Computers of the Past Brian Jerke

VIPs for the History of Computers Steve Jobs Bill Gates Grace Hopper- recorded the first actual computer "bug" a moth stuck between the relays, helped Harvard program the Harvard Mark I and II, and developed the first compiler, A-0. Alan Turing- published his seminal paper, "On Computable Numbers," in 1936, as well as posing significant questions about judging "human intelligence" and programming and working on the design of several computers during the course of his career.

Robots and AI Robots Artificial Intelligence UNIMATE, the first industrial robot, began work at General Motors. Obeying step-by-step commands stored on a magnetic drum, the 4,000-pound arm sequenced and stacked hot pieces of die-cast metal Victor Scheinman´s Stanford Arm made a breakthrough as the first successful electrically powered, computer-controlled robot arm. Norbert Wiener published "Cybernetics,“ a major influence on later research into artificial intelligence. Wiener coined the term "cybernetics" from the Greek word for "steersman." SRI International´s Shakey became the first mobile robot controlled by artificial intelligence. Equipped with sensing devices and driven by a problem-solving program called STRIPS, the robot found its way around the halls of SRI by applying information about its environment to a route.

Computers of the Past HP- David Packard and Bill Hewlett found Hewlett-Packard in a Palo Alto, California garage. Their first product was the HP 200A Audio Oscillator The UNIVAC I delivered to the U.S. Census Bureau was the first commercial computer to attract widespread public attention. The Apple II became an instant success when released in 1977 with its printed circuit motherboard, switching power supply, keyboard, case assembly, manual, game paddles, A/C powercord, and cassette tape with the computer game "Breakout."

Storage Magnetic tape allows for inexpensive mass storage of information and so is a key part of the computer revolution. The IBM 726 was one of the first practical high-speed magnetic tape systems for electronic digital computers. The era of magnetic disk storage dawned with IBM´s shipment of a 305 RAMAC to Zellerbach Paper in San Francisco. Virtual memory permitted a computer to use its storage capacity to switch rapidly among multiple programs or users and is a key requirement for timesharing. An IBM team, originally led by David Noble, invented the 8-inch floppy diskette. Hard disks are an essential part of the computer revolution, allowing fast, random access to large amounts of data.

Computer graphics and games Pong is released in 1966. Nolan Bushnell hired young engineer Al Alcorn to design a car driving game, but when it became apparent that this was too ambitious for the time, he had Alcorn to design a version of ping-pong instead. ID Software released Doom in late 1993. An immersive first-person shooter-style game, Doom became popular on many different platforms before losing popularity to games like Halo and Counter-Strike.