000 licenses by 1983 as personal computers won over mainstream business and home applications. Now both number-oriented analysts and word-centric writers had killer apps tailored to their needs.
Conclusion: Revolution Was Brewing as the 1970s Closed
Looking back at all the progress forged over the course of the 1970s, 1971 feels incredibly primitive to the exponential growth achieved by decade‘s end in computing power, cost, size, and accessibility. Incremental engineering insights compounding year-over-year ultimately enabled computers to broadly disseminate from solely academic and industrial roles into mainstream personal and small business settings.
From Intel‘s silicon insights to PARC‘s interface breakthrus…email connecting us together to Apple II shrinking the cost-prohibitive mainframe market…this historic decade set the stage for the coming personal computer gold rush that saw computers definitively transform from a luxury into everyday necessity. Even still today in 2023, we find the computer revolution initiated by pioneering 1970‘s developments continuing to gather momentum into exciting new eras like mobile, internet of things, and artificial intelligence.
