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Between 1642 and 1644, the French mathematician Blaise Pascal invented a mechanical calculator called Pascaline or Arithmetic machine. It could do addition and subtraction.
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The German mathematician Gottfried Leibniz invented the Leibniz Wheel which was a mechanical calculator, regarded as "The first true four-function calculator". -
Between 1804 and 1805 Joseph-Marie Jacquard invented the first machine that used the idea of storage and programming called "Jacquard loom". -
In 1823, Charles Babbage invented an automatic mechanical calculator able to solve polynomial equations called the Difference Engine. -
14 years after the invention of the Difference engine, C. Babbage developed the Analytical Engine which shares numerous similarities with modern computers. -
In 1890, Herman Hollerith designed and built a tabulating machine: an electromechanical machine that could automatically read, tally and sort data stored on punched cards. -
The German mathematician and engineer Konrad Zuse, built a general purpose mechanical computer called "The Z1". -
A huge electromechanical protocomputer built at Harvard University, sponsored by IBM and the US Navy and directed by Howard Aiken. -
John V. Atanasoff and Clifford Berry invented the ABC computer: The first computer that encoded information electrically. -
A team of telephone engineers led by Tommy Flowers invented the first programmable electronic digital computer in England called "The Colossus" and was used for cryptanalysis during WW2. -
John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert made the first general-purpose electronic computer in 1946, called The ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator). -
At the University of Pennsylvania in 1950, the first computer based on von Neumann's concept was built and was named EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer). -
First generation commercial computers were costly and only big organizations could afford them. They were used solely by professionals.
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During the second generation, computers reduced in size and cost making them affordable to smaller corporations. Additionally, High-level programming languages were invented.
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During the third generation, the integrated circuit and chips were invented. The processing power of computers increased, minicomputers appeared on the market along with software packages and the software industry was born.
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During the fourth generation, desktop computers started appearing with the first one being the "Altair 8800" which became available in 1975. In 1981 IBM introduced its first personal computer whose software was developed by Microsoft.
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During the fifth generation (1985 to present), computers continued to get smaller, laptops began appearing, secondary storage media improved and smartphones emerged as a new technology.