IBM, Intel, Macintosh, & Motorola

Computer Hardware Giants



Thomas J. Watson, Sr. created the world's largest computer company, International Business Machines (IBM), in 1924. At that time IBM manufactured tabulating machines and the associated punched cards. Their customer base grew over the years as IBM continued to build dependable products of high quality.

In the 1930's IBM was the primary developer of the Mark 1 calculator that was mechanical and partly electrical in design. Weighing five tons, the Mark 1 could perform 3 calculations per second and was used to calculate trajectory charts for guns used in fighter planes in WWII.

The U.S. Navy was so interested in such a calculating device that it secretly funded a research project at the University of Philadelphia during WWII. The first Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator (ENIAC) machine was finally finished in 1946. It used over 18,800 vacuum tubes and took over two years just to solder the electrical connections! It weighed 30 tons and took up 1,500 square feet of floor space, the size of the average home! But the ENIAC was worth the cost of development and production because it was truly electrical and could perform 500 additions and 300 multiplications in one second. The ENIAC replaced the human "computer" because it took a human 300 days to do what the ENIAC could do in one second!

IBM took advantage of the new electrical technological developments and introduced a variety of mainframe calculating devices (computers that filled a room) in the 1950's that utilized magnetic tape and punched cards. Development occurred throughout the 1960's with the System/370. But the most important developments occurred in the 1970's and 1980's, when IBM released several mini-computers and eventually the personal computer (PC).

IBM wasn't the first company to create a personal computer. Instead, they analyzed the market and use a team of individuals to assemble a computer with the best of everything. By the time IBM released it's first personal computer in 1981, IBM's reputation for quality and dependability enhanced sales. IBM also released their hardware designs to developers resulting in lots of development by other companies supporting the IBM platform. Microsoft and Intel soon emerged as highly successful companies developing IBM/PC associated products.

Intel was founded in 1968 by Bob Noyce and Gorden Moore in California. They originally produced memory chips but created the first microprocessor in 1971, the Intel 4004 chip. By 1973 Intel was producing the 8080 chip with a 2 MHz (1 MHz = 1 million cycles per second), 8-bit, processing speed. The Altair was the first commercially successful personal computer, using a chip with 6,000 transistors.

IBM chose the Intel 8080 chip for their personal computer because it was less expensive and could be used with more affordable peripherals (computer extras). The marriage of Intel and IBM has resulted in great success for both companies to this day.

Intel has created a variety of chips since the 1970's with greater power and better design. New technologies have enabled Intel to put even more transistors (switches) into each microprocessor chip. The result is a faster processing (MHz) speed. The Pentium chip in 1993 operated at 66 MHz and is 3-5 times faster than the previously used 486 chip. The Pentium chip makes use of 3.1 million transistors compared to 1.2 million in the 486 chip. The Pentium also has a new design utilizing two instructional pathways enabling it to literally do two things at once! Intel plans on making future chips smaller, with more transistors, and with a design that generates less heat.

Over the past few decades Intel and IBM have taken over the International commercial (business) market. However, competitive companies, such as the Macintosh, are quickly rising and finding their niche in the computer industry.

Macintosh computers are the most successful *true* graphical user interface (GUI) computers in the market today. IBM computers make use of Microsoft's Windows application to present a graphical picture of commands, files, and programs on an IBM computer. Apple computers built the GUI interface into their Macintosh computers rather than using a 3rd party software developer such as Microsoft.

Earlier computers, such as Lisa, were priced over $10,000 and were beyond the reach of personal home computer market. When Apple introduced their first GUI interfaced computer in 1984 they took the market by storm. A 32-bit microprocessor chip by Motorola enabled Macintosh computers to run at a 7.8 MHz speed. This blew away the competition using 4.77 MHz chips. Furthermore, the Macintosh had a high resolution monitor and literally looked impressive.

Apple Macintosh computers are now the leading alternative to the IBM/PC computer. Even though IBM still dominates the business market, Apple has started to take over in the educational and home computer markets. The continual development and release of newer, more powerful, and more affordable computers has helped Apple to grow at an amazing rate.

Motorola, producer of the chips used by Apple computers, was founded in 1928 by Paul Galvin. The company started out by making radio products for household and motor vehicles - thus the name Motorola. The company officially adopted the name of Motorola in 1947 and eventually developed two-way radios, televisions, and semiconductors. Today the company is busy creating wireless technologies such as cellular communications.

At the same time, Motorola is creating microprocessor chips. The Motorola MC68040 chip has over 1.2 million transistors into the size of a fingernail! The previous 68030 chip ran at 32 MHz. The 68040 chip runs even faster because it has a built in math coprocessor (special chip for math) that can calculate over 20 million instructions per second! The latest chip, produced in conjunction with IBM and Apple, is the PowerPC chip. It runs as a 68040 and 486 chip - the best of both worlds. Additionally it makes use of reduced instruction set computing (RISC). It's a better design for processing speed.