COSC 1401: History of Computers

Charles Babbage

Jan 1, 1834

Designed first automatic calculator.
Considered to be "father of the computer".

Herman Hollerith

Jan 1, 1890

Created Hollerith Tabulating Machine (time card and computing).
Hollerith is widely regarded as the father of modern machine data processing.

Z1 Computer

Jan 1, 1936

Mechanical calculator considered to be first computer.
The Z1 contained almost all parts of a modern computer.

Eniac

Jan 1, 1944

First high speed electronic computer. Initially created for the US Armed Forces.

First Gneration Computers

Jan 1, 1951

The first computers used vacuum tubes for circuitry.
They were very large often filling whole rooms.

UNIVAC

Jan 1, 1951

First commercially successful electronic digital computer. UNIVAC is an acronym for Universal Automatic Computer.

Second Generation Computers

Jan 1, 1956

The second computers used transistors for circuitry. This helped them become smaller and more efficient.

Jack Kilby

Jan 1, 1958

Created the worlds first integrated circuit.
Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics.

BASIC

Jan 1, 1964

BASIC was an easy to use programming language. It was disgned at Dartmouth College.

Third Generation Computers

Jan 1, 1964

Users interacted with third generation computers through keyboards and monitors. Computers were now accessible to mass markets of people.

Fourth Generation Computers

Jan 1, 1971

Fourth generations computers now use microprocessors. These computers also paved way for the internet.

Introduction of the GUI

Jan 1, 1972

GUI allows users to interact with the computer easily. Adds keyboards and mouse like devices used to easily control computers.

Altair Computer

Jan 1, 1975

First personal computer. The average cost of an Altair Assembly Kit was $439.

Bill Gatss

Jan 1, 1975

Founder of Microsoft.
Ranked as one of Forbes wealthiest men in the world.

Steve Jobs

Jan 1, 1976

Inventor of Apple Computer Company.
Also a co-founder and CEO of Pixar.

Apple II

Jun 10, 1977

First operating system stored in Read Only Memore (ROM).
Production of the Apple II Series did not cease until November 1993.

WordStar

Jan 1, 1978

First word processing application.

VisiCalc

Feb 1, 1978

First electronic spreadsheet application.

Osborne Computer

Apr 3, 1981

First portable computer. It weighed roughly 23.5 pounds.

Excel

Aug 8, 1985

First spreadsheet to use GUI.

PageMaker

Sep 1, 1985

First desktop publishing software.

Mosaic

Jan 23, 1993

Web browser that allowed users to view multimedia on the web. It was dicontinued 17 years ago in 1997.

Netscape

Jan 8, 1994

Netscape is a computer company that is best know for its web browser Netscape Navigator.