Computers

Timeline

Some important (author's choice) relevant dates in the history of computers and software.

• 2nd century BC - Antikythera mechanism - first indication of and analog computer.
• 1642 - Blaise Pascal (France) invented the mechanical calculator.
• 1672 - Gottfried Leibniz (Germany) started designing a machine which multiplied, the Stepped Reckoner.
• 1685 - Gottfried Leibniz (Germany) 4-function calculator.
• 1822 - Charles Babbage builds first prototype of the decimal difference engine for tabulating polynomials.
• 1832 - Semen Korsakov (Russia) proposed the usage of punch cards to store information.
• 1839 - Jacquard Loom (England) required 24,000 punched cards to create an intricate woven pattern.
• 1847 - British Mathematician George Boole developed binary algebra (Boolean algebra).
• 1886 - Herman Hollerith (USA) proposed punch cards (or Hollerith Cards) for tabulating data.
• 1890 - IBM founded to tabulate the 1980 Census Data.
• 1990 - First flip-flop circuit design in England; later to become the main circuit in RAM.
• 1930 - Vannevar Bush built a partly electronic differential analyzer capable of solving differential equations.
• 1931 - Kurt Gödel (Austria) publishes Gödel Theorem about the incompleteness of mathematics.
• 1936 - Alan Turing (Cambridge University, England), published papers on theoretical computation; Turing Incompleteness Theorem.
• 1937 - George Stibitz (Bell Labs, New York City) builds first binary computer.
• 1937 - Claude E. Shannon published a paper on the implementation of symbolic logic using relays as his MIT Master's thesis.
• 1938 - Konrad Zuse (Berlin), completed the 'Z1', the first mechanical binary programmable computer.
• 1939 - William Hewlett and David Packard (Palo Alto, California) established the Hewlett-Packard Company in Packard's garage.
• 1943 - Mark 1 Colossus (UK) computer to crack German codes. It had 2400 vacuum tubes and could process 25,000 characters a second
• 1944 - Harvard Mark I (US) computer by IBM.
• 1945 - Vannevar Bush developed memex theory, a hypertext systems, eventually leading to the creation of the World Wide Web.
• 1945 - John Von Neumann designs the Von Neumann architecture, which the Intel chips are based on.
• 1947 - Kathleen Booth (University of London) invents first assembly language for the APEC.
• 1947 - William B. Shockley (Bell Labs, USA) invents the transistor.
• 1949 - Cambridge University executed the first stored program on the EDSAC computer.
• 1950 - Alan Turing published a paper describing the potential development of human and computer intelligence and communication - the Turing Test.
• 1951 - First computer generated music
• 1951 - US builds EDVAC (electronic discrete variable computer) to load programs from paper tape.
• 1951 - Grace Murray Hopper invents A-0, the first high-level compiler.
• 1955 - John Backus (IBM) invents FORTRAN
• 1956 - Dartmouth College (New Hampshire) holds first conference on AI.
• 1957 - IBM first dot matrix printer.
• 1958 - John McCarthy (MIT) invents LISP language.
• 1958 - Jack Kilby (Texas Instruments) invents the first integrated circuit.
• 1959 - Second Generation computers based on transistors.
• 1959 - Robert Noyce (Fairchild Semiconductor) develops silicon integrated circuit.
• 1960 - ALGOL programming language, first to use code blocks; e.g. BEGIN and END
• 1961 - Kenneth Iverson (IBM) invents APL programming language.
• 1962 - England (University of Manchester) build most powerful computer, the ATLAS, having modern architectural concepts: spooling, interrupts, pipelining, interleaved memory, virtual memory and paging.
• 1963 - Douglas Engelbart conceived of the Mouse, later popularized by Apple Lisa.
• 1963 - J. C. R. Licklider (IBM) kicks off Project MAC, DARPA funded, to start networking computers. First Internet.
• 1964 - Third-generation computers based on integrated circuits
• 1964 - IBM releases PL/1 programming language.
• 1964 - IBM releases IBM System/360, first standard computer.
• 1965 - Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) releases the first minicomputer: PDP-8
• 1965 - Moore's Law, by Gordon Moore.
• 1965 - Fuzzy logic designed by Lotfi Zadeh (University of California, Berkeley)
• 1965 - Dartmouth College releases BASIC (Beginners All Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) programming language
• 1965 - Donald Davies invent "packet switching", used by ARPANET, the precursor of the Internet.
• 1967 - Niklaus Wirth created Pascal programming language; to become the academic language. Python took that title around 2010.
• 1968 - Robert Noyce founded Intel
• 1968 - HP creates first programmable calculator - the HP 9100A.
• 1968 - Douglas Engelbart discusses GUI and hypertext documents.
• 1969-11-29 - First computer-to-computer login occurred between Stanford and UCLA
• 1969 - Start of UNIX OS
• 1969 - RS-232 interface created
• 1969 - Data General sells 8000 Nova Computers - the first 16-bit minicomputer.
• 1970 - FORTH programming language.
• 1971 - First email sent.
• 1971-11-15 - Intel develops the first commercially available 4-bit 4004 microprocessor. Frederico Faggin.
• 1971 - 8-inch floppy disk.
• 1972 - Pong game released.
• 1972 - Fourth-generation computers based on LSI (Large Scale Integration) circuits.
• 1972 - Dennis Ritchie (Bell Labs) develops C language - to introduce "structured programming" paradigm.
• 1972 - HP creates first hand-held calculator - renders slide rules obsolete.
• 1972-04-01 - Intel 8008 microprocessor.
• 1972 - ARPANET makes first international connection. Becomes the Internet.
• 1973 - The first personal computer - the SCAMP to run APL.
• 1973 - Clifford Cocks (UK) mathematician invents prime number factorization cryptography to become the first public key encryption.
• 1973 - Vint Cerf and Robert Kahn develop TCP/IP.
• 1973 - Prolog programming language invented in France.
• 1973 - Don Lancaster displayed alphanumeric information on an ordinary television set.
• 1973 - Ethernet invented.
• 1974-04-01 - Intel 8080 8-bit microprocessor released.
• 1974 - Motorola MC6800 8-bit microprocessor released
• 1975 - Italy Olivetti P6060 first personal computer with a floppy drive.
• 1975 - Bill Gates and Paul Allen create first BASIC implementation on a microcomputer; the MITS Altair. This lead to the creation of Microsoft.
• 1975 - MOS Technology released 6502 microprocessor; used in the Apple I and II, Atari, Commodore Pet, and VIC-20.
• 1975-11 - Zilog founded by ex-Intel employees.
• 1976-04-01 - Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs founded Apple Computers.
• 1976 - IBM makes first laser printer.
• 1976 - Zilog releases Z80 microprocessor, compatible with the Intel 8080, and popularized by the TRS-80.
• 1976 - Seymour Cray invents the Cray-1 supercomputer - the first super computer.
• 1976 - Guy Steele invents EMACS.
• 1976 - COSMAC ELF released.
• 1978-06-08 - Intel 16-bit 8086 microprocessor; the first x86 chip.
• 1978 - Japan releases the Space Invaders game.
• 1979 - ADA programming language invented for the DoD.
• 1979 - Intel 8088 microprocessor invented (a cheaper version of the 8086) for the IBM PC.
• 1979 - Japan invents the compact disc.
• 1979 - Motorola releases the 32-bit 68000.
• 1979 - VisiCalc released as the first spreadsheet, thanks to Dan Bricklin.
• 1979 - WordStar released.
• 1980 - Japan releases PacMan
• 1980 - Microsoft creates DOS.
• 1981 - IBM announces the IBM-PC.
• 1981 - IBM announces the IBM-PC with MS-DOS 1.0
• 1981 - TCP/IP established.
• 1981 - Richard Feynman proposed quantum computers.
• 1982-02 - 80286 released.
• 1982-05 - IBM launch the double-sided 320 KB floppy disk drive.
• 1982-07 - Timex/Sinclair announces the Sinclair 1000 personal computer - the first under $100.
• 1982-08 - Commodore 64 released - the highest-selling single computer model of all time.
• 1982-12 - IBM bought 12% of Intel.
• 1983-01 - Apple introduces the Lisa computer.
• 1983-01 - Lotus 1-2-3 - the "killer" application for the IBM-PC
• 1983-09 - Richard Stallman announces the GNU Project, to create a free software - eventually led to Linux.
• 1983-10 - Microsoft Word.
• 1983-11 - DNS introduced to the Internet
• 1983 - Philippe Kahn founded Borland company - creator of Turbo Pascal by Anders Hejlsberg, who also later created C# programming language.
• 1984-05 - HP LaserJet released. 20 million sold.
• 1984 - Borland releases Turbo Pascal - the first programming language sold with an integrated development environment (IDE) containing the compiler, editor, linker, and debugger. Sold for $49.99 and sold more than 400K copies. It became one of the most popular programming languages of the time.
• 1985-03 - MS-DOS 3.1
• 1985-03 - Symbolics registered the symbolics.com domain, the first .com domain in the world.
• 1985-06 - Commodore 128 was Commodore's last 8-bit computer. $299.95
• 1985-07 - Commodore released the Amiga
• 1985-10 - Intel 80386 DX released - 33 MHz and can address up to 4 GB of RAM.
• 1985-11 - Microsoft Windows
• 1985 - Philips (Japan) invents the CD-ROM
• 1985 - Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA) released.
• 1986-06 - Eric Thomas invents LISTSERV, the first automated mailing list management application
• 1986-10 - Compaq DeskPro released.
• 1987-04 - IBM introduces the PS/2 Computer Systems.
• 1987-04 - IBM introduces the PS/2 Computer Systems.
• 1987-12 - Microsoft Windows 2
• 1987 - HyperCard released.
• 1987 - IBM VGA
• 1988 - WORM (Write Once Read Many times) – disks marketed for first time by IBM.
• 1988 - Adobe Photoshop
• 1989-04 - Intel 80486
• 1989 - Tim Berners-Lee invents the World Wide Web
• 1990-05 - Microsoft Windows 3.0
• 1990-11 - Microsoft Office
• 1991 - Phil Zimmermann releases public key encryption program PGP and source code.
• 1991 - Linus Torvalds (Finland) releases Linux Kernel.
• 1992 - MIPS releases first 64-bit microprocessors, the MIPS R4000.
• 1992 - IBM PowerPC
• 1992 - Wolfenstein 3D Game
• 1993 - Mosaic graphical web browser launched
• 1993 - MP3

References

• Run old machines in the browser
• COSMAC

• Computer History Always intellectual to know how computer technology was invented and how it evolved.

Links

• Wikipedia - History of Computers
• A Quarter In, A Quarter-Million Out: 10 Years of Emulation at Internet Archive - With the goal to keep a history of old software (especially those that read documents) the solution is to emulate the machines and operating systems that these old software run on. Machines back then ran in the MHz. Today's computers are 1000x faster.
• Dave's Old Computers - List of home computers since 1976
• A Brief History of the Internet