The PC Revolution
Until the early 1970s, the smallest "minicomputer" was about the size and weight of a refrigerator. Only large businesses and well-funded research institutions could afford them, and still fewer could afford powerful mainframes. Then, the invention of the microprocessor made possible much smaller machines. "Microcomputers" became "personal computers," and the number of people with access to them grew exponentially during the 1980s and 1990s. As PCs in the workplace and home multiplied, so did the desire to interconnect them.