People in the 1970s and 1980s witnessed the rapid evolution of technology. The expeditious development of the microprocessor, also known as the replacement of traditional minicomputers and mainframes with micro-based alternatives, brought a major acceleration in the 1980s. This trend drove users towards low-cost solutions based on multiple microprocessor-based systems, network servers, LANs, and PCs.
Evolution of Technology
The 1980s marked the beginning of LANs and micro-based PCs, signaling the end of the first era of computer systems. During the last half of the 20th century, computer technology experienced the fastest development compared to other technologies. This paid huge contributions to social and economic developments throughout the globe and changed the lives of human beings significantly.
The LAN technology experienced rapid growth in the second half of the 1980s. In the early 1990s, the speedy development of WANs – Wide Area Networks was led by the internetworking of LANs.
Further, in the late 1980s, personal computers became quite easier and cheaper to use. Moreover, the Internet emerged as a network of networks. The implementation of File Transfer Protocol (FTP) enabled the transfer of information from a remote host to a local site.
The existence of the Internet facilitated the sharing of resources among participating organizations, including private corporations, educational institutions, and governmental agencies. Greater opportunities were also provided by the Internet as a fundamental framework of national and global information structure for reshaping and improving interactions among businesses, citizens, and government.
The rapid popularization and development of Internet technology brought the use of information technology into a new era in the 1990s. Thereby within the past 10 years, the important advances of the information age (e-society, e-government, and e-commerce) have been booming.
