The personal computer
Computing moves from institutions to desks and homes.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 9.1 years
- Known to
- ± 1 year
- Era
- Contemporary, Holocene
The Altair 8800 in 1975 is followed by the Apple II and others in 1977, and the IBM PC in 1981 with its open architecture that invites cloning. VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet, gives businesses a reason to buy one. The graphical interface and mouse, developed at Xerox PARC from Engelbart's work, reach the mass market with the Macintosh in 1984 and Windows thereafter.