Transcript Then: The IBM PC

Name of Presentation
20 Year Milestone
Integrating Business and IT Yesterday — and
Tomorrow
Moderators:
Heather Clancy, Editor/Strategy, CRN
David Strom, Technology Editor, VARBusiness
20 Year Milestone
Panel Participants
 Lazar (Larry) Birenbaum, Senior Vice President,
General Manager, Ethernet Access Group, Cisco
Systems
 Dan Bricklin, Founder and Chief Technology Officer,
Trellix
 Marilyn Edling, Vice President and General Manager,
Enterprise Systems, Business Customer
Organization, Hewlett-Packard
 Steve Sakoman, Chief Product Officer, PalmSource
 Chris Stone, Vice Chairman, Office of the CEO,
Novell
20 Year Milestone
Then and Now


Then: The IBM PC sold more than 200,000 units in the
first year after its 1981 introduction. Base configuration:

4.77Mhz Intel 8088 processor

Microsoft PC-DOS 1.0,

16 Kbytes of memory (expandable to 256K)

160K-byte floppy drive

Color monitor optional

Price: $1,565 to $3,000 (more than $5,000 today)
Now: IBM NetVista M41

2 Ghz Pentium 4

Windows 2000 Pro

256 Mbytes of RAM

40G-byte hard drive, 48X CD-ROM

Built-in Ethernet 10/100

Price: Approximately $1,500
20 Year Milestone
Other 1982 Trivia
 Compaq Computer was co-founded; later that year it would release the
first IBM-compatible clone
 Intel introduced the 6MHz 80286 microprocessor with a 16-bit data bus;
today’s Pentium 4 processor operates at speeds up to 2.53Ghz
 Recent application launches included Lotus 1-2-3 and WordPerfect 1.0
 VisiCorp unveils the VisiOn graphical user interface
 Sun Microsystems had four employees; today its workforce tops 43,000
 Peter Norton founded Norton Utilities
 The Internet was a set of four networks including ARPANet, two packet
radio networks, the Atlantic Packet Satellite Network and some LANs.
TCP/IP was rolled out in January 1983. Today there are some 500 million
users . . .
20 Year Milestone
Milestones That Changed an Industry

1971: First microprocessors ships

1981: IBM ships the IBM XT with another company’s OS

1983: Sony unveils 3.5” diskettes; Lotus ships 1-2-3; NetWare debuts

1984: HP ships LaserJet; 2400-baud modems debut

1985: Aldus ships PageMaker

1986: Microsoft goes public

1988: The CD-ROM format takes root

1993: IBM hits wall, reports annual loss of nearly $5 billion; Intel debuts Pentium

1994: Clark and Andreessen form Netscape (ne Mosaic); Novell buys WordPerfect

1995: Windows 95 debuts in August

1996: IE ships; Apple buys Next; Telecommunications Act passed

1998: Compaq buys DEC; Apple releases the iMac; Yahoo soars; Shawn Fanning
writes Napster and turns every college kid into a peer

1999: e-Commerce takes off; Y2K concerns spur corporate buying; 5 millionth domain
is registered (believeinkids.com)

2000: Computers work on Jan. 1; 300 million users now online; bubble bursts in April

2001: Microsoft settles with the Feds; HP moves to acquire Compaq
20 Year Milestone
Topic: The Network
•You have been part of many fascinating developments in the history of
Ethernet. What prompted you to leave HP and become part of 3Com and the
then-nascent networking movement? Was there a special “ah-ha” moment
where a breakthrough was achieved? In your view, what helps foster
innovation?
•Will network technology and other communications cabling ever become a
standard part of construction projects, much like electrical wiring today?
•Now that the Internet itself is a routine part of everyday life, how will wireless
technology change the way the Internet is use?
Larry Birenbaum, Cisco Systems
Resume highlights: Founder of Grand
Junction Networks, bought by Cisco; led
standardization efforts in Fast Ethernet.
Stints at 3Com and Hewlett-Packard,
where he helped design the OS for the
HP 3000 minicomputer series.
20 Year Milestone
Topic: The Process
•What technical achievement are you most proud of?
•How important is the concept of team in programming? How has this changed
over the past 20 years?
•As a founder of Slate, you were an early pioneer of the pen computing
movement. What do you think are the chances for the upcoming new breed of
tablet computers?
Dan Bricklin, Trellix
Resume highlights: Co-developer of
VisiCalc, the first electronic spreadsheet;
co-founder of Slate early pen apps
developer, and Trellix, which is in Web
site publishing and managed hosting.
20 Year Milestone
Topic: The Industry
•What prompted a history and Middle Eastern studies student to become part of
the technology industry?
•What is the single most significant change in technology you have seen since
your days at Apollo and your role now as the leader of HP’s “Always On
Internet Infrastructure” program?
•What is your view on the Linux movement?
Marilyn Edling, Hewlett-Packard
Resume highlights: Leads HP’s Always-On
Internet Infrastructure program; joined the
company in 1989 when HP acquired
Apollo Computer
20 Year Milestone
Topic: Human Factors
• In your opinion, what were some of the shortcomings of the Newton? Why
didn’t it catch on?
•How many different computing devices do you think people will own/use in
the future? When is that future?
•What’s next in interface development?
Steve Sakoman, PalmSource
Resume highlights: Co-founder and COO,
Be Inc. (acquired by Palm) Started up
Apple’s Newton development team,
involved in Apple II and Macintosh CPU
design.
20 Year Milestone
Topic: Web Services
•Up until recently, you have really been known for your work with the object
software movement? Can you explain how that movement in the 1990s really
laid the groundwork for a lot of the developments we see happening now ?
•What are Web services? And why do they matter?
Chris Stone, Novell
Resume highlights: Founder of the Object
Management Group, which led early
standards effort in object-technology and
component software development. Also
founder of Tilion, focused on supply chain
technology.