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Jacquard Loom
In France, Joseph Marie Jacquard created an attachment to the textile loom using punch cards. This invention of the punched card is now recognized because of its influence on other developers of computing machinery utilizing his punch card concept.
https://www.computerhope.com/jargon/j/jacquard-loom.htm -
Analytical Engine
English mathematician Charles Babbage.originated the concept of a programmable general-purpose computer. He designed the Analytical Engine and built a prototype for a less powerful mechanical calculator.
https://www.britannica.com/technology/Analytical-Engine -
Hollerith card puncher
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.
https://www.eecis.udel.edu/~mills/gallery/gallery9.html -
FORTRAN
The FORTRAN programming language, an acronym for FORmula TRANslation, is developed by a team of programmers at IBM led by John Backus -
The Turing machine
Alan Turing presents the notion of a universal machine, later called the Turing machine, capable of computing anything that is computable. -
J.V Atanasoff
J.V. Atanasoff, "the father of computers" and a professor of physics and mathematics at Iowa State University, attempts to build the first computer without gears, cams, belts or shafts. -
Storing Memory
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 -
ENIAC
John P. Eckert, John W. Mauchly, and colleagues at Moore school of Electrical Engineering of University of Pennsylvania build a high - speed electronic computer. This machine became known as ENIAC (Electrical Numerical Integrator And Calculator)
https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/birth-of-the-computer/4/78 -
Colossus Mark 2
This computer used registers to speed up processing speed 5x. It was used for the collection of military intelligence during WWII
https://www.cryptomuseum.com/crypto/colossus/index.htm -
The Transistor
William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain of Bell Laboratories invent the transistor. They discovered how to make an electric switch with solid materials and no need for a vacuum. -
Grace Hopper
Grace Hopper develops the first computer language, which eventually becomes known as COBOL
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Grace-Hopper -
FORTRAN
The FORTRAN programming language, an acronym for FORmula TRANslation, is developed by a team of programmers at IBM led by John Backus. It was the first high level language that the programmer did not have to directly deal with assembler or machine code (0's and1's)
https://www.thocp.net/software/languages/fortran.htm -
The Computer Chip
Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce unveil the integrated circuit, known as the computer chip. Kilby was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2000 for his work -
Graphical User Interface (GUI)
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.
https://www.computerhope.com/jargon/g/gui.htm -
"Floppy Disk"
Alan Shugart and a team of IBM engineers invented the "floppy disk," allowing data to be shared among computers.
https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/memory-storage/8/261 -
Personal Computers (PCs)
A number of personal computers hit the market, including Scelbi & Mark-8 Altair, IBM 5100, Radio Shack's TRS-80-known as the "Trash 80", and the Commodore PET. -
Apple's Lisa
Apple's Lisa is the first personal computer with a GUI. It features a drop-down menu and icons. Its high price and unreliability affected sales but eventually Macintosh was born -
Mac OS X
Apple unveils the Mac OS X operating system, which provides protected memory architecture and pre-emptive multi-tasking, among other benefits. -
iPhone
The iPhone brings many computer functions to the smartphone including web browser, music player. The phone also had a touchscreen, built-in GPS navigation, texting component and camera.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vN4U5FqrOdQ -
Apple Watch
Using a version of Apple's iOS operating system, features for this computer watch included sensors for environmental and health monitoring and compatibility with iPhones and Mac books.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBhBh89SWrE -
Quantum Computer
The first reprogrammable quantum computer was created. A quantum-computing platform has the capability to program new algorithms into their system.
