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Steam driven calulating Machine
1822: English mathematician Charles Babbage inventes a steam-driven calculating machine that would be able to compute tables of numbers. More than a century later, however, The world’s first computer was actually built. -
Punch card system
1890: Herman Hollerith designs a punch card system to calculate the 1880 census, accomplishing the task in just three years and saving the government $5 million. He establishes a company that would ultimately become IBM -
FIRST COMPUTER!
1937: J.V. Atanasoff, a professor of physics and mathematics at Iowa State University, attempts to build the first computer without gears, cams, belts or shafts. -
computer is able to store information on its main memory
1941: Atanasoff and his graduate student, Clifford Berry, design a computer that can solve 29 equations simultaneously. This marks the first time a computer is able to store information on its main memory. -
Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator (ENIAC)
1943-1944: Two University of Pennsylvania professors—John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert—build the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator (ENIAC). Considered the grandfather of digital computers, it fills a 20 foot by 40 foot room and has 18,000 vacuum tubes. -
UNIVAC
1946: Mauchly and Presper leave the University of Pennsylvania and receive funding from the Census Bureau to build the UNIVAC, the first commercial computer for business and government applications. -
COBOL
1953: Grace Hopper develops the first computer language, which eventually becomes known as COBOL. Inventor Thomas Johnson Watson, Jr., son of IBM CEO Thomas Johnson Watson, Sr., conceives the IBM 701 EDPM to help the United Nations keep tabs on Korea during the war. -
FORTRAN
1954: The FORTRAN programming language is born. -
integrated circuit
1958: Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce unveil the integrated circuit, known as the computer chip -
GUI
1964: 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. -
DRAM
1970: The newly formed Intel unveils the Intel 1103, the first Dynamic Access Memory (DRAM) chip -
FLOPPY DISK
1971: Alan Shugart leads a team of IBM engineers who invent the “floppy disk,” allowing data to be shared among computers. -
ETHERNET
1973: Robert Metcalfe, a member of the research staff for Xerox, develops Ethernet for connecting multiple computers and other hardware. -
PERSONAL COMPUTERS
1974-1977: A number of personal computers hit the market, including Scelbi & Mark-8 Altair, IBM 5100, RadioShack’s TRS-80—affectionately known as the “Trash 80,” and the Commodore PET -
IBM 5100
1975: The IBM 5100 becomes the first commercially available portable computer. -
APPLE 'S BIRTH
1976: Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak start Apple Computers on April Fool’s Day and roll out the Apple I, the first computer with a single-circuit board. -
APPLE II
1977: Jobs and Wozniak incorporate Apple and show the Apple II at the first West Coast Computer Faire. It offers color graphics and incorporates an audio cassette drive for storage -
RADIO SHACK
1977: Radio Shack's initial production run of the TRS-80 was just 3,000. It sold like crazy. For the first time, non-geeks could write programs and make a computer do what they wished. -
VISICALC
1978: Accountants rejoice at the introduction of VisiCalc, the first computerized spreadsheet program. -
WORLDSTAR
1979: Word processing becomes a reality as MicroPro International releases WordStar. -
IBM PERSONAL COMPUTER
1981: The first IBM personal computer, code named “Acorn,” is introduced. It uses Microsoft’s MS-DOS operating system. It has an Intel chip, two floppy disks and an optional color monitor. Sears & Roebuck and Computerland sell the machines, marking the first time a computer is available through outside distributors. It also popularizes the term PC. -
APPLE'S LISA
1983: Apple’s Lisa is the first personal computer with a GUI. It also features a drop-down menu and icons. It flops but eventually evolves into the Macintosh -
WINDOWS!!!
1985: Microsoft announces Windows, its response to Apple’s GUI. Commodore unveils the Amiga 1000, which features advanced audio and video capabilities. -
DOT-COM
1985: The first dot-com domain name is registered on March 15, years before the World Wide Web would mark the formal beginning of Internet history. The Symbolics Computer Company, a small Massachussets computer manufacturer, registers Symbolics.com. More than two years later, only 100 dot-coms had been registered. -
DESKPRO
1986: Compaq brings the Deskpro 386 to market. It’s 32-bit architecture provides as speed comparable to mainframes -
HTML
1990: Tim Berners-Lee, a researcher at CERN, the high-energy physics laboratory in Geneva, develops HyperText Markup Language (HTML), giving rise to the World Wide Web. -
Pentium microprocessor
1993: The Pentium microprocessor advances the use of graphics and music on PCs. -
GAMING
1994: PCs become gaming machines as Command & Conquer, Alone in the Dark 2, Theme Park, Magic Carpet, Descent andLittle Big Adventure are among the games to hit the market. -
INVEST
1997: Microsoft invests $150 million in Apple, which was struggling at the time, ending Apple’s court case against Microsoft in which it alleges that Microsoft copied the “look and feel” of its operating system. -
WI-FI
1999: The term Wi-Fi becomes part of the computing language and users begin connecting to the Internet without wires. -
PS2
2000: Sony release the PlayStation 2. -
WINDOWS XP
2001: Apple unveils the Mac OS X operating system, which provides protected memory architecture and pre-emptive multi-tasking, among other benefits. Not to be outdone, Microsoft rolls out Windows XP, which has a significantly redesigned GUI. -
64-BIT
2003: The first 64-bit processor, AMD’s Athlon 64, becomes available to the consumer market. -
FREFOX
2004: Mozilla’s Firefox 1.0 challenges Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, the dominant web browers. -
MAC BOOK PRO
2006: Apple introduces the MacBook Pro, its first Intel-based, dual-core mobile computer, as well as an Intel-based iMac. Nintendo’s Wii hits the market. -
IPHONE
2007: The iPhone brings many computer functions to the smartphone. -
WINDOWS 7
2009: Microsoft launches Windows 7, which offers the ability to pin applications to the taskbar and advances in touch and handwriting recognition, among other features. -
IPAD
2010: Apple unveils the iPad, changing the way consumers view media and jumpstarting the dormant tablet computer segment.
