Sunday, November 30, 2008
Saturday, November 29, 2008
The History of Computers
"Who invented the computer?" is not a question with a simple answer. The real answer is that many inventors contributed to the history of computers and that a computer is a complex piece of machinery made up of many parts, each of which can be considered a separate invention. This series covers many of the major milestones in computer history (but not all of them) with a concentration on the history of personal home computers.
"Who invented the computer?" is not a question with a simple answer. The real answer is that many inventors contributed to the history of computers and that a computer is a complex piece of machinery made up of many parts, each of which can be considered a separate invention. This series covers many of the major milestones in computer history (but not all of them) with a concentration on the history of personal home computers.
John Presper Eckert & John W. Mauchly ENIAC 1 Computer | 20,000 vacuum tubes later... | |
| Frederic Williams & Tom Kilburn Manchester Baby Computer & The Williams Tube | Baby and the Williams Tube turn on the memories. |
| John Bardeen, Walter Brattain & Wiliam Shockley The Transistor | No, a transistor is not a computer, but this invention greatly affected the history of computers. |
| John Presper Eckert & John W. Mauchly UNIVAC Computer | First commercial computer & able to pick presidential winners. |
| International Business Machines IBM 701 ED PM Computer | IBM enters into 'The History of Computers'. |
| John Backus & IBM FORTRAN Computer Programming Language | The first successful high level programming language. |
Stanford Research Institute, Bank of America, and General Electric ERMA and MICR | The first bank industry computer - also MICR (magnetic ink character recognition) for reading checks. | |
| Jack Kilby & Robert Noyce The Integrated Circuit | Otherwise known as 'The Chip' |
| Steve Russell & MIT Space war Computer Game | The first computer game invented. |
| Douglas Engelbert Computer Mouse & Windows | Nicknamed the mouse because the tail came out the end. |
| ARPAnet | The original Internet. |
| Intel 1103 Computer Memory | The world's first available dynamic RAM chip. |
| Faggin, Hoff & Mazor Intel 4004 Computer Microprocessor | The first microprocessor. |
| Alan Shugart &IBM The "Floppy" Disk | Nicknamed the "Floppy" for its flexibility. |
| Robert Metcalfe & Xerox The Ethernet Computer Networking | Networking. |
| Scelbi & Mark-8 Altair & IBM 5100 Computers | The first consumer computers. |
| Apple I, II & TRS-80 & Commodore Pet Computers | More first consumer computers. |
| Dan Bricklin & Bob Frankston VisiCalc Spreadsheet Software | Any product that pays for itself in two weeks is a surefire winner. |
| Seymour Rubenstein & Rob Barnaby WordStar Software | Word Processors. |
| IBM The IBM PC - Home Computer | From an "Acorn" grows a personal computer revolution |
| Microsoft MS-DOS Computer Operating System | From "Quick And Dirty" comes the operating system of the century. |
| Apple Lisa Computer | The first home computer with a GUI, graphical user interface. |
| Apple Macintosh Computer | The more affordable home computer with a GUI. |
| Microsoft Windows | Microsoft begins the friendly war with Apple. |
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