The Silicon Underground

The last MP3 patent

Dave Farquhar — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 11:00:35 +0000

Medieval Europeans believed that the divine right of sovereignty transferred instantly from one monarch to the next upon the death of the previous one. This led to a saying, first used in 1422 in France, that translates to “The king

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Apple II announced April 16, 1977

Dave Farquhar — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 11:00:06 +0000

On April 16, 1977, Apple launched the Apple II, one of the first pre-built desktop computers, although it wouldn’t ship until June of that year. It went on to sell about 6 million units over the course of the next

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Intel Celeron 266 introduced April 15, 1998

Dave Farquhar — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 11:00:37 +0000

On April 15, 1998, Intel introduced its Celeron 266 processor. It was the first Celeron in a product line that lasted 25 years, but it wasn’t one of Intel’s finest moments. The Celeron was a cut-down Pentium II, designed in

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Google’s acquisition of Doubleclick

Dave Farquhar — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 11:00:50 +0000

On April 13, 2007, Google agreed to acquire DoubleClick for US$3.1 billion in cash. Google had already been in the advertising business since 2000, with its Adwords product. Buying Doubleclick further sent Google down the road of funding itself through

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Cyrix 486SLC CPU: Introduced April 13,1992

Dave Farquhar — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 11:00:31 +0000

On April 13, 1992, Cyrix debuted its 486SLC CPU. Cyrix didn’t have its own fabrication plants so they relied on other chipmakers, such as SGS Thomson and Texas Instruments, to manufacture the chips. Part of the agreement allowed TI to

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Intel 486 CPU announced April 10, 1989

Dave Farquhar — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 11:00:58 +0000

Intel announced the 486 CPU at Comdex on April 10, 1989. It was an expensive chip, priced at $950 each in quantities of 1,000. I thought it would be fun to look back at what the magazines at the time

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Osborne Computer liquidated April 9, 1986

Dave Farquhar — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 11:00:21 +0000

40 years ago today, on April 9, 1986, Osborne Computer Corporation, one of the early makers of CP/M computers and a pioneer in portable computing, liquidated after three years of financial hardship. Its demise is generally blamed on its founder,

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Atari ST introduced April 8, 1985

Dave Farquhar — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 11:00:12 +0000

It is hard for me to be objective about the Atari ST, because I was a dyed in the wool Amiga fanboy in the early ’90s. But the Atari ST was released April 8, 1985 and quickly sold 50,000 units.

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Hayes compatible modem: What it means

Dave Farquhar — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 11:00:34 +0000

A lot of software advertises itself as working with a Hayes modem or Hayes compatible modem. What does that mean? And what’s Hayes? It’s a de facto standard named after a defunct maker of modems. Let’s talk about why Hayes

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Windows 3.1 released April 6, 1992

Dave Farquhar — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 11:00:29 +0000

Released April 6, 1992, Windows 3.1 was the successor to the very successful Windows 3.0. It wasn’t great, just like Windows 3.0 wasn’t great. But it was a graphical user interface that ran on very inexpensive ordinary PCs, and enough

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