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Alan Turing presents the notion of a universal machine, later called the Turing machine, capable of computing anything that is computable. The central concept of the modern computer was based on his ideas.
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Hewlett-Packard (better known now as HP) is founded by David Packard and Bill Hewlett.
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John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry build the first automatic electronic digital computer - The Atanasoff–Berry Computer (ABC)
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The first computer company was the Electronic Controls Company and was founded in 1949 by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly
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Lyons Electronic Office (LEO), the first business computer was developed by John Simmons and T. Raymond Thompson. It was operated by British tea-shop company J Lyons and its first program was to calculate the week's value of cakes, bread and pies.
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The UNIVAC 1 was the worlds first commercial produced computer. UNIVAC stands for Universal Automatic Computer and was developed by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchl
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MIT introduces the Whirlwind machine on March 8, 1955, a revolutionary computer that was the first digital computer with magnetic core RAM and real-time graphics.
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Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce unveil the integrated circuit, known as the computer chip.
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Douglas Engelbart shows a prototype of the modern computer, with a mouse and a graphical user interface (GUI). This marks the evolution of the computer from a specialized machine for scientists and mathematicians to technology that is more accessible to the general public.
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The Programma 101 was the first desktop computer, unveiled to the public at the New York World's Fair and about 44,000 of them sold. It was invented by Pier Giorgio Perotto. The Programma 101 was able to calculate the basic four arithmetic functions (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division), plus square root, absolute value, and fractional part.
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Alan Shugart leads a team of IBM engineers who invent the "floppy disk," allowing data to be shared among computers.
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The Xerox Alto was the first 'workstation' computer equipped with a fully functional computer, display and mouse. The computer operated like many computers today utilizing windows, menus and icons as an interface to its operating system. It was introduced in 1974 although never actually sold.
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Ed Roberts introduced the Altair 8800 which he named the 'personal computer'.
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Two childhood friends, Paul Allen and Bill Gates, offer to write software for the Altair. On April 4, after the success of this first endeavor, the two form their own software company, Microsoft.
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IBM launches the IBM 5100, the first computer to look like the modern desktop model complete with a QWERTY keyboard, display and mass storage on tape all found within a single case.
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Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak start Apple Computers on April Fool's Day and bring out the first Apple computer, the Apple I.
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By 1979, more than half a million computers were in use in the United States. This number crossed 10 million by 1983.
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Compaq launches the SLT/286, the first foldable laptop.
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The Sound Blaster card, released by Creative Technology, brings sound into the personal computer.
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Apple launches its PowerBook series, the first portable personal computer to have room for a palm rest and a trackball that most closely resembles those found in today’s laptops.
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Laptop shipments overtake those of desktops for the first time on a quarterly basis in the third quarter of 2008.
