1974 Motorola introduces its 6800 chip, an early 8-bit microprocessor used in microcomputers and industrial and automotive control devices. The 6800 was designed by Chuck Peddle and Charlie Melear. RCA releases the 1802 processor, running at a blazing 6.4 MHz. It is considered one of the first RISC chips. It is used on a variety of devices, from video games to NASA space probes.
Top management call the idea foolish.
1974 Successful demonstration by the British Post Office of a Viewdata service, which allows alphanumeric data to be transmitted down the phone line and displayed on a TV screen. The user interacts with the information via a small computer-style keypad. This is developed by them, and later by British Telecom, as a service called Prestel. In a parallel set of developments the BBC and the IBA had been independently developing their own broadcast visual information, or 'teletext', services, called Ceefax and Oracle respectively. Compatibility between the two systems was eventually achieved and regular transmissions on the BBC and commercial television began in the mid-1970s.