February 24th, 2023 at 00:01 by Henner Schröder – Steve Jobs is born, the second gigahertz processor – that happened on February 24th? Every day, PC Games Hardware dares to take a look back at the young but eventful history of the computer.
…1955: Steven Paul Jobs, better known as Steve Jobs, is born in San Francisco on February 24th. He became an important figure in the computer industry: in 1976, together with Steve Wozniak, he founded Apple Computer in his garage, the Apple II of which is considered the first “PC”. In 1984, the Macintosh, the first successful computer with a graphical user interface, followed. A year later, after power struggles, Jobs left his own company, founded Pixar and Next Computer – only to return in 1996 and later take over the chairmanship again. Under his leadership, Apple transformed itself from a computer manufacturer into a supplier of other electronic devices such as Ipods, iPads and iPhones, as well as selling digital content via iTunes.
…1999: IBM had already announced in December of the previous year that it had driven a processor to a clock frequency of one gigahertz in the laboratory. Intel, the world’s largest chip manufacturer, is now following suit: On February 24, the company will be presenting the prototype of a Pentium III with 1,002 MHz at the IDF. However, this still requires very complex cooling – it will be some time before the first gigahertz processor with conventional air cooling can be bought. However, Intel is getting ahead of another company: AMD.
