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DEC PDP-8
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Computers
Digital Equipment Corp. introduced the PDP-8, the first commercially successful
minicomputer. The PDP-8 sold for $18,000, one-fifth the price of a small IBM
360 mainframe. The speed, small size, and reasonable cost enabled the PDP-8 to
go into thousands of manufacturing plants, small businesses, and scientific
laboratories.
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Robots & AI
A Stanford team led by Ed Feigenbaum created DENDRAL, the first expert system,
or program designed to execute the accumulated expertise of specialists.
DENDRAL applied a battery of "if-then" rules in chemistry and physics
to identify the molecular structure of organic compounds.
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Software & Languages
Object-oriented languages got an early boost with Simula, written by Kristen
Nygaard and Ole-John Dahl. Simula grouped data and instructions into blocks
called objects, each representing one facet of a system intended for
simulation.
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