QOTD: What's the Most Influential Hardware?

If you've been computing for a decade or longer, you'll know that there have been many companies that have come and go.

However, just because a company doesn't exist anymore, doesn't mean the device or devices it made didn't make a permanent and big impact to how we use computers today and what we use them for. Many of the companies that helped change the landscape of computing still exist today.

Things like, the mice, the joystick. Yes of course, the 3D accelerator--and we all know what company really set things in motion in that space! If you can't come up with a device, that revolutionized the computer, maybe you can come up with a device that changed the way you use a computer. Today's QOTD comes from Tom's Hardware reader xNEM3S1Sx.

The question of the day is: What is the most influential piece of hardware ever made?

  • scsidude2
    The full color graphic monitor. Not much of a world if you can't see it. With the monitor you can see any picture ever taken.
    Reply
  • ehanger
    The mouse
    Reply
  • adamovera
    NIC
    Reply
  • stryk55
    The USB port. Besides the keyboard and mouse, no other piece of hardware has lived up to the expectations set out for it as well as USB. Almost any external imput device connects this way. It truly is a UNIVERSAL connector.
    Reply
  • IntelDiesel
    hard drive..
    Reply
  • xpont8
    the mouse. it gives me a good start at work.
    Reply
  • icepick314
    CPU...mainly Pentium by Intel
    Reply
  • HighHandz
    Xerox for giving us the GUI and the Mouse.
    Reply
  • IzzyCraft
    The thin coating on stuff made by ibm that prevents our stuff form shorting out but that's not really a single piece of hardware.
    Reply
  • superhighperf
    the CD burner changed the world :)
    Reply