1981 – IBM PC & Scantext 1000

• IBM introduces the IBM PC. Another new computer that year is the Osborne 1, a luggable computer with a really tiny monitor. Its key selling point is the bundled software, which includes the WordStar word processor.

• The Scantext 1000 is a typesetting system that is developed and built by Scangraphic, a German company. It consists of a central console running the typesetting software on top of the CP/M operating system, as well as a filmsetter unit that moves film or photosensitive paper across a CRT tube to output text. Two 8″ disk drives are used to store the software and all data.

• The Compugraphic MCS (Modular Composition System) is a direct competitor of the Scantext 1000. Mergenthaler Linotype also manufactures comparable machines. Below is a picture of the editing screen of a CRTronic 360, a machine released a few years later.

• The Sigmagraph 2000 is Dainippon Screen’s first electronic page makeup system.

• Bitstream Inc. is founded as the first independent foundry that makes fonts  for digital typesetting.

• Adaptec is founded. It will become the most important manufacturer of add-on SCSI-cards, used to connect peripherals like scanners and CD-ROM drives to computers.

• Pope John Paul II is wounded by a gunman.

• AIDS is first identified.

• The TGV is Europe’s first high-speed passenger train.

• MTV starts broadcasting.

• The Egyptian president Anwar el-Sadat is killed by Islamic extremists.

<1980 - 1982>