The 1970s saw computers undergoing a radical transformation from expensive, esoteric scientific instruments to affordable personal machines. In just one decade, they leapfrogged from room-sized institutional number-crunchers to interactive devices that began gracing offices, schools and living rooms, sparking a technological revolution whose effects still shape our world today.
The Microprocessor Arrives: Unleashing Personal Computing (1971)
The computing landscape in the early 1970s was dominated by large enterprises like IBM, DEC, Wang and Burroughs manufacturing expensive, refrigerator-sized mainframes and minicomputers used primarily for business data processing, scientific calculation and government organizations. The typical computer system cost hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars annually to lease or operate. But change was brewing – it would just take a tiny new invention measuring barely half an inch per side.
In November 1971, Intel publicly introduced the world‘s first commercial single-chip microprocessor – the 4-bit Intel 4004. Costing just $60 and incorporating the equivalent of 2,300 tiny transistors, this microchip could handle 60,000 operations per second. For comparison, the 1946 ENIAC – the first general purpose electronic computer – weighed 30 tons and was the size of a large room, yet performed just 5,000 calculations per second. Intel‘s minuscule microprocessor held the potential to make computers drastically smaller and more affordable over the decade.
As Ted Hoff, head architect of the 4004 notes:
“The microprocessor represented as big a breakthrough in integrated circuit technology as the integrated circuit had been in discrete circuit technology. ..It meant you could predict that microprocessor CPUs would continue to become smaller, less expensive, and more powerful.”
Just a year later in 1972, Intel released the 8008, an expanded 8-bit microprocessor capable of powering far more complex systems including printers, terminals, measurement systems and even arcade games like Space Race. The age of personal computers powered by increasingly powerful single-chip processors had begun.
By 1979, an estimated 1 million microprocessors were shipping annually, powering devices from traffic signals to test equipment.
Personal Computers Emerge (1971 – 1973)
Prior to the 1970s, computers were largely an enterprise affair, with companies renting time-slots on mainframes and minicomputers, sharing these multi-million dollar systems between teams. But Intel‘s microprocessor and new cost-efficient memory chip technologies like dynamic RAM were enabling computers to shrink drastically while also dropping in price. This kicked off a wave of early "personal computers" aimed not at organizations, but at individual users.
In 1971 Hewlett Packard released the HP 9100A, touted as a personal computer and priced at $4,900 ($33,000 today). Later that year in November, Scelbi Computer Consulting began selling the Scelbi 8H hobby computer starting from $565 ($3,800 today). Only 200 Scelbi 8H units were produced given the limited market, but it pioneered the concept of a hobby computer that individuals could own and learn on.
1972 saw major personal computer milestones including the Datapoint 2200 priced at $2,229 ($13,500 today). Unlike earlier computers aimed at scientific and engineering use, the Datapoint 2200 was built for business applications like data processing and terminals replacing typewriters for text input. Around 600,000 Datapoint 2200 units were sold over the product‘s lifetime.
In 1973, European electronics firm R2E launched the Micral N priced at $1,750 ($11,000 today). With advanced capabilities rivaling commercial minicomputers, the Micral N holds the distinction of being the earliest commercial “microcomputer" equivalent to what would today be deemed a personal computer.
Video Games Blast Off (1972 – 1979)
Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney incorporated Atari on June 27, 1972. Just months later in November, Atari‘s first arcade video game Pong, simulating table tennis on a simple vector display, was installed at a Sunnyvale California bar Andy Capp‘s Tavern. This sparked a video game explosion across millions of television homes and arcade game parlors over the decade.
Pong pioneered the video game industry both in public gaming parlors and also at home. In 1975, Magnavox released the first home video game console that could be connected to any television – the Magnavox Odyssey. By sending different circuit cards, players could play various games like Hockey, Roulette, Table Tennis on their TVs. Over 330,000 units sold through the 1970s.
The table below shows the soaring growth of the video games industry through that decade, ultimately becoming a $2.6+ billion dollar market by 1979 – an incredible figure exceeding even movie box office sales.
| Year | Total Video Game Revenue |
|---|---|
| 1972 | $100 million |
| 1976 | $240 million |
| 1978 | $1 billion |
| 1979 | $2.6 billion |
Yet this was just the beginning of a gaming revolution that would eventually make video games more valuable than movies and music combined today.
Internet Foundation – TCP/IP & Ethernet
Early Internet pioneers had envisioned digital packets shuttling between various computer networks to exchange data. But getting these heterogeneous networks to communicate meant resolving differences from physical protocols for passing signals, addressing schemes and establishing reliable connections. Key innovations to crack these challenges emerged from researchers across the Atlantic in 1973.
At Stanford University, computer scientist Vinton Cerf led an effort to design an agnostic Transfer Control Protocol (TCP) allowing reliable transmissions independent of network types. Fellow Stanford researcher Bob Kahn designed an accompanying Network Control Protocol (NCP) to route packets across partitions networks, forming the standards we now known as TCP/IP – the fundamental data exchange protocols powering today‘s Internet.
Meanwhile at Xerox PARC, researcher Robert Metcalfe was developing a standard allowing high speed data transfers between computers up to 2.94 Mbps in close proximity. This became known as Ethernet, specified formally in a published paper in 1976.
“If you had asked anyone in 1973 whether researchers would be able to communicate with each other at virtually no cost, no one would have believed you. Today we largely take it for granted that video conferencing is essentially free over things like FaceTime and Skype.” – Bob Metcalfe, Ethernet Co-Inventor
The combination of TCP/IP and Ethernet provided the reliable plumbing enabling modern networked communications.
The Alto – The First True GUI Computer (1973)
The 1970s saw major hardware improvements in displays, printing, networking and processing power. But an equally important software innovation pioneered graphical user interfaces (GUIs) through the decade was Xerox‘s revolutionary Alto computer. After four years of development starting in 1973 at Xerox‘ Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), the first two Alto models were deployed in 1974.
Sporting portrait dimensions matching typical smartphone displays today and using a 3MHz processor, the Alto featured a bitmap display offering a 640×400 pixels – an incredible resolution for the mid-1970s. It was navigated using the Xerox designed mouse allowing users to simply point-and-click graphical icons to open documents and applications rather than relying solely on typed input.
The Alto operating system provided multi-tasking and multi-user capabilities, allowing people to collaborate using revolutionary designs of now familiar programs – the Bravo text editor which inspired Microsoft Word, the Gypsy word processor, the Laurel email client and more. Ethernet ports enabled traversing between 20 Altos linked on an office network.
While ahead of its time and never sold commercially, the pioneering Alto GUI established most conventions for graphical control, windows interaction and Workstation collaboration critical to modern computing UX.
Hobbyist Computers & Early Programming (1974-1978)
The launch of Intel‘s 8080 8-bit microprocessor with faster speeds and reduced costs combined with new single board computer kits allowed the everyday electronics enthusiast into computing as a hobby for the first time in the mid-1970s.
No computer popularized microcomputing more than the MITS Altair 8800 featured on the cover of Popular Electronics magazine in January 1975. Available as an assemble-yourself kit for $439 ($2,280 today), the machine excited hobbyists and student engineers, selling over 10,000 units within a few months. Early Microsoft founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen got their start writing a BASIC language interpreter that could run on the Altair.
The Altair inspired many clones and derivative machines through the late 1970s. Steve Wozniak designed the Apple I after being enthused by this new era of hobbyist computers, understanding people craved fully assembled machines over DIY kits. The accessible Apple I and fully packaged Apple II fueled massive interest in personal computing through the decade.
New programming languages also emerged in the 70s democratizing software development so hobbyists could craft their own programs. Intel engineer Gary Kildall developed PL/M (Programming Language for Microcomputers) in 1972 and by the mid-70s had evolved it into CP/M (Control Program for Microcomputers) – an early operating system for Intel 8080-based microcomputers that became the standard through the late-1970s. Easy to learn languages like BASIC, Pascal and C also gained popularity giving both computing students and enthusiasts simple on-ramps into coding.
Early Storage & The Floppy Disk (1975-1979)
In the very early days of microcomputing, even simple programs and data sets required external storage rather than just residing in a computer‘s memory. This meant hobbyists turning to audio cassettes, paper tapes and other oddball media to load their programs each time.
Commercial minicomputers began adopting IBM‘s 8-inch floppy in the early 70s. But these remained costly options. It wasn‘t until small startup Shugart Associates developed the 5.25" mini floppy disk that microcomputers gained an affordable storage medium.
In 1976, the 5.25" disk could hold 110KB of data while costing just $3 per unit in boxes of 10, thanks to disks from Dysan, Verbatim and others. Enabled by emerging disk operating systems (DOS) like CP/M, the floppy disk became the default medium for distributing software from tiny developer shops. By 1979, floppies could store 400KB data at just $2 per disk as millions were sold per year.
Hard drives were still uncommon and extremely expensive in the 1970s with typical capacity of just 10-40MB for units costing over $10,000. But the dropping prices of floppy disks made personal storage and software distribution reality.
Usability Improves for Broader Users (1977-1979)
While early 1970s personal machines catered mainly to electronics hobbyists and homebrew programmers, by the decade‘s end new software was appearing making computing accessible to wider audiences beyond technical steering committees. This came thanks to the first word processors and spreadsheet programs aimed at general business users.
In 1977, Carnegie Mellon University student Michael Shrayer launched Electric Pencil – the very first dedicated word processing software for microcomputers. In stark contrast to earlier text editors and terminal programs, it offered writer-friendly capabilities like automatic text formatting, wrapping, pagination and tables. Electric Pencil exposed ease-of-use innovations like cut/paste/copy that microcomputers could enable.
1979 marked two huge software milestones further expanding PC applications:
1. VisiCalc – the world‘s first spreadsheet program bringing modeling, forecasting and accounting analysis capabilities beyond mainframes to desktop users.
2. WordStar – a full-blown professional word processor from MicroPro with improved editing, document reviewing and formatting features aimed at aspiring writers.
Electric Pencil, VisiCalc and Wordstar marked the start of computers penetrating everyday office and household environments rather than purely the scientific-engineering niche. By presenting familiar use-cases in simplified ways, they sparked a self-reinforcing loop attracting more mainstream users.
Distribution & Support Pour Gasoline on Industry Growth (1975-1979)
The rapidly dropping costs of components along with new entrants like Apple with integrated offerings sparked an influx of personal computer companies entering the market – from 200 computer makers in 1975 ballooning to over 1,000 by 1979. Nearly 100,000 microcomputers shipped in 1977, rising to half a million units annually by 1979 representing billions in sales.
Yet users couldn‘t just buy these pioneering machines from local retailers. Instead a thriving ecosystem of computer shows, hobbyist dealer networks and specialty computer shops emerged as the primary PC access points providing sales as well as after-purchase support. Operating system developers like Digital Research and software firms relied on these distribution channels to sell pre-written programs as well as blank floppy disks to fuel homebrew user bases.
Magazines like Byte, tech conventions like the 1st West Coast Computer Faire and rapidly proliferating PC clubs offered makers community hubs to exchange ideas and spread adoption. This bootstrapping, user-driven distribution culture propelled the commercial success of early personal computing into a booming market.
Impacts – Positives & Growing Pains
The TRS80 Model 1 introduced in 1977 was among the first best-selling, attractively priced home computers that didn‘t require assembly, helping initiate the personal computing revolution of the 1980s. © Matt M. Hawkins CC-BY-SA
Beyond giving technology enthusiasts new machines to experiment with, the personal computer advances seeded in the 1970s gradually transformed wider society:
Positives
- Small businesses benefited from automated bookkeeping with VisiCalc spreadsheets
- Broader groups could self-publish reporting and documentation more easily using early word processors
- Arcade and home video game systems spawned new entertainment mediums
- Teaching programming in academic courses expanded real-world technical skills
- Decentralized computing control from a few "bureaucratic institutions" as futurist Alan Kay envisaged
Growing Pains
- Cloning and illegal copying of both hardware and software designs among manufacturers
- Minimal security standards allowed early viruses and malicious code to propagate from user to user
- Few privacy safeguards on these digitizing systems caused concerns around personal data collection by employers and government
- Corporate spies eager to steal source code, system documentation and business information
- Lack of compatibility standards made swapping data and programs between competing machines difficult
So while the earmarks of modern computing access emerged incredibly rapidly, careful technology governance and commercial considerations would take time to catch-up.
Legacy – Seeding Today‘s Tech Revolution
From the very first single-chip microprocessors that made miniature computing possible to the pioneering personal machines from companies like Apple that foreshadowed ubiquitous portable devices today, the 1970s marked the transformational dawn of the computing age for the every person.
Innovations hatched and hobbies kickstarted in this decade provided the historic spark triggering the mass adoption of computers and digital technology over the coming half century. Many gadgets and technologies we rely on daily including PCs, game consoles, word processors, spreadsheets, networking and even the Internet itself trace their early origins to these formative 1970s days.
While used by less than 1% of Americans at the start of the decade, over 18% of households owned a computer by the close of the 1970s – setting the stage for further exponential adoption through the 1980s and 1990s. The seeds for today‘s trillion dollar digital economy were planted by ambitious researchers, daring entrepreneurs, savvy engineers and passionate hobbyists who believed accessing computing power was a universal necessity rather than a privilege.
The pioneering machines of the 70s era transformed computers from isolated million-dollar institutional appliances used by an exclusive few, to interactive technological sidekicks enhancing our everyday personal and work lives.
