A Computer history timeline
Counting aids  Manual caculators  Mechanical calculators  Programmable calculators  Programmable computers
Date
c.3000 B.C
c.1200 A.D
c.1600
c.1600
1621
Inventor
Babylonians
unknown
unknown
John Napier
William Oughtred
Device
Abacus
Chinese abacus
Japanese abacus
Napier’s Bones
Slide Rule
1623
1642
1673
Shickard’s Calculator
Pascaline
Leibniz Calculator
1801-1804
1820
1822-1833
Wilhelm Schickard
Blaise Pascal
Gottfried Wilhelm von
Leibniz
Joseph Jacquard
Thomas deColmar
Charles Babbage
1834
Charles Babbage
Analytical Engine
1890
Herman Hollerith
Hollerith Tabulating
Machine
1937-1942
John V. Atanasoff and
Clifford E. Berry
Konrad Zuse
Altanasoff-Berry
Computer (ABC)
Z3
Howard Aiken (IBM
sponsored)
A British team incl. Alan
Turing
John W. Mauchly and J.
Presper Eckert
Harvard Mark I
Eckert-Mauchly Computer
Corp.
UNIVAC
~1942-1945
1939
1943
1943-1945
1951
Jacquard Loom
deColmar’s Arithometer
Difference Engine
COLLOSUS
ENIAC
Details
Simple counting and calculating aid. Thought to have first been invented around this time
In widespread use in China by this time (according to textbook)
In widespread use in Japan by this time (according to textbook)
Multiplication and division tool based on logarithms
Similar in purpose and function to Napier’s Bones. Based on logarithms also. Popular up
until the 1960’s.
Interlocking geared wheels. Not much known about it.
Could add, subtract, multiply and divide.
Similar to Pascaline. A mechanical calculating device.
Weaving machine that could be “programmed” with punched cards.
First mass-produced mechanical calculator
(Never completed) Steam powered. For calculating large tables of numbers for astronomy and
engineering. Would have had > 4000 gears levers and wheels.
(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.
Punched card tabulating machine created to tabulate results of the 1890 US Census. He
incorporated as “The Tabulating Machine Company” which later became “International
Business Machines” (a.k.a. IBM)
First computer prototype to use vacuum tubes instead of mechanical switches. Also used the
binary number system like a modern computer.
A binary computer. Based on electromechanical relay switches. But working under the Nazi
regime in Germany, his work was unknown until much later.
Electromechanical relay computer with many moving parts. Used decimal number system.
Electronic device made to decode encrypted ENIGMA messages. Made with vacuum tubes
and based on binary arithmetic.
General purpose computer. Vacuum tubes. Designed to calculate trajectory tables for the US
Army, but wasn’t finished until shortly after the war. Programmed via switches and patch
cables.
First commercially successful digital computer. Vacuum tubes. Also used magnetic tape for
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
1965
1965
RCA
IBM
Digital Equipment Corp.
(DEC)
Ted Hoff (INTEL)
RCA Spectra 70
IBM 360
PDP-8
One of the first “Third Generation Computers” based on integrated circuits (IC)
Another of the first “Third Generation Computers”. Based on IC technology.
First commercially successful minicomputer (also IC-based)
Intel 4004
6800
Z80
Mark-8
MITS Altair
Apple I
Apple II
Early personal computer with color graphics and actually useful software (VisiCalc)
1981
1983
Motorola
Zilog
Jonathan A. Titus
Ed Roberts
Steve Wozniak and Steve
Jobs
Steve Wozniak and Steve
Jobs
IBM
Apple Computer
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.
Early predecessor of processor first used in Macintosh computers, the 68000.
Based on Intel’s 8080, versions still used today in embedded computing tasks.
Early hobbyist personal computer
First truly commercial hobbyist microcomputer.
Another early microcomputer kit for hobbyists.
IBM PC
Lisa
1984
Apple Computer
Macintosh
Predecessor of the most popular personal computer platform in use today.
First commercial personal computer with a Graphical User Interface (GUI) based on ideas
from Xerox PARC research lab.
First commercially successful computer with a GUI
1971
1974
1976
1974
1975
1977
1978