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Ethernet
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Networks
Robert Metcalfe devised the Ethernet method of network connection at the Xerox
Palo Alto Research Center. He wrote: "On May 22, 1973, using my
Selectric typewriter ... I wrote ... "Ether Acquisition" ... heavy
with handwritten annotations -- one of which was "ETHER!" -- and with
hand-drawn diagrams -- one of which showed `boosters' interconnecting branched
cable, telephone, and ratio ethers in what we now call an internet.... If
Ethernet was invented in any one memo, by any one person, or on any one day,
this was it."
Robert M. Metcalfe, "How Ethernet Was Invented", IEEE Annals of
the History of Computing, Volume 16, No. 4, Winter 1994, p. 84.
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TV Typewriter
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Computers
The TV Typewriter, designed by Don Lancaster, provided the first display of
alphanumeric information on an ordinary television set. It used $120 worth of
electronics components, as outlined in the September 1973 issue of Radio
Electronics. The original design included two memory boards and could generate
and store 512 characters as 16 lines of 32 characters. A 90-minute cassette
tape provided supplementary storage for about 100 pages of text.
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Micral
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Computers
The Micral was the earliest commercial, non-kit personal computer based on a
micro-processor, the Intel 8008. Thi Truong developed the computer and
Philippe Kahn the software. Truong, founder and president of the French
company R2E, created the Micral as a replacement for minicomputers in
situations that didn't require high performance. Selling for $1,750, the
Micral never penetrated the U.S. market. In 1979, Truong sold Micral to Bull.
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