5 of the biggest computer advances of the 70s

There are clichés that come to mind when we think of the 1970s. Cultural fads like disco fit this mold, as do fashion trends like bell bottom pants. But the 1970s were also a decade of ingenuity and technological development. On the consumer side, there was no shortage of electronic devices from the 60s and 70s that shaped an entire generation. Commercially, by the early 1980s, computers were moving away from the corporate world and were poised to become as much a tool for the individual as they had been for large entities in previous decades. In fact, many of the technological advances that occurred in the 1970s occurred in the computing world.

However, by the early 1970s, computers – and computing in general – were primarily in the hands of large corporations, government departments and universities. And while computers were previously an exciting and emerging technology, the 1970s saw them become an everyday tool and present a booming market with real-world usage scenarios as a product. A number of computer breakthroughs have led to this. From everyday office work to home video gaming, filmmaking techniques and Internet-like connectivity, here we explore some of the advances that helped computers take hold throughout the 1970s.

In 1969, for the first time, messages were successfully sent over a packet-switched network, marking the beginning of the Department of Defense’s Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET), the predecessor to the Internet. Other networks appeared in the early 1970s, all incompatible with each other. Each network transmitted data in a different way, and although the computers connected within each network were capable of transmitting data between them, the networks themselves were island-like, existing and operating separately from each other.

A shared language was necessary so that separate networks could transmit data between each other. In 1974, two computer scientists designed what would become the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the Internet Protocol (IP). The protocols worked together, with IP breaking messages into small pieces called packets and transmitting them to specific destinations on any network between the sender and recipient. TCP did the heavy lifting once the data was received, reassembling the packets as they arrived at their destination.

After the introduction of TCP/IP, ARPANET became a large interconnected network and paved the way for our modern Internet. Today, the term “IP address” is common, and it is precisely what was created in 1974 to establish unique senders and recipients on networks. Although initially grouped under the TCP umbrella, the technology was divided into TCP/IP layers in 1978 to provide more flexibility, allowing other protocols to use IP addressing and routing.

Computers crossed several thresholds of advancement throughout the 1970s, but the printers available to match them were neither particularly reliable nor efficient. There was the daisy printer, which worked a bit like a typewriter and made a lot of noise. Dot-matrix printers were also available on the market. These worked in the same way and, although faster and more reliable than daisy-chain printers, dot-matrix printers were still unable to reproduce the types of graphics and images that computer users worked with on their screens.

But lasers were an emerging technology in their own right, and in the late 1960s a physicist working at Xerox, Gary Starkweather, realized that a laser could be used for the printing process. He built the world’s first laser printer over the next year. Devices such as daisy and dot-matrix printers were what are known as impact printers, essentially working by stamping an ink ribbon onto a piece of paper with a letter-shaped piece of metal. Laser printers worked by passing a laser beam over a light-sensitive drum, leaving a precise image wherever the beam struck.

It took a while for Starkweather’s original laser printer to hit the market, but Xerox released the 9700 laser printer in 1977. It was an almost instant commercial success and earned Xerox billions of dollars. Competitors like IBM and Canon entered the market soon after. Due to their precision and ability to reproduce complex images, laser printers became the go-to printing option for many businesses in the 1970s. Today, laser printers are almost always among the most reliable printers on the market.

Movie magic has always existed, but until the 1970s, special effects artists were limited to using actual physical tools. Objects such as puppets and miniatures were used alongside other constructions, such as sets designed to allow for unique camera positioning and lighting tricks. Much of the magic that moviegoers were able to see was achieved through in-camera techniques like forced perspective or post-production tricks like stick-cuts.

Hollywood had already experimented with computing, but in 1973, “Westworld” – one of the ’70s science fiction films everyone needs to watch – became the guinea pig for more complex computer-generated images (CGI). The filmmakers wanted to create a shot that provided a POV perspective of a robot character. It was the first film to combine live action and digital animation, and in 1976 the film’s sequel, “Futureworld,” incorporated even more revolutionary computer-generated imagery. “Futureworld” featured a computer-generated 3D hand and face, made independently by graduate students Frederic Parke and Ed Catmull, the latter of whom later co-founded Pixar.

Filmmakers continued to implement CGI throughout the 1970s, although it remained somewhat rare and experimental. While films like “Star Wars” were known for their effects, CGI only appeared briefly. But computers had burst into the movie business and, although there had been no real technological breakthrough to make it happen, the psychological hurdle had been overcome. CGI became an acceptable and more affordable tool to implement in the early 1980s, and it had become quite common by the 1990s.

Until businesses began deploying computers, data storage was essentially a physical ordeal, with cabinets, closets, and even entire floors required to store paper documents and files. But with the computer came the beginning of file digitization. Businesses often relied on mainframe computer systems to store and process data, but they weren’t particularly portable and there was really no middleman when it came to transferring data from one mainframe to another.

But in the late 1960s, a team at IBM was tasked with finding a better way to load software onto mainframes. She developed what would become the floppy disk, which came on the market in 1971. It was read-only and could only store 80 kilobytes of data, but the floppy disk was still a major advance in the 1970s, as it allowed users for the first time to move data from one place to another in a practical manner. Known as Minnow, this version of the floppy disk was an eight-inch disk housed in plastic.

Today, gadgets like SSDs and external hard drives have taken on a similar role, although floppy disks have reigned as a portable storage device for a relatively long time. Development continued throughout the 1970s, and in 1976 IBM introduced a smaller 5.25-inch floppy disk to the market. The floppy disk was the preferred delivery mechanism for software installations throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, when technologies such as CD-ROM drives began to make them obsolete.

Some old-school game consoles are making a comeback, but in the early 1970s, game consoles didn’t really exist, at least as we know them today. Gaming was mostly done in arcades, and the machines looked more like furniture than something you’d hook up to a TV. Video games began making their way into homes in the 1970s, but the first consoles came with games built right into the hardware.

But in 1976, a console called Fairchild Channel F was released. It was a short-lived product and was quickly surpassed by consoles like the Atari 2600, but it was the first console to allow users to purchase games separately from the console itself. He did it with the same type of thinking that led to the floppy disk: Channel F used ROM video game cartridges instead of pre-installing games directly on the console, thus making plastic-shelled cartridges a form of portable storage for video games.

It was as much a marketing breakthrough as a technological one, as it transformed video games into individual products rather than something that had to be purchased as part of a larger package. Cartridge video games helped bring video games into homes and, in fact, outright defined the way an entire generation physically interacted with their gaming world. Cartridges allowed users to rent video games, borrow and trade with friends, and even sell games once they were done with them or decided they weren’t up to expectations.