Discover the history of PC innovation over the past 50 years

Get to Know the History: What You Need to Know

Get to Know the Story brings together the essential points for understanding the news, its practical use, and the main implications for readers.

The Silicon Age

The history of Intel starts with the birth of Silicon ageOn 1954. That year, the initial event of the digital revolution took place: the manufacture of the first transistor, by Morris Tanembau, with materials made by Bell Labs. Who would have thought that such a simple component of the periodic table would transform the world so much?

A few years later, the Intel enters the world digital scene once and for all with the launch of the revolutionary Intel 4004, in 1971. Since then, the company has only continued to innovate: from its amazing ultrabooks to 2-in-1 models. In this way, the Intel forever redefined the PC experience for consumers.

Interaction with PCs: the emergence of the mouse

When Bill English presented its mouse prototype, in 1968, the device was called “XY Position Indicator for a Display System” (“XY Position Indicator for a Visualization System”, in Portuguese) and consisted only of a wooden box with a button.

Furthermore, the invention patented by David Engelbart remained unused until 1980, when companies like Apple e Intel started using the device on their personal computers. At a time when computers were used only with text and command lines, who knew that such a small invention would become so important?

The smaller the better

Em 1971 a Intel takes its big step towards the future of computing with the launch of Intel 4004. This humble little 4-bit chip was the company's first commercially available microprocessor. Thanks to this remarkable little, the brand made it possible to create much smaller computers.

The curious thing is that the chip was originally designed to be a component of calculators, but the 4004 soon found many uses. THE Intel started a process that soon saw some other chipmakers embark on projects to steadily develop more capable microprocessors, encouraging the digital boom.

personal computing

In the mid-1970s, the computer finally made its way into users' homes. Personal computing got its start in 1975 with the launch of Altair 8800. The machine looks more like an old radio than our current computers, but it carried the powerful processor Intel 8080.

The first personal computer was originally sold as a kit through the American magazine Popular Electronics, and the designers intended to sell only a few hundred units. Imagine their surprise to see that the Altair 8800 sold more than 10 times what was predicted in the first month alone.

The revolutionary 8086

Although many current processors have the x64 (64-bit) architecture, these electronic components still inherit and are compatible with the most consolidated processor architecture in the history of computing: the x86. She was born in 1978 with the launch of Intel 8086, a revolutionary 16-bit processor that ushered in the x86 standard.

If you got lost in the bits, know that this concept is pretty simple. When we say that a processor is 16 bits, it means that its arithmetic and logic unit (ALU), its internal registers and most of its instructions were designed to work with 16-bit words, remembering that every 8 bits form 1 byte.

in suitcases

During the 1980s, computing development was at full speed, with the Intel taking the lead in this corporate race. The main objective at the time was to increasingly reduce the size of personal computers, in addition to making them more practical and easier to use, but without reducing their processing power.

That's how the first laptops and portable computers came about. More specifically, in September 1980, the R2E CCMC Portal was the first portable computer introduced to the world, containing a powerful processor Intel 8085. And since then, these machines have only gotten more robust and practical.

There's intel inside

Not yet well known to the public and lay users during the 1970s and 1980s, the Intel creates a massive advertising campaign in the 1990s to get the company's name to people's lips with the brand “Intel Inside”. With the launch of this brand on all machines that carried a company chip from 1991, the company becomes easily known.

The Intel dramatically changed consumers' view of PCs. From that moment on, many users changed their conceptions when choosing a computer to buy, as it was now necessary to take into account the power of the machine and not just get any device.

New game

You have probably had or know someone who has had a processor Pentium da Intel, Is not it? This line of chips was launched in 1993 and it was a great success for the company. In addition, as the name implies, they were the company's fifth generation of processors, successors to the 486 model.

Interestingly, the next member of the processor lineup would be named 80586 ou i586, however numbers cannot be registered or patented (to date, the Intel sold its chips to other companies at no brand cost), so she decided to go with the name Pentium (“five”, from the Greek root “pet-“).

Ride

Em 1996, Intel led a team made up of the world's leading technology companies to develop the USB connection, one of the most used standards by many computers and electronic devices today.

The USB standard has redefined the issue of connectivity in the digital world in a surprising way, making it easy and practical to connect and configure various devices. Furthermore, the search for Intel paved the way for the creation of Thunderbolt, in 2011, which would offer even more flexible and versatile connection options.

wireless world

It is currently practically impossible to imagine a world without a wireless Internet connection. Well before 2003, this was quite common. Few processors had compatibility with the protocol standard 802.11 (the well-known Wi-Fi), so most machines still relied on an Ethernet cable connection to get on the Internet.

Everything changed when Intel launched the processor family Centrino for laptops, which had full compatibility with the Wi-Fi standard and put notebooks definitively within a wireless world.

Templates for companies

Em 2005, again Intel shows up. This time, the brand decided to expand its personal computing market into the business realm with the launch of Intel vPro, a processor aimed at small and large businesses packed with specific features for business PC users.

Popularizing the Internet

In the mid-2000s, the computer market saw a fierce struggle between the big electronics companies in the search for the smallest and friendliest notebook for lay users. That's how Intel launched in 2007 o netbook, a device that brings easy access to the Internet and focused on simple task and web browsing.

better notebooks

Certainly netbooks had their moment of brilliance for a few years until the emergence of smartphones, but the Intel was ready to invest in a version of the portable computer that was not only light and thin, but powerful: the ultrabook.

From 2011 the company began to manufacture and sell several models of ultrabooks to meet different needs: from the most lay user to the most demanding. These notebooks had low-power processors and components that reduced the machine's size without compromising battery life.

take two for one

Already in 2012, Intel took another step in PC innovation by launching hybrid models: the union of the laptop with the desktop. PCs called "2 in 1" they were tablets with powerful processors that could be used both at home in place of a desktop PC, as well as as a device to take on trips. Practicality and processing power in one.

One step into the next generation

With so many innovations in its 50 years of existence, the future of both computers how much of Intel look very promising. In 2018, the company released its first processor with an integrated GPU (until then, all Intel processors required a separate graphics card or chip) and with dedicated broadband memory.

In addition, the new generation of Intel Core processors (like the new Core i9) is coming, with more processing power and with the graphics system Radeon RX Vega M, perfect for small format devices.

Promising future

It's amazing to see how Intel had and still has a great influence on the history and development of computing over the past half century, isn't it? Obviously the history of information technology was not written by it alone, since other large companies such as Apple , ecosystem and Google have their names written throughout several chapters of this story.

And you readers? Did you already know about all this participation of Intel in the history of PCs? What do you expect from the future of the company and of information technology in general? Don't forget to comment.

Read also