The History of

Computing
 2

History of Computers
• 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 try to find a faster way to get the job
done, giving rise to punch-card based computers that took up entire rooms.
 1801 - Joseph Marie 3

JacquarD
In France, Joseph Marie Jacquard invents a loom that uses
punched wooden cards to automatically pile fabric designs.
Early computers would use similar punch cards.
 1890 - Herman 4

Hollerith
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 5

Turing
Alan Turing presents the idea 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 – John V. Atanasoff and 6

clifford berry
The first generation digital computers were built upon devices
known as Vacuum Tubes. Computers of this generation could only
perform single tasks, and they had no operating system. The first
among these was called the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC),
which was designed and built by Dr. John V. Atanasoff and Clifford
Berry in 1937. This computer was famous for being able to store
information in its main memory.
 1944 – John Mauchly and J. 7

Presper Eckert
1944: John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert, University of
Pennsylvania professors, finished the Electronic Numerical
Integrator and Calculator (ENIAC). Considered the
grandfather of digital computers, it filled a 20-foot by 40-
foot room and had 18,000 vacuum tubes.
 1946 – John Mauchly and J. 8

Presper Eckert
Two years later, they left the University of Pennsylvania to
build the Universal Automatic Computer (UNIVAC) for
the census bureau, which was the first commercial computer
for business and government applications.
 9

1947 - William Shockley, John Bardeen and

Walter Brattain
1947: The Second Generation of digital computers used
transistors - invented by William Shockley, John
Bardeen and Walter Brattain of Bell Laboratories.

During this generation, over 100 computer programming

languages were developed, and computers had memory
and operating systems. Storage media such as tapes and
disks were used, as well as printers for output.
 1953 - Grace 10

Hopper
1953: The International Business Machine (IBM) 650 and
700 series computers made their mark in the computer
world.

Grace Hopper developed the first computer language,

which eventually became known as the Common
Business Oriented Language (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.
 1958 - Jack Kilby and 11

Robert Noyce
1958: Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce reveal the
Integrated Circuit (IC), known as the computer chip.
This marked the beginning of the Third Generation of
computers. With this invention, computers became
smaller, more powerful, more reliable and were able to
run many different programs at the same time.

NOICE
 12

1964 - Douglas Engelbart

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.
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1970 - Intel
1970: Intel unveiled the Intel 1103, the first Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM)
chip. The CPU was known as the central processing unit, and this term with the Intel branded
Microprocessor, and is considered the brain of the computer.
 1971 - Alan Shugart, 1973 - 14

Robert Metcalfe
1971: when a team of IBM engineers lead by
Alan Shugart invented the "floppy disk,"
allowing data to be shared among computers.

1973: Robert Metcalfe, a member of the research

staff for Xerox, developed the Ethernet for
connecting multiple computers and other
hardware.
 15

1975 – Paul Allen and Bill GAtes

1975: The January issue of Popular Electronics magazine
featured the Altair 8080 which described as the "world's
first minicomputer kit to rival commercial models.“

Paul Allen and Bill Gates offered to write software for the
Altair, using the new BASIC language. These two
individuals would then create the company Microsoft.
 1976 - Steve Jobs and Steve 16

Wozniak
1976: Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started rolled out the
Apple I, the first computer with a single-circuit board. A
year later, Jobs and Wozniak’s company—Apple, revealed
the Apple II at the first West Coast Computer Faire. It
offered color graphics and provided an audio cassette
drive for storage.
 17

1981 – IBM PC
1981 saw the appearance of first IBM personal computer,
code-named "Acorn”. It used Microsoft's MS-DOS
operating system, and had an Intel chip, two floppy disks
and an optional color monitor. This popularized the term
PC.
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1983 – lisa
The first personal computer with a GUI – Lisa, was released by
Apple on 1983. It featured a drop-down menu and icons.

Lisa was the pioneer to what eventually became the Macintosh. In

the same year, the Gavilan SC became the first portable computer
with the familiar flip form factor and the first to be marketed as a
"laptop."
 19

1985 – www (dot-com)

1985: the Symbolics Computer Company—a small
Massachusetts computer manufacturer, registered
Symbolics.com—as the first dot-com domain name was
registered before the World Wide Web would mark the formal
beginning of Internet history.
 20

1986 – Deskpro 386

1986: Compaq brought the Deskpro 386 to market. Its 32-bit
architecture provided speed comparable to mainframes.
 21

1990 – HTML
A remarkable change was brought in 1990 when Tim Berners-Lee, a researcher at CERN, the high-
energy physics laboratory in Geneva, developed HyperText Markup Language (HTML); thus,
giving rise to the World Wide Web.
 22

1993 – i386
During the early 1990s, Intel developed a more-powerful processor known as the i386, which was
the first 32-bit microprocessor available for commercial use. This microprocessor offered
multitasking capabilities on personal desktop computers. Intel then developed the Pentium
processor in 1993, and this was the first microprocessor capable of performing two instructions
during each clock cycle and advanced the use of graphics and music on PCs
 23

1994 – Gaming machines

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.
 24

1996 – Google, 1999 – wifi

The mid-90s saw further improvement in the Internet. In 1996, Sergey Brin
and Larry Page developed the Google search engine at Stanford University.

In 1999, Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) became part of the computing language and
users began connecting to the Internet without wires.
 2001 – Mac os x and 25

windows xp
In 2001, Apple unveiled the Mac OS X, which was
Operating System that provided protected memory
architecture and pre-emptive multi-tasking.

Not to be outdone, Microsoft rolled out Windows XP, which

featured a significantly redesigned GUI. Two years later,
AMD released the Athlon 64, which was the first 64-bit
processor.
 2004 – mozilla and 26

facebook
2004 saw the launch of Mozilla's Firefox 1.0, a challenger to
Microsoft's Internet Explorer which was the dominant Web browser at
that time.

Future multinational technological company Facebook also launched

this year. A year later, YouTube—the video sharing service was
founded.

Google also acquired Android, a Linux-based mobile phone operating

system, in the same year.
 27

2006 – Macbook pro / iphone

Apple introduced the MacBook Pro—its first Intel-based, dual-core mobile computer, as well as an
Intel-based iMac in 2006. The year after, they unveiled the iPhone, which brought many computer
functions to the smartphone.
 28

2009 – windows 7
In 2009, Microsoft launched Windows 7, which offered the
ability to pin applications to the taskbar and advanced touch
and handwriting recognition, among other features.
 29

2010 – ipad
2010 saw the change in how consumers view media
with the appearance of Apple’s iPad and made the
tablet computer segment feasible.
 30

2011 – chromebook
In 2011, Google released the Chromebook, a laptop
that ran on the Google Chrome OS.
 2015 – Apple watch and windows 31

10
Apple released the Apple Watch in 2015, and
Microsoft released the current version of its now
multi-platform Operating System—Windows 10.
 32

TRIVIA
✖ It would take 76 work days (8 hours a day) for the
average person to read the Terms and Conditions they
agree to in a year.
✖ The four ghosts in Pac-Man are programmed to act
differently: red chases you, pink just tries to position
itself in a set way, blue tries to ambush you and
orange is random.
The evolution of 33

computing
technology
continues…