Gen Xers were the first children to have access to personal computers in their homes and at schools. In the early 1980s, the growth in the use of personal computers exploded with manufacturers such as Commodore, Atari, and Apple responding to the demand via 8- and 16-bit machines. This in turn stimulated the software industries with corresponding developments for backup storage, use of the floppy disk, zip drive, and CD-ROM. At school, several computer projects were supported by the Department of Education under U.S. Secretary Bell's "Technology Initiative". This was later mirrored in the UK's 1982 Computers for Schools programme and, in France, under the 1985 scheme "plan informatique pour tous (IPT)." During the mid-1990s, AOL dial-up modems in the U.S. enabled millions of late Xer teens to log online, paving the way for "digital native" millennials.