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First recorded use of the word computer
The word computer is first found in a book called "the yong mans gleanings" by Richard Braithwait. It referred to a person who carried out calculations or computations. http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/creation-computer/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer -
The Father of the Computer
A man named Charles Babbage proposed the idea of a machine that could calculate mathematical tables and directly print the results. He created designs for such a machine which he named the Difference Engine. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Babbage#Difference_engine
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The Difference Engine
A working section of the Difference Engine was completed by Babbage. This working section could solve equations and produce 6-digit results. Despite the success, Babbage lost government funding and droped the Difference Engine project. A fully constructed version would not exsist until the Science Museum library in London created one in 1991. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Difference_engine
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The Analytical Engine
Charles Babbge conceived the Analytical engine as a successor to the Difference Engine. In contrast to its predecessor, the Analytical Engine was designed to solve any mathematical problem. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analytical_engine
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The worlds first programmer
Ada lovelace wrote notes on the analytical engine including an algorithm for the machine to compute benoulli numbers. For this, Ada is considered the worlds first programmer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace#First_computer_program
http://www.sdsc.edu/ScienceWomen/lovelace.html
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The Tabulator
The American census looked for a way to speed up the counting of the population. A man named Herman Hollerith submited an idea of a machine that would use a punch-card system to keep count. In 1890 the census would lease Holleriths machines for offical use. These machines would later be called Tabulators or tabulating machines. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Hollerith
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabulating_machines
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The Type 1 Upgrade
Herman Hollerith upgraded his machines to meet the vast needs of the railroad industry. The newer Type 1 Tabulator was equipped with a plugboard control panel which allowed the machine to do different jobs without being rebuilt. The picture to the left is a Type 3 tabulator (1921) with its plugboard exposed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabulating_machine
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/creation-computer/
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The CTR company
Hollerith's company was merged with 3 others to form the Computing Tabulating Recording Company: The predecessor to IBM. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computing_Tabulating_Recording_Company
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Birth of IBM
The Computing Tabulating Recording company was renamed to the International Business Machines corporation. IBM continues to run today as a manufacturer of computer hardware and software. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM
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'Bomba' and the Enigma Machine
Polish Cipher Bureau cryptologist Marian Rejewski designed a machine (Bomba) to break the ciphers of the german Enigma machines. The Enigma machine was an electro-mechanical rotor device used by german military to encipher secret mesaages. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bomba_(cryptography)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enigma_machine
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The Bombe
Alan turing designed the Bombe as a development of the device designed by Marian Rejewski. The Bombe was designed to discover the daily settings of the Enigma machines used on German military networks. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombe
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The Colossus Awakens
The Mark 1 Colossus, designed by Tommy Flowers, was turned on. The Colossus was the worlds first programmable electronic computer, and helped with the cyptanalysis of messages enciphered by the Lorenz SZ teletypewriter, used by high-level German army officers in WWII.
The picture to the left is the upgraded Mark 2 Colossus. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_computer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptanalysis_of_the_Lorenz_cipher
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The Von Neumann Architecture
John von Neumann produced an incomplete 101 page document containing a design using a stored-program concept. The idea that programming could be stored internally on a computer's memory would later be known as the Von Neumann architecture. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_von_Neumann#Computer_science
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Draft_of_a_Report_on_the_EDVAC
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ENIAC
The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer was conceived and constructed. Created at the University of Pennsylvania, the ENIAC was designed to calculate artillery firing tables for the United States Army.
ENIAC was the first electronic general pupose computer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ENIAC
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UNIVAC
The UNIVAC 1 mainframe computer is creatd by Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation. Created for business, this computer used compact tape drives to hold data, and could print results of computations on paper. In 1952 A UNIVAC computer correctly predicted the outcome of the US presidential election between Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson; the predicted outcome was within 1% of the actual voting tally. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNIVAC_I
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Integrated Circuits
Jack Kilby, Kurt Lehovec and Robert Noyce resolved problems that hindered the production of Intergrated circuits. With IC's now feasible, computers could be constructed that were much smaller. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invention_of_the_integrated_circuit
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Ted Hoff
Ted Hoff joined Intel. Hoff is credited with the idea of putting an entire processing unit on a chip; An idea that led to the creation of the microprocessor. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Hoff
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"One small step for man"
Neil Armstrong made his famous first step on the lunar surface. The ship that made the mission possible, Apollo 11, was equiped with the Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC); one of the first intergrated circuit computers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_guidance_computer
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The Microprocessor
Intel introduced the Intel 4004; the first microprocessor. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microprocessor
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The Xerox Alto
The Xerox alto was developed at Xerox PARC; It was one of the first computers to have a mouse driven graphical user interface.
In 1979, a visit to Xerox PARC (to see the Alto) would inspire Steve Jobs to create the first Macintosh computer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_Alto
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Microsoft
Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded mircosoft. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft
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Apple Inc.
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded Apple (now Apple Inc.) and created the Apple-1; a personal computer with a command line interface. In 1977 The apple II would be produced and launch the Apple company into commercial sucess. The apple II would stay in production untill 1993. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_I
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The Macintosh
The Macintosh 128k was created. This computer was the first mass market personal computer with a GUI and mouse. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_128K
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh
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Microsoft Windows
Microsoft introduced Mircosoft Windows; a graphical user interface shell for Microsoft's MS-DOS operating system. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Windows -
http://www
The World Wide Web became available to the general public.
This is also the year Linus Torvalds conceived the linux kernal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_World_Wide_Web
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The PDA
Apple chairman John Sculley coined the term personal digital assitant to refer to the Apple Newton; a hand held computer. In 1994 IBM would introduce the IBM simon (left); the first PDA with mobile phone functionality. http://www.greatachievements.org/?id=3975
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Iphone
The Iphone was created by Apple Inc. and set the standard for smartphones today http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone -
Watson
AI super computer, Watson, defeated champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter on the popular trivia show Jeopardy. Watson is an artificially intelligent computer system, capable of answering questions posed in natural language';It uses a 15-terabyte data bank with human knowledge found on the internet. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watson_(computer)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLR1byL0U8M
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brad_Rutter
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Jennings
