The History of Information Technology

  • System/360

    IBM announced the System/360, a family of six mutually compatible computers and 40 peripherals that could work together. The initial investment of $5 billion was quickly returned as orders for the system climbed to 1,000 per month within two years. At the time IBM released the System/360, the company was making a transition from discrete transistors to integrated circuits, and its major source of revenue moved from punched-card equipment to electronic computer systems.
  • Intel 4004

    The first advertisement for a microprocessor, the Intel 4004, appeared in Electronic News. Developed for Busicom, a Japanese calculator maker, the 4004 had 2250 transistors and could perform up to 90,000 operations per second in four-bit chunks. Federico Faggin led the design and Ted Hoff led the architecture.
  • Xerox

    Researchers at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center designed the Alto — the first work station with a built-in mouse for input. The Alto stored several files simultaneously in windows, offered menus and icons, and could link to a local area network. Although Xerox never sold the Alto commercially, it gave a number of them to universities. Engineers later incorporated its features into work stations and personal computers.
  • "chiclet" keyboard.

    The Commodore PET (Personal Electronic Transactor) — the first of several personal computers released in 1977 — 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.
  • Windows

    The history of Windows dates back to September 1981, when Chase Bishop, a computer scientist, designed the first model of an electronic device and project "Interface Manager" was started.
  • Lisa

    Lisa
    Apple introduced its Lisa. The first personal computer with a graphical user interface, its development was central in the move to such systems for personal computers. The Lisa´s sloth and high price ($10,000) led to its ultimate failure. The Lisa ran on a Motorola 68000 microprocessor and came equipped with 1 megabyte of RAM, a 12-inch black-and-white monitor, dual 5 1/4-inch floppy disk drives and a 5 megabyte Profile hard drive. The Xerox Star — which included a system called Smalltalk that
  • Windows 3.0

    Windows 3.0
    Microsoft shipped Windows 3.0 on May 22. Compatible with DOS programs, the first successful version of Windows finally offered good enough performance to satisfy PC users. For the new version, Microsoft revamped the interface and created a design that allowed PCs to support large graphical applications for the first time. It also allowed multiple programs to run simultaneously on its Intel 80386 microprocessor. Microsoft released Windows amid a $10 million publicity blitz. In addition to making
  • Finnish Linus

    Designed by Finnish university student Linus Torvalds, Linux was released to several Usenet newsgroups on September 17th, 1991. Almost immediately, enthusiasts began developing and improving Linux, such as adding support for peripherals and improving its stability. In February 1992, Linux became free software or (as its developers preferred to say after 1998) open source. Linux typically incorporated elements of the GNU operating system and became widely used.
  • The Pentium microprocessor

    The Pentium microprocessor is released. The Pentium was the fifth generation of the ‘x86’ line of microprocessors from Intel, the basis for the IBM PC and its clones. The Pentium introduced several advances that made programs run faster such as the ability to execute several instructions at the same time and support for graphics and music.
  • Netscape Communications Corporation

    Netscape Communications Corporation
    Netscape Communications Corporation is founded. Netscape was originally founded as Mosaic Communications Corporation in April of 1994 by Marc Andreessen, Jim Clark and others. Its name was soon changed to Netscape and it delivered its first browser in October of 1994. On the day of Netscape's initial public offering in August of 1995, it’s share price went from $28 to $54 in the first few minutes of trading, valuing the company at $2 billion. Netscape hired many of Silicon Valley’s programmers t
  • Information technology agreement

    The Information Technology Agreement (ITA) is an agreement enforced by the World Trade Organization (WTO) and concluded in the Ministerial Declaration on Trade in Information Technology Products in 1996, and entered into force 1 July 1997. Since 1997 a formal Committee under the WTO watches over the following of the Declaration and its Implementations.[
  • The Information Technology Act 2000

    The Information Technology Act 2000 (also known as ITA-2000, or the IT Act) is an Act of the Indian Parliament (No 21 of 2000) notified on October 17, 2001. This act is being opposed by Save Your Voice campaign and other civil society organizations in India. User-review and consumer social networking site MouthShut.com has filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court of India to repeal and nullify parts of IT Act 2000.
  • New Zealand

    The subject of information technology (IT) and its application in New Zealand businesses is of widespread interest. The emergence of new technologies has brought some significant changes to the way businesses operate. The aim of this report is to examine the adoption of IT systems by New Zealand firms, and to identify what role IT plays in the operation of businesses. Most of the information presented in this report was collected in the Business Practices Survey (BPS) conducted in June 2001. Th
  • Study

    Study
    A longitudinal extension of the 2004 ECAR study of students and information technology, this 2005 study is based on quantitative data from more than 18,000 freshman and senior students at 63 higher education institutions. It focuses on what kinds of information technologies today's students are using, with what levels of skill they are using them, how IT use contributes to the undergraduate experience, and what value the use of IT adds in terms of learning. The study also provides a review of an
  • Act 2008

    Act 2008
    An Act to provide legal recognition for the transactions carried our by means of electronic data interchange and other means of electronic communication, commonly referred to as "Electronic Commerce", which involve the use of alternatives to paper based methods of communication and storage of information , to facilitate electronic filings of documents with the Government agencies and further to amend the Indian Penal Code, Indian Evidence Act, 1872,, The Bankers' Books Evidence Act, 1891, and th
  • ECAR

    Since 2004, the annual ECAR study of undergraduate students and information technology has sought to shed light on how information technology affects the college experience. We ask students about the technology they own and how they use it in and out of their academic world. We gather information about how skilled students believe they are with technologies; how they perceive technology is affecting their learning experience; and their preferences for IT in courses. The ECAR Study of Undergradua
  • The Global Information Technology Report 2012

    The Global Information Technology Report 2012
    Over the past decade, The Global Information Technology Report series, has become the most comprehensive and respected international assessment of the preparedness of economies to leverage the networked economy. This research provides a unique platform for public-private dialogue on best policies and for determining what actions will further national ICT readiness and innovation potential. Through the evolved methodological framework of the Networked Readiness Index (NRI), The Global Informatio
  • 2013

    2013
    Finland has toppled Sweden from the top spot in a ranking of economies that are best placed to benefit from new information and communication technologies (ICTs). Singapore came in second and Sweden third in the 2013 Networked Readiness Index, compiled by the World Economic Forum for its Global Information Technology Report.
  • Information Technology

    Information Technology
    GSCIT’ 2014 is a Global Summit on Computer & Information Technology, from 14-16 June, in Sousse, Tunisia. The summit is hosting multiple conferences in different areas of Computer & Information Technology. CIT is a major platform for researchers and industry practitioners from different fields of computer and information technology promising multidisciplinary exchanges in computer and information technology. We are attracting many high quality research papers spanning over the various aspects of