History of Computers

  • Hewlett-Packard: HP 200A Audio Oscillator

    Hewlett-Packard: HP 200A Audio Oscillator
    This became a popular peice od test equipment for engineers. Disney Pictures ordered 8 of the next model for the effects of Fantasia. I chose this event because it created really great effects for shows.
  • The William Tube

    The William Tube
    This component won a race for most practical random-access memory. Sir Fredrick William modifies a cathode-ray tube to paint dots and dashes representing a binary code onto a screen. This uses binary code and secondary memory. This is cool because CD's are made like this!
  • A-O Complier

    A-O Complier
    Mathematician Grace Hopper finished the first ever complier, a computer that allows machine language to be put into human language. This is like a binary code machine! This was the first machine to change machine language to human language.
  • The 701

    The 701
    IBM shipped its first electronic computer, the 701. During three years of production, IBM sold 19 machines to research laboratories, aircraft companies, and the federal government. I chose this because it was the very first computer made.
  • ASCII - American Standard Code for Information Interchange

    ASCII - American Standard Code for Information Interchange
    The ASCII permitted machines from different manufacturers to exchange data. The ASCII consists of 128 strings of ones and zeros. Each set of numbers makes up the English Alphebet. This was cool because it was the official list of binary codes.
  • MOS semiconductor

    MOS semiconductor
    Fairchild Camera and Instrument Corp. built the first standard metal semiconductor product for data processing applications. The MOS chip produced either of two varities of transistors, the p-type and n-type. This was the first chip to process data.
  • Intel 4004

    Intel 4004
    The first advertisement for a microprocessor, the Intel 4004. The 4004 had 2250 transistors and could perform up to 90,000 operations per second in four-bit chunks. This was the first computer to hold so much data and do so much
  • The Commodore PET

    The Commodore PET
    Personal Electonic Transactor was the first of several personal computers released in 1977. But came fully assembled and was straightforward to operate, with either 4 or 8 kilobytes of memory, two built-in cassette drives, and a membrane "chiclet" keyboard. I chose this becasue this is technically the very first computer because it woked and it came assembled.
  • Apple and Macintosh

    Apple and Macintosh
    Apple Computer launched the Macintosh, the first successful mouse-driven with a graphic user interface with a $1.5 million dollar 1984 Super Bowl commercial. I chose this becasue this is one of the only commercials that only had to pay for one commercial showing but got payed for all of the viewings.
  • Iomega Zip Disk

    Iomega Zip Disk
    The initial Zip system allowed 100MB to be stored on a cartridge roughly the size of a 3 ½ inch floppy disk. Later versions increased the capacity of a single disk from 100Mbytes to 2GB. I chose this because it was very first portable flash drive.