"1981 - August 12 IBM Announced PC, the standard model was sold for $2880. It used the Intel 8088 CPU running at 4.77mhz, containing 5000 transistors. This had 64Kb of RAM, a mono display and the cassette drive was an optional extra. Two 160Kb single sided floppy drives could be added."
The first IBM PC to offer a hard drive was the XT, which was released in 1983 (from <a href="http://www.fortunecity.com/marina/reach/435/storage.html"; target="_blank">http://www.fortunecity.com/marina/reach/435/storage.html</a>; : "1983 With the introduction of the IBM PC/XT hard disk drives also became a standard component of most personal computers."). And since MS-/PC/-DOS didn't even support hard drives up until version 2.0 (also released in 1983), it would also have been kinda pointless beforehand.
[quote]<strong>
Hard Drives were introduced in the late 1970's
</strong><hr></blockquote>
Nobody ever claimed Apple invented the hard disk. Also, according to above mentionned link, "1956, the first hard drive the IBM 305 RAMAC is the first magnetic hard disk for data storage."
[quote]<strong>What were would consiter a CD-ROM drive was first introduced in 1985, Apple introduced their first CD-ROM drive in 1987
I still have the PC Magazine with the Tandy ad in it</strong><hr></blockquote>
Actually, according to that storage timeline, the CD-ROM was invented in 1983 by Philips and Sony, but again, nobody claims Apple invented it. Also in there:
"1991 - JUN. Tandy introduces its low-cost CDR-1000 CD-ROM drive for PCs. At US$400, including drive and controller card, it is about half the price of other drives." - are you sure this is not what you're talking about?
[quote]<strong>That title goes again goes to Compaq or depending on your perspective DEC.</strong><hr></blockquote>
I think I specifically said outside the server and workstation market. Not sure which chip you are referring to in Compaq's case, but the Alpha certainly fell straight into the latter category upon its introduction.
Well, well. I go away for a couple of hours and come back to see that the local Mac user community at AI has decided to revolt over the fact that I claimed Apple generally leads innovation.
I was poised to respond to everything but then I kept reading and found that a bunch of people who had a clue more than amply expressed the things I was going to say.
So thanks to those that spoke up.
Steve, I am not real concerned about your claims because you never back them up. In the spirit of that action [and because I simply do not have the time to find links or citations for this many items] here is my list of Apple firsts, I trust that at least 15-25% of stuff not listed was done by someone other than Apple:
To use DVD-RW [by Pioneer] drives in consumer and prosumer computers
FireWire/1394 [by Apple and Sony and someone else I can't recall]
AirPort/Wi-Fi/802.11b [by Apple and Lucent]
Dropping of all legacy ports for USB and FireWire [yes PCs had USB but no one dropped ALL their legacy ports for new superior technology ? this was an act of courage]
USB [by Intel] standard on all product lines [first desktop then portable]
object oriented operating system for "the rest of us" ie the mainstream market [OS X]
3.5" floppy drive [by Sony]
1.4MB floppies [also by Sony I think, NeXT actually used 2.88MB floppies and I think they may have been the only ones who ever did]
dropping the 3.5" floppy drive [technically this falls to NeXT, not Apple since the NeXTcube had no floppy drive but that is all kinda a matter of opinion and politics at this point]
GUI available to the general market [Mac OS v.1.0]
CD ROM support standard in the OS [all product models supported]
CD ROMs standard [yes others had them but not standard]
DVD ROMs standard [yes others had them first but not standard]
DVD-RAM standard
wireless networking standard [by Apple and Lucent, first wireless portable also]
ethernet standard [thinnet/AAUI]
10T RJ-45 standard
100T standard
gigabit ethernet standard [still hard to find on Windows PCs]
first color computer [Apple ][c]
ADB - Apple Desktop Bus was the first standard dazy-chainable device for peripherals such as mice and keyboards and provided power
ADC - first united interface for USB, power, and video
LCDs standard [as in they stopped making or selling Apple branded CRTs, no one else has done that yet]
All-in-one design [first and best, plenty of lawsuits over it too]
first RISC processor used in a computer for the general market [PowerPC 601 by IBM, Motorola, and oh yeah ... Apple]
first supercomputer on a chip [PowerPC 7400 G4, IBM, Motorola, and Apple]
multiprocessors standard [9500, 9600, G4 [AGP, gigabit ethernet, digital audio, Quick Silver, mirrored drives models]]
first standard software interface [MS did not require a standard interface it was widely "open" where as Apple had very strict guidelines]
NuBus [better than PCI when they were first out, and then PCI improved ...]
SCSI standard [was never available standard on PCs, still isn't]
PDF support built into the graphics engine [Rhapsody, Mac OS X]
first multimedia [video and sound] application ? QuickTime [still the best]
CD burning in the OS [Be OS could do this but only for audio CDs not for data CDs]
DVD burning in the OS
first email from space [sent from a Macintosh Portable]
first UNIX based consumer OS [Linux could be argued as a counter with some truth but Mac OS X has already been more successful than Linux]
1U dual processor RISC based server [Xserve]
first licensed AIM client [iChat, the others such as Fire and Adium and such are not licensed]
Rendezvous networking
AppleTalk [first standard built-in networking that happened to work over local-talk, PCs didn't get it until Windows 3.1.1 ? "Windows for Workgroups" of course it was available for UNIX if you want to try and argue that in that time period UNIX was available in a form that the general market would care about]
sound standard [didn't you get a sound card with your PC?]
longest battery life in the industry on portables [this one is open for criticism, Apple generally has very good battery life on a curve but we PowerBook owners all know about Mac OS X not doing enough energy saving]
invented the PDA [Newton, some might also say the tablet PC ? Newton Message Pad 2000 and 2100]
first handwriting recognition based product line
Newton OS [first to use a SOUP for file storage instead of tree]
what you see is what you get
PostScript [developed in partnership with Adobe]
numerous industrial design awards [they are up for two from PC Magazine right now actually for the iMac and the iPod]
color printing for consumers
desktop publishing [it was a revolution, if people don't recall this then I will cry]
drag and drop
first pull down menus
first icons
first major OS maker to maintain an open source OS [OpenStep after the acquisition of NeXT and now Darwin ? Be OS was free but not OpenSource]
first integration of OpenGL into the OS graphics engine
QuickDraw
largest display on a portable at the time [Macintosh Portable]
the mouse
folders for storing files [had been directories, and yes there was a difference at the time]
spring-loaded folders
tabbed popup folders
Quartz Extreme
the trash can to delete items [you laugh now but at the time deleting and a trash can being put together was a revolution]
NetBoot [exempting centralized UNIX systems since these are not general market computers]
first consumer OS to network with anything [full support for: SMB, AFP, NFS, UDP, FTP, WWW, SSH, Rendezvous ? if anyone says UNIX or Solaris as an argument against this be prepared to defend how bad Columbia AppleTalk Protocol ? CAP ? is since that is how it was done]
dual battery support on a laptop
CD-ROM drive on a laptop [on this one I might be wrong]
first track ball on a laptop
first trackpad on a laptop
first consumer [NT was not designed for consumer use] OS [Mac OS X and again someone could argue NeXTStep but its inconsequential ] to feature preemptive multitasking, protected memory, robust virtual memory, and symmetric multiprocessing [note the combination of all of these]
first consumer OS to do Net install [heck System 7 can do it and I think even 6 can]
first personal computer to feature digital audio standard [G4 digital audio]
first laptop with DVI
standard IR
standard IRDA
consumer OS to have themes built-in [Mac OS 8.1]
OS to have font management [ATM]
first to offer sleep swappable drive modules in a laptop
to offer hot swappable drive modules in a laptop
DVD on a laptop [I might be wrong here]
CDRW standard on laptops
1" thick laptop that is not a subnotebook [PowerBook G4]
first sub-5lbs laptop [I think, correct me if I am wrong] the Duo
first desktop/laptop Duo with docking station [not port replicator but docking station]
displays with integrated video and audio I/O
first one click scanner [Apple OneScan]
first color one click scanner [Apple Color OneScan]
geo port modems
telephony software allowing your Mac to act as a phone, caller id, and answering machine
geo port enabled serial ports
first online user neighborhood that was not text driven [AOL's e-World, it was AOL before AOL was AOL]
first consumer computer with TV-tuners [Performas]
Integrated AV I/O [Quadras if not before]
first built-in networking on a laptop [AppleTalk on the Macintosh Portable and all PowerBooks]
first cross-platform PDA - the Newton
first ethernet standard on laptops
[optional on the 5300, 1400, 2400, and standard on the 3400 [?], Kanga, G3 Series and since, still not standard on PC laptops]
first integrated microphone on both desktops and laptops
GeForce 3 first OEM release
GeForce 4MX first OEM release
GeForce 4 Titanium first OEM release
One button mouse
No button mouse [Apple Pro Mouse, while it is a button it does not have a button]
And guys....give up with the "my history balls are bigger than yours debate". This is about the last couple of years. Apple is getting shalacked in bus, processor and ram performance.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Well, those three are actually really just one point. Slow RAM access is solely a result of the inadequate FSB (PC2700 RAM per se is definitely not "behind the curve"), and the slow FSB is directly linked to the slow processor. Apart from that, there are some areas where some others are a bit ahead (AGP8x, USB2), and others where Macs are (FireWire and GBit Ethernet onboard, 64 bit PCI, Wireless LAN integration, and little niceties such as Target Disk Mode or Auto-MDI-X).
[quote]<strong>Their video cards always seem half a generation behind....one or two on the laptops.</strong><hr></blockquote>
How are the GF4Ti and the Radeon9700 half a generation behind? Also, I might be mistaken, but I seem to remember that the PowerBook was actually among the first to ship either the Radeon Mobile or the Radeon 7500 Mobile when introduced (the chip, not the 'book).
Graphics cards always a 1/2 generation behind? Not since Apple picked up Nvidia as a supplier.
GeForce 3 ? first OEM release
GeForce 4MX ? first OEM release
GeForce 4 Titanium ? first OEM release
While the GeForce 4MX is not a highend card it helps fill in the pattern demonstrating that Apple has used the best available to the market from Nvidia, although often as a built to order.
Comments
<strong>
I still have my original IBM PC with it's 4.77mhz 8088 Processor, 32KB of Memory, 160KB Floppy Drives and 10MB Winchester hard drive,
</strong><hr></blockquote>
I'm repeating myself, but the original IBM PC did not come standard with a harddrive.
From <a href="http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computing_timeline_1980-1989"; target="_blank">http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computing_timeline_1980-1989</a>; :
"1981 - August 12 IBM Announced PC, the standard model was sold for $2880. It used the Intel 8088 CPU running at 4.77mhz, containing 5000 transistors. This had 64Kb of RAM, a mono display and the cassette drive was an optional extra. Two 160Kb single sided floppy drives could be added."
The first IBM PC to offer a hard drive was the XT, which was released in 1983 (from <a href="http://www.fortunecity.com/marina/reach/435/storage.html"; target="_blank">http://www.fortunecity.com/marina/reach/435/storage.html</a>; : "1983 With the introduction of the IBM PC/XT hard disk drives also became a standard component of most personal computers."). And since MS-/PC/-DOS didn't even support hard drives up until version 2.0 (also released in 1983), it would also have been kinda pointless beforehand.
[quote]<strong>
Hard Drives were introduced in the late 1970's
</strong><hr></blockquote>
Nobody ever claimed Apple invented the hard disk. Also, according to above mentionned link, "1956, the first hard drive the IBM 305 RAMAC is the first magnetic hard disk for data storage."
[quote]<strong>What were would consiter a CD-ROM drive was first introduced in 1985, Apple introduced their first CD-ROM drive in 1987
I still have the PC Magazine with the Tandy ad in it</strong><hr></blockquote>
Actually, according to that storage timeline, the CD-ROM was invented in 1983 by Philips and Sony, but again, nobody claims Apple invented it. Also in there:
"1991 - JUN. Tandy introduces its low-cost CDR-1000 CD-ROM drive for PCs. At US$400, including drive and controller card, it is about half the price of other drives." - are you sure this is not what you're talking about?
[quote]<strong>That title goes again goes to Compaq or depending on your perspective DEC.</strong><hr></blockquote>
I think I specifically said outside the server and workstation market. Not sure which chip you are referring to in Compaq's case, but the Alpha certainly fell straight into the latter category upon its introduction.
Bye,
RazzFazz
I was poised to respond to everything but then I kept reading and found that a bunch of people who had a clue more than amply expressed the things I was going to say.
So thanks to those that spoke up.
Steve, I am not real concerned about your claims because you never back them up. In the spirit of that action [and because I simply do not have the time to find links or citations for this many items] here is my list of Apple firsts, I trust that at least 15-25% of stuff not listed was done by someone other than Apple:
To use DVD-RW [by Pioneer] drives in consumer and prosumer computers
FireWire/1394 [by Apple and Sony and someone else I can't recall]
AirPort/Wi-Fi/802.11b [by Apple and Lucent]
Dropping of all legacy ports for USB and FireWire [yes PCs had USB but no one dropped ALL their legacy ports for new superior technology ? this was an act of courage]
USB [by Intel] standard on all product lines [first desktop then portable]
object oriented operating system for "the rest of us" ie the mainstream market [OS X]
3.5" floppy drive [by Sony]
1.4MB floppies [also by Sony I think, NeXT actually used 2.88MB floppies and I think they may have been the only ones who ever did]
dropping the 3.5" floppy drive [technically this falls to NeXT, not Apple since the NeXTcube had no floppy drive but that is all kinda a matter of opinion and politics at this point]
GUI available to the general market [Mac OS v.1.0]
CD ROM support standard in the OS [all product models supported]
CD ROMs standard [yes others had them but not standard]
DVD ROMs standard [yes others had them first but not standard]
DVD-RAM standard
wireless networking standard [by Apple and Lucent, first wireless portable also]
ethernet standard [thinnet/AAUI]
10T RJ-45 standard
100T standard
gigabit ethernet standard [still hard to find on Windows PCs]
first color computer [Apple ][c]
ADB - Apple Desktop Bus was the first standard dazy-chainable device for peripherals such as mice and keyboards and provided power
ADC - first united interface for USB, power, and video
LCDs standard [as in they stopped making or selling Apple branded CRTs, no one else has done that yet]
All-in-one design [first and best, plenty of lawsuits over it too]
first RISC processor used in a computer for the general market [PowerPC 601 by IBM, Motorola, and oh yeah ... Apple]
first supercomputer on a chip [PowerPC 7400 G4, IBM, Motorola, and Apple]
multiprocessors standard [9500, 9600, G4 [AGP, gigabit ethernet, digital audio, Quick Silver, mirrored drives models]]
first standard software interface [MS did not require a standard interface it was widely "open" where as Apple had very strict guidelines]
NuBus [better than PCI when they were first out, and then PCI improved ...]
SCSI standard [was never available standard on PCs, still isn't]
PDF support built into the graphics engine [Rhapsody, Mac OS X]
first multimedia [video and sound] application ? QuickTime [still the best]
CD burning in the OS [Be OS could do this but only for audio CDs not for data CDs]
DVD burning in the OS
first email from space [sent from a Macintosh Portable]
first UNIX based consumer OS [Linux could be argued as a counter with some truth but Mac OS X has already been more successful than Linux]
1U dual processor RISC based server [Xserve]
first licensed AIM client [iChat, the others such as Fire and Adium and such are not licensed]
Rendezvous networking
AppleTalk [first standard built-in networking that happened to work over local-talk, PCs didn't get it until Windows 3.1.1 ? "Windows for Workgroups" of course it was available for UNIX if you want to try and argue that in that time period UNIX was available in a form that the general market would care about]
sound standard [didn't you get a sound card with your PC?]
longest battery life in the industry on portables [this one is open for criticism, Apple generally has very good battery life on a curve but we PowerBook owners all know about Mac OS X not doing enough energy saving]
invented the PDA [Newton, some might also say the tablet PC ? Newton Message Pad 2000 and 2100]
first handwriting recognition based product line
Newton OS [first to use a SOUP for file storage instead of tree]
what you see is what you get
PostScript [developed in partnership with Adobe]
numerous industrial design awards [they are up for two from PC Magazine right now actually for the iMac and the iPod]
color printing for consumers
desktop publishing [it was a revolution, if people don't recall this then I will cry]
drag and drop
first pull down menus
first icons
first major OS maker to maintain an open source OS [OpenStep after the acquisition of NeXT and now Darwin ? Be OS was free but not OpenSource]
first integration of OpenGL into the OS graphics engine
QuickDraw
largest display on a portable at the time [Macintosh Portable]
the mouse
folders for storing files [had been directories, and yes there was a difference at the time]
spring-loaded folders
tabbed popup folders
Quartz Extreme
the trash can to delete items [you laugh now but at the time deleting and a trash can being put together was a revolution]
NetBoot [exempting centralized UNIX systems since these are not general market computers]
first consumer OS to network with anything [full support for: SMB, AFP, NFS, UDP, FTP, WWW, SSH, Rendezvous ? if anyone says UNIX or Solaris as an argument against this be prepared to defend how bad Columbia AppleTalk Protocol ? CAP ? is since that is how it was done]
dual battery support on a laptop
CD-ROM drive on a laptop [on this one I might be wrong]
first track ball on a laptop
first trackpad on a laptop
first consumer [NT was not designed for consumer use] OS [Mac OS X and again someone could argue NeXTStep but its inconsequential ] to feature preemptive multitasking, protected memory, robust virtual memory, and symmetric multiprocessing [note the combination of all of these]
first consumer OS to do Net install [heck System 7 can do it and I think even 6 can]
first personal computer to feature digital audio standard [G4 digital audio]
first laptop with DVI
standard IR
standard IRDA
consumer OS to have themes built-in [Mac OS 8.1]
OS to have font management [ATM]
first to offer sleep swappable drive modules in a laptop
to offer hot swappable drive modules in a laptop
DVD on a laptop [I might be wrong here]
CDRW standard on laptops
1" thick laptop that is not a subnotebook [PowerBook G4]
first sub-5lbs laptop [I think, correct me if I am wrong] the Duo
first desktop/laptop Duo with docking station [not port replicator but docking station]
displays with integrated video and audio I/O
first one click scanner [Apple OneScan]
first color one click scanner [Apple Color OneScan]
geo port modems
telephony software allowing your Mac to act as a phone, caller id, and answering machine
geo port enabled serial ports
first online user neighborhood that was not text driven [AOL's e-World, it was AOL before AOL was AOL]
first consumer computer with TV-tuners [Performas]
Integrated AV I/O [Quadras if not before]
first built-in networking on a laptop [AppleTalk on the Macintosh Portable and all PowerBooks]
first cross-platform PDA - the Newton
first ethernet standard on laptops
[optional on the 5300, 1400, 2400, and standard on the 3400 [?], Kanga, G3 Series and since, still not standard on PC laptops]
first integrated microphone on both desktops and laptops
GeForce 3 first OEM release
GeForce 4MX first OEM release
GeForce 4 Titanium first OEM release
One button mouse
No button mouse [Apple Pro Mouse, while it is a button it does not have a button]
<strong>
And guys....give up with the "my history balls are bigger than yours debate". This is about the last couple of years. Apple is getting shalacked in bus, processor and ram performance.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Well, those three are actually really just one point. Slow RAM access is solely a result of the inadequate FSB (PC2700 RAM per se is definitely not "behind the curve"), and the slow FSB is directly linked to the slow processor. Apart from that, there are some areas where some others are a bit ahead (AGP8x, USB2), and others where Macs are (FireWire and GBit Ethernet onboard, 64 bit PCI, Wireless LAN integration, and little niceties such as Target Disk Mode or Auto-MDI-X).
[quote]<strong>Their video cards always seem half a generation behind....one or two on the laptops.</strong><hr></blockquote>
How are the GF4Ti and the Radeon9700 half a generation behind? Also, I might be mistaken, but I seem to remember that the PowerBook was actually among the first to ship either the Radeon Mobile or the Radeon 7500 Mobile when introduced (the chip, not the 'book).
Bye,
RazzFazz
[ 11-05-2002: Message edited by: RazzFazz ]</p>
GeForce 3 ? first OEM release
GeForce 4MX ? first OEM release
GeForce 4 Titanium ? first OEM release
While the GeForce 4MX is not a highend card it helps fill in the pattern demonstrating that Apple has used the best available to the market from Nvidia, although often as a built to order.