
1. Computer History Timeline
1.1. - Early Innovations (1930s-1940s)
1.1.1. 1930s: Konrad Zuse developed the first programmable computer, the Z1.
1.1.1.1. Z2 in 1939 in Germany
1.1.1.1.1. Z3 in 1941
1.1.2. - 1937: George Stibitz's Model K Adder
1.1.2.1. Bell Laboratories scientist Stibitz uses relays for a demonstration adder Called the “Model K” Adder because he built it on his “Kitchen” table, this simple demonstration circuit provides proof of concept for applying Boolean logic to the design of computers, resulting in construction of the relay-based Model I Complex Calculator in 1939.
1.1.3. - 1939: Founding of Hewlett-Packard
1.1.3.1. David Packard and Bill Hewlett found their company in a Palo Alto, California garage. Their first product, the HP 200A Audio Oscillator, rapidly became a popular piece of test equipment for engineers. Walt Disney Pictures ordered eight of the 200B model to test recording equipment and speaker systems for the 12 specially equipped theatres that showed the movie “Fantasia” in 1940.
1.1.4. - 1940: Complex Number Calculator (CNC)
1.1.4.1. In 1939, Bell Telephone Laboratories completes this calculator, designed by scientist George Stibitz. In 1940, Stibitz demonstrated the CNC at an American Mathematical Society conference held at Dartmouth College. Stibitz stunned the group by performing calculations remotely on the CNC (located in New York City) using a Teletype terminal connected to New York over special telephone lines.
1.1.4.2. First example of remote access
1.1.5. - 1941: Z3 Computer by Konrad Zuse
1.1.5.1. The Z3, an early computer built by German engineer Konrad Zuse working in complete isolation from developments elsewhere, uses 2,300 relays, performs floating point binary arithmetic, and has a 22-bit word length. The Z3 was used for aerodynamic calculations but was destroyed in a bombing raid on Berlin in late 1943. Zuse later supervised a reconstruction of the Z3 in the 1960s, which is currently on display at the Deutsches Museum in Munich.
1.1.6. 1941: The first Bombe is completed
1.1.6.1. Built as an electro-mechanical means of decrypting Nazi ENIGMA-based military communications during World War II, the British Bombe is conceived of by computer pioneer Alan Turing and Harold Keen of the British Tabulating Machine Company. Hundreds of allied bombes were built in order to determine the daily rotor start positions of Enigma cipher machines, which in turn allowed the Allies to decrypt German messages. The basic idea for bombes came from Polish code-breaker Marian Rejewski's 1938 "Bomba."
1.1.7. - 1942: Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC)
1.1.7.1. After successfully demonstrating a proof-of-concept prototype in 1939, Professor John Vincent Atanasoff receives funds to build a full-scale machine at Iowa State College (now University). The machine was designed and built by Atanasoff and graduate student Clifford Berry between 1939 and 1942. The ABC was at the center of a patent dispute related to the invention of the computer, which was resolved in 1973 when it was shown that ENIAC co-designer John Mauchly had seen the ABC shortly after it became functional. The legal result was a landmark: Atanasoff was declared the originator of several basic computer ideas, but the computer as a concept was declared un-patentable and thus freely open to all. A full-scale working replica of the ABC was completed in 1997, proving that the ABC machine functioned as Atanasoff had claimed. The replica is currently on display at the Computer History Museum.
1.1.7.2. this was the first computer capable of storing data in memory
1.1.8. - 1943: Bell Labs Relay Interpolator
1.1.8.1. The US Army asked Bell Laboratories to design a machine to assist in testing its M-9 gun director, a type of analog computer that aims large guns to their targets. Stibitz recommends using a relay-based calculator for the project. The result was the Relay Interpolator, later called the Bell Labs Model II. The Relay Interpolator used 440 relays, and since it was programmable by paper tape, was used for other applications following the war.
1.1.9. - 1944: Colossus at Bletchey Park
1.1.9.1. Used during WWII, used to break complex Nazi ciphers, potentially shortening the war.
1.1.9.2. Designed by British engineer Tommy Flowers, the Colossus is designed to break the complex Lorenz ciphers used by the Nazis during World War II. A total of ten Colossi were delivered, each using as many as 2,500 vacuum tubes. A series of pulleys transported continuous rolls of punched paper tape containing possible solutions to a particular code. Colossus reduced the time to break Lorenz messages from weeks to hours. Most historians believe that the use of Colossus machines significantly shortened the war by providing evidence of enemy intentions and beliefs. The machine’s existence was not made public until the 1970s.
1.1.10. -1944: Harvard Mark I
1.1.10.1. Conceived by Harvard physics professor Howard Aiken, and designed and built by IBM, the Harvard Mark 1 is a room-sized, relay-based calculator. The machine had a fifty-foot long camshaft running the length of machine that synchronized the machine’s thousands of component parts and used 3,500 relays. The Mark 1 produced mathematical tables but was soon superseded by electronic stored-program computers.
1.1.11. - 1945: John von Neumann's EDVAC report
1.1.11.1. In a widely circulated paper, mathematician John von Neumann outlines the architecture of a stored-program computer, including electronic storage of programming information and data -- which eliminates the need for more clumsy methods of programming such as plugboards, punched cards and paper. Hungarian-born von Neumann demonstrated prodigious expertise in hydrodynamics, ballistics, meteorology, game theory, statistics, and the use of mechanical devices for computation. After the war, he concentrated on the development of Princeton´s Institute for Advanced Studies computer.
1.2. - First Generation Computers (1940s-1950s)
1.2.1. - 1946: ENIAC unveiled
1.2.1.1. The massive ENIAC occupied 1500 square meters and utilized 18,000 vacuum tubes, built for ballistic testing.
1.2.1.2. Built by John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert at the University of Pennsylvania’s Moore School, ENIAC was started in 1943 and electronic computer. Over 1,000 times faster than previous electromechanical systems, it used panel-to-panel wiring for programming, occupied over 1,000 square feet, contained about 18,000 vacuum tubes, and weighed 30 tons. During its ten years of operation, ENIAC was believed to have performed more calculations than all of humanity had before its creation.
1.2.1.3. became the first fully electronic computer.
1.2.2. 1946: Moore School Lecture
1.2.2.1. A summer school on computing at the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School of Electrical Engineering inspired the development of stored-program computers in the US, France, the UK, and Germany. Lecturers included pioneers like John von Neumann, Howard Aiken, J. Presper Eckert, and John Mauchly, along with mathematicians such as Derrick Lehmer and Claude Shannon. Attendees, including future computing leaders like Maurice Wilkes and Jay Forrester, were influenced by these lectures, leading to the creation of computers like EDSAC, BINAC, and IAS machine clones such as AVIDAC.
1.2.3. -1946: Public Whirlwind begins
1.2.3.1. Development of magnetic core memory, which became the primary form of high-speed RAM until the mid-1970s.
1.2.3.2. During World War II, the US Navy tasked MIT with developing a flight simulator for bomber training. Led by Gordon Brown and Jay Forrester, the team initially built an analog simulator but found it inadequate. Inspired by the ENIAC computer, they switched to a digital approach, resulting in the Whirlwind computer, completed in 1951.
1.2.4. - 1948: First computer program runs on Manchester "Baby"
1.2.5. - 1950: Konrad Zuse's Z4
1.2.5.1. the first commercial digital computer
1.2.6. - 1951: Ferranti Mark I and UNIVAC 1
1.2.6.1. UNIVAC developed as the first commercial computer for businesses.
1.2.7. - 1952: IAS computer operational
1.3. - Transistor Era (1950s-1960s)
1.3.1. - 1953: IBM Model 701
1.3.1.1. IBM’s first computer.
1.3.2. - 1953: Manchester TC
1.3.2.1. the first prototype computer with transistors
1.3.3. - 1953: Grace Hopper dev COBOL
1.3.3.1. Grace Hopper develops COBOL, the first computer language.
1.3.4. - 1954: IBM 650 magnetic drum calculator
1.3.5. - 1960: DEC PDP-1 introduced
1.3.6. - 1960: IBM 7000 series -
1.3.6.1. series of mainframe computers with transistors
1.3.7. - 1965: Program 101
1.3.7.1. the first desktop computer, is sold for $3,200.
1.3.8. - 1965: DDP - 116
1.3.8.1. DDP-116, the first 16-bit commercial microcomputer, is released.
1.3.9. - 1964: IBM System/360 announced
1.4. - Microprocessor Revolution (1970s)
1.4.1. - 1970: Intel 1103
1.4.1.1. the first DRAM chip, is launched
1.4.2. 1971: Intel 4004, first microprocessor; IBM's invents floppy disk
1.4.3. - 1975: MITS Altair 8800, first personal computer kit
1.4.3.1. the first popular personal computer, runs BASIC by Bill Gates & Paul Allen.
1.4.4. - 1976: Apple I
1.4.4.1. the first computer with a single-circuit board & ROM, is launched.
1.4.5. - 1977: Introduction of Apple II, TRS-80, and Commodore PET
1.5. - Personal Computing Boom (1980s)
1.5.1. - 1981: IBM PC introduced
1.5.1.1. (Model 5150) revolutionizes computing with the Intel 8088 processor & MS-DOS
1.5.2. - 1983: Apple Lisa, first commercial GUI computer
1.5.2.1. the first personal computer with a graphical user interface, is released.
1.5.3. - 1984: Apple Macintosh launched
1.5.3.1. the first successful mouse-based GUI computer, is launched.
1.5.4. - 1985: PC's Limited founded by Michael Dell
1.6. - Advancements in Graphics and Networking (1990s)
1.6.1. - 1990: Intel's Touchstone Delta supercomputer
1.6.2. - 1991: PowerBook series of laptops introduced
1.6.3. - 1993: Apple Newton, early PDA
1.6.4. - 1994: RISC PC released
1.7. - 21st Century Innovations (2000s)
1.7.1. - 2007: Release of Amazon Kindle and Apple iPhone
1.7.2. - 2008: Introduction of MacBook Air
1.7.3. - 2009: IBM's Roadrunner supercomputer, first to reach petaflop performance
1.7.4. - 2010: Launch of the iPad
1.8. - Recent Developments (2010s)
1.8.1. - 2012: Raspberry Pi released for education
1.8.2. - 2014: University of Michigan Micro Mote, smallest computer
1.8.3. - 2015: Apple Watch introduced