ABSTRACT
Personal computing was perhaps the most life-changing consumer phenomenon of the second half of the twentieth century, and it continues to surprise in its ever-evolving applications and forms. The enabling technology for the personal computer, the microprocessor, was developed during the period 1969-1971 in the semiconductor firm Intel. The phrase "computer on a chip" was really copywriter's license; in any real application several other memory and controller chips would need to have been attached to the 4004. Few computer-liberation advocates came from the ranks of the student-led New Left, who commonly protested against International Business Machines (IBM) punch cards and all they symbolized. Computer games are often overlooked in discussions of the personal-computer software industry, but they played an important role in its early development. By far the greatest beneficiaries of the massive growth of personal computers were Intel and Microsoft.
