IT Sligo
History of Computing
History of Computing
500 BC
 abacus
1642
 Blaise Pascal - Pascaline
 auto calculating machine
 add & subtract
 failure
1673
 Gottfried von Leibniz - auto calculator - multiply & divide
1804
 Joseph-Marie Jacquard - punched-card loom attachment
 automated process of entering data
1822
 Charles Babbage - Differential Engine
 Babbage - Analytical Engine
1833
 Augusta Ada & Babbage
 Analytical Engine with single set of cards
1884
 Herman Hollerith - electromechanical punched-card system to compile 1890 census
 company became IBM
1939
 John Atanasoff & Clifford Berry - special-purpose electronic digital computer
1943
 John Mauchly & J Presper Eckert - ENIAC
 general-purpose electronic digital computer
1946
 John von Neumann - stored program computer
1951
 John Mauchly & J Presper Eckert – UNIVAC
 commercially available electronic digital computer
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IT Sligo
History of Computing
1957
 IBM - Fortran
1964
 Thomas Kurtz & John Kemeny - BASIC
1964
 Control Data Corporation - first supercomputer – CDC 6600
1965
 DEC - PDP-8
 commercially available minicomputer
1967
 MIT - MacHack – first program to play chess
1968
 Edsger Dijsktra - structured programming
1971
 Intel - first microprocessor chip
1971
 DENDRAL - first expert system
1974
 Intel - microprocessor
 later used in IBM computers
1975
 Bill Gates & Paul Allen - Microsoft Corporation
1977
 Stephen Wozniak & Stephen Jobs – Apple II computer
1979
 VisiCalc - first commercial spreadsheet
1980
 Ashton-Tate – dBase - most popular DBMS for PCs
1980
 WordStar - first word processing package
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IT Sligo
History of Computing
1981
 IBM PC
1982
 WordPerfect - word processing package
1982
 Compaq Inc founded - competitor to IBM
1982
 Hayes - 300 bps smart modem
1982
 breakup of AT&T - companies create own WANs
1983
 Lotus founded - spreadsheet software
1983
 IBM PC Jr - home market
1984
 IBM - 80286
1984
 Apple unveiled Macintosh
1984
 Hewlett-Packard - laser jet printer
1985
 Microsoft - first GUI
1985
 80386 chip
1985
 DTP Aldus Pagemaker
1986
 Compaq - 80386
1987
 IBM & Microsoft - OS/2
1987
 IBM - PS/2
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IT Sligo
History of Computing
1988
 Intel - million-transistor microprocessor
1988
 smaller notebook PC
1989
 multimedia touted but took years to catch on
1990
 80486
1990
 Microsoft - Windows for DOS
 IBM - OS/2
1991
 IBM & Apple - share technology
1992
 80586
1992
 CD-ROM
1992
 object-oriented programming
1992
 multimedia standards set
1993
 Pentium microprocessor
1993
 id software – Doom - shooter-style game
1993
 Eric Bina & Marc Andreessen - Mosaic
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IT Sligo
History of Computing
1994
 Mosaic available for Mac OS & Windows
1994
 Netscape founded
1994
 Jerry Yang & David Filo - Yahoo
1994
 Iomega Zip disk
1995
 Netscape valued at $2 billion
1996
 Intel - 200 MHz Pentium processor
1996
 Microsoft - Windows NT 4.0
 Microsoft - Windows CE for hand-held
1996
 PDA becomes available
1996
 IBM - OS/2 Warp 4
1996
 CD-RW
1996
 IBM - first web shop
1996
 Lycos, Excite, Yahoo went public
1996
 Jeff Skoll & Pierre Omidyar - eBay
1996
 Microsoft - IE
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IT Sligo
History of Computing
1997
 J Haaften (Ericsson) - Bluetooth
1997
 Nokia - “smart messaging”
1997
 IBM - Deep Blue super computer
1997
 Amazon.com goes public
1997
 Microsoft buys Web TV Networks
1998
 first affordable digital cameras
1998
 Apple Inc - iMac
1998
 US government privatize registration of URLs
1998
 Bill Clinton – signed Digital Millennium Copyright Act
1998
 AOL bought Netscape
1998
 Larry Page & Sergey Brin - Google
1999
 ICL (Electrolux) - Kitchen Computer
1999
 palmtop computers with colour displays
1999
 millenium bug taken seriously
1999
 prices of PCs plummet
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IT Sligo
History of Computing
2000
 serious millennium bugs not reported
2000
 Bill Gates resigned - Steve Ballmer took over
2000
 AMD Athlon - 1000 MHz or GHz barrier broken
2000
 Intel – Pentium III 1000 MHz
2000
 cyber terrorists brought some major sites down (eBay, Amazon, etc)
2000
 federal judge orders MS to breakup
2001
 Wikipedia founded
2001
 MS - Windows 2000
2001
 MS - Windows ME
2001
 Internet stock bubble burst
2001
 judge reverses decision to split up Microsoft
2001
 injunction against Napster to begin blocking copyrighted music
2001
 PCs with CPUs in excess of 1.4 GHz come on market
2001
 MS - Windows XP
2001
 approx 460 million people connected to Internet
2001
 Apple - iPod
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IT Sligo
History of Computing
2002
 Internet’s main language is English
2002
 NEC - Earth Simulator System - world’s fastest supercomputer
2003
 Mozilla founded
2003
 Casio Computer Co – “micro reformer” for laptop
2003
 European Central Bank - smallest integrated circuit into notes to prevent counterfeiting
2003
 spam serious on Web
2004
 Google - largest index on Web
2004
 Mydoom virus
2004
 estimated 650 million PCs in use around world
2004
 first mobile phone virus (Cabir) appeared
2004
 Google - “Google Print” - to produce online digital library
2005
 Google indexes 8 billion pages
2005
 MS browser dips below 90% market share
2005
 MIT - $100 laptop to revolutionise education of children
2006
 spam - mobile phones & PDAs infected
2006
 Yahoo & AOL - email stamp - used to dam flooding of spam
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IT Sligo
History of Computing
2007
 MS Windows Vista
 updated GUI & visual style, improved searching, new multimedia creation tools
2007
 Apple Mac OS X
2008
 IT Sligo represents Ireland at global finals of MS Imagine Cup 2008
 ParkIT - real time parking information at ITSligo
 central database, sat-nav or mobile phone to request parking space
2008
 sub-notebook PCs / mini-PC / netbook)
 Aver AspireOne or Asus EEE PC
 affordable & more flexible
 8 or 10 –inch screen, €300
 Windows XP or Linux
 word processing, email, spreadsheets, surf Internet via wireless broadband
2008
 eLearning company announce 450 new jobs in Dublin over next 5 years
 new R&D centre will drive innovation
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IT Sligo
History of Computing
2009
 Microsoft opens "mega" data centre in Dublin - new epicenter of MS’s cloud computing
strategy for next decade

data centre
- also called server farm
- facility used to house computer systems & components
- can occupy 1 room, several floors or entire building
- servers stored in racks in long corridors
- 50% more energy efficient than those built 3 years ago

cloud computing
- also known as demand computing or utility computing
- where data, software applications or computer processing power are detached from
physical location & accessed from "cloud" of online resources
- computing capacity may now be obtained by plugging-in to online resources in same
manner as connection is made to national grid to obtain electrical power
- consists of reliable services delivered through data centres
- users do not physically possess storage of their data
2009
 O2 exclusive carrier in Ireland of new Palm Pre smart phone (in October)

smart phone
- mobile phone offering advanced capabilities
- often with PC-like functionality

Palm Pre
- also known as the "Castle"
- multimedia smart phone designed & marketed by Palm
- multi-touch screen & sliding keyboard
- launched in June 2009
- uses Linux OS (webOS)
- functions as a camera phone, portable media player, GPS navigator, Internet client
2010
 Android phone
- alternative to iPhone
- Google-backed OS for mobile phones
- users can create their own interfaces

Project Natal
- for XBOX 360
- gaming with no controller at all
- user movements & voice control game
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IT Sligo
History of Computing
2010
 Electric Eye
- MIT researchers developing microchip that will enable blind person to recognize faces
& navigate room without assistance
- helps blind to regain partial eyesight
- implanted into eyeball
- user wears special glasses fitted with small camera

Sixth Sense
- wearable interface
- pocket projector, mirror & camera which allows user to interact with objects
- user can take picture by framing scenery with hands
- user can hold up object in shop & find out all relevant information about it
2011
 Brain-Like Computing
- simultaneous information processing (by CPU) & storage (in memory) using phasechange materials
 makes computers faster & more energy-efficient
 also makes them more like biological systems (humans)
 shows that artificial systems could learn & process information like human brains

4-D film
- entertainment presentation system combining 3-D film with physical effects theatre
- these effects occur in sync with film
- example "Spy Kids 4"
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