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Mid-1800s-1930s: Early Mechanical Computers
The first computers were designed by Charles Babbage in the mid-1800s, and are sometimes collectively known as the Babbage Engines. -
1930s: Electro-Mechanical Computers
Electro-mechanical computers generally worked with relays and/or vacuum tubes, which could be used as switches. -
1940s: Electronic Computers
The first electronic computers were developed during the World War II, with the earliest of those being the Colossus. The Colossus was developed to decrypt secret German codes during the war. It used vacuum tubes and paper tape and could perform a number of Boolean (e.g. true/false, yes/no) logical operations. -
1950s: The First Commercial Computers
The first commercially available computers came in the 1950s. While computing up until this time had mainly focused on scientific, mathematical, and defense capabilities, new computers were designed for business functions, such as banking and accounting. -
Mid-1950s: Transistor Computers
The development of transistors led to the replacement of vacuum tubes, and resulted in significantly smaller computers. In the beginning, they were less reliable than the vacuum tubes they replaced, but they also consumed significantly less power. -
1960s: The Microchip and the Microprocessor
The microchip (or integrated circuit) is one of the most important advances in computing technology. Many overlaps in history existed between microchip-based computers and transistor-based computers throughout the 1960s, and even into the early 1970s. -
1970s: Personal Computers
The first personal computers were built in the early 1970s. Most of these were limited-production runs, and worked based on small-scale integrated circuits and multi-chip CPUs. -
1980s-1990s: The Early Notebooks and Laptops
One particularly notable development in the 1980s was the advent of the commercially available portable computer. -
2000s: The Rise of Mobile Computing
Mobile computing is one of the most recent major milestones in the history of computers. -
Late 2000s: Netbooks
Another recent progression in computing history is the development of netbook computers. Netbooks are smaller and more portable than standard laptops, while still being capable of performing most functions average computer users need (using the Internet, managing email, and using basic office programs). Some netbooks go as far as to have not only built-in WiFi capabilities, but also built-in mobile broadband connectivity options.
