WEBVTT - The History of Laptop Computers 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.760 Welcome to text Stuff, a production from my Heart Radio. 0:00:12.200 --> 0:00:15.280 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:15.440 --> 0:00:19.080 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 0:00:19.160 --> 0:00:22.320 and I love all things tech. And when I first 0:00:22.600 --> 0:00:26.080 started out in the work world, sit down, we're going 0:00:26.120 --> 0:00:28.600 to have a story time, it was a little bit 0:00:28.600 --> 0:00:31.479 of a different landscape. Now. First of all, I was 0:00:31.520 --> 0:00:36.239 not a podcaster. That was not my original profession. My 0:00:36.320 --> 0:00:41.480 first steady job was working for a human resources consulting firm. 0:00:41.840 --> 0:00:45.239 Have you guys seen the film Office Space. If you have, 0:00:46.000 --> 0:00:49.680 you might remember the Bob's in that movie. Those were 0:00:49.720 --> 0:00:52.559 a pair of consultants who came into the company in 0:00:52.600 --> 0:00:55.120 the film in a tech in order to figure out 0:00:55.120 --> 0:00:58.520 which employees could be downsized. In other words, who's gonna 0:00:58.560 --> 0:01:02.600 get fired? Well, I used to say that I essentially 0:01:02.600 --> 0:01:06.120 worked for the Bob's, but that's probably being a little unfair. 0:01:06.120 --> 0:01:08.800 But hey, that's that's neither here nor there, right So anyway, 0:01:08.840 --> 0:01:15.640 more importantly for this episode, back then, I worked on designing, formatting, editing, proofing, 0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:20.000 and producing various documents. I had a pretty fancy title, 0:01:20.160 --> 0:01:22.320 but I was really more or less a copy editor. 0:01:22.640 --> 0:01:26.640 Not that copy editors aren't fancy, they're incredibly important. But 0:01:27.000 --> 0:01:29.720 the title they that I was given at that you know, 0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:33.119 consulting firm made it sound like I was a manager 0:01:33.200 --> 0:01:36.600 or something. But to do my work, I was assigned 0:01:36.800 --> 0:01:40.440 a big, old desktop computer. It was a decent machine 0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:43.840 for the time being, but it was also stationary. Right. 0:01:44.120 --> 0:01:46.959 You weren't supposed to pick the thing up and take 0:01:47.000 --> 0:01:48.720 it with you at the end of the day, so 0:01:49.080 --> 0:01:52.520 I never had to bring work home with me. Now, 0:01:53.000 --> 0:01:56.840 it's not that laptop computers were rare even back in 0:01:56.880 --> 0:02:01.120 the ancient days when I first started working, but the 0:02:01.200 --> 0:02:05.440 average office tended to rely more on desktop computers than 0:02:05.520 --> 0:02:09.240 laptops at that point, with only really important folks like 0:02:09.440 --> 0:02:12.600 senior consultants at my company having laptops, and that was 0:02:12.639 --> 0:02:14.920 so that they could bring their work with them wherever 0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:19.359 they went. Flash forward to a decade ago or so, 0:02:19.880 --> 0:02:23.519 I was working at how Stuff Works dot com, and boy, 0:02:23.560 --> 0:02:26.720 howdy do I miss those guys. Not only is that 0:02:26.840 --> 0:02:30.800 where this podcast got its start, it's also where I 0:02:30.840 --> 0:02:34.679 got my first work laptop. Now that one I could 0:02:34.680 --> 0:02:37.160 bring home with me. Right, I could bring the laptop 0:02:37.200 --> 0:02:39.720 with me if I needed to, made it much easier 0:02:39.720 --> 0:02:43.240 to work on any particularly tricky articles that I was 0:02:43.280 --> 0:02:45.680 writing at the time. But on the flip side, you 0:02:45.680 --> 0:02:47.920 could argue that I was suddenly able to put in 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:52.000 way more hours in a salaried job that I would 0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:56.640 have if the computers were still metaphorically locked two desks 0:02:56.680 --> 0:02:59.600 in an office. But whether you view it as a 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:03.080 pause of or a negative, the laptop at that point 0:03:03.160 --> 0:03:07.800 had become standard office gear, largely replacing the towers and 0:03:07.919 --> 0:03:11.520 base units of desktops of the past, and that brings 0:03:11.600 --> 0:03:14.320 us to today's topic. I wanted to talk about the 0:03:14.320 --> 0:03:18.919 origin and evolution of laptop computers. Now, clearly we won't 0:03:18.960 --> 0:03:23.760 be talking about every variation. That would be insane. The 0:03:23.840 --> 0:03:27.560 series would end up being one episodes long, and while 0:03:27.560 --> 0:03:31.959 I enjoyed walking down the path of PlayStation for four episodes, 0:03:32.880 --> 0:03:36.000 that was already pushing it. So this is more of 0:03:36.040 --> 0:03:39.920 an overview of how laptops first came into being, when 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:43.520 they first started getting popular, and then we're going to 0:03:43.600 --> 0:03:47.240 talk in a second episode about some pretty dramatic shifts 0:03:47.280 --> 0:03:50.600 and form factor and use cases over the years. So 0:03:50.960 --> 0:03:53.720 this episode is going to really be about how we 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:57.080 kind of arrived at the standard form factor of what 0:03:57.160 --> 0:04:00.560 we consider a laptop to be and and how that 0:04:00.680 --> 0:04:03.160 was established. And in our next episode we'll look at 0:04:03.160 --> 0:04:06.760 how various companies have innovated around that basic concept and 0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:09.840 the effort to kind of differentiate themselves and also add 0:04:09.880 --> 0:04:14.520 new features and capabilities. So to talk about laptops, we 0:04:14.600 --> 0:04:16.640 also have to pull back a bit and talk about 0:04:16.720 --> 0:04:20.719 the shift towards personal computers, because the two are very 0:04:20.760 --> 0:04:27.080 closely related. The first purely electronic computer for general purpose computing, 0:04:27.240 --> 0:04:29.520 as opposed to a machine that could really only do 0:04:29.680 --> 0:04:35.400 one type of processing was the appropriately named Electronic Numerical 0:04:35.600 --> 0:04:40.960 Integrator and Computer or an EAC computer, so famous that 0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:43.880 Michael Simbello recorded a song about it for the movie 0:04:43.960 --> 0:04:48.000 Flash Dance. Hang on a second, I'm getting a note here. 0:04:48.200 --> 0:04:52.440 Um huh, Well, according to this note that I just 0:04:52.640 --> 0:04:57.600 handed to myself, the whole song thing is a lie. 0:04:58.120 --> 0:04:59.800 But for those of you out there who are as 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:03.840 old as I am, you get the joke right. Anyway. 0:05:04.000 --> 0:05:07.600 ENIAC was not the first computer, mind you, but it 0:05:07.680 --> 0:05:11.359 was the first electronic one, or largely agreed to be 0:05:11.520 --> 0:05:16.279 the first electronic computer. There's even some disagreement on that matter, 0:05:16.360 --> 0:05:21.160 but there were older computers. Those were electro mechanical machines. 0:05:21.600 --> 0:05:25.000 But Eniac was in itself a huge machine, pretty much 0:05:25.000 --> 0:05:28.040 taking up all of the wall space of a basement 0:05:28.160 --> 0:05:31.600 that measured fifty ft by thirty feet or fifteen meters 0:05:31.600 --> 0:05:36.880 by nine meters. Eniac had nearly twenty thousand vacuum tubes 0:05:37.000 --> 0:05:39.520 as part of its wiring. Because this was a time 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:44.839 before the transistor, it was not, by any definition at all, 0:05:45.480 --> 0:05:50.599 a portable machine. Now we got better at building computers, 0:05:50.920 --> 0:05:55.120 and components like the transistor would help immensely, and over 0:05:55.200 --> 0:05:58.480 time we were able to miniaturize the various elements debate 0:05:58.560 --> 0:06:03.599 computers work. We created circuit boards, and then we eventually 0:06:03.600 --> 0:06:07.400 moved on to relatively tiny processors. Things that used to 0:06:07.400 --> 0:06:11.560 take up several square feet of space or sometimes cubic 0:06:11.800 --> 0:06:15.960 feet of space now could be fit on a few 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:19.320 chips on a circuit board, but even so that took 0:06:19.360 --> 0:06:23.760 a while. The Eniac project began during World War two. 0:06:24.279 --> 0:06:28.479 Three decades later, the computers were smaller, but still frequently 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:31.840 the size of a desk or workstation, or sometimes a 0:06:31.920 --> 0:06:34.839 couple of them. There was no such thing as a 0:06:34.880 --> 0:06:38.520 personal computer. Yet the machines were too large and way 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:42.000 too expensive for that, and the applications were mostly restricted 0:06:42.040 --> 0:06:47.760 to scientific research and business applications like accounting analysis, that 0:06:47.880 --> 0:06:52.440 kind of thing. In fact, there were two general classifications 0:06:52.480 --> 0:06:56.080 of computers by the nineteen seventies, though people weren't necessarily 0:06:56.120 --> 0:06:59.279 talking about them in these terms. At that time. You 0:06:59.360 --> 0:07:05.200 had main frame computers. These were larger, centralized computers, typically 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:10.160 housed in their own rooms within a business or research facility, 0:07:10.280 --> 0:07:14.320 and typically they were looked after by very highly trained technicians, 0:07:14.400 --> 0:07:18.720 so there was a barrier between user and machine. They 0:07:18.720 --> 0:07:23.000 were intended for multiple users, generally, and either those users 0:07:23.000 --> 0:07:26.800 were accessing the main frame from dumb terminals meaning a 0:07:26.920 --> 0:07:31.720 keyboard in some form of output that themselves had no 0:07:31.800 --> 0:07:35.000 computing power. They just connected back to this central computer, 0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:38.720 or you were sharing time on the same physical device, 0:07:38.800 --> 0:07:42.960 typically through using those highly paid technicians. These main frames 0:07:42.960 --> 0:07:45.720 were really expensive. I mean, it wasn't unheard of for 0:07:45.760 --> 0:07:49.360 a mainframe computer to set a company back a million bucks, 0:07:49.400 --> 0:07:54.640 and that is a princely some The other category would 0:07:54.680 --> 0:08:00.880 be mini computers. These were smaller, but not necessarily tiny. Uh. 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:03.880 Defining the boundary between a main frame and a mini 0:08:03.920 --> 0:08:10.880 computer is somewhat subjective. They also were typically multiple user computers. 0:08:11.040 --> 0:08:15.040 They weren't necessarily meant to be a single individuals computer, 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:18.800 but they were smaller than their main frame counterparts. They 0:08:18.800 --> 0:08:21.040 were also less expensive. You could swoop up one of 0:08:21.080 --> 0:08:24.600 these babies for a cool hundred grand or so. See 0:08:24.600 --> 0:08:29.000 either they're practically giving them away. By the mid nineteen seventies, 0:08:29.480 --> 0:08:32.440 miniaturization had reached a point where a computer could fit 0:08:32.480 --> 0:08:35.280 on a desktop rather than taking up the space of 0:08:35.280 --> 0:08:40.000 an entire desk, or two desks or a dozen desks. 0:08:40.040 --> 0:08:42.319 This would start to get us into the era of 0:08:42.640 --> 0:08:46.800 micro computers. Micro Computers is kind of another term for 0:08:47.000 --> 0:08:52.080 personal computer in a sense the meaning is slightly different, 0:08:52.120 --> 0:08:56.720 but effectively personal computers are micro computers. They're a subset, 0:08:56.880 --> 0:09:00.600 you could argue. So these were still machine beings found 0:09:00.760 --> 0:09:04.040 largely in research centers and big corporations, not in the 0:09:04.160 --> 0:09:08.760 home at this time, so computer manufacturers were building machines 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:11.120 with that in mind. They weren't building for the home user, 0:09:11.600 --> 0:09:15.280 but that would slowly change thanks to some computer enthusiasts 0:09:15.280 --> 0:09:20.280 who saw an opportunity in vour. A company called micro 0:09:20.480 --> 0:09:26.160 Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems or MYTHS changed the game forever 0:09:26.480 --> 0:09:29.640 in computers. This company was founded by a group of 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:34.600 hobbyists in the late nineteen sixties. These were electronics enthusiasts 0:09:34.600 --> 0:09:39.000 and professionals, and their whole business was selling kits to 0:09:39.320 --> 0:09:42.760 other hobbyists. And originally those kids were for stuff like 0:09:42.920 --> 0:09:48.320 home radio transmitters and model rocket systems, thus the telemetry. 0:09:48.520 --> 0:09:51.160 But in nineteen seventy four they put together a kit 0:09:51.320 --> 0:09:55.200 that would let hobbyists build their very own programmable computer. 0:09:55.960 --> 0:09:59.000 You wouldn't think of it as a computer by modern standards, 0:09:59.559 --> 0:10:02.000 but it was the computer, and they named it the 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:06.480 Altaire eight hundred. They sold these kits for just four 0:10:06.559 --> 0:10:10.280 hundred forty dollars, and they got a lot of publicity 0:10:10.320 --> 0:10:13.720 from a cover page story in the magazine Popular Electronics. 0:10:14.240 --> 0:10:16.160 By the way, if you were to adjust for inflation, 0:10:16.800 --> 0:10:20.600 that fourty kit would set you back about two thousand, 0:10:20.679 --> 0:10:24.199 one hundred dollars in today's money. And keep in mind 0:10:24.640 --> 0:10:26.440 it was a kit. You would still have to actually 0:10:26.480 --> 0:10:29.800 build the thing yourself. Now, the l tear didn't exactly 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:33.880 become the must have gadget of nine, but it did 0:10:33.920 --> 0:10:38.319 help usher in the personal computer era the micro computer era. 0:10:38.640 --> 0:10:42.079 It allowed people like the Two Steve's those being jobs 0:10:42.080 --> 0:10:45.800 in Wozniak to get their own computer business going. In 0:10:45.920 --> 0:10:50.280 case you aren't aware, that was a little company called Apple. Meanwhile, 0:10:50.600 --> 0:10:55.120 over at IBM, the focus was still primarily on corporate customers. 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:58.200 That was a big part of IBM's business. In fact, 0:10:58.240 --> 0:11:02.960 that was IBM's business, was selling products to other big companies. 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:05.480 It would be a couple of years before IBM would 0:11:05.480 --> 0:11:08.760 try its hand designing a personal computer for a more 0:11:08.960 --> 0:11:14.120 mainstream customer base, like and an actual consumer level computer 0:11:14.200 --> 0:11:17.400 as opposed to a commercial computer. But it is at 0:11:17.440 --> 0:11:21.560 IBM where our story about laptops really gets its start. 0:11:22.320 --> 0:11:26.400 IBM had identified a market for computers that was underserved, 0:11:26.880 --> 0:11:30.839 and not again the average consumer. Instead, we're talking about 0:11:30.840 --> 0:11:35.000 professionals who weren't necessarily connected to a big corporation or 0:11:35.080 --> 0:11:39.160 research facility that has access to like a mainframe machine 0:11:39.440 --> 0:11:44.480 or typical mini computer. So these were statisticians and engineers 0:11:44.559 --> 0:11:47.360 and analysts and other people who would routinely work with 0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:51.680 big numbers and complicated calculations. They could really use something 0:11:51.920 --> 0:11:55.520 with the capabilities of a computer, a programmable machine, but 0:11:56.200 --> 0:11:59.079 they weren't working at places where those sort of resources 0:11:59.080 --> 0:12:01.440 were readily available. So IBM set out to make a 0:12:01.440 --> 0:12:05.440 machine that the company could market to those professionals. To 0:12:05.520 --> 0:12:11.440 do so, IBM created a portable computer called the IBM. 0:12:11.480 --> 0:12:16.720 This was an early example of an IBM mini computer. Now, 0:12:16.760 --> 0:12:20.400 this wasn't a laptop computer by today's standards, certainly, but 0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:24.440 it was a portable computer. In fact, it's pretty much 0:12:24.480 --> 0:12:28.520 acknowledged as the world's first portable computer. However, when it 0:12:28.559 --> 0:12:33.200 comes to the word portable, your mileage may vary. See, 0:12:33.200 --> 0:12:37.560 the IBM was no lightweight device. In fact, it tipped 0:12:37.640 --> 0:12:42.160 the scales at a hefty fifty five pounds. That's just 0:12:42.400 --> 0:12:47.079 under twenty five and yeah, that's heavy. You would not 0:12:47.240 --> 0:12:49.440 want this on your lap for very long at all, 0:12:49.800 --> 0:12:53.080 or you lose all feeling in your legs. But compared 0:12:53.120 --> 0:12:56.560 to an IBM computer of the same capabilities from just 0:12:56.840 --> 0:13:01.760 a few years earlier, it was positively smelt. An IBM 0:13:01.800 --> 0:13:04.400 computer from the late sixties that would have the same 0:13:04.480 --> 0:13:09.679 processing capabilities as the nineteen IBM would have been the 0:13:09.720 --> 0:13:12.440 size of two full desks and it would have weighed 0:13:12.480 --> 0:13:16.560 half a ton, So this was definitely an achievement. The 0:13:16.600 --> 0:13:21.720 IBM was an all in one computer. It included a 0:13:21.800 --> 0:13:25.000 display that was built into the body of the computer itself, 0:13:25.040 --> 0:13:27.920 so the case had everything. The case had the display, 0:13:28.320 --> 0:13:31.640 it had the keyboard. Calling it a display, however, is 0:13:31.679 --> 0:13:34.640 a pretty grand thing because it wasn't exactly large. In fact, 0:13:34.800 --> 0:13:38.360 the screen size was just five inches or twelve point 0:13:38.480 --> 0:13:42.240 seven centimeters on the diagonal, so you wouldn't be playing 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:45.440 Doo Maternal on one of these things. In fact, they 0:13:45.640 --> 0:13:48.920 could not show graphics like that. The screen could display 0:13:49.000 --> 0:13:53.000 standard characters, but it wasn't designed for more advanced graphics. 0:13:53.040 --> 0:13:55.880 The width of the display allowed for just sixty four 0:13:56.040 --> 0:14:00.560 characters per line, with sixteen lines maximum on a screen, 0:14:00.600 --> 0:14:03.480 so it had a height of sixteen characters and a 0:14:03.520 --> 0:14:07.920 width of sixty four characters, so it was definitely limited. 0:14:08.559 --> 0:14:11.560 The body of the computer also had a keyboard complete 0:14:11.559 --> 0:14:14.760 with a number pad built into it, so this was 0:14:14.880 --> 0:14:19.200 again a solid piece, one piece computer. And you if 0:14:19.200 --> 0:14:21.520 you imagine an old computer case, you know the kind 0:14:21.560 --> 0:14:24.960 that would sit horizontally on a desk, Just imagine poking 0:14:24.960 --> 0:14:28.640 out the front is a keyboard and then you have, uh, 0:14:28.720 --> 0:14:31.400 you know, the rest of the cases behind where the 0:14:31.480 --> 0:14:34.080 keyboard is, and it goes up a bit on the 0:14:34.280 --> 0:14:36.480 upper left side above the keyboard that's where the little 0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:38.880 display is. You can do a Google image search for 0:14:38.960 --> 0:14:42.920 the IBM to get a look at this thing. For storage, 0:14:43.160 --> 0:14:47.200 the IBM had a tape drive. This was one of 0:14:47.240 --> 0:14:51.200 several forms of data storage in the computer era. With tapes, 0:14:51.440 --> 0:14:55.360 computers would store information onto reels of magnetic tape. The 0:14:55.400 --> 0:14:58.440 specific version of the IBM fifty one hundred was the 0:14:58.640 --> 0:15:03.560 d C three hundred cartridge drive. Those cartridges held three 0:15:03.640 --> 0:15:07.600 hundred feet or about nine of tape. Then the tape 0:15:07.600 --> 0:15:11.600 itself measured a quarter inch wide or point six centimeters. 0:15:12.040 --> 0:15:14.680 It can hold up to two hundred four bytes of 0:15:14.800 --> 0:15:18.640 data per cartridge. All right, let's do a quick refresher 0:15:18.640 --> 0:15:22.160 on bites too. A bit is a single unit of 0:15:22.200 --> 0:15:25.640 machine information, and it can be either a zero or one. 0:15:25.800 --> 0:15:28.560 You can think of it like uh light switch. It's 0:15:28.600 --> 0:15:32.880 either flipped off or on. A collection of eight bits 0:15:33.360 --> 0:15:36.440 is a bite. This is something IBM had a really 0:15:36.480 --> 0:15:40.080 big hand in establishing. But that's a matter for another podcast. 0:15:40.560 --> 0:15:45.000 A kilobyte is one thousand bytes, though in terms of memory, 0:15:45.040 --> 0:15:49.880 particularly in this era, we're really talking about one thousand, 0:15:50.000 --> 0:15:53.600 twenty four bytes. To explain, why would have me go 0:15:53.640 --> 0:15:55.560 off on yet another tangent. So we're just going to 0:15:55.680 --> 0:15:58.360 ignore that for now, But just know that these cartridges 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:02.160 could hold up to two d four thousand bytes of data. 0:16:02.920 --> 0:16:05.920 That's not that much. Even though two four thousand sounds 0:16:05.920 --> 0:16:08.080 like a lot, it's not much at all, especially when 0:16:08.080 --> 0:16:11.240 you consider that was on three hundred feet of tape. 0:16:11.600 --> 0:16:15.160 In addition to that cartridge port, the IBM also had 0:16:15.160 --> 0:16:18.760 a printer i O port io means input output, So 0:16:19.000 --> 0:16:23.760 you physically connect the printer to this beheamoth of a 0:16:23.800 --> 0:16:27.120 portable computer with a cable. I'll have a little bit 0:16:27.160 --> 0:16:29.720 more to say about the IBM in a second, and 0:16:29.760 --> 0:16:32.760 don't worry, I'm not gonna give every laptop the full 0:16:32.760 --> 0:16:35.960 treatment like this. This is just to establish some baselines. 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:39.440 But before we get into that, let's take a quick break. 0:16:47.040 --> 0:16:50.840 What was powering the IBM under the hood, right, What 0:16:50.880 --> 0:16:56.160 was actually acting as the processor? Well, back in those days, 0:16:56.600 --> 0:16:59.720 we weren't necessarily talking about CPUs the way we do 0:16:59.840 --> 0:17:02.240 to day. In fact, it doesn't have a CPU the 0:17:02.280 --> 0:17:04.360 way we would think of at all for modern computers. 0:17:04.440 --> 0:17:08.000 If you were to open up an old IBM, you'd 0:17:08.040 --> 0:17:10.880 find a circuit board kind of mounted upside down. You'd 0:17:10.880 --> 0:17:12.960 actually have to turn it over, and you would find 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:17.120 fifteen microchips mounted on that circuit board, and collectively those 0:17:17.200 --> 0:17:21.000 chips acted as the computer's processor. So as such, it's 0:17:21.000 --> 0:17:24.959 a little tricky to talk about the IBMFE using modern 0:17:25.040 --> 0:17:29.800 computing terms. It doesn't really fit. Plus, IBM offered up 0:17:29.800 --> 0:17:33.840 a few variations of this particular computer, but the least 0:17:34.000 --> 0:17:38.359 expensive model of the IBM had a clock speed of 0:17:38.440 --> 0:17:41.800 one point nine Mega hurts. And just in case that 0:17:41.840 --> 0:17:43.879 doesn't mean anything to you if you didn't listen to 0:17:43.880 --> 0:17:46.399 the PlayStation episodes, I'm going to explain that really quickly. 0:17:46.800 --> 0:17:50.720 A processor's clock speed tells you how many steps of 0:17:50.800 --> 0:17:56.080 instructions the processor can complete in a second. Uh These 0:17:56.119 --> 0:17:59.960 steps are called cycles in processor speak, and a hurt 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:04.040 is one cycle per second. A Mega hurts is a 0:18:04.200 --> 0:18:07.760 million cycles per second. So essentially this means the IBM 0:18:08.960 --> 0:18:14.080 could perform one point nine million steps of instructions per second. 0:18:14.240 --> 0:18:18.359 And just a reminder, instructions can be really simple or 0:18:18.400 --> 0:18:21.400 they can be really complicated, So a simple instruction might 0:18:21.440 --> 0:18:25.119 have only a couple of steps, Complicated instructions could have 0:18:25.560 --> 0:18:29.359 lots and lots of steps. And all these terms still 0:18:29.400 --> 0:18:32.320 hold true. Today, if you have a machine with a 0:18:32.400 --> 0:18:36.680 three point for giga hurts processor, that processor is capable 0:18:36.720 --> 0:18:42.800 of completing three point four billion steps of instructions every second. 0:18:43.280 --> 0:18:47.119 And don't worry, software developers have created programs that have 0:18:47.359 --> 0:18:50.920 way more complicated steps to them. So while we've seen 0:18:51.000 --> 0:18:55.720 processor speeds skyrocket over the years, the demands of software 0:18:55.880 --> 0:18:59.160 have also increased. And that's part of why you might 0:18:59.200 --> 0:19:01.640 get the feeling that a new computer isn't that much 0:19:01.680 --> 0:19:04.440 faster than older computers. It's not the fault of the 0:19:04.480 --> 0:19:08.720 machine necessarily, but rather that software that you're running is 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:12.280 more demanding than the software you were using on older computers. 0:19:12.400 --> 0:19:15.520 In fact, several prominent people in tech have made observations 0:19:15.520 --> 0:19:20.320 that indicate software complexity pretty much negate the benefits of 0:19:20.400 --> 0:19:25.080 Moore's law. That's the general observation that computing processing capabilities 0:19:25.119 --> 0:19:29.120 typically double every eighteen to twenty four months. Alright, So 0:19:29.720 --> 0:19:34.080 the IBM a one point nine megahertz processor or the 0:19:34.119 --> 0:19:39.040 equivalent thereof the basic model also had sixteen kilobytes of memory, 0:19:39.520 --> 0:19:43.119 and the cheapest model IBM offered was for the ap 0:19:43.560 --> 0:19:46.920 L programming language. So what does a p L stand for? 0:19:47.560 --> 0:19:52.800 Get Ready, a p L stands for a programming language. 0:19:53.280 --> 0:19:59.000 So your standard sixteen kilobyte ap L version of the 0:19:59.040 --> 0:20:02.200 IBM fifty one hundred would set you back a cool 0:20:02.440 --> 0:20:08.120 eight thousand, nine hundred seventy five bucks in nineteen. If 0:20:08.160 --> 0:20:11.800 we adjust for inflation, that would be right around forty 0:20:11.840 --> 0:20:16.240 three thousand dollars today. Now that is a princely sum 0:20:16.440 --> 0:20:19.359 for a portable computer. And keep in mind that's the 0:20:19.480 --> 0:20:24.159 cheapest model. Let's say your your daddy Warbucks, right, you 0:20:24.280 --> 0:20:27.320 got all the money in the world, you want the best. 0:20:27.760 --> 0:20:32.360 So the most expensive version of the IBM had sixty 0:20:32.400 --> 0:20:34.879 four kilobytes of memory, which is, by the way, is 0:20:34.920 --> 0:20:38.600 nothing compared to today's computers, and it could support both 0:20:38.680 --> 0:20:43.280 a p L and basic programming languages. That one would 0:20:43.320 --> 0:20:47.320 cost nineteen thousand, nine hundred seventy five dollars back in 0:20:47.400 --> 0:20:52.600 nine so in today's money that would be about nineties 0:20:52.600 --> 0:20:58.919 six thousand bucks. So yeah, these things were major investments. 0:20:59.200 --> 0:21:02.880 But as I mentioned earlier, while the IBM was portable, 0:21:03.240 --> 0:21:06.360 it wouldn't fit our definition of laptop. It was more 0:21:06.400 --> 0:21:08.520 of an all in one computer that you could set 0:21:08.600 --> 0:21:10.960 up on a desk, then after you were done, you 0:21:11.000 --> 0:21:13.320 could power it down and then you could take it 0:21:13.359 --> 0:21:16.760 somewhere else if you really needed to. UM I wouldn't 0:21:16.760 --> 0:21:20.160 recommend it too much. Like I said, still pretty heavy. 0:21:20.560 --> 0:21:24.800 While the IBM would not qualify as a laptop or 0:21:24.880 --> 0:21:28.240 as a personal computer, the concept of a portable computer 0:21:28.440 --> 0:21:32.240 was intriguing and in another big company, a guy named 0:21:32.280 --> 0:21:35.040 Alan Kay had been refining a concept he had been 0:21:35.080 --> 0:21:38.440 pulling over for years. The other company in this case 0:21:38.720 --> 0:21:41.600 was Xerox, and Alan Kay would do a lot of 0:21:41.680 --> 0:21:45.000 his thinking over at Xerox, and then later Xerox established 0:21:45.040 --> 0:21:50.840 a research center, the Park Research Center, which is redundant 0:21:51.000 --> 0:21:53.359 if you know what Park stands for. But truth be known, 0:21:53.720 --> 0:21:57.119 k had been thinking about this for several years. He 0:21:57.160 --> 0:22:00.080 had really started thinking about in the late sixties, and 0:22:00.119 --> 0:22:02.400 he wanted to create a type of computer that could 0:22:02.440 --> 0:22:05.439 be used by anyone. In fact, he really wanted to 0:22:05.440 --> 0:22:09.480 develop a computer that kids could use. His dream was 0:22:09.520 --> 0:22:12.679 to make a computer that was portable, It was easy 0:22:12.720 --> 0:22:16.680 to use. It would have essentially eternal battery life, although 0:22:17.040 --> 0:22:20.359 that would require obviously recharging a battery over and over again. 0:22:20.720 --> 0:22:25.040 It would have a low requirements for processing. It would 0:22:25.040 --> 0:22:29.199 have connectativity abilities, It would have a stylus where you 0:22:29.200 --> 0:22:32.560 could have some sort of stylus input. He had a 0:22:32.600 --> 0:22:36.280 lot of ideas about what would make this ideal computer, 0:22:36.400 --> 0:22:38.399 and he had a lot of different form factors that 0:22:38.480 --> 0:22:41.919 he played around with in this concept, which I should 0:22:41.920 --> 0:22:45.560 stress was strictly a concept. It was not a practical device. 0:22:45.600 --> 0:22:49.360 He he wasn't making a prototype because the actual ability 0:22:49.400 --> 0:22:54.080 to deliver upon his vision was not there. Like he 0:22:54.160 --> 0:22:57.720 was thinking about an ideal, but there was no way 0:22:57.720 --> 0:23:02.080 of making it happen. He thought about perhaps having a 0:23:02.119 --> 0:23:05.359 slate like tablet form factor. You know, something that's a 0:23:05.400 --> 0:23:09.040 solid piece where you would have a screen mounted above 0:23:09.160 --> 0:23:12.480 a keyboard. They're all on the same plane. So think 0:23:12.480 --> 0:23:15.679 of it like if you had a tablet computer like 0:23:15.720 --> 0:23:19.240 an iPad, but on the bottom half was a physical keyboard. 0:23:19.600 --> 0:23:23.200 That was kind of the form factor he was thinking about. Uh. 0:23:23.200 --> 0:23:25.080 He did think about other ones too, but that was 0:23:25.119 --> 0:23:28.480 one that was frequently cited, and it would have a 0:23:28.480 --> 0:23:32.160 graphic user interface or g u I Gooey that's similar 0:23:32.200 --> 0:23:36.600 to Windows or Apple's OS today. In fact, Steve Jobs 0:23:36.600 --> 0:23:39.760 got a look at Xerox Gooey a few years before 0:23:39.760 --> 0:23:42.320 Apple would go on to introduce the Mac computer, and 0:23:42.359 --> 0:23:47.720 it's graphic user interface. I'm just saying, you know, anyway, 0:23:48.160 --> 0:23:51.520 researchers at Xerox would end up building a computer system 0:23:51.600 --> 0:23:54.720 called the Alto, and the Alto was not a portable computer, 0:23:54.800 --> 0:23:58.960 but it did incorporate many of K's ideas into that design. 0:23:59.560 --> 0:24:01.720 So while K was imagining this technology in the late 0:24:01.760 --> 0:24:04.280 nineteen sixties, like I said, it just wasn't realistic to 0:24:04.359 --> 0:24:08.080 build at that time, his work did guide others Xerox 0:24:08.160 --> 0:24:11.840 to create a portable computer called the note Taker that 0:24:11.880 --> 0:24:17.000 was in nineteen eight. This, like the IBM, was a 0:24:17.040 --> 0:24:20.679 pretty hefty machine. The case did have a keyboard that 0:24:20.720 --> 0:24:24.160 could fold down from the case, but think of it 0:24:24.280 --> 0:24:27.840 like a briefcase, right, and it's not a briefcase that 0:24:27.880 --> 0:24:29.880 opens all the way up. Or think of it like 0:24:30.240 --> 0:24:34.639 a standard computer tower on its side, and the front 0:24:34.680 --> 0:24:38.840 can fold down to reveal a keyboard. It's still not 0:24:38.960 --> 0:24:42.320 a clamshell design. We're not there yet. But we did 0:24:42.359 --> 0:24:44.800 have the folding unit that had the keyboard in it. 0:24:45.280 --> 0:24:47.440 Closing it would allow you to carry the note Taker 0:24:47.560 --> 0:24:50.199 like it was a suitcase, which is really more what 0:24:50.680 --> 0:24:54.159 appropriate than saying briefcase because this thing was pretty big. Again, 0:24:54.240 --> 0:24:57.679 not really a laptop. Xerox also did not produce this 0:24:57.840 --> 0:25:01.120 as a consumer computer. The note Ta care was an 0:25:01.119 --> 0:25:05.879 internal project. Reportedly, they only ever produced about ten prototypes 0:25:06.000 --> 0:25:08.760 of this. This, by the way, is a common thread 0:25:09.119 --> 0:25:12.879 in xerox is computer history. Engineers at the company would 0:25:12.880 --> 0:25:16.680 pioneer these incredible designs and they would find their way 0:25:17.040 --> 0:25:23.400 into internal Xerox architecture, like Xerox machines, but Xerox wasn't 0:25:23.520 --> 0:25:27.040 using those as products. They were using them internally at 0:25:27.040 --> 0:25:31.959 the company to develop other Xerox products. Then those same 0:25:32.200 --> 0:25:36.600 design elements would later find their way into the products 0:25:36.680 --> 0:25:39.359 of other companies. So a lot of the stuff that 0:25:39.440 --> 0:25:42.080 we think of as being standard in personal computers comes 0:25:42.080 --> 0:25:46.760 to us thanks to Xerox, but not through direct Xerox products. 0:25:46.760 --> 0:25:50.280