Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
1988 Robert Morris's worm floods the ARPAnet. The 23-year-old Morris, the son of a
computer security expert for the National Security Agency, sends a nondestruct-
ive 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 IntelreleasesthePentium(P5)processor.Intelshiftsfromnumberstonamesforits
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 in-
structions 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.
