Technology Timeline

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  • First Computer: “Difference engine”

    The “Difference Engine” was a proposed mechanical computer to be used to output mathematical tables.
    Commissioned by the British government, Charles Babbage (aka Father of Computer) started working on it, but due to its high production cost, the funding was stopped and the machine was never completed.

  • First Computer: “Difference engine”

    First Computer: “Difference engine”
    The “Difference Engine” was a proposed mechanical computer to be used to output mathematical tables.
    Commissioned by the British government, Charles Babbage (aka Father of Computer) started working on it, but due to its high production cost, the funding was stopped and the machine was never completed.

  • First General Purpose Computer: “Analytical Engine”

    First General Purpose Computer: “Analytical Engine”
    The “Analytical Engine” was also a proposed mechanical computer, the input of which was supposed to be punched cards, with programs and data punched on them. Another brainchild of Charles Babbage, this machine was also not completed.

  • First Working Programmable Computer: Z3

    First Working Programmable Computer: Z3
    Konrad Zuse (the Inventor of Computers) already had a working mechanical computer Z1 but it worked for only few minutes at a time. The use of a different technology – relays, led to Z2 and eventually Z3. Z3 was an electromagnetic computer for which program and data were stored on external punched tapes. It was a secret project of the German government and put to use by The German Aircraft Research Institute.

  • First Programmable Electronic Computer: Colossus

    First Programmable Electronic Computer: Colossus
    The Colossus created by Tommy Flowers was a machine created to help the British decrypt German messages that were encrypted by the Lorenz cipher, back in World War II. It was programmed by electronic switches and plugs. Colossus brought the time to decipher the encrypted messages down from weeks to mere hours.

  • First Personal Computer: “Simon”

    First Personal Computer: “Simon”
    “Simon” by Edmund Berkeley was the first affordable digital computer that could perform four operations: addition, negation, greater than, and selection. The input was punched paper, and the program ran on paper tape. The only output was through five lights.