What hardware has been truly revolutionary?

[twizzlebizzle22]

I was looking at an article on the 8800GTX and how it redefined graphics cards.

What other hardware components have been truly gane changing throughout history?

 

[yhelothar]

Geforce 256, the first GPU
Core2Duo. It was Intel's comeback to the CPU performance crown and it annihilated AMD until this day.
SSD, the mechanical hard drive is probably the slowest to advance performance wise out of all the hardware. While most hardware doubles in performance every 2-3 years, hard drives might see that performance gain in 5-10 years.

 

[Smoblikat]

the ZIF socket is pretty sweet.

 

[UsandThem]

Geforce 256, the first GPU
Core2Duo. It was Intel's comeback to the CPU performance crown and it annihilated AMD until this day.
SSD, the mechanical hard drive is probably the slowest to advance performance wise out of all the hardware. While most hardware doubles in performance every 2-3 years, hard drives might see that performance gain in 5-10 years.

I thought of those exact things as well.

I'd even say though the original Geforce card was an amazing card, I'd say the Voodoo 1 was a "wow" product for me personally. I remember trying to play Quake II when it first launched with S3 graphics in a Compaq. It looked horrible. I then saw an ad about a 3D add-in card, and I went to EB Games, plopped down $300 if I remember correctly, and the first time I fired up Quake II with that bad boy in there, I was like "WOW".

Another big item for me was larger portable storage like rewriteable CDs and flash drives. I thought it was so awesome the first time I burned my own music CD to play in my car. Now all I have in my car is a 32 GB flash drive loaded with music.

 

[whm1974]

x86-64. It brought 64 bit computering to everyone else. And Free and Open Source Software had a huge impact as well.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Do broadband modems count? The most jaw-dropping event for me was signing up for cable at the kiosk in the mall, bringing my new modem home and hooking it up. There's never been any hardware that was such an incredible leap forward over the previous generation. Everything else was evolutionary, dial-up to broadband was truly revolutionary.

 

[UsandThem]

Everything else was evolutionary, dial-up to broadband was truly revolutionary.

 

[JackMDS]

Flat LCD screens replacing Old CRTs, and SSD replacing HDs.

Most of the others were more like Evolution rather than Revolution.




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[Mr Evil]

1) The transistor. This is what transformed computers from "computers in the future may have only 1,000 vacuum tubes and weigh only 1.5 tons" to approximately 2 billion smart phones in pockets today.

2) The mouse. There is still no better way of interacting with a desktop PC.

3) Ethernet. It may not have been the first networking standard, but its ease of use is what brought it to the masses.

 

[bbhaag]

The HDD as we know it today. IBM included a 10mb version in the Xt and the rest is history.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Cell phones.

 

[Rifter]

SSD

 

[sonoma1993]

Voodoo 2/3 graphics cards and aureal vortex sound cards

 

[richaron]

Ignoring the transistor, #1 = bulk flash media.

The world before 'digital' wireless networking (GSM, 'Wifi', BT, etc) was also a cold, dark place.

Athlon for AMD and Yonah for Intel were also big turning points but I'd hardly say revolutionary...

 

[lehtv]

Integrated graphics was pretty revolutionary, paving the way for ultrabooks, tablets and smart phones.

 

[Ken g6]

Flat LCD screens replacing Old CRTs

To go along with that, touch and multi-touch screens for input, rather than keyboards and mice.

Lithium batteries have been pretty important too. I had one old laptop that had a lead-acid battery. You couldn't do most mobile gadgets that way.

 

[Spydermag68]

The first Apple computer. And the floppy drive that was created.

 

[bbhaag]

The NexGen Nx586 cpu. This cpu laid the foundation for modern processors. I'd really like too add one to my collection but they are expensive. The mb's to run them are even more outrageously priced.

 

[whm1974]

The NexGen Nx586 cpu. This cpu laid the foundation for modern processors. I'd really like too add one to my collection but they are expensive. The mb's to run them are even more outrageously priced.

I remember those, I was considering building a rig with it.

 

[iamgenius]

USB flash drives. No more need for floppy disks, ZIP drives, CD's...etc. Much more convenient.

 

[Chiropteran]

I'd say "internet" but that isn't exactly a single piece of hardware. DSL modems? High speed cable modems? Fiber modems?

Computers were pretty neat before the internet existed, but the internet is what really pushed them into the mainstream.