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2500 BCE
Abacus
The exact creation of the Abacus is unknown with different sources claiming it came from China, Babylon and even the Romans. It's purpose was to calculate numbers larger than the amount of fingers that one had on their hands. Traders found this incredibly useful when exchanging large amounts of goods. Research -
Pascal's Calculator
The first mechanical calculators. Originally it could only handle up to 6 digits, later variants could calculate up to 8. The contraption was a large device that took up 35cm of space. However this calculator was limited in that it could not do multiplication and division. A form of multiplication could be done in repeated addition though.
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Babbage Difference Engine
While this design was not built until 2002 due to Charles' budget constraints, it's design still worked. A difference engine was a mechanical calculator that was semi automated in order to complete polynomial functions.
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Magnetic Tape Drive
The Magnetic tape drive stored information on a magnetic tape using digital recording. Created in 1928, it is still used today primarily for information backup. Modern magnetic tape drives are not very fast, however it could store a large amount of information, which made it very useful for archival purposes.
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Z1 Computer
A mechanical computer developed by Konrad Zuse. It had a limited programming, was binary controlled, and completed instructions from a punch card. The computer consisted of over thirty thousand parts and required no electricity. This computer is considered the first computer ever built.
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Bombe (Enigma Decryption)
An electro Magnetic device used to decrypt the German Enigma code during WWII. The program was lead by mathematician Alan Turing who just years before had proposed the idea of a general purpose computer. After several failed attempts, a working version was finally built named the Bombe and was instrumental for the allied in the Battle for the Atlantic. Research -
ENIAC
The first programmable general purpose digital computer. Built during WWII by the US, it's original purpose was to calculate artillery firing tables. Despite this instructions could be programmed into the system to complete other functions. Once programmed, it would be able to run the instructions at speeds way faster than any other devices to date. Research -
Magnetic Core Memory
Introduced in 1947, Magnetic Core Memory would be the predominant form of RAM for around 20 years from 1955 to 1975. By the 1960s, it had reached a density of 32 kilobits per cubic foot. Eventually this would be replaced by SRAM which use semiconductor memory chips which were far more practical for the same price.
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Transistor
The transistor is the very core component of a computer, regulating electric signals that a computer uses as information. Created in 1947 by John Bardeen and Walter Brattain in AT&T’s laboratory in the United States. The transistor will likely continue to be the basis of complex electronic hardware even with the creation of quantum computers which does not operate using conventional transistors. -
Manchester Baby
The University of Manchester's "Baby" was the first computer to have electronically stored it's programming. Previous computer such as the ENIAC required punch cards or pegboard programming -
Hard Disk Drive
The first production HDD was the IBM 350 disk storage. It was the size of 2 refrigerators and stored 3.75 megabytes on 50 disks as time went by, HDD technology improved. Now it is common to see HDDs capable of storing multiple terabytes of information in a 3.5 inch form factor. However, HDDs are now slowly being phased out in favor of solid state drives which have begun to drop in price while offering better performance. Research -
the Mouse
While not a computer, it was still definitely important. Previously computers were operated either purely by keyboard or with a trackball for very specific applications such as military fire control radars. The mouse allowed for someone to more quickly navigate and operate a computer's OS, allowing for modern operating systems such as Windows to exist. The first mouse was used with the Xerox Alto operating system. Research -
Datapoint 2200
The first personal computer. Originally created by CTC as a "universal terminal", they inadvertently created the first personal computer as uses began writing their own programs for use with the device. Research -
Intel 4004
The Intel 4004 was one of the first microprocessors ever produced. It's primary use was in calculators, cash registers, ATMs, and other simple business related systems. This processor was a 4 bit processors that had a max clockspeed of 740 kHz. It's processing power was equivalent to the first computers which took up an entire room while remaining the size of a fingernail. -
UNIX
One of the first widely adopted operating system, UNIX was developed by AT&T in the 1970s. While originally used to developed programs for other operating systems, it would eventually be widely adopted into many different operating systems. Even Apple's macOS is based off of UNIX.
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Xerox Alto
Xerox Alto would be the first computer to have a Graphical User Interface. A GUI allowed the average person to operate a computer as it was more user friendly than previous systems. Because of this computers became less and less mysterious as more and more people began to pick it up. However GUIs would not become popular until years later. -
ARPANET
Advanced Research Projects Agency Network, or ARPANET was an experiment funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency to link several computers together via telephone lines in a network. This project was created as the military wanted a networked system that did not have any single core device so that in case of an enemy attack, they would not be crippled due to a single strike. ARPANET would become the precursor to the modern internet. Research -
Apple II
The first successful mass produced PC, the Apple II was also the first consumer product released by Apple. The computer also included a color display, several internal expansion slots and also a keyboard, which many early computers did not include. The computer's programming had been built in making it ready out of the box and thus also making it the first user friendly system. Research -
MS DOS
Microsoft Disk Operating System, or MS DOS was a command lined based operating system developed for use in IBM home PCs. Despite lacking a GUI it was simple enough that it became incredibly popular. In many ways MS DOS laid the groundwork for Microsoft as it was continually developed until 1997 as it was integrated into Windows 95.
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NEC µPD7220
NEC µPD7220 was the first processor dedicate towards graphics. Graphics processing was either done by the CPU or was done by a different video controllers which were hardcoded to specific visuals for the videogame it might be included with. With the first dedicate graphics processor, the CPU resources were freed up and there was no longer a need for video controllers. Research -
TCP/IP
Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) was created by Vinton Cerf and Bob Kahn when they connected ARPANET with SATNET (Satellite Networking) and a radio network system based in Hawaii called ALOHANET as the previous protocol, NCP was not powerful enough to handle large networks. Even today TCP/IP is still used in networking. Research -
Windows 3.0
While not the first OS with a GUI released by Microsoft, it was their first widely successful one. While having a mostly greyscale color pallet, many functions from Windows 3 can still be found in computers today such as maximizing and minimizing different programs.
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SanDisk 20MB SSD
SanDisk shipped the first SSD in 1991, a 20MB SSD which sold for 1 thousand dollars by OEMs. At that price the cost was roughly 50 dollars per megabyte. Today SSDs are widely used as the primary storage device which houses the Operating System and the more essential files within a computer as SSDs are a magnitude faster than other forms of storage.
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Linux
Linux is a completely free and open sourced OS, because of this it was suited for many different tasks that would be done at a professional level requiring custom software. While it is not widely adopted by consumers due to it's more complicated nature, it has found it's way into many server related systems due to it's better customizability while still having the same performance. -
PowerBook 100
The PowerBook 100 was the first laptop. With only a million dollars for marketing budget, the laptop took off way beyond expectations. For reference Apple's marketing budget today is 1.8 billion dollars. Developed by Sony for Apple, the laptop because the computer of choice for travelling business people. In 1992, the PowerBook generated 7 billion dollars in revenue.
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HTML
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) was created by Tim Berners-Lee. He put together HTML for a browsing and authorizing system for the internet. Due to HTML's simplicity, it would be adopted by many people as it could be mastered in an afternoon. Today HTML is still used as the backbone for many pages on the internet.
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AT&T PersonaLink Service
The first Cloud Computing service. The AT&T PersonaLink Service offered a variety of assistance for users such as sending emails, keeping tabs on stocks and store prices, etc. However this system was never very popular and was shutdown a few years later as it was unable to reach more than 10 thousand users.
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IBM Flash Drive (USB Drive)
The flash drive introduce a new form of portable storage. USBs were fast, convenient and had a relatively large storage size. Today, if someone did not have data saved on the cloud, it is likely they have it with them on a USB Flash Drive. -
Pentium IV (Northwood)
To enhance performance, previous generations of processors simply added more cores. Instead Intel created Hyperthreading. Hyperthreading increased the number of threads in a CPU. Threads delivered instructions to the CPU, if a CPU was able to complete the instruction before additional information was delivered, it would sit idle until more information arrived. Multiple threads per CPU meant more information could be processed.
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AMD Athlon 64
The first 64 bit CPUs to reach the market. Previous 32 bit CPUs could use up to about 4 gigabytes of RAM (2^32). 64 bit CPUs have a theoretical memory limit of 16 exabytes, over 4 billion times more than 32 bit CPUs. Despite this OS limitations often limit the max memory to a much smaller and reasonable amount. Today most computers have at least 8 GB of ram, and certain high end computers use over 6 gigabytes of ram without doing anything resource intensive. -
Amazon Web Service
Built from Amazon's infrastructure that was meant to handle Amazon.com. Amazon Web Service (AWS) was introduced as a cloud computing service that all different types of people could use, from corporations to personal use. AWS could do anything from simply being a data storage system to database management and even security.
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Mediafire
Mediafire was a Cloud Storage service that was popular up until Google Drive became widespread. It's ease of use attracted many users, and a unlimited storage limit in 2006 added to it's popularity. -
NASA OpenNebula
NASA's OpenNebula was developed with a goal of distributed infrastructure. Capable of managing storage, network, virtualization and security. As it was open sourced, it's developers were not the only people working on it. Because of this it was able to mature rapidly following it's release.
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Wolfram Alpha
Wolfram alpha is an online knowledge engine that answers questions inputted into the system from users. The service operates off of 10 thousand CPUs and a large amount of datasets. The system was also capable of improving it's own query recognition allowing it to better understand questions by users.
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iPad
The iPad revived the touchscreen tablet market, 300 thousand were sold at lunch in April. By march the sales had reached one million and towards the end of the year, the iPads began outselling their Macs. Nowadays many people uses either 2 in 1s or dedicated tablets as they are incredibly versatile from taking notes in class to creating structural diagrams for construction projects. Research -
Google Drive & Related Services
In 2012, Google launched their Cloud Computing service known as Google Drive along with several related services such as Google Docs, Sheets and Slides. While it's initial 15 GBs of free storage seems low, one can have an unlimited amount of Docs, Slides and Sheets which are also free to use and compatible with many free addons. As of july 2018, Google Drive has amassed one billion users. Research -
IDT NVMe SSDs
NVMe SSDs introduced a new form of storage connection. Previous SSDs were bottle necked by the SATA Connection standard, limiting to around 6 Gb/s. NVMe used the PCIe Connection rather than SATA, allowing a theoretical max speed of 32 GB per second. -
Geforce Now
In 2017, NVIDIA announced Geforce Now, which was a Cloud Computing playforms that can be used on PCs and Macs. Essentially a game is streamed from an NVIDIA server hosting high end hardware to the user's computer. While the service is still in beta, it has proven that cloud computing can be used for relatively low input latency tasks
