History of Computers

Who invented the computer? This question without a simple answer. The real answer is that many inventors contributed to the history of computers and that a computer is a complex piece of machinery made up of many parts, each of which can be considered a separate invention.

History of Computers Konrad Zuse - Z1 Computer First freely programmable computer. 1936

1942 John Atanasoff & Clifford Berry ABC Computer. Who was first in the computing biz is not always as easy as ABC. 1942

Howard Aiken & Grace Hopper Harvard Mark I Computer The Harvard Mark 1 computer.

1946 John Presper Eckert & John W. Mauchly ENIAC 1 Computer 20,000 vacuum tubes later Frederic Williams & Tom Kilburn Manchester Baby Computer & The Williams Tube Baby and the Williams Tube turn on the memories /48 John Bardeen, Walter Brattain & Wiliam Shockley The Transistor No, a transistor is not a computer, but this invention greatly affected the history of computers. 1947/48

1951 John Presper Eckert & John W. Mauchly UNIVAC Computer First commercial computer & able to pick presidential winners International Business Machines IBM 701 EDPM Computer IBM enters into 'The History of Computers' John Backus & IBM FORTRAN Computer Programming Language The first successful high level programming language

(In Use 1959) Stanford Research Institute, Bank of America, and General Electric ERMA and MICR The first bank industry computer - also MICR (magnetic ink character recognition) for reading checks. (In Use 1959) 1958 Jack Kilby & Robert Noyce The Integrated Circuit Otherwise known as 'The Chip‘ Steve Russell & MIT Spacewar Computer Game The first computer game invented Douglas Engelbart Computer Mouse & Windows Nicknamed the mouse because the tail came out the end. 1964

1969 ARPAnet The original Internet Intel 1103 Computer Memory The world's first available dynamic RAM chip Faggin, Hoff & Mazor Intel 4004 Computer Microprocessor The first microprocessor Alan Shugart &IBM The "Floppy" Disk Nicknamed the "Floppy" for its flexibility Robert Metcalfe & Xerox 1973

1974/75 The Ethernet Computer Networking 1974/ /77 Scelbi & Mark-8 Altair & IBM 5100 Computers The first consumer computers. 1976/ Apple I, II & TRS-80 & Commodore Pet Computers More first consumer computers Dan Bricklin & Bob Frankston VisiCalc Spreadsheet Software Any product that pays for itself in two weeks is a surefire winner. 1979

1981 Seymour Rubenstein & Rob Barnaby WordStar Software Word Processors IBM The IBM PC - Home Computer From an "Acorn" grows a personal computer revolution Microsoft MS-DOS Computer Operating System From "Quick And Dirty" comes the operating system of the century. 1983

1984 Apple Lisa Computer The first home computer with a GUI, 1984 graphical user interface Apple Macintosh Computer The more affordable home computer with a GUI Microsoft Windows Microsoft begins the friendly war with Apple.

1986 Compaq - first based microcomputer hosts on the APRAnet/Internet IBM and Microsoft announced PS/2 and OS/2. 10,000 hosts on the Internet IBM AS/400 mid-range processor.

1988 Oracle, Ingres - Unix-based DBMSs/4GLs Telecom ISDN. 100,000 hosts on the Internet DEC VAX first mainframe VAX IBM 3480 robot-based tape cartridge storage and retrieval system AARNet.

1990 IBM 3390 DASD = fastest biggest mainframe disk storage device. 20 GB, seek time 12.5 ms average, rotational delay 7.1 ms average. Data transfer 4.3 MB/s ARPAnet is finally deinstalled after 20 years. Tim Berners-Lee creates the World Wide Web at CERN in Switzerland ,000,000 hosts on the Internet.

1993 Mosaic browser developed. The Web grows by 341,000 percent in a year Netscape Communications founded. Java's first public demonstration Microsoft's Windows 95 is launched Architext changes its name to Excite.

IBM in 1924

IBM building Now