What Happened on April 18th
![](http://images.computerhistory.org/tdih/april-18-IBM3090.jpg?w=600)
april 18, 1986
IBM First to Use Megabit Chip
Newspapers report that IBM had become the first computer manufacturer to use a megabit chip -- a memory chip capable of storing 1 million bits of information -- in a commercial product, its Model 3090. The announcement is heralded as a notable triumph for American computer makers, whose work had been perceived as having fallen behind that of the Japanese electronics industry.