The Last OS/2, DirectX 3.0 and Geforce 4 with AGP8x (PCGH-Retro, September 25)

…1996: The development of the operating system OS/2 started so promisingly in 1985: IBM and Microsoft wanted to say goodbye to the long outdated DOS and the half-baked graphical add-on Windows, OS/2 should become a system with a modern kernel and a user-friendly interface. The first version appeared in 1987, but Microsoft left the joint project in 1990: Windows 3 had proved to be unexpectedly successful, henceforth they wanted to concentrate on this platform – and now IBM took care of OS/2 alone. This September 25th, IBM releases OS/2 Warp 4. The system, which is quite advanced with features like built-in speech recognition and Java, remains IBM’s last attempt to compete with the dominant Windows – after OS/2 4 only one server appears -Version and update packages, the future belongs to Microsoft’s Windows. In a way, however, OS/2 will remain in the market: The Windows NT platform, which years later dominated the market in the form of Windows XP, was originally developed under a different name: as OS/2 3.

…1996: Microsoft ships DirectX 3.0 for Windows 95 to developers. The new version of the API includes the components DirectPlay, DirectInput, DirectSound, DirectDraw and Direct3D, which supports MMX for the first time. Also don’t miss our three-part series DirectX – From the beginning to the present, the other links can be found in the article there .

… 1997: After eight more or less glorious parts, many of which were expanded by one or more add-ons, the developer studio Origin, which was taken over by Electronic Arts, heralds a new era on this day. The Ultima universe goes the way of everything earthly – namely into the Internet: Ultima Online irretrievably goes online on this day and with Ultima IX Ascension only one part of the series appears afterwards, which appeals to the single player.

…2002: Nvidia launches the Geforce 4 MX 8x (NV18) and Geforce 4 Ti 8x (NV28) graphics chips. These GPUs are updates to the predecessors NV17 and NV25, which have been expanded to include AGP 8x support and are clocked a little higher. The first models with the new chips are the Geforce 4 MX 440 8x (with DirectX 7 functions) and Geforce 4 Ti 4200 8x (DX8 capable).