TECHNOLOGY
- Tandy releases its TRS-80 videotex terminal for $399. Installation
requires connecting a telephone to the modem interface and attaching
the TRS-80 to the antenna terminals of your television set.
- It is announced that local area network software will be developed by Novell. (Another network company is 3Com. The founder of 3Com is Robert Metcalfe, the coinventor of Ethernet.)
- During 1980 IBM continues to develop its first successful personal computer. They hire Microsoft
to create the new computer's operating system. Microsoft's system is
based on QDOS software, written by Tim Paterson of Seattle Computer
Products. His work was influenced by CP/M software written by Gary
Kildall of Digital Research. Bill Gates and Microsoft will hold the
marketing and licensing rights for the new MS-DOS (or PC-DOS) operating
system.
- The Apple computer company goes public. The initial public offering of 4.6 million shares of common stock sells immediately.
- Oct. 27, 1980 -- A computer virus spreads throughout the
ARPANET network. Although it was an accident, this early Internet virus
showed the importance of network security.
(In 1980, approximately
20,000 people had access to the Internet by way of 200 university,
military, and government host computers around the world.)
-
"Fiber optics technology has developed rapidly in the past few years
because of its value as a medium of information transfer....Digital
signals lend themselves nicely to a fiber optics system; and with most
of our information transfer signals - whether by telephone or computer
- becoming digital, the fiber optics system is well-suited to our current and future technology."
(Source: Presstime,
Nov. 1980)
Additional Resources - "Early 1980s TV commercial for Commodore VIC-20 computer, starring William Shatner."
Posted on YouTube.
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THE MEDIA
-
A commercial videotex service is started by Belo Information Systems, the publisher of the Dallas Morning News.
-
The Knight-Ridder company and AT&T
run a test of their experimental videotex system in Coral Cables,
Florida. (They will officially launch their Viewtron videotex system in
1983.)
-
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting conducts teletext trials at PBS television station WETA. These tests are managed by the Alternative Media Center of New York University.
-
Database vender BRS begins offering the Dow Jones News/Retrieval system, which includes the Dow Jones newswire and abstracts of Wall Street Journal stories.
-
The CompuServe dial-up service begins working with 11 Associated Press member newspapers. The first newspaper to go online was The Columbus Dispatch on July 1, 1980. The other papers included: The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Minneapolis Star Tribune, The San Francisco Chronicle, The San Francisco Examiner, the Los Angeles Times, The Virginian-Pilot / Ledger Star, The Middlesex News, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. (The CompuServe/AP collaboration would end in 1982.) -
The New York Times Infobank database system begins offering its stories in full-text form.
-
News Example:
Nov. 5, 1980 --
"Reagan Easily
Beats Carter,"
New York Times.
(Story available from
the Infobank database service.)
Additional Resources
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