Timeline of computing hisrory

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To commemorate the 50th year of modern computing and the Computer Society, the timeline on the following pages traces the evolution of computing and computer technology.

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Nội dung Text: Timeline of computing hisrory

T o commemorate the 50th year of modern computing and the Computer Society, the timeline on the following pages traces the evolution of computing and computer technology. Timeline research by Bob Carlson, Angela Burgess, and Christine Miller. Timeline design and production by Larry Bauer. We thank our reviewers: Ted Biggerstaff, George Cybenko, Martin Campbell-Kelly, Alan Davis, Dan O’Leary, Edward Parrish, and Michael Williams. Timeline of Computing History
4000-1200 B.C. 3000 B.C. The abacus is invented Inhabitants of in Babylonia. the first known The University Museum, University of Pennsylvania civilization in Sumer keep 250-230 B.C. The Sieve of records of Eratosthenes is used to determine commercial prime numbers. transactions on IBM Archives clay tablets. About 79 A.D. The “Antikythera Device,” when set correctly About 1300 The more familiar wire- according to latitude and day of and-bead abacus replaces the Chinese the week, gives alternating calculating rods. 29- and 30-day lunar months. 4 000 B.C. — 1300
1612-1614 John Napier uses the printed 1622 William Oughtred 1666 In decimal point, devises logarithms, and invents the circular England, uses numbered sticks, or Napiers Bones, slide rule on the basis Samuel for calculating. of Napier’s logarithms. Morland produces a mechanical calculator The Computer Museum 1623 William (Wilhelm) that can add Schickard designs a and subtract. “calculating clock” with a gear-driven carry The Computer Museum mechanism to aid in multiplication of multi- 1642-1643 Blaise Pascal creates a gear-driven digit numbers. adding machine called the “Pascalene,” the first mechanical adding machine. 1 600s
1801 A linked sequence of punched cards controls the weaving of patterns in Joseph-Marie Jacquard’s loom. 1774 Philipp-Matthaus Hahn builds and sells a small number of calculating machines precise to 12 digits. IBM Archives 1777 The third Earl of Stanhope invents a multiplying calculator. 1786 J.H. Mueller envisions a 1674 Gottfried Leibniz builds the IBM Archives “difference engine” but cannot “Stepped Reckoner,” a calculator using get the funds to build it. a stepped cylindrical gear. 1674-1801
1822 Charles Babbage 1820 The Thomas begins to design and Arithmometer, based build the Difference on Leibniz’ stepped- Engine. drum principle, is demonstrated to the French Academy of Science. It becomes the first mass-produced calculator and sells for IBM Archives many years. 1811 Luddites destroy machinery that threatens to eliminate jobs. 1 811 — 1822
1834-35 Babbage shifts his focus to 1832 Babbage and designing the Analytical Engine. Joseph Clement produce a portion of the Difference Engine. 1838 In January Samuel Morse 1829 William and Alfred Vail Austin Burt patents demonstrate an awkward but elements of the workable typewriter, telegraph system. the first writing IBM Archives machine in America. IBM Archives 1 829 — 1838
1847-49 Babbage completes 21 drawings for 1842-43 Augusta Ada, the second version of the Difference Engine Countess of Lovelace, but does not complete construction. translates Luigi Menabrea’s pamphlet on the Analytical Engine, adding her own commentary. Smithsonian Institution Photo No. 89-22161 1854 George Boole publishes “An Investigation 1844 Samuel The Computer Museum of the Laws of Morse sends a Thought,” telegraph describing a system for symbolic and message from logical reasoning that will become Washington to the basis for computer design. Baltimore. 1 842 — 1854
1876 Alexander 1876-1878 Baron 1858 A Graham Bell Kelvin builds a telegraph invents and harmonic analyzer cable spans patents the and tide predictor. the Atlantic telephone. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis National Inventors Hall of Fame Ocean for the first Charles Babbage Institute, time and provides Smithsonian Institution Photo No. service for a few days. 1882 William S. Burroughs 1861 A transcontinental leaves his bank clerk’s job telegraph line connects the determined to invent an Atlantic and Pacific coasts. adding machine. Smithsonian Institution 1 858 — 1882
1893 The first 1901 The four-function keypunch calculator is appears and invented. changes very little over the next half 1895 Guglielmo The Computer Museum century. Marconi transmits a radio signal. IBM Archives 1889 Herman Hollerith’s Electric Tabulating Sys- tem outperforms the competition and in the fall 1896 Hollerith establishes the Tabulating Machine Company. is selected for use in the 1890 census. 1 889 — 1901
1906 Lee de Forest adds a third valve to 1911 Hollerith’s Tabulating Machines Co. and control current flow to Fleming’s diode to two other companies combine to form C-T-R— create the three-electrode vacuum tube. Calculating, Tabulating, and 1907 Gramophone music Recording Co. constitutes the first regular radio Smithsonian Institution Photo No. 351 broadcasts from New York. 1908 British scientist 1911 Dutch Campbell Swinton physicist describes an electronic Kamerlingh 1904 John scanning method and Onnes at Leiden A. Fleming foreshadows use of the University IBM Archives patents the cathode-ray tube for discovers diode vacuum tube, setting the stage television. superconductivity. for better radio communication. 1 904 — 1911
1915 Use of microchips is foreshadowed as physicist Manson Benedicks discovers that the germanium crystal can be used to convert alternating current to direct current. IBM Archives 1919 Eccles and Jordan, US physicists, invent the flip-flop electronic switching circuit critical to high-speed electronic 1924 T.J. Watson 1912 The Institute counting systems. renames CTR of Radio Engineers, to IBM and which will eventually popularizes the merge with other 1920-1921 The word “robot” (derived from IBM Archives “Think” slogan he organizations to the Czech word for compulsory labor) is first coined at National form the IEEE, used by Karel Câpek in his play RUR (Rossum’s Cash Register. is established. Universal Robots). 1912 — 1924
1934 In Germany, Konrad 1930 The Differential 1927 Herbert Hoover’s face Zuse seeks to build a better Analyzer, devised by is seen on screen during calculating machine than Vannevar Bush and the first demonstration of those currently available. colleagues at MIT, solves television in the US. Center for the History of Electrical Engineering various differential Accompanying voice equations. transmission uses telephone wires. 1931 Reynold B. Johnson, 1928 The quartz crystal a high school teacher in clock makes possible Michigan, devises a way to unprecedented time- score multiple-choice tests keeping accuracy. by sensing conductive pencil marks on answer 1929 Color television sheets. IBM later buys the signals are successfully technology. transmitted. 1927 — 1934
1937 Howard Aiken submits 1935 IBM introduces not to IBM a proposal for a digital only the 601 multiplying calculating machine capable of punch-card machine but performing the four fundamental also an electric typewriter. operations of arithmetic and operating in a predetermined 1936 Konrad Zuse realizes sequence. that programs composed of bit combinations can 1937 Claude Shannon IBM Archives be stored, and he files a publishes the principles for an patent application in electric adder to the base two. Germany for the automatic execution of IBM Archives 1937 George Stibitz develops calculations, including a a binary circuit based on “combination memory.” Boolean algebra. 1 935 — 1937
1939 Working from October through November, John Vincent Atanasoff, with help from graduate 1937 Alan student Clifford E. Berry, builds Turing’s a prototype paper “On electronic-digital Computable computer that Numbers” uses binary presents the Iowa State University arithmetic. concept of HP Company Archives the Turing machine. 1938 Zuse completes the Z1 Iowa State University electromechanical binary computer 1937 John Vincent Atanasoff 1938 William Hewlett and and refines the spends the winter devising the David Packard form Hewlett- design with the principles for an electronic- Packard in a garage in Palo Alto, Z2. digital computer. California. 1 937— 1939
1940 Konrad Zuse completes the Z2, which 1944 The Harvard Mark I (a.k.a. IBM uses telephone relays instead of mechanical Automatic Sequence Controlled logical circuits. Calculator [ASCC]), produced by Howard Aiken, is dedicated at Harvard University on August 7, 1944. 1941 Zuse completes the Z3, the first fully functional program-controlled electromechanical digital computer. Bletchley Park Museum 1943 In December, 1943 On May 31, 1943, con- Colossus, a British struction begins on the vacuum tube ENIAC at the Moore School computer, becomes of Electrical Engineering in operational Philadelphia. IBM Archives at Bletchley Park through the combined efforts of Alan Turing, Tommy Flowers, and M.H.A. Newman. It is considered the first all-electronic calculating device. 1940 — 1944
1945 John von 1945 J. Presper Neumann introduces Eckert and John the concept of a stored Mauchly sign a program in a June 30 contract to build the draft report on the EDVAC (Electronic EDVAC design. Discrete Variable IEEE Annals of History of Computing Automatic 1945 Working on a prototype of the Mark II, Computer). 1945 Zuse’s Z4 survives in the summer Grace Murray Hopper finds the World War II and helps first computer “bug,” a moth that had caused launch postwar devel- a relay failure. 1945 By spring of opment of scientific the year, ENIAC is 1945 In July, Vannevar Bush’s As computers in Germany. up and running. We May Think is published in the Atlantic Monthly. 1 945
1946 The American Institute of Electrical Engineers establishes a Subcommittee on Large-Scale 1946 Arthur Calculating Devices—the origin Burks, Herman of today’s IEEE Computer Society. Goldstine, and Center for the History of Electrical Engineering John von Neumann write “Preliminary The Computer Museum US Army Photo Discussion of the Logical Design 1946 Alan of an Electronic Turing Computing 1946 ENIAC, designed by J. Presper publishes a Instrument.” Eckert and John Mauchly, is unveiled report on his design for ACE (Auto- at the University of Pennsylvania on matic Computing Engine), featuring February 14. random extraction of information. 1 946
1947 In July, Howard Aiken and his team Bell Laboratories complete the Harvard Mark II. 1947-48 The magnetic drum memory is introduced as a data storage device for computers. IEEE Annals of History of Computing 1947 On December 23, The Computer Museum Bell Labs management is informed by John Bardeen and Walter Brattain that along with William Shockley they have developed the first transistor. 1947 — 1948
1948 Richard Hamming devises a way to 1948 Claude find and correct errors in blocks of data. Shannon publishes The Hamming code is subsequently used in “A Mathematical computer and telephone switching systems. Theory of Communication,” formulating the modern The Computer Museum understanding of Bell Laboratories the communication process. Bell Laboratories 1948 On June 21, the Manchester Mark I, or “baby” machine, becomes the first operational stored-program digital computer. It used vacuum tube, or valve, circuits. 1 948
1948 The SSEC (Selective 1949 EDSAC (Electronic Delayed Storage 1949 The Sequence Electronic Calculator), Automatic Computer), a stored-program Whirlwind using both electronics and relays, computer built by Maurice Wilkes at computer, is dedicated on January 24. Cambridge University, England, performs constructed its first calculation on May 6. under the leadership of Jay Forrester at 1949 Short Order Code, developed by MIT to be the John Mauchly, is thought to be the first first real-time high-level programming language. computer, is The Computer Museum placed in service during the third 1950 The Pilot ACE is completed at quarter. It IBM Archives England’s National Physical Laboratory contained 5,000 and runs its first program on May 10. vacuum tubes. 1 948 — 1950