A History of Computing Innovation

1939: HP is founded and its first product is the resistance-capacitance audio oscillator (HP 200A), an electronic instrument used to test sound equipment. Over the next decade, test and measurement products from HP win excellent acceptance among engineers and scientists.1957: Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) is founded by Ken Olsen. DEC will merge with Compaq in 1998. Compaq will merge with HP in 2002.1960: DEC ships the first PDP-1 computer, the first in a series of machines aimed at price/performance points below IBM’s mainframes, and targetted for laboratory applications.1964: DEC introduces the PDP-8, generally regarded as the first minicomputer.1966: HP Laboratories is established as the company's central research facility and begins a long history as one of the world's leading commercial research centers. At HP Labs' inception, primary areas of research include solid state physics, physical electronics, electronics, and medical and chemical electronics instruments.1966: HP’s first computer, the HP2116A, is introduced. Rugged and reliable, the HP 2116A is the first go-anywhere, do-anything computer. 1968: HP introduces the world's first desktop scientific calculator, the HP 9100A. It stores programs on magnetic cards and lets scientists perform complex calculations without the need to access much larger computers. Ads dub it a "personal computer," one of the first documented uses of the term.1968: HP Labs develops the first commercially available light-emitting diode. (LEC) Applications include alphanumeric displays such as indicator lights, traffic signals and even wound healing.1969: In an early proof of concept for utility computing, HP markets its first time-shared operating system on a minicomputer with support for 16 users.1970: DEC ships its first 16-bit minicomputer, the PDP-11/20. The PDP-11’s simple but effective design, felt by many to be the best 16-bit instruction set ever, led to it becoming one of the most influental, and imitated, computers in history.1972: The HP-35, the first scientific handheld calculator, ushers in a new era of portable, powerful computing and makes engineer's slide rule obsolete.1972: HP introduces the era of distributed data processing with the HP 3000. The new system serves high-technology engineering and research needs at the same time it handles day-to-day administrative data processing operations.1974: HP introduces the first minicomputer based on 4K DRAM chips instead of magnetic cores.1974: The world's first programmable pocket calculator, the HP-65, is introduced. Its programmability will later lead some to call it the world's first handheld computer.1975: DECnet is introduced. A proprietary suite of network protocols, it evolved into one of the first peer-to-peer network architectures, and made DEC a networking powerhouse in the 1980s. 1977: DEC introduces its first 32-bit superminicomputer, the VAX 11/780 and the VMS operating system. The VAX/VMS systems marked the first time designers built hardware and software together from the ground up, making the system tightly integrated and providing unprecedented levels of reliability, data integrity, scalability, and flexibility.1980: HP introduces its first personal computer, the HP-85.1982: The electronic mail system developed by HP Limited in the United Kingdom is the first major wide-area commercial network of its kind based on minicomputers.1982: The HP 9000 technical computer with 32-bit "superchip" technology is introduced. The first "desktop mainframe" is as powerful as room-size computers of the 1960s.1982: HP's first handheld computer, the HP-75C, is introduced. With 16K RAM and 48K ROM, it runs BASIC and VisiCalc and can also be used as a clock and appointment alarm. Weighing only 26 ounces, the HP-75 provides 50 functions and is an early tool for mobile computing, connecting with such peripherals as a modem, digital cassette drive and printer/plotter.1982: Compaq Computer Corporation (which will merge with HP 20 years later) incorporates. 1983: Compaq introduces its first product, a "luggable" suitcase-sized computer that was the progenitor of today’s laptop. It was the first portable IBM-compatible PC, and the first legal IBM-compatible PC.1983: DEC introduces VAXclusters--loosely coupled processors that allowed multiple VAX computers to operate as a single system, extending the characteristics of VAX to high capacity and high availability applications. 1985: Convex Computer introduces the C1, the industry’s first affordable supercomputer, which sold for $300,000.1986: HP is the first major computer company to introduce a precision architecture based on reduced instruction set computing (RISC), which makes computers faster and less expensive. 1987: Compaq introduces the first Intel 80386-based personal computer, the first 32-bit processor in the x86 line.1987: DEC introduces Vaxstation 2000 32-bit workstations. It is the company’s first workstation with a cost of less than $5,000 and becomes the highest volume workstation in the industry. 1988: The first 3D graphics supercomputers are announced by Apollo, Ardent, and Stellar. 1988: IBM, DEC, HP, Apollo and other computer companies establish the Open Software Standard Foundation.1989: HP buys Apollo for $476 million.1991: HP unveils the RISC-based 9000 Series 700 workstations. 1991: Convex ships first gallium arsenide (GaAs) supercomputer.1992: HP takes a 5 percent stake in Convex Computer; Convex selects HP PA-RISC for its next generation of massively parallel processing (MPP) supercomputers.1992: DEC introduces the Alpha 21064 processor, the world’s fastest processor running at 200MHz. Alpha was the first commercially available 64-bit processor and boasts a superpipelined and superscalar design. 1993: Compaq introduces the Presario product line, PCs targeted at home users.1994: HP begins collaboration with Intel to develop a common 64-bit microprocessor architecture for the computers of the 21st century. Now known as Itanium, the processor debuts in 2001.1995: HP buys Convex for $150 million.1997: Compaq acquires Tandem Computer, known for its high-performance, fault-tolerant servers, and related software and services.1998: Compaq acquires Digital for $9.6 billion, at the time the largest acquisition in computer industry history.1999: Scientists from HP Labs and UCLA build the world's first molecular logic gate, a fundamental step in the creation of chemically assembled electronic nanocomputers.1999: Compaq introduces the AlphaServer SC Series, Compaq’s first supercomputer. The new supercomputer boasts performance in the multi-TeraFLOPs range and uses standard product components that provide unprecedented cost advantages and result in a system that is more reliable, simpler to maintain, and easier to upgrade. 2001: HP introduces systems and services based on the new Itanium processor jointly developed by HP and Intel. Developed as an extremely parallel high-performance architecture, Itanium is the platform for next-generation 64-bit computing.2001: Compaq ships AlphaServer systems with industry’s first 64-Bit, 1GHz processor. IDC ranks Compaq #1 in High Performance Technical Computing.2002: HP completes it merger with Compaq Computer, the largest technology merger in history, for $25 billion.2002: HP displaces IBM and takes #1 position on TOP500 list of the world’s most powerful computer systems.2002: HP announces an extensive portfolio of Intel® Itanium® 2-based systems, integrated solutions and comprehensive services, delivering the industry's broadest offering of Intel Itanium 2-based servers and workstations. 2002: HP announces breakthroughs in molecular electronics, continuing its efforts in nanotechnology. HP and UCLA net four key patents in this new area. 2003: For the third consecutive time, HP ranks as the #1 supercomputing provider on the TOP500 Supercomputer list.2003: HP introduces Intel® Itanium® 2-based servers and workstations delivering up to 50 percent faster HPC application performance than the previous Itanium 2-based systems. 2003: HP introduces integrated Linux cluster systems for high performance technical computing: the XC and LC series. 2003: HP forms the HP Collaboration and Competency Network (HP CCN), a forum to facilitate wide-ranging collaboration, innovation and competency sharing between HP and customers and partners in high performance technical computing.2003: HP leads TOP500 supercomputer list for fourth consecutive time.2003: HP announces grid-enabled services, solutions and products to help enterprises better manage and capitalize on change. The offerings include Enterprise Grid Consulting, Grid Software Infrastructure, HP Utility Data Center (UDC), Grid Resource Topology Designer, Web Services Management Framework (WSMF), and Smart Framework for Object Groups (SmartFrog). 2004: HP broadens its standards-based server portfolio with the introduction of AMD OpteronTM processor-based systems in the HP ProLiant server family.