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HISTORY OF
COMPUTER DEVELOPMENT |
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John Thuener
Phy353 Fall 04 |
| YEAR |
ITEM AND
DESCRIPTION |
| |
|
| 500 B.C. |
The abacus was
used by the Babylonians as an aid to simple arithmetic |
| 1614 |
Napier discovers logarithms |
| 1623 |
Schickard's
Calculating Clock |
| 1625 |
Invention of the
Slide Rule by William Oughtred |
| 1642 |
Pascaline -
Pascal's adding machine |
| 1668 |
Sir Samuel
Morland's English money adding machine |
| 1671 |
Leibniz's
"Stepped Reckoner" |
| 1775 |
Earl Stanhope
makes a multiplying calculator similar to Leibniz's |
| 1776 |
Mathieus Hahn
also makes a multiplying calculator |
| 1786 |
J. H. Mueller
conceives the principles of the "difference engine" |
| 1801 |
punch cards used
to control an automatic loom |
| 1820 |
"Arithmometer",
the first mass-produced calculator |
| 1822 |
Charles
Babbage's first mechanical computer |
| 1832 |
Babbage and
Clement prototype the difference engine |
| 1834 |
George Scheutz's
small wooden difference engine |
| 1834 |
Babbage's
"Analytical Engine" |
| 1842 |
Babbage's
difference engine project is cancelled. |
| 1843 |
Scheutz &
Scheutz produce a 3rd order difference engine |
| 1847 |
Babbage improves
and simplifies his difference engine. |
| 1848 |
George Boole
devises Boolean Algebra |
| 1853 |
Scheutzes
complete the first full-scale difference engine |
| 1858 |
First purchases
of the full-scale difference engine |
| 1871 |
Babbage
prototypes parts of his Analytical Engine |
| 1878 |
Ramon Verea
invents a fast multiplying machine |
| 1879 |
Abandonment of
the Analytical Engine project. |
| 1885 |
Compacter
multiplying calculator enters mass production |
| 1886 |
First entirely
key operated calculator |
| 1889 |
The first
printing desk calculator |
| 1890 |
Punched cards
used to record census data |
| 1892 |
More robust key
operated calculator |
| 1896 |
Formation of the
Tabulating Machine Company (to become IBM) |
| 1899 |
"Everything
that can be invented has already been invented." |
| 1906 |
Henry Babbage
completes some parts of his father's Analytical Engine |
| 1906 |
Electronic Valve
developed |
| 1911 |
Merger of
companies to form "Computing - Tabulating - Recording Company"
(later IBM) |
| 1919 |
Flip-flop
circuit design |
| 1924 -
February |
IBM formed |
| 1931-1932 |
Binary digital
counter |
| 1935 |
IBM introduce a
punch card based multiplier (IBM 601) |
| 1937 |
Turing's paper
on "computable numbers" |
| 1937 |
Bell Labs. 1-bit
binary adder |
| 1938 |
Paper on
implementing symbolic logic using relays |
| 1938 |
Konrad Zuses'
mechanical programmable calculator ("V1") |
| 1939 -
January 1 |
Hewlett-Packard
formed |
| 1939 -
November |
First machine to
calculate using vacuum tubes |
| 1939 |
Start of WWII. This spurred many improvements in technology -
and led to the development of machines such as the Colossus (see 1943). |
| 1939 |
Zuse and
Schreyer begin work on the "V2" (later "Z2") |
| 1939/1940 |
Prototype 10-bit
adder using vacuum tubes |
| 1940 -
January |
Ball Labs.
develop "Complex Number Calculator" |
| 1941 -
Summer |
Simultaneous
linear equation solver |
| 1941 -
December |
Zuze's V3 (later
Z3) |
| 1943 |
First Generation
Computers (1943-1959) |
| 1943 |
"I think
there is a world market for maybe five computers." |
| 1943 -
January |
Harvard Mark I |
| 1943 -
April |
Heath Robinson |
| 1943 -
September |
Williams and
Stibitz complete the "Relay Interpolator" |
| 1943 -
December |
Colossus |
| 1946 |
ENIAC |
| 1947 -
end |
Invention of the
Transistor |
| 1948 -
June 21 |
Manchester
University's "Baby" |
| 1949 -
May 6 |
EDSAC |
| 1949 |
EDVAC (the first
computer to use magnetic tape) |
| 1949 |
"Computers
in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons." |
| 1950 |
Floppy disk
invented |
| 1950 |
Turing Test |
| 1951 |
High level
language compliler invented by Grace Murray Hopper. |
| 1951 |
Whirlwind |
| 1951 |
UNIVAC-1 - the
first commercially sucessful electronic computer |
| 1952 |
EDVAC completed. |
| 1953 |
Estimate that
there are 100 computers in the world. |
| 1953 |
Magnetic Core
Memory developed. |
| 1954 |
FORTRAN |
| 1956 |
First conference
on Artificial Intelligence |
| 1956 |
Dijkstra's
shortest path algorithm |
| 1957 |
First Dot Matrix
printer marketed by IBM |
| 1957 |
FORTRAN
development finished |
| 1957 |
"I have travelled the length and breadth of this country
and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is
a fad that won't last out the year." |
| 1958 |
LISP |
| 1958 -
September 12 |
Integrated
Circuit |
| 1959 |
Second
Generation (1959-1964) |
| 1959 |
COBOL
Programming Language |
| 1960 |
ALGOL
Programming Language |
| 1960 |
Tandy Corp.
founded. |
| 1961 |
APL Programming
Language |
| 1964 |
Third Generation |
| 1964 |
PL/1 Programming
language |
| 1964 |
Launch of IBM
360 |
| 1964 |
DEC PDP-8 Mini
Computer |
| 1965 |
Moore's law
published |
| 1965 |
Fuzzy Logic
designed |
| 1965 |
BASIC
Programming Language |
| 1965 |
Mouse conceived |
| 1965 |
First
supercoputer, the Control Data CD6600 |
| 1967 |
PASCAL
Programming Lanaguage |
| 1968 |
Intel founded |
| 1968 |
LOGO Programming
Language |
| 1968 |
"But what
... is it [the microchip] good for?" |
| 1969 |
ARPANET Started |
| 1969 -
April 7 |
RFC0001 |
| 1969 |
Introductions of
RS-232 |
| 1970 |
First RAM chip |
| 1970 |
Development of
UNIX started |
| 1970 |
Forth
Programming langauge |
| 1970 -
June |
Powerful and
fast flight data processor for the F14A |
| 1971 -
November 15 |
First
microprocessor - the Intel 4004 |
| 1971 |
PASCAL completed |
| 1972 |
Atari founded |
| 1972 |
Pong released |
| 1972 |
Fourth
Generation |
| 1972 |
C Programming
language |
| 1972 |
First handheld
scientific calculator |
| 1972 -
April 1 |
Intel 8008
processor |
| 1972 |
International
connections to ARPANET |
| 1973 |
Prolog
Programming Language |
| 1973 |
Ethernet
developed |
| 1974 |
First parallel
computer (CLIP-4) |
| 1974 -
April 1 |
Intel 8080
processor |
| 1974 -
December |
First personal
computer (MITS Altair 8800) |
| 1975 |
BASIC
implemented by Bill Gates and Paul Allen |
| 1975 |
Unix marketed |
| 1975 |
Formation of
Microsoft |
| 1975 |
IBM 5100 |
| 1976 |
Apple Computer
Inc. founded to Market Apple I |
| 1976 |
First laser
printer (IBM 3800) |
| 1976? |
Intel 8085 |
| 1976 |
Z80 processor
from Zilog |
| 1976 |
6502
microprocessor |
| 1976 |
Cray 1, the
first commercially developed supercomputer |
| 1977 |
"There is
no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." |
| 1977 |
"RSA
algorithm announced" |
| 1977 |
TCP is
introduced to replace Arpanet's NCP |
| 1977 -
May |
Apple II
computer |
| 1978 -
June 8 |
Intel 8086 |
| 1978 |
Arcade Video
game "Space Invaders" |
| 1979 |
ADA Programming
Language |
| 1979 -
June 1 |
Intel 8088 |
| 1979 |
Commodore PET
released |
| 1979 |
Compact Disk |
| 1979 |
68000
microprocessor |
| 1979 |
IBM started
development of the PC |
| 1980 |
"DOS addresses only 1 Megabyte of RAM because we cannot
imagine any applications needing more." |
| 1980 -
October |
Development of
MS-DOS/PC-DOS began |
| 1980 -
Early |
Sinclair ZX80 |
| 1981 -
April |
Xerox 8010
('Star') System, the first WIMP (Windowing) system. |
| 1981 |
"640k ought
to be enough for anybody." |
| 1981 |
Sinclair ZX81
released. |
| 1981? |
INTEL
80186/80188 |
| 1981 -
August 12 |
IBM Announced
the IBM PC. |
| 1981 -
August 12 |
MDA (Mono
Display Adapter) introduced with IBM PC |
| 1981 -
August 12 |
MS-DOS 1.0.,
PC-DOS 1.0. |
| 1981 |
Pacman was
written |
| 1982 |
TCP/IP Protocol |
| 1982 |
BBC Micro
introduced |
| 1982 -
January |
Commodore 64
released |
| 1982 -
February 1 |
Intel 80286
released |
| 1982 |
Compaq's IBM PC
compatible Compaq Portable |
| 1982 |
MIDI standard
published |
| 1982 |
Red Book on the
format of Audio CDs |
| 1982 -
March |
MS-DOS 1.25,
PC-DOS 1.1 |
| 1982 -
April |
Sinclair ZX
Spectrum |
| 1982 -
May |
320K floppy disk
drives |
| 1982 -
December |
IBM buy 12% of
Intel. |
| 1983 -
January |
IBM PC gets
European launch at Which Computer Show. |
| 1983 -
January |
Apple LISA |
| 1983 |
Borland Formed. |
| 1983 -
Spring |
IBM XT released |
| 1983 -
March |
MS-DOS 2.0,
PC-DOS 2.0 |
| 1983 -
May |
MS-DOS 2.01 |
| 1983 -
October |
IBM released the
PC Junior |
| 1983 -
October |
PC-DOS 2.1 (for
PC Jr) |
| 1983 -
October |
MS-DOS 2.11 |
| 1984 |
DNS introduced
to the internet |
| 1984 |
Turbo Pascal
introduced by Borland |
| 1984 |
HP Laserjet
released |
| 1984 -
January |
Apple Macintosh
released |
| 1984 |
IBM AT released |
| 1984 -
August |
MS-DOS
3.0/PC-DOS 3.0 |
| 1984 -
September |
512KB version of
the Macintosh released |
| 1984 -
October |
Sinclair ZX
Spectrum+ released |
| 1984 -
End |
Compaq started
developing the IDE interface |
| 1985 -
January |
Postscript
introducted by Adobe Systems |
| 1985 |
Tetris written |
| 1985 |
CD-ROM |
| 1985 |
EGA released |
| 1985 -
March |
MS-DOS
3.1/PC-DOC 3.1 |
| 1985 -
May |
Sinclair ZX
Spectrum 128 announced |
| 1985 -
October 17 |
Intel 80386
released |
| 1985 -
October |
MS-DOS 2.25 |
| 1985 -
November |
Microsoft
Windows launched |
| 1985 -
December |
MS-DOS
3.2/PC-DOS 3.2 |
| 1985 -
End |
EMS (memory
standard) introduced |
| 1986 -
January |
Macintosh Plus |
| 1986 -
February |
Sinclair ZX
Spectrum 128 released |
| 1986 -
April |
Macintosh 512Ke |
| 1986 -
September |
Amstrad PC 1512 |
| 1987? |
Acorn Archimedes |
| 1987 |
Connection
Machine (very parallel supercomputer) |
| 1987 |
Microsoft
Windows 2 released |
| 1987 |
Fractal Image
Compression |
| 1987 -
March 2 |
Macintosh II
& SE |
| 1987 -
April 2 |
IBM PS/2
introduced |
| 1987 |
VGA released |
| 1987 |
MCGA released |
| 1987 |
IBM 8514/A (a
graphics card that included it's own processor) |
| 1987 -
April |
MS-DOS
3.3/PC-DOS 3.3 |
| 1987 -
April |
OS/2 launched by
Microsoft and IBM |
| 1987 -
August |
AD-LIB soundcard
released |
| 1987 -
October/November |
Compaq DOS
(v3.31) released to cope with disk partitions >32MB |
| 1987 -
End |
LIM EMS v4.0 |
| 1988 |
First optical
chip |
| 1988 |
XMS (memory
standard) introduced. |
| 1988 |
EISA Bus
standard introduced |
| 1988 |
WORM (Write Once
Read Many times) disks |
| 1988 -
June 16 |
Intel 80386 SX |
| 1988 -
July/August? |
MS-DOS
4.0/PC-DOS 4.0 |
| 1988 -
September |
IBM PS/2 Model
30/286 |
| 1988 -
October |
CAM committee
formed |
| 1988 -
October |
Macintosh IIx
released |
| 1988 -
November |
MS-DOS
4.01/PC-DOC 4.01 |
| 1989 |
World Wide Web
invented by Tim Berners-Lee |
| 1989 |
CD-I released |
| 1989 -
January |
Macintosh SE/30
released |
| 1989 -
April 1 |
E-IDE standard
defined by CAM |
| 1989 -
March |
Macintosh IIcx |
| 1989 -
April 10 |
Intel 80486
released |
| 1989 -
September |
Macintosh IIci |
| 1989 -
November |
Sound Blaster
Card released by Creative Labs |
| 1990 |
VESA formed to
introduce the VESA SVGA standard |
| 1990 -
March |
Macintosh IIfx |
| 1990 -
May 22 |
Microsoft
Windows 3.0 |
| 1990 -
October |
Macintosh
Classic released |
| 1990 -
November |
Macintosh LC
released |
| 1990 -
November |
MPC (Multimedia
PC) Level 1 specification |
| 1990 -
November |
ATA spec.
submitted to ANSI |
| 1991 |
ISA standard
introduced |
| 1991 |
Borland took
over Ashton-Take Copr. & it's populate Dbase program |
| 1991 -
April 22 |
Intel 80486 SX |
| 1991 -
May |
Introduction
of Sound Blaster Pro. |
| 1991 -
June |
MS-DOS
5.0/PC-DOS 5.0 |
| 1991 -
August |
Linux is born |
| 1992 |
"Windows NT addresses 2 Gigabytes of RAM which is more than
any application will ever need" |
| 1992 |
Introduction of
CD-I |
| 1992 -
April |
Introduction of
Windows 3.1 |
| 1992 -
May |
Wolfenstein 3D
released by Id Software Inc. |
| 1992 -
June |
Sound Blaster 16
ASP Introduced. |
| 1993 |
Commercial
providers were allowed to sell internet connections to individuals |
| 1993 |
Doom released by
Id Software Inc. |
| 1993 |
Novell purchased
Digital Research |
| 1993 -
March 22 |
Intel Pentium
released |
| 1993 -
May |
MPC Level 2
specification introduced |
| 1993 -
December |
MS-DOS 6.0 &
Doublespace |
| 1994 -
March 7 |
Intel Pentium 90
& 100 MHz versions. |
| 1994 -
March 14 |
Linux kernel
version 1.0 released |
| 1994 -
September |
PC-DOS 6.3 |
| 1994 -
October 10 |
Intel Pentirum
75 |
| 1994 |
Doom II
released. |
| 1994 |
Netscape 1.0 |
| 1994 |
Command &
Conquer released. |
| 1995 -
March |
Linux Kernel
v1.2.0 |
| 1995 -
March 27 |
Intel Pentium
120 MHz |
| 1995 -
June 1 |
Intel Pentium
133 MHz |
| 1995 -
August 21 [poss. 23] |
Microsoft
Windows 95 |
| 1995 -
November 1 |
Pentium Pro
released |
| 1995 -
December 28 |
CompuServe
blocked access to over 200 sexually explicit sites |
| 1995 -
December |
JavaScript
development announced by Netscape. |
| 1996 |
Quake released |
| 1996 -
January |
Netscape
Navigator 2.0 released |
| 1996 -
January 4 |
Intel Pentium
150 & 166 MHz versions |
| 1996 |
Windows '95 OSR2 |
| 1996 -
June 9 |
Linux 2.0
released |
| 1996 -
October 6 |
Intel Pentium
200 released |
| 1997 |
Tim Berners-Lee awarded the Institute of Physics' 1997 Duddell
Medal for inventing the World Wide Web |
| 1997 |
"Grand Theft Auto", "Quake 2" and
"Blade Runner" were all released while Lara Croft returned in
"Tomb Raider 2". |
| 1997 -
January 8 |
Intel Pentium
MMX released |
| 1997 -
May 11 |
IBM's Deep Blue, the first computer to beat a reigning World
Chess Champion, Gary Kasparov, in a full chess match. |
| 1997 -
May 7 |
Intel Pentium II
released |
| 1997 -
June 2 |
Intel Pentium
MMX 233 released |
| 1997 -
August 6 |
Microsoft buy
100,000 non-voting shares in Apple |
| 1998 -
February |
Intel Pentium II
333 MHz |
| 1998 -
April |
A U.S. court has finally banned the long-running game of buying
domain names relating to trademarks and then at selling them for extortionate
prices to the companies who own the trademark. |
| 1998 -
June 25 |
Microsoft
Windows '98 |
| 1999 -
Jan 25 |
Linux Kernel
2.2.0 released |
| 1999 -
Feb 22 |
AMD release
K6-III 400MHz |
| 1999 -
Aug 31 |
Apple PowerMac
G4 released |
| 1999 -
Nov 29 |
AMD release
Athlon 750MHz |
| 2000 -
Jan 14 |
US Government
cryptography restrictions relaxed |
| 2000 -
Jan 19 |
Transmeta launch
the 'Crusoe' chips |
| 2000 -
Feb 17 |
Official launch
of Microsoft Windows 2000 |
| 2000 -
March 6 |
AMD Release the
Athlon 1GHz. |
| 2000 -
March 8 |
Intel release
very limited supplies of the 1GHz Pentium III chip. |
| 2000 -
June 20 |
BT claim to have
patented hyperlinks |
| 2000 -
Sept 6 |
RSA Security
Inc. released their RSA algorithm into the public domain |
| 2001 -
Jan 4 |
Linux kernel
2.4.0 released. |
| 2001 -
March 24 |
Apple released
MacOS X |
| 2001 -
October 25 |
Microsoft
released Windows XP |
| 2001 -
November 15 |
Release of the
`X' Box - Microsoft's games console |
| 2002 -
August 6 |
Edsger W.
Dijkstra died |
| 2003 -
October 24 |
MacOS X version
10.3 (Panther) released |
| 2003 -
December 17 |
Linux kernel
2.6.0 released. |
| 2003 -
December 31 |
Sir Tim
Berners-Lee |
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