of the newspaper comics business, geared for the
aspiring cartoonist. Somewhat dated because of
the rise of the Internet in the late 1990’s.
Walker, Brian.The Comics: Since 1945. New York:
Harry N. Abrams, 2002. A standard history of the
medium since World War II that includes many
reproductions. The author is both a comics
scholar and a comic-strip creator himself, part of
the team that producesBeetle BaileyandHi and
Lois.
William E. Burns
See also Comedians; Journalism;Where’s Waldo?
franchise.
Computers
Definition Electronic devices that process, store,
and output data based on programmed
instructions
During the 1990’s, powerful computing became ubiqui-
tous. At work, client-server networked systems replaced
mainframes, and at home powerful microcomputers ran a
variety of applications, including accessing the World Wide
Web. The connected world became a reality, with computers,
handheld devices, and appliances all communicating.
The 1990’s marked a period of remarkable improve-
ments in microcomputer technology and growth of
microcomputer companies. While Apple Computer
(later Apple, Inc.), Tandy, and International Busi-
ness Machines (IBM) were producing most micro-
computers in the 1980’s, a number of companies, in-
cluding Hewlett-Packard (HP), Compaq, Dell, and
Gateway, were shipping Intel microcomputers, gen-
erally referred to as IBM clones, by 1990. The growth
of the microcomputer industry in the 1990’s was
chaotic and unpredictable, with many changes in
the leaders and frequent acquisitions. Dell is one of
the best-known and most successful microcomputer
companies of the 1990’s. Founded in 1984, Dell
shipped its first computer in 1985, had annual sales
of $2 billion in 1992, became the largest manufac-
turer of microcomputers in 1999, had annual sales
of $30 billion in 2000, and has dueled with HP for
leadership in microcomputer manufacturing since
2000.
IBM and Tandy were typical of the microcom-
puter manufacturing companies with weak sales in
the 1990’s. Tandy was an early leader in the manufac-
ture of microcomputers, producing the popular Ra-
dio Shack line of computers. In 1993, however,
Tandy sold its computer business to AST Research,
and in 1995 it eliminated most of its retail microcom-
puter sales. IBM introduced the IBM PC microcom-
puter in 1981 and started the modern era of small
computers. It developed the PS/2 series in 1987, fea-
turing a proprietary MCA bus, 3.5-inch floppy disk,
and PS/2 keyboard. The PS/2 experienced initial
success, selling well over two million machines in less
than two years, but its proprietary architecture
doomed it to failure, with the last PS/2 being manu-
factured about 1994.
Mainframe computing of earlier times all but
ceased in the 1990’s. Instead, corporate computing
switched to a new client-server (C/S) model, and
supercomputing activity decreased. IBM became
the largest supplier of servers rather than being the
leading mainframe computer vendor. The UNIX,
Microsoft, and Compaq/DEC servers controlled a
majority share of the server market as the 1990’s
closed. In fact, after Compaq purchased Digital
Equipment Corporation (DEC) in 1998, it was the
second-largest computer company in the world.
Cray and Intel dropped out of the supercomputer
field in the 1990’s, with single-instruction multiple-
data (SIMD) machines becoming the main type of
scientific supercomputer.Microcomputers Improvements in microcom-
puter central processing units (CPUs) were dra-
matic in the 1990’s. IBM developed the RS/6000, a
reduced instruction set computer (RISC), in 1990. It
was a technical success and had reasonably good
sales. Apple, IBM, and Motorola formed an alliance
to develop RISC architectures, and in 1993 they an-
nounced the PowerPC architecture, which resulted
in several successful computers, including Apple’s
Power Macintosh. DEC released its first Alpha chip
in 1992, and it also led to a successful line of RISC mi-
crocomputers and workstations. Advanced Micro
Devices produced a number of important CPU chips
in the 1990’s, but the real leader in CPU develop-
ment during the decade was Intel. In 1989, Intel in-
troduced its complex instruction set computer
(CISC) chip, the I486, which had 1.2 million transis-
tors and an embedded floating-point unit. In the
same year, the company introduced its moderately
successful I860 RISC chip. In 1993, Intel combined216 Computers The Nineties in America