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The History of the Computer

  • The EDSAC

    The EDSAC
    Known as the EDSAC, this computer is probably the first stored program electronic computer. It also ran the first graphical computer game and was one of the earliest computers to use binary digits.
    Later on, it was supported by another firm known as J. Lyons & Co. Ltd., who were then rewarded with the first commercially applied computer, LEO I. This computer was made based on the EDSAC design.
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    Computer History Timeline

  • The 701

    The 701
    701, also known as the Defense Calculator, was one of the first electric and mass produced computers. The PC also had an 8088 processor and approximately 16KB of memory. The system used electrostatic storage, consisting of 72 Williams tubes with a capacity of 1024 bits each, giving a total memory of 2048 words of 36 bits each. Each of the 72 Williams tubes was three inches in diameter. Memory could be expanded to a maximum of 4096 words of 36 bits.
  • The Whirlwind

    The Whirlwind
    Whirlwind was one of the earliest revolutionary computers to have a magnetic core RAM and real – time / realistic graphics. It is the first computer that operated in real time, used video displays for output, and the first that was not simply an electronic replacement of older mechanical systems.
  • The TX - 0

    The TX - 0
    The TX – 0, also short for the Transistorized Experimental Computer, was the first transistorized computer in history. The TX-0 was a fully 16-bit computer with a 16-bit address range and 16-bit operations. Its word size was 18 bits; this allowed for 16 bits of data and 2 bits of instructions.
  • The PDP - 1

    The PDP - 1
    In the year 1960, the Digital Equipment Corporation released the PDP – 1, the world’s first minicomputer. The PDP-1 quickly replaced the TX-0 as the favourite machine among the budding hacker culture, and served as the platform for a wide variety of "firsts" in the computing world. Perhaps best known among these is the first computerized video game, Spacewar!, but among the list are the first text editor, word processor, interactive debugger, the first credible computer chess program,
  • The HP 9100A

    The HP 9100A
    In the year 1968, Hewlett Packard marketed the first mass – marketed computer, the HP 9100A. The unit was descended from a prototype "green machine" produced by engineer Tom Osborne, who joined the company when HP decided to adopt the project.
  • The Altair 8800

    The Altair 8800
    Ed Roberts created one of the earliest personal computers in 1975. The Altair 8800 mostly relied on switches and turning lights on and off for both input and outputting data. Programming the Altair was an extremely tedious process. The user toggled the switches to positions corresponding to an 8080 microprocessor instruction or opcode in binary, then used an 'enter' switch to load the code into the machine's memory, and then repeated this step until all the opcodes of a presumably complete and c
  • The IBM - 5100

    The IBM - 5100
    The IBM 5100 is considered the world’s first portable computer. Weighing approximately 55 pounds, the computer had a 5 inch CRT display, tape drive, 1.9MHz PALM processor and 64KB of RAM. The 5100 has an internal CRT (5" diagonal) and displays 16 lines of 64 characters. IBM provided an option switch to allow the user to display all 64 characters of each line, or only the left or right 32 characters (interspersed with spaces). Also there was switch to display the first 512 bytes of main memory in
  • The Apple I

    The Apple I
    In the year 1976, Steve Wozniak designed the first Apple computer (known as the Apple I). As of 2008, an estimated 40 to 50 Apple I computers are still known to exist, making it a very rare collector's item. An Apple I reportedly sold for $50,000 USD at auction in 1999, with another apparently selling in 2009 for $17,500; however, a more typical price for an Apple I is in the $14,000–$16,000 range.[citation needed] In November 2009 the Apple I with serial number 82 was listed on eBay with a star
  • The world's first multimedia computer

    The world's first multimedia computer
    In 1992, Radio Shack creates the first multimedia computer in history. Most PCs today have good multimedia features. They have dual- or single-core CPUs clocked at 3.0 GHz or faster, at least 1GB of RAM, a 128 MB or higher video card and TV Tuner card. Popular graphics cards include Nvidia Gforce or ATI Radeon. The Intel Viiv platform, and Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition are some of today's products aimed at multimedia computing.