Timeline Project- 1980s

You might not immediately think that 1981 to 1990 was a time where technology grew

with leaps and bounds, but some inventions that were created during that era helped pave the

way for our devices now. Take the Macintosh, one of Apple’s most famous products. Without it,

computer mice and shortcut icons might not have been as prevalent as they are today. Coding

languages like C++ and Perl were also released during this time period, leading to a growth in

computer programming and new ideas. Technology grew from clunky old machines to... slightly

less clunky old machines, but it did change for the better.

One piece of tech that evolved slowly into the modern-day PCs was the IBM Model

5150, IBM’s first personal computer. It used Microsoft’s MS-DOS operating system, and used a

microprocessor based off of Intel’s. The IBM PC was copied by many others, and led to new

software, peripherals, and other add-ons used with the platform. This expanded the market and

gained new consumers who bought computers and their peripherals. The Macintosh came out

after the 5150, and added new shortcut icons. It was the first computer to use a mouse, and had a

graphical user interface. Its release did lead to Apple becoming a larger tech company, but the

Mac originally didn’t sell as well as Steve Jobs had first thought.

Something called a direct drive arm was designed during this time period. It was a robotic

arm that had motors installed directly into each of its joints, and eliminated needs for chains or

tendons that were used in other robots. It made it easier to manufacture items quickly, such as

cars, and was the most accurate robotic arm constructed at the time. This naturally led to a

growth in manufacturing, and new iterations of robotic arms. Another robotic arm was created in

1987, called the Mitsubishi Movemaster RM-501 Gripper, and it was also accurate like the direct
drive arm. It was used to assemble products or handle chemicals due to its small size and

accuracy.

Musicians and sound designers were greatly helped with the invention and release of

CD-ROMs, and composers now sometimes use MIDI and its digital instruments, developed in

1983. The CD-ROM became a very widely used form of entertainment, with games and novels

being put onto them. It wasn’t just used for music or games, as encyclopedias could also be

downloaded onto them, helping students with their work.

Flash memory was released to the public in 1984, invented by Dr. Fujio Masuoka while

working for Toshiba in the 1980s. It was originally called simultaneously erasable EEPROM, but

was renamed “flash” because the device could erase a large number of memory, and could be

reprogrammed multiple times. It was an alternate for a disk, which was prone to failure, and

couldn’t be properly erased or reprogrammed. This created a sizable switch from disks to flash

memory, making it even easier to use a computer.

Games were starting to make a comeback at this point. Though the American electronic

game market had been depressed since 1983, the Famicom gaming system, renamed the

Nintendo Entertainment System, was released in North America in 1985. It attracted new players

and garnered the interests of children and adults alike, helping the electronic game markets

recover. Its immense popularity led to the North American release of the Game Boy in 1989, and

Mario became a beloved character and household name because of its impact on the world.

The WorldWideWeb was also prototyped in 1990. Tim Burners-Lee, its creator, actually

never obtained approval from his CERN supervisors, but made it anyway. It was created to be

able to chain together a web of helpful sites for people to use in their lives, and it developed into
what we know now. Before it was invented, though, the first Internet worm was released in 1988,

called the Morris Worm. It caused major problems with computers and widespread outages,

publicizing internet security. The person who released it, Robert T. Morris, was convicted under

the “Computer Fraud and Abuse Act”, and later claimed that he had wanted to estimate the

Internet’s size, not cause major harm.

Some assorted technological information that people might find neat! Hypertext, the text

that links you to other sites, actually had gone underground after its invention. It was reinvented

in the 1980s and used by Hypertext programs, such as Owl, and Apple’s Hypercard. GNU was

developed in 1983, and later became Linux, a somewhat common operating system, in 1991.

Pixar was founded in 1986, and created computer animated films, winning Oscars and becoming

very successful. In 1989, a computer named Deep Blue beat a champion chess player, amazing

many people. Photoshop, of all things, was made in 1990, and is still used widely to this day.

Some of these pieces of tech aren’t used anymore, but they have all made impacts on

industry. The old computers led to the new, fast ones, and used little techniques that were

helpful. It made it easier to communicate, and to build things. Unfortunately, this led to more

jobs being taken by technology, making unemployment rates rise. Still, 1981- 1990 was an age

of change and growth, leading to new questions being asked and new inventions being made.

https://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/1981/​ (used the links from 1981- 1990)

https://interestingengineering.com/why-was-the-robotic-arm-invented