A Computer history timeline

Counting aids  Manual caculators  Mechanical calculators  Programmable calculators  Programmable computers

Date Inventor Device Details

c.3000 B.C Babylonians Abacus Simple counting and calculating aid. Thought to have first been invented around this time
c.1200 A.D unknown Chinese abacus In widespread use in China by this time (according to textbook)
c.1600 unknown Japanese abacus In widespread use in Japan by this time (according to textbook)
c.1600 John Napier Napier’s Bones Multiplication and division tool based on logarithms
1621 William Oughtred Slide Rule Similar in purpose and function to Napier’s Bones. Based on logarithms also. Popular up
until the 1960’s.
1623 Wilhelm Schickard Shickard’s Calculator Interlocking geared wheels. Not much known about it.
1642 Blaise Pascal Pascaline Could add, subtract, multiply and divide.
1673 Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz Calculator Similar to Pascaline. A mechanical calculating device.
Leibniz
1801-1804 Joseph Jacquard Jacquard Loom Weaving machine that could be “programmed” with punched cards.
1820 Thomas deColmar deColmar’s Arithometer First mass-produced mechanical calculator
1822-1833 Charles Babbage Difference Engine (Never completed) Steam powered. For calculating large tables of numbers for astronomy and
engineering. Would have had > 4000 gears levers and wheels.
1834 Charles Babbage Analytical Engine (Never completed) Embodied many of ideas of modern computers: memory, programmable
processor, input/output capabilities. Was to use punched cards, probably got that idea from
Jacquard. Ada Lovelace (daughter of the poet Lord Byron) also contributed and is considered
the world’s first programmer.
1890 Herman Hollerith Hollerith Tabulating Punched card tabulating machine created to tabulate results of the 1890 US Census. He
Machine incorporated as “The Tabulating Machine Company” which later became “International
Business Machines” (a.k.a. IBM)
1937-1942 John V. Atanasoff and Altanasoff-Berry First computer prototype to use vacuum tubes instead of mechanical switches. Also used the
Clifford E. Berry Computer (ABC) binary number system like a modern computer.
~1942-1945 Konrad Zuse Z3 A binary computer. Based on electromechanical relay switches. But working under the Nazi
regime in Germany, his work was unknown until much later.
1939 Howard Aiken (IBM Harvard Mark I Electromechanical relay computer with many moving parts. Used decimal number system.
sponsored)
1943 A British team incl. Alan COLLOSUS Electronic device made to decode encrypted ENIGMA messages. Made with vacuum tubes
Turing and based on binary arithmetic.
1943-1945 John W. Mauchly and J. ENIAC General purpose computer. Vacuum tubes. Designed to calculate trajectory tables for the US
Presper Eckert Army, but wasn’t finished until shortly after the war. Programmed via switches and patch
cables.
1951 Eckert-Mauchly Computer UNIVAC First commercially successful digital computer. Vacuum tubes. Also used magnetic tape for
Corp. storage. Took punched cards too. Remington-Rand is the corp that actually marketed and
sold UNIVAC, because Eckert-Mauchly ran out of money.
Late 1950’s Various Various “Second generation computers”, based on transistors.

1965 RCA RCA Spectra 70 One of the first “Third Generation Computers” based on integrated circuits (IC)
1965 IBM IBM 360 Another of the first “Third Generation Computers”. Based on IC technology.
1965 Digital Equipment Corp. PDP-8 First commercially successful minicomputer (also IC-based)
(DEC)
1971 Ted Hoff (INTEL) Intel 4004 First “Fourth Generation Computer”, i.e. first microprocessor. That is, the first complete
processor on a single chip built using integrated circuit technology. Followed by 8008, 8085,
8080, 8086,8088,80286,80386,80486, 80586 (a.k.a “Pentium), Pentium II, Pentium III,
Pentium IV.
1974 Motorola 6800 Early predecessor of processor first used in Macintosh computers, the 68000.
1976 Zilog Z80 Based on Intel’s 8080, versions still used today in embedded computing tasks.
1974 Jonathan A. Titus Mark-8 Early hobbyist personal computer
1975 Ed Roberts MITS Altair First truly commercial hobbyist microcomputer.
1977 Steve Wozniak and Steve Apple I Another early microcomputer kit for hobbyists.
Jobs
1978 Steve Wozniak and Steve Apple II Early personal computer with color graphics and actually useful software (VisiCalc)
Jobs
1981 IBM IBM PC Predecessor of the most popular personal computer platform in use today.
1983 Apple Computer Lisa First commercial personal computer with a Graphical User Interface (GUI) based on ideas
from Xerox PARC research lab.
1984 Apple Computer Macintosh First commercially successful computer with a GUI