Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
security expert for the National Security Agency, sends a nondestructive worm through the
Internet, causing problems for about 6,000 of the 60,000 hosts linked to the network.
1989 Intel releases the 486 (P4) microprocessor, which contains more than one million transistors.
Intel also introduces 486 motherboard chipsets.
1990 The World Wide Web (WWW) is born when Tim Berners-Lee, a researcher at CERN—the
high-energy physics laboratory in Geneva—develops Hypertext Markup Language (HTML).
1993 Intel releases the Pentium (P5) processor. Intel shifts from numbers to names for its chips after
the company learns it's impossible to trademark a number. Intel also releases motherboard
chipsets and, for the first time, complete motherboards.
1995 Intel releases the Pentium Pro processor, the first in the P6 processor family.
1995 Microsoft releases Windows 95 in a huge rollout.
1997 Intel releases the Pentium II processor, essentially a Pentium Pro with MMX instructions
added.
1997 AMD introduces the K6, which is compatible with the Intel P5 (Pentium).
1998 Microsoft releases Windows 98.
1998 Intel releases the Celeron, a low-cost version of the Pentium II processor. Initial versions have
no cache, but within a few months Intel introduces versions with a smaller but faster L2 cache.
1999 Intel releases the Pentium III, essentially a Pentium II with SSE (Streaming SIMD Extensions)
added.
1999 AMD introduces the Athlon.
1999 The IEEE officially approves the 5GHz band 802.11a 54Mbps and 2.4GHz band 802.11b
11Mbps wireless networking standards. The Wi-Fi Alliance is formed to certify 802.11b
products, ensuring interoperability.
2000 The first 802.11b Wi-Fi-certified products are introduced, and wireless networking rapidly
builds momentum.
2000 Microsoft releases Windows Me (Millennium Edition) and Windows 2000.
2000 Both Intel and AMD introduce processors running at 1GHz.
2000 AMD introduces the Duron, a low-cost Athlon with reduced L2 cache.
2000 Intel introduces the Pentium 4, the latest processor in the Intel Architecture 32-bit (IA-32)
family.
2001 The industry celebrates the 20th anniversary of the release of the original IBM PC.
2001 Intel introduces the first 2GHz processor, a version of the Pentium 4. It takes the industry 28 1/2
years to go from 108KHz to 1GHz but only 18 months to go from 1GHz to 2GHz.
2001 Microsoft releases Windows XP, the first mainstream 32-bit operating system (OS), merging
the consumer and business OS lines under the same code base (NT 5.1).
2001 Atheros introduces the first 802.11a 54Mbps high-speed wireless chips, allowing 802.11a
products to finally reach the market.
2002 Intel releases the first 3GHz-class processor, a 3.06GHz version of the Pentium 4. This
processor also introduces Intel's Hyper-Threading (HT) technology, appearing as two
processors to the OS.
