The intel PR440FX printed manual suggests August 1996 and supports USB.

That level of specificity is very ambitious. The other recent project started up here on the best hardware of each year could be considered similar, but maybe easier to achieve? In either case, archives of old magazines will come in handy. 😀 Here's that other thread:
Top hardware by year
and the data collection:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Bhlr_ … 44jM/edit#gid=0

BTW, really impressive motherboard you show in your photos. Love the USB header next to the AT keyboard connector.

You may find some info on the Red Hill website http://redhill.net.au/ib.html
It's not organized by any other criterion but years though.

clueless1 wrote:

That level of specificity is very ambitious. The other recent project started up here on the best hardware of each year could b […]
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That level of specificity is very ambitious. The other recent project started up here on the best hardware of each year could be considered similar, but maybe easier to achieve? In either case, archives of old magazines will come in handy. 😀 Here's that other thread:
Top hardware by year
and the data collection:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Bhlr_ … 44jM/edit#gid=0

BTW, really impressive motherboard you show in your photos. Love the USB header next to the AT keyboard connector.

Yeah you're right about this being ambitious (also known as 'pain in the ass ') but I figured if Vlask can catalogue every known graphics chipset then it's worth doing.

I've been keeping an eye on the other thread you mentioned. If it gains momentum it would make a very nice complementary project.

And the board - I've had it a while and only just noticed how nice it is. Everything is white and socketed. Might try to find a COAST module for it. Weirdly though i tried a load of SDRAM in it and none POSTed. Supports up to an MMX 200 but probably supports more unofficially.

dirkmirk wrote:

The intel PR440FX printed manual suggests August 1996 and supports USB.

Nice! We're getting some dates 😀

I will populate a Google Docs spreadsheet with some preliminary data and see where it goes.

The i430HX chipset was the first P5 chipset to formally support USB through the PIIX3 South Bridge. The release was February 1996.

I've already done a lot of work on this and will be able to present a work in progress version soon. Most of all, I want all dates to be referenced by some kind of press release or article from the time period. I have already read a lot of information online that is either imprecise (ideally day / month / year. Month / year at the very least) or recycled or just plain wrong. This needs to be historically factual and accurate or it's not worth doing.

Fortunately Google has searchable scans of InfoWorld, PC Mag and ComputerWorld, which give a pretty good impression. Specification documents from the time are hard to find for obvious reasons!

Also thinking about the best way to present this information. I like Vlask's VGA chart because this project is similar (timeline format).

dirkmirk wrote:

The intel PR440FX printed manual suggests August 1996 and supports USB.

Any chance you could provide a scan / photo of the title page? I have found specs online and it says November. I would like to be able to link a source if possible, thanks.

http://home.icequake.net/~nemesis/pc/support/ … fx/28182902.pdf

Okay so I wanted to share what I've done so far. I used a Google sheet for speed as gathering the data is more important than how it looks at the moment. I have split it into items of hardware (mostly - the history of Overdrive chips is a bit different) and provided significant dates, with a source. In most cases there are links to InfoWorld on Google Books because that's the publication I have used so far. In the future I will have a more diverse list of sources as I find more reference material.

Thoughts?

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NESLd … EVQUa3o/pubhtml

EDIT: I've just noticed that 'notes' attached to cells are not published from Google Sheets, which makes the current format a bit pointless as it appears as a date only, when it should have a summary pop up. I'll work on it.

There's also Insert Comment and Insert Link options if one of those will work better for you. So far looks amazing! Will check it out in more depth. Thanks for doing this. 😀

Okay I have renamed the project (and thread) and converted the Google Sheet so it's, er, useful. People with big monitors will have more joy. Consider this a 'dev' version. The final product will be much more presentable and pretty as soon as I learn how to make timelines in jQuery or something.

Enjoy this trip through the late 80s and 90s of PC hardware:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NESLd … 290&single=true

It's not quite yet the level of specificity that I was hoping for (i.e. mapping the first products on the market) but there are some examples of that. Mostly it maps particular standards and how they established themselves in the market. It also maps Intel's monumental fuck-up with the Pentium Overdrive and some other fiascos. All of them Intel's, in fact.

p.s. some of the links are a bit screwy - I need to find a better way to link to a specific page on a Google Book, because presently I can only do it via keywords search. If anyone has any tips I'd appreciate it.