20 Computer TECH from the 1990s that you use today.

--------------------- This is a list of the 20 p r o d u c t s f r o m t h e nineties that have had the most after-lasting impact in our dig ital c o n n e c t e d l i v e s o f today. ---------------------

#1 Color IPS LCD (1990)

#2 Java (1991)

The code once run everywhere concept was pretty wild back in the early nineties - Java eventually had to wait over a decade to become the object oriented programming language of choice for mobile platforms that it is today.

James Gosling

#3 Linux (1991)

By making Linux an open-source OS Linus Trovalds eventually brought a UNIX like OS to the masses, allowing this OS to be part of a wide range of products from laptops to mobile phones.

Linus Trovalds

#4 ARM6 (1992)

Advanced RISC Machines became an independent division of Acorn in 1990, and shortly after launched ARM6 CPU powering mobile devices like the Newton, beginning a journey that would lead her to the pole position on semi-conductors for mobile devices.

Sophie Wilson ARM inside

#5 SGI Indigo2 (1992)

For a long time SGI was the most powerful desktop system for 3D computing as it allowed a new generation of artists and scientists to render and animate objects and better understand the world in three dimensions.

James Clark

#6 Pentium/i586 (1992)

Pentium was the first superscalar CISC processor in the market featuring a math co-processer. It gave plenty of CPU power to the masses and prepared the industry for a new generation of 3D applications and multi-tasking OSes. Pentium line is still sold today.

Andy Grove

#7 Windows NT (1993)

Being the first commercial 32-bit multiprocessing OS from Microsoft. Its code base has been part of billions of devices running subsequent versions of Windows OS created on top of NT’s technology until Windows 7.

Bill Gates

#8 Netscape (1994)

Mosaic Netscape was the first commercial browser, paving the way for subsequent browsers and setting the foundations for browsers still in use today. The internet would never be the same again.

Marc Andreessen

#9 Beowulf Clusters (1994)

Although parallel computers did not really make it, parallel computing ended up being incorporated in modern CPU designs. Beowulf clusters provided the test bed for developing the parallel computing software techniques now used in multi-core CPUs.

CJ  Hobgood.  Photo:  AJ  Neste/Surfing  America  

Thomas Sterling

#10 PSION/Symbian (1994)

For being the first ARM powered PDA that achieved world class recognition and for featuring EPOC which eventually set the standard for following mobile devices with Symbian, the unrivalled mobile OS for most of the 2000s.

#11 Wi-Fi (~1995)

In a world dominated by cables, WiFi brought wireless internetworking connectivity to a larger audience and made the access to Internet almost ubiquitous.

#12 3Dfx Voodoo (1995)

Until graphic accelerators came about, better graphics meant buying a faster CPU, the 3Dfx brought arcade quality graphics to the ordinary PC and created an entire new industry of Graphic Processing Units (GPUs).

S.Sellers

#13 ICQ (1996)

ICQ became the first Internet-wide instant messaging service, many others have followed its path, eventually merging text messaging and instant messaging into a unified experience.

#14 Nintendo64 (1996)

When in 1996 Nintendo decided to bring super computer power to the hands of 8 year old kids it set a videogames race that still lives on today.

Hiroshi  Yamauchi  

#15 56K modem (1997)

You might be reading this over your high-speed Internet but, when V.92 modem came around 56Kbaud was blazing speed. Equivalent noise reduction technologies are now used over fast mobile connections.

#16 OS X/ OpenSTEP (1997)

OPENSTEP, was selected to be the basis for Apple's OSX, and Apple purchased NeXT. Steve Jobs returned to Apple as interim CEO, and later became CEO, shepherding the transformation of the OPENSTEP into a system that would be adopted by Apple's primary market of home users and creative professionals. The project was later renamed to Mac OS X.

#17 Paypal (1998)

It’s probably fair to say that in what comes to internet commerce there are two moments, before Paypal (stone-age) and after Paypal which effectively created means of electronic payment over the internet, spurring global ecommerce.

#18 Rio PMP300 (1998)

Debuting in 1998, Diamond Multimedia's Rio PMP 300 was the first commercially successful personal MP3 player. With just 32MB of internal memory it stored less one full album CD but, it would end up transforming the music industry as we know it today.

Chong Moon Lee

#19 Google (1999)

Still the world’s favorite search engine, Google redefined web search. Are you feeling lucky?

Larry Page, Sergey Brin

#20 Nokia 3310 (2000)

Nokia did not invent text messaging but the NOKIA 3310 made SMS popular among youth in Europe, and eventually everywhere else.

Jorma Ollila