Timeline of computing 1980–1989

Roland releases the drum machine TR-808 which would end up revolutionizing music of all genres in the 1980s to a more electronic/futuristic sound.

MS-DOS was the main operating system for all IBM-PC compatible computers until Microsoft released Windows 95.

Introduced with the IBM XT, this version included a Unix style hierarchical sub-directory structure, and altered the way in which programs could load and access files on the disk.

Applications that came as part of the package included MacPaint, which made use of the mouse, and MacWrite, which demonstrated WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) word processing.

The Macintosh II was based on the newer Motorola 68020, that ran at 16 MHz and achieved a much more respectable 2.6 MIPS (comparable to an 80286).

Ad Lib, Inc., a Canadian Company, had a virtual monopoly until 1989 when the SoundBlaster card was released.

This version reflected increases in hardware capabilities; it supported hard drives greater than 32 MB (up to 2 GB) and also EMS memory.

This version was not properly tested and was bug ridden, causing system crashes and loss of data.