Timeline of Computers

IT Application Tools and Business
Rodel Guerrro-Pineda Jr. BSA-2

Mr. Kevin Lester Taguba – Instructor
September 15, 2020
TIMELINE OF COMPUTER
The computer was born not for entertainment or email but out of a need to solve a serious
number-crunching crisis. By 1880, the U.S. population had grown so large that it took more than
seven years to tabulate the U.S. Census results. The government sought a faster way to get the
job done, giving rise to punch-card based computers that took up entire rooms.
Today, we carry more computing power on our smartphones than was available in these early
models. The following brief history of computing is a timeline of how computers evolved from
their humble beginnings to the machines of today that surf the Internet, play games and stream
multimedia in addition to crunching numbers.
START
1801: In France, invents a loom that uses punched wooden cards to
automatically weave fabric designs. Early computers would use similar
punch cards.
1822: English mathematician Charles Babbage conceives of a steam-driven

calculating machine that would be able to compute tables of numbers. The
project, funded by the English government, is a failure. More than a century later, however, the
world's first computer was actually built.
1890: Herman Hollerith designs a punch card system to calculate the

1880 census, accomplishing the task in just three years and saving the
government $5 million. He establishes a company that would ultimately
become IBM.
1936: Alan Turing presents the notion of a universal machine, later called the Turing machine,
capable of computing anything that is computable. The central concept of the modern computer
was based on his ideas.
1937: J.V. Atanasoff, a professor of physics and mathematics at Iowa

State University, attempts to build the first computer without gears, cams,
belts or shafts.
1939: Hewlett-Packard is founded by David Packard and Bill Hewlett in a Palo Alto, California,
garage, according to the Computer History Museum.
1941: Atanasoff and his graduate student, Clifford Berry, design a computer that can solve 29
equations simultaneously. This marks the first time a computer is able to store information on its
main memory.
1943-1944: Two University of Pennsylvania professors, John

Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert, build the Electronic Numerical
Integrator and Calculator (ENIAC). Considered the grandfather
of digital computers, it fills a 20-foot by 40-foot room and has
18,000 vacuum tubes.
1946: Mauchly and Presper leave the University of

Pennsylvania and receive funding from the Census Bureau to
build the UNIVAC, the first commercial computer for business and government applications.
1947: , John Bardeen and Walter Brattain of Bell Laboratories invent the
transistor. They discovered how to make an electric switch with solid
materials and no need for a vacuum.
1953: Grace Hopper develops the first computer language, which

eventually becomes known as COBOL. Thomas Johnson Watson Jr., son
of IBM CEO Thomas Johnson Watson Sr., conceives the IBM 701
EDPM to help the United Nations keep tabs on Korea during the war.
1954: The FORTRAN programming language, an acronym for FORmula TRANslation, is

developed by a team of programmers at IBM led by John Backus, according to the University of
Michigan.
1958: Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce unveil the integrated circuit, known as
the computer chip. Kilby was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2000
for his work.
1964: Douglas Engelbart shows a prototype of the modern computer, with

a mouse and a graphical user interface (GUI). This marks the evolution of
the computer from a specialized machine for scientists and mathematicians
to technology that is more accessible to the general public.
1969: A group of developers at Bell Labs produce UNIX, an operating

system that addressed compatibility issues. Written in the C programming language, UNIX was
portable across multiple platforms and became the operating system of choice among
mainframes at large companies and government entities. Due to the slow nature of the system, it
never quite gained traction among home PC users.
1970: The newly formed Intel unveils the Intel 1103, the first
1971: Alan Shugart leads a team of IBM engineers who invent the
"floppy disk," allowing data to be shared among computers.
1973: Robert Metcalfe, a member of the research staff for Xerox,

develops Ethernet for connecting multiple computers and other
hardware.
1974-1977: A number of personal computers hit the market, including Scelbi & Mark-8 Altair,
IBM 5100, Radio Shack's TRS-80 — affectionately known as the "Trash 80" — and the
Commodore PET.
1975: The January issue of Popular Electronics magazine features the Altair 8080, described as
the "world's first minicomputer kit to rival commercial models." Two "computer geeks," Paul
Allen and Bill Gates, offer to write software for the Altair, using the new BASIC language. On
April 4, after the success of this first endeavor, the two childhood friends form their own
software company, Microsoft.
1976: Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak start Apple Computers

on April Fool's Day and roll out the , the first computer with
a single-circuit board, according to Stanford University.
The TRS-80, introduced in 1977, was one of the first

machines whose documentation was intended for non-geeks
The TRS-80, introduced in 1977, was one of the first
machines whose documentation was intended for non-geeks
(Image credit: Radioshack)
1977: Radio Shack's initial production run of the TRS-80 was just 3,000. It sold like crazy. For
the first time, non-geeks could write programs and make a computer do what they wished.
1977: Jobs and Wozniak incorporate Apple and show the Apple II
at the first West Coast Computer Faire. It offers color graphics and
incorporates an audio cassette drive for storage.
1978: Accountants rejoice at the introduction of VisiCalc, the first computerized spreadsheet
program.
1979: Word processing becomes a reality as MicroPro International releases WordStar. "The
defining change was to add margins and word wrap," said creator Rob Barnaby in email to Mike
Petrie in 2000. "Additional changes included getting rid of command mode and adding a print
function. I was the technical brains — I figured out how to do it, and did it, and documented it. "
The first IBM personal computer, introduced on Aug. 12, 1981,

used the MS-DOS operating system.
The first IBM personal computer, introduced on Aug. 12, 1981,
used the MS-DOS operating system. (Image credit: IBM)
1981: The first IBM personal computer, code-named "Acorn," is

introduced. It uses Microsoft's MS-DOS operating system. It has an Intel
chip, two floppy disks and an optional color monitor. Sears & Roebuck and
Computerland sell the machines, marking the first time a computer is
available through outside distributors. It also popularizes the term PC.
1983: Apple's Lisa is the first personal computer with a GUI. It also
features a drop-down menu and icons. It flops but eventually evolves into
the Macintosh. The Gavilan SC is the first portable computer with the
familiar flip form factor and the first to be marketed as a "laptop."
1985:, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. This was the company's response to Apple's GUI.
Commodore unveils the Amiga 1000, which features advanced audio and video capabilities.
1985: The first dot-com domain name is registered on March

15, years before the World Wide Web would mark the formal
beginning of Internet history. The Symbolics Computer
Company, a small Massachusetts computer manufacturer,
registers Symbolics.com. More than two years later, only 100
dot-coms had been registered.
1986: Compaq brings the Deskpro 386 to market. Its 32-bit architecture provides as speed
comparable to mainframes.
1990: Tim Berners-Lee, a researcher at CERN, the high-energy

physics laboratory in Geneva, develops HyperText Markup
Language (HTML), giving rise to the World Wide Web.
1993: The Pentium microprocessor advances the use of graphics and music on PCs.
1994: PCs become gaming machines as "Command & Conquer," "Alone in the Dark 2," "Theme
Park," "Magic Carpet," "Descent" and "Little Big Adventure" are among the games to hit the
market.
1996: Sergey Brin and Larry Page develop the Google search engine at Stanford University.
1997: Microsoft invests $150 million in Apple, which was struggling at the time, ending Apple's
court case against Microsoft in which it alleged that Microsoft copied the "look and feel" of its
operating system.
1999: The term Wi-Fi becomes part of the computing language

and users begin connecting to the Internet without wires.
2001: Apple unveils the Mac OS X operating system, which

provides protected memory architecture and pre-emptive multi-
tasking, among other benefits. Not to be outdone, Microsoft rolls out Windows XP, which has a
significantly redesigned GUI.
2003: The first 64-bit processor, AMD's Athlon 64, becomes

available to the consumer market.
2004: Mozilla's Firefox 1.0 challenges Microsoft's Internet

Explorer, the dominant Web browser. Facebook, a social
networking site, launches.
2005: YouTube, a video sharing service, is founded. Google acquires Android, a Linux-based
mobile phone operating system.
2006: Apple introduces the MacBook Pro, its first Intel-based, dual-
core mobile computer, as well as an Intel-based iMac. Nintendo's
Wii game console hits the market.
2007: The iPhone brings many computer functions to the

smartphone.
2009: Microsoft launches Windows 7, which offers the ability

to pin applications to the taskbar and advances in touch and
handwriting recognition, among other features.
2010: Apple unveils the iPad, changing the way consumers view media
and jumpstarting the dormant tablet computer segment.
2011: Google releases the Chromebook, a laptop that runs the Google
Chrome OS.
2012: Facebook gains 1 billion users on October 4.
2015: Apple releases the Apple Watch. Microsoft releases Windows 10.
2018: The first reprogrammable quantum computer was

created. "Until now, there hasn't been any quantum-computing
platform that had the capability to program new algorithms
into their system. They're usually each tailored to attack a
particular algorithm," said study lead author Shantanu
Debnath, a quantum physicist and optical engineer at the
University of Maryland, College Park.
2019-Present: The Defense Advanced Research Projects

Agency (DARPA) is developing a new "Molecular
Informatics" program that uses molecules as computers.
"Chemistry offers a rich set of properties that we may be able
to harness for rapid, scalable information storage and
processing," Anne Fischer, program manager in DARPA's
Defense Sciences Office, said in a statement. "Millions of
molecules exist, and each molecule has a unique three-
dimensional atomic structure as well as variables such as
shape, size, or even color. This richness provides a vast design space for exploring novel and
multi-value ways to encode and process data beyond the 0s and 1s of current logic-based, digital
architectures.
PRESENT
REFERENCES:
https://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/

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IT Application Tools and Business

Rodel Guerrro-Pineda Jr. BSA-2

1822: English mathematician Charles Babbage conceives of a steam-driven

1890: Herman Hollerith designs a punch card system to calculate the

1937: J.V. Atanasoff, a professor of physics and mathematics at Iowa

1943-1944: Two University of Pennsylvania professors, John

1946: Mauchly and Presper leave the University of

1953: Grace Hopper develops the first computer language, which

1954: The FORTRAN programming language, an acronym for FORmula TRANslation, is

1964: Douglas Engelbart shows a prototype of the modern computer, with

1969: A group of developers at Bell Labs produce UNIX, an operating

1973: Robert Metcalfe, a member of the research staff for Xerox,

1976: Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak start Apple Computers

The TRS-80, introduced in 1977, was one of the first

The first IBM personal computer, introduced on Aug. 12, 1981,

1981: The first IBM personal computer, code-named "Acorn," is

1985: The first dot-com domain name is registered on March

1990: Tim Berners-Lee, a researcher at CERN, the high-energy

1999: The term Wi-Fi becomes part of the computing language

2001: Apple unveils the Mac OS X operating system, which

2003: The first 64-bit processor, AMD's Athlon 64, becomes

2004: Mozilla's Firefox 1.0 challenges Microsoft's Internet

2007: The iPhone brings many computer functions to the

2009: Microsoft launches Windows 7, which offers the ability

2012: Facebook gains 1 billion users on October 4.

2018: The first reprogrammable quantum computer was

2019-Present: The Defense Advanced Research Projects

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