Technology Evolution Many of the Electric Gadgets

Technology Evolution Many of the electric gadgets we use today like the cell phones and the home computers were invented in the 80s. Many multinational corporations came into existence in the 80s this spur the growth to a record 3.2% per year (Bellis, 2012). This was the highest nine-year rate in American history. This was occasioned by a number of factors some of which were economic, financial, legislative, and regulatory frameworks. This unprecedented growth led to failure of a number of banking institutions. From these failures, a term "corporate greed" was coined.

This essay seeks to enumerate how technology advanced in the 80s (Coppens, 2012). In 1980, Hepatitis B Vaccine was invented by Baruch Blumberg. This research physician discovered an antigen that provoked antibody response against Hepatitis B Other took queue from this discovery to develop a vaccine against this viral hepatitis. Baruch together with Irving Millman invented a vaccine against viral hepatitis. Hepatitis A virus is the etiologic agent for Hepatitis A which is a liver disease. Hepatitis B attacks the liver.

At secondary stages it causes liver cirrhosis which is a fatal lifelong liver infection. Hepatitis C on the other hand is caused by Hepatitis C virus. Hepatitis C virus is spread when body fluids especially blood of a healthy patient gets into contact with the blood of an infected person. Invention of a vaccine against viral hepatitis was a ground breaking medical innovation in 1980 (Bellis, 2012). In 1981, a number of inventions were made. It is in this year that MS-DOS, IBM-PC, and the Scanning Tunneling Microscope was invented.

The IBM Personal Computer was invented on August 12, 1981. This personal computer was complete with its own operating system from the Microsoft Corporation. The Personal Computer had 16-bit operating system that was called MS DOS 1.0. Its operating system scheduled tasks, allocated storage, and presented a default interface to the user between applications. It all started when in 1980 IBM approached Bill Gates to discuss the state of home computers and what Microsoft contributes in this regard. Gates gave his insights on what would make a great home computer.

He hinted to having Basic written into the ROM chip considering that Microsoft had previously produced several versions of Basic for different computer system. This they did with Altair. Gates was enthusiastic about writing a version for IBM. Because never before had Microsoft written an operating system, Gates suggested that IBM investigate Control Program for Microcomputers, CP/M. This operating system was written by Gary Kindall of Digital Research.

This was because he not only did his Ph.D in computers but also wrote the most successful operating systems of that time. Over 600, 000 copies of this operating system were sold (Bellis, 2012). When IBM contacted Gary Kindall, they instead met his wife who refused to sign a non-disclosure agreement. This prompted IBM to return to Bill Gates. Microsoft was subsequently given a contract to write a new operating system, the Microsoft Disk Operating System. It was based on Microsoft purchase of Quick and Dirty Operating System, QDOS.

QDOS was written by Tim Paterson for Seattle Computer Products' Intel 8086. Microsoft bought the rights to QDOS for $50, 000. It was also in 1981 that IBM PC was invented. IBM attempted to crack the market with IBM 5100 and also considered buying Atari, a fledging game company. They however decided to stick to making their own personal computers and brand new operating systems. IBM contemplated bringing their first IBM PC into the market. This personal computer was code named Acorn. This was an initiative of twelve engineers led by William C. Lowe.

On August, 2012, IBM released their new computer. It was however re-named IBM-PC. PC was an acronym for personal computer. In fact, it was IBM that was responsible for popularizing the term PC. The very first IBM PC ran on a 4.77 MHz Intel 8088 microprocessor. It was fitted with 16 k of memory that was expandable to 256k. It came with one or two 160 floppy disk drives and an optional color monitor.

IBM PC was different from other IBM computers in that it was built from off the shelf parts and marketed by outside distributers. It Intel chip was settled on because IBM had already obtained rights to manufacture the Intel chips. Scanning Tunneling Microscopes are both used in Industrial and fundamental research to obtain atomic scale images of metal surfaces. It has the capability of providing 3-dimensional profile. Scanning microscopies that were invented in the recent past use the scanning technology developed for the STM.

Gerd Binning and Heinrich Rohrer are the brains behind development of Scanning Tunneling Microscopy, a powerful microscopy technique capable of forming an image of individual atoms on a metal (Bellis, 2012). In 1982, a human growth hormone was genetically engineered and produced by Eli Lilly and Company. It was then approved for use by diabetics. The Food and Drug Administration in this year approved the use of Humulin by diabetics.

It was the same year, 1982, that University of Pennsylvania researcher created a super mouse by inserting human growth hormone into the genetic establishment of a mouse (Kotelinkova, 2012). A number of innovations were made in 1983. These included invention of Apple Lisa and Soft Bifocal contact lens. It is also in this year that first cabbage patch kids were sold. Jaron Lanier also coined the term virtual reality in this year. Graphical user interface (GUI) became widespread and popular in the 80s.

After Steve Jobs had visited PARC in 1979, he was impressed by the Alto, the first computer that had graphical user interface. He later hired several PARC engineers to work on Apple Lisa and Macintosh. Lisa was finally released in January 1983. Lisa had drop down menu bar, widows, was capable of multitasking, had a hierarchical file system, and the ability to copy and paste. Besides, some of its other features were icons, folders, and mouse. Lisa had a 3.5" drive instead of the two 5.25." This significantly slashed its price tag.

Its CPU speed was 5 MHz, the motherboard RAM 512K, ROM 16K, Serial ports 2 RS-323, and power supply 150 Watts, among other features. After Xavier Roberts had invented Little Person Dolls in 1976, Coleco Company began the mass marketing of the dolls in 1983 (Bellis, 2010). Macintosh and CD-ROM were invented in 1984. James Russell had by 1970 patented the first digital to optical recording and play back system. He recorded onto photosensitive platter in tiny bits of light and dark. Laser was used to read the binary patterns. Computer converted the data into an electronic signal.

By refining CD-ROM, Russell adapted it to any form of data. By 1985, Russell had more than 26 patents for CD-ROM technology (N-MIT, 1999). Microsoft Corporation, in 1985, invented Windows. Microsoft Windows had a graphical user interface and provided a multitasking environment for IBM computers. It was Rowland Hanson who advised Bill Gates against using the name Interface Manager. Otherwise Microsoft Windows would.