History of Computing

EARLY METHODS, DEVICES, AND MACHINES

• Numeration Systems

• Early Calculation Devices
  • Finger Reckoning
  • Abacus
  • Quadrant
  • Napier Bones
  • Logarithms
  • Slide Rule
• Mechanical Calculating Devices
  • Schickard’s Model
  • Pascal Machine
  • Leibniz Machine
  • Commercial Machines

• Babbage Machines
  • Difference Machine
  • Scheutz Difference Machine
  • Analytical Engine
  • Ludgate
• Analog Computers
  • Astrolabe
  • Antikythera Device
  • Tide Predictors
  • Differential Analyzers
• Mechanical Computers
  • Zuse Machines
  • Bell Relay Machines
  • Harvard machines
  • IBM Machines

• Early Electronic Machines
  • Atanasoff Berry Computer
  • ENIAC
  • Colossus

HARDWARE - NON-SYSTEM

• Logic Design Basics
  • Truth Tables
  • Logic Equations
  • Gates
  • Combinational Logic
  • Clocks
  • Memory Elements
  • Field Programmable Devices
• Hardware Control
  • Multiplexers and Demultiplexers
  • Encoders and Decoders
  • Combinational Control Units
  • Microprogramming
• Machine Instructions
  • Hardware operations
  • Instruction operands
  • Logical Machine Operations
  • Decision making
• Computer Arithmetic
  • Signed and Unsigned Numbers
  • Addition and Subtraction
  • Multiplication and division
  • Floating Point operations
• Computer Performance
  • Performance Factors
  • Performance Evaluation
  • Performance Benchmarks
• Datapath and Control
  • Datapath design
  • Single-cycle implementations
  • Multi-cycle Implementation
  • Microprogramming
• Pipelining
  • Pipeline Datapaths
  • Pipeline Control
  • Data Hazards
  • Branch Hazards
• Memory
  • Caches and Performance
  • Virtual Memory
  • Memory Hierarchies
  • Disk Storage
  • RAID devices
• Hardware Networks
  • Buses
  • I/O Devices and interfacing
  • Operating Systems
  • Disk and File Systems
  • I/O Systems
  • Network Topologies
  • Exceptions
  • Interrupts
• Multiprocessors
  • Single-bus Multiprocessors
  • Networked Multiprocessors
  • Processor Clusters
  • Multithreading
  • Multi-core processors
• Different Architectures
  • CISC architectures
  • RISC Architectures
  • VLIW
  • Emulators
  • Simulators

HARDWARE-SOFTWARE SYSTEMS

SOFTWARE - NON-SYSTEM

• Programming Languages
  • ALGOL
  • APL
  • BASIC
  • COBOL
  • Commercial Translator
  • FORMAC
  • FORTRAN
  • GPSS
  • JOVIAL
  • LISP
  • MVS
  • PL/I
  • QUIKTRAN
  • SCRATCHPAD
  • SNOBOL
  • C
  • Smalltalk
  • Pascal
  • C++
  • Java
  • C#

• Commercial Software

THEORY

• Early Activities
  • Boolean Algebra (George Boole – 1848)
  • Computability, Turing machines, universal machines (Alan Turing – 1936)
  • Binary arithmetic (Boolean logic and switching circuits, Claude Shannon – 1937)
  • Electronic adder (Claude Shannon – 1937)
  • Binary circuits (George Stibitz – 1937)
  • Computable numbers (Alan Turing – 1937)
  • Theory of communication (Claude Shannon – 1948)
  • Error correction codes (Richard Hamming – 1948)
  • Analytical complexity theory (Intractability and NP-completeness – 1972)

• Automata and formal language theory
  • Languages, strings, alphabets
  • DFAs (Deterministic Finite Automata)
  • NFAs (Nondeterministic Finite Automata)
  • Regular expressions
  • Equivalence of DFA, NFA, and Regular Expressions
  • Context-free grammars
  • Push-down automata
  • Equivalence of CFGs and PDAs
  • Pumping Lemma
  • Cellular automata
  • Other automata theory

• Complexity Theory
  • Tractable vs. intractable problems
  • Theory of P and NP

• • Reductions

• • Complete problems for a complexity class
  • Other time-based complexity classes
  • Space complexity classes
  • Relations among complexity classes
  • Complexity classes based on mode of computing

• • Circuits and circuit complexity

• Computability Theory
  • Notion of decision problem
  • Recursive (decidable) problems
  • Recursively enumerable problems
  • Undecidable problems
  • Halting problem
  • Turing machines

• • RAM model
  • Lambda calculus
  • Partial recursive functions
  • Other models of computable functions

• • Advanced computability theory
  • Chomsky hierarchy
  • The Church-Turing thesis

PEOPLE

• Aiken, Howard A.;(1900-73) Harvard Mark I
• Alkhowarizmi; mathematics, (2), ancient mathematician, the number 0
• Amdahl, Gene Myron; (1922- ) computer architect
• Andreessen, Marc (1971)- co-founder of netscape corporation
• Lovelace, Augusta Ada Countess of , (2); 1816-1852 translating a report from French into to English on a lecture Babbage gave, she added her own lengthy notes to the text, and has been credited with developing the concepts of "loop" and "subroutine".
• Atanasoff, John V.; (1903-1995 ) first electronic computer
• Babbage, Charles; (1791-1871) differential machine, analytical machine
• Backus, John W.; (1924 - ) developer of Fortran, (2)
• Ballmer, Steve; co-founder Microsoft
• Bardeen, John (1908-1991) co-inventor of the transresistor, or transistor
• Bell, Gordon
• Berners-Lee, Tim; (2) developer and promotor of the World Wide Web (www.)
• Bigelow, Julian; (1913- )
• Boole, George
• Bricklin, Daniel, (2) - (1951) inventor of Visicalc spreadsheets, Bob Frankston, wrote the code for Visicalc
• Brooks Jr., Frederick Phillips; (1931 - ) Managed the development of the 360 operating system software for IBM (1960s); wrote The Mythical Man-Month about software project managementBrown, Sir Thomas
• Bush, Vannevar, Vannevar Bush
• Cerf, Vinton (1943) co-developed the TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol) for the Internet
• Cocke, John 1925 - 2002 Chief Architect of the IBM RISC architecture
• Codd, Edgar
• Cray, Seymour; (1925-1996) Cray supercomputers,also founded the Control Data Corp along with Eckert, William Norris and six others
• Dahl, Ole-Johan; (1931-2002 ) Simula
• Dantzig, George Bernard ; (1914- )
• Dijkstra, Edsger; (1930-2002) computer science, encryption, programming methodology
• Eastman, George - (2); philanthropist and founder of kodak
• Eckert, John P. ; (1919-1995) co inventor of one of the first fully electronical digital computer, along with Cray, William Norris and six others, (2) ,(3)
• Ellison, Lawrence Oracle
• Engelbart, Douglas; (2) (1925) - pioneer in human-computer communications, developer of the mouse and graphical user interface, (3)
• Ershov, Andrei P. theoretical programming
• Gates, Wiiliam H. III (Bill); (1955) one of the founders of Microsoft, DOS, Windows, (2) (see also interview and unofficial information)
• Goldstine, Herman Heine ; (1913- ) helped design the ENIAC, wrote one of the most complete computer history books.
• Grove, Andrew, co-founder Intel
• Hamming, Richard W.;
• Hell, Rudolf (1901-2002); inventor of fax machine
• Hills, Danny - "Thinking Machines"
• Hoare, C. A. R.; (CSP)
• Holberton, Betty (1927) one of a team of 5 programmers on the ENIAC
• Hollerith, Herman, (2) (1860-1929) tabulator machine
• Hopper Grace M. - COBOL developing team
• Huffman, David A.; Discovered a fast and efficient method of compression
• Iverson, Kenneth E.; invented APL in 1962
• Jobs, Steven Paul ; (1955- ) co founded Apple and founded Next
• Jaquard, Joseph Marie; (1752-1834) French weaver who built a fully automated loom programmed by punched cards.
• Kapor, Mitch ; (1950- ) developer of Lotus 1-2-3 along with Jonathan Sachs, and founded the Lotus Development Corp. in 1982, Kapor Enterprises
• Kay, Alan; inventor of smalltalk and dynabook, a visionair in computing
• Kemeny, John G. (1926-1992) co-developer along with Thomas Kurtz, of the programming language BASIC and founder of true basic corporation in 1964
• Kernighan, Brian W ; developed with Ritchie Unix en C, co-invented Awk (1977)
• Kilby, Jack Sinclair, (2) (1923) co-inventor of the integrated circuit at Texas Instruments independently and at the same time as Robert Noyce did this at Fairchild Semiconductor; Along with Jerry D. Merryman and James Van Tassel, Kilby helped invent the first electronic handheld calculator by adapting the integrated circuit.
• Kilburn, Tom ; invented the binary adder
• Knuth, Donald Ervin (1938- ) author, mathematician, computer scientist and pioneer researcher on compilers, attribute grammars, algorithms and digital typography, (2) (TeX^?) , a seven volume series on "The Art of Programming"
• Langefors, Borje; (1915- )
• Lebedev, Sergei A. 1902-1974; MESM computer, Ukraine
• Mauchly, John William, (2) (1907-1980) created with J. Presper Eckert and a 50 member team the first electronic large scale, general purpose calculator, known as the ENIAC.
• Metcalfe, Bob - (1946) inventor of ethernet and founder of 3com corporation
• McCarthy^?, John AI
• Minsky, Marvin Lee; (1927- ); pioneer in Artificial Intelligence.
• Naur, Peter; (1928- )
• Neumann, John von; (1903-57) computer architecture, (2),(3)
• Noyce, Robert N. (2) (1927 - 1990) co-inventor of the microchip and founder of fairchild semiconductor and intel corporations
• Nygaard, Kristen; (1926-2002)
• Olsen, Kenneth Harry; (1926 - ) member of Whirlwind team, founder of DEC, (2)
• Packard, David; (1912-1996 ) co-founder of Hewlett Packard, (2)
• Parnas, David Software Engineering
• Pascal, Blaise, (2); (1623-1666) phylosopher, mathematician and inventor of the pascaline
• Pugh, Emerson W.; (1929- )
• Randell, Brian; (1936- )
• Ritchie, Dennis M.; (1941); developed in the early 1970s with Kernigan Unix(3) en C (2) - developed the UNIX computer operating system, C was devised as a system implementation language for the nascent Unix operating system.
• Sammet, Jean; (1928- ) Early language compiler programmer; author of a book on history of computer languages, she was the first female president of ACM
• Scheutz, Georg Pehr & Edvard; (1785-1873) (2) Difference Engine, Sweden
• Shannon, Claude Elwood; (1916- 1999) digital design systems; (2) - computer pioneer, (3) information theory
• Shockley, William Bradford; (1910-1989) British co-inventor of the transistor, with John Bardeen and Walter Brattain. The three shared a nobel prize in physics in 1956.
• Tarski, Alfred; ( 1901-I983)
• Thompson, Kenneth (1943-) , (2) Unix
• Torvalds, Linus; (2) (Linux organisation)
• Turing, Alan Mathison; (1912-1954) Treatise on On computable numbers, (2) (Colossus and code-breaking)
• Wang, An; (1920-1990) Magnetic Core Memory, (2)
• Wang, Charles ; Founded Computer Associates (1975), first software company to exceed $500M
• Watson, Thomas John ; (1874-1956) president of the International Business Machines (IBM) Corp. who built up the company during WWII and also invested in Howard Aiken's plan to build the Harvard MARK I calculator
• Watson, Jr., Thomas John ; (1914-1992) He took over his father's position as president of IBM in 1952, convinced that the company should build and market computers. He eventually led the company to having total domination of the computer market
• Wilkes, Maurice; (1913- ) (2) (EDSAC) EDSAC 2
• Wirth, Niklaus; (1934) Pascal, Modula-2 programming languages, (2) Oberon an object oriented operating system
• Williams, Frederic Calland; (1911-1977) RAM - Williams Tube (CRT), (2)
• Wozniak, Stephen,(1950- ) (2), (3), co founder of Apple
• Zemanek, Heinz; (1920- )
• Zuse, Konrad,(1910-1995) (2)(3) , inventor of Z1 - Z4 wartime computers with binary arithmatic

INSTITUTIONS

• Corporate institutions
  • Hardware producing

• • Software producing

• • Service offering

• Professional organizations
  • International professional organizations

• • National professional organizations

• • Government-based organizations

• Educational institutions
  • Higher education institutions

• • Professional education institutions
  • Vocational education institutions
  • Nonformal education institutions
  • Informal education institutions

• Museums
  • Real
  • Virtual

* Certifying institutions

* Consortia

MILESTONES

* Pre-1940

• • 3000 B.C.: The abacus is invented in Babylonia
  • 1300 B.C.: Direct evidence exists as to the Chinese using a positional number system
  • 250 B.C.: The Sieve of Eratosthenes is used to determine prime numbers
  • 850: Al-Khowarizmi publishes his "Arithmetic", the pre-cursor to the formal algorithm
  • 1202: Fibonacci publishes his "Liber Abaci."
  • 1612: John Napier uses the printed decimal point, devises logarithms, and uses numbered sticks, or Napier's Bones, for calculating.
  • 1642-1643: Blaise Pascal creates a gear-driven adding machine called the "Pascalene," the first mechanical adding machine.
  • 1674: Gottfried Leibniz builds the "Stepped Reckoner," a calculator using a stepped cylinder gear.
  • 1801: A linked sequence of punched cards controls the weaving patterns in Joseph-Marie Jacquard's loom.
  • 1822: Charles Babbage begins to design and build the Difference Engine.
  • 1834: Babbage shifts his focus to designing the Analytical Engine.
  • 1842-43: Augusta Ada, Countess of Lovelace, translates Luigi Menabrea's pamphlet on the Analytical Engine, adding her own commentary.
  • 1842: British government abandons support for the construction of Babbage's Difference Engine.
  • 1849: Babbage completes 21 drawings for the second version of the Difference Engine but does not complete construction.
  • 1853: The Scheutz team produce the world's first automatic difference engine.
  • 1854: George Boole publishes "An Investigation of the Laws of Thought," describing a system for symbolic and logical reasoning that will become the basis for computer design.
  • 1889: Herman Hollerith's Electric Tabulating System outperforms the competition and in the fall is selected for use in the 1890 census.
  • 1896: Hollerith establishes the Tabulating Machine Company, later to become IBM
  • 1900: Herman Hollerith introduces the automatic card feed into his electromechanical information machine to process census data.
  • 1904: John Ambrose Fleming patents the first diode vacuum tube, setting the stage for better radio communication
  • 1914: Thomas J. Watson becomes president of CTR
  • 1924: T.J. Watson renames CTR to International Business Machines (IBM) and popularizes the “Think” slogan he coined at National Cash Register.
  • 1925: Vannevar Bush develops the first analog computer to solve differential equations.
  • 1930: Vannevar Bush and colleagues at MIT develops the differential analyzer to solve various differential equations
  • 1930: L.J. Comrie converts a National Accounting Machine into a differential engine.
  • 1931: Konrad Zuse builds the Z1, the first electric digital calculator.
  • 1937: Howard Aiken submits to IBM a proposal for a digital calculating machine capable of performing the four fundamental operations of arithmetic and operating in a predetermined sequence.
  • 1937: Claude Elwood Shannon develops a Masters thesis that applies Boolean logic (binary arithmetic) to switching circuits, paving the way for the electronic digital computer.
  • 1937: Alan Turing - his paper “On Computable Numbers” presents the concepts of the Turing machine.
  • 1938: John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry devise principles of the electronic-digital machine, the ABC machine. The machine provided the foundation for the next advances in electronic digital computers.
  • 1938: William Hewlett and David Packard form Hewlett-Packard in a garage in Palo Alto, California.
  • 1938: Construction started on the Harvard Mark I

* 1940s

• • 1942: John Mauchly writes “The Use of High Speed vacuum Tube devices for Calculating”
  • 1942: The Colossus computer helps the British crack German codes.
  • 1943: Harvard Mark I operational at IBM Endicot Labs.
  • 1943: First contracts between U.S. Army and the Moore School for the production of the ENIAC (the Electrical numerical integrator and Computer) for use in computing ballistics tables. It weighed 30 tons, occupied a 30x50 space, contained 18,000 vacuum tubes, used subroutines, and could perform 360 multiplications per second.
  • 1943: Project Whirlwind started as an analogue flight simulator project at MIT
  • 1944: John von Neumann visits the ENIAC project for the first time.
  • 1944: U.S. Army extends the ENIAC contract to cover research on the EDVAC stored-program computer.
  • 1945: Bell Labs Model IV operational.
  • 1945: J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly sign a contract to build the EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer).
  • 1944: John von Neumann introduces the concept of a stored program in a June 30 draft on the EDVAC design. It is called the ‘First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC’ which described the basic details of a stored program computer. The breakthrough laid the foundation for the digital computers that since have been built.
  • 1945: Zuse develops plankalkuli (plan calculus) sthe first programming language. This was the predecessor of algorithmic programming languges and conceptst of logic programming. It was designed to be a chess-playing program.
  • 1945: Working on a prototype of the Mark II, grace Murray hopper finds the first computer “bug” logged at 15.45 hours on September 9, 1945, a moth that had caused a relay failure.
  • 1945: Alan Turing arrives at the National Physical Laboratory.
  • 1946: Arthur Burks, Herman Goldstine, and John von Neumann write “Preliminary Discussion of the Logical Design of an Electronic Computing Instrument”
  • 1946: Alan Turing publishes a report on his design for ACE (Automatic Computing Engine), featuring random extraction of information.
  • 1946: Jim Wilkinson joins Turing at the National Physical Laboratory.
  • 1946: M.V. Wilkes sees a copy of the “First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC”
  • 1946: J. Bigelow joins von Neumann and Goldstine at the IAS project.
  • 1946: Computer Laboratory is founded at Manchester University via a grant from the Royal Society.
  • 1946: Moore School lectures – a turning point in the spread of information about the electronic digital computer.
  • 1946: F.C.Williams and T. Kilburn join the computer project at Manchester University.
  • 1947: Harry Huskey arrives at the National Physical Laboratory.
  • 1947: The delay line memory for the EDVAC is working at the Moore School.
  • 1947: Howard Aiken and his team complete the Harvard Mark II, which becomes operational.
  • 1947: A contract for the BINAC is placed with the Electronic Control Company by Northrup Aviation.
  • 1947: Construction of the EDSAC at Cambridge
  • 1947: On December 23, Bell Labs management is informed by John Burdeen and Walter Brattain that along with William Shockley they have developed the first transistor.
  • 1948: A.D. Booth has working the magnetic drum memory.
  • 1948: The selectron is abandoned as the IAS machine memory device in favour of Williams’ electrostatic memory tube.
  • 1948: Claude Shannon publishes “A Mathematical Theory of Communication” formulating the modern understanding of the communication process.
  • 1948: Richard Hamming devises a way to find and correct errors in blocks of data. The Hamming code is subsequently used in computer and telephone switching systems.
  • 1949: The EDSAC (Electronic delayed Storage Automatic Computer), a stored-program computer built by Maurice Wilkes at Cambridge University, England, runs its first program and performs its first calculation on May 6.

• 1950s
  • 1950: The Remington-Rand corporation acquires the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation. The latter loses crucial contracts due to the McCarthy^? trials.
  • 1950: The SEAC becomes operational at the National Physical Laboratory.
  • 1950: The Standards Western Automatic Computer (SWAC) becomes operational.
  • 1950: Alan Turing publishes an article in the journal Mind establishing the criteria for the Turing Test of machine intelligence.
  • 1951: The first Ferranti Mark I version of the Manchester University machine is delivered to Manchester University.
  • 1951: The firsty UNIVAC I computer is delivered toi the US Census Bureau on March 31. It weighed 16,000 pounds, contained 5,000 vacuum tubes, could do 1000 calculations per second and costs $159,000
  • 1951: William Shockley invents the junction transistor.
  • 1951: The EDVAC, the firtst [American] computer to implement the stored program concept is completed at the University of Pennsylvnia.
  • 1951: Davdi Wheeler, Maurice Wilkes, and Stanley gill introduce subprograms and the “Wheeler jump” as a means to implement them. They publish “The preparation of Programs for an Electronic Digital Computer”.
  • 1951: Betty Holberton creates a sort-merge generator, a predecessor of the compiler.
  • 1951: The LEO I becomes fully operational.
  • 1951: IBM decides to produce the 701 computer.
  • 1951: Maurice V. Wilkes originates the concept of microprogramming, a technique providing an orderly approach to designing a computer systems control section.
  • 1951: Grace Murray Hopper develops A-0, the first compiler.
  • 1952: Grace Murray hopper writes a paper describing how to program a computer with symbolic notation instead of detailed machine language that had been used.
  • 1952: The MANIAC and the ORDVAC, copies of the AIS machine become specified.
  • 1952: Illiac I is built at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Ordvac is built by the US Army. Both use von Neumann architecture.
  • 1952: Thomas J. Watson becomes president of IBM.
  • 1952: The IBM 701 – the Defense Calculator – is introduced in December.
  • 1953: After several years of development, LEO, a commercial version of EDSAC built by the Lyons Company in the UK, goes into sevice.
  • 1953: The IBM 650, known as the Magnetic Drum Calculator, debuts and becomes the first mass-produced computer. IBM planned to produce only 50 machines, but because of its success, it manufactured more than 1,000.
  • 1954: The DEUCE machine is constructed by English Electric, which is based on the Pilot ACE
  • 1956: The ATLAS computer project is started at Manchester University in conjunction with Ferranti Ltd.

• 1960s
  • 1960: At Cornell University, Frank Rosenblatt builds a computer – the Perceptron – that can learn by trial and erorthrough a neural network.
  • 1960: In November, DEC introduces the PDP-1, the first commercial computer with a monitor and keyboard input by a sale to Bolt, Beranak, and Neewman
  • 1961: IBM’s 7030, or Stretch, computer is completed and runs about 30 times faster than the 704, leading to further exploration of supercomputing. It is delivered to Los Alamos.
  • 1961: IBM develops the 7090 computer.
  • 1961: Fernando Corbato at MIT develops the CTSS time-sharing system, a way for multiple users to share computer time.
  • 1962: Atlas, considered the world’s most powerful computer, is inaugurated in England on December 7 at Manchester University. Its advances include virtual memory and pipeline operations.
  • 1963: On the basis of an idea of Alan Turing’s. Joseph Weizenbaum at MIT develops a “mechanical psychiatrist” called Eliza that appears to possess intelligence.
  • 1963: Ivan Sutherland introduces Sketchpad, an interactive drawing tool, leading to the consolidation of computer graphics. It was the precursor to computer-aided design (CAD), the constraint solver, and “What You See is What You Get (WYSIWYG).
  • 1963: American Airlines implements provisionally system through the efforts of Max Hoppper.
  • 1964: Doug Englebart invents the mouse.
  • 1964: DEC debuts the first mini-computer, the PDP-8, which used transistor circuitry modules. It is the first mass-produced minicomputer.
  • 1965: Project MAC, a large collaborative time-sharing project at MIT, leads to the Multics time-sharing operating system.
  • 1965: Ken Iverson at IBM develops the APL languages.
  • 1969: Kenneth Thomson and Dennis Richie formulate UNIX at AT&T Bell Labs.
  • 1969: The first 4 hosts of the Arpanet become University of California at Los Angeles, University of California at Santa Barbara, University of Utah, and Stanford University.

• 1970s
  • 1970: The first floppy diskette and the daisywheel printer make their debut.
  • 1971: Intel’s 8008, the first 8 bit microprocessor appears, but is soon replaced by the 8080.
  • 1972: Smalltalk is developed by Xerox PARC’s Learning research Group, based largely on the ideas of Alan Kay.
  • 1972: Dennis Richie develops C at Bell Labs, so named because its predecessor was named B.
  • 1972: Alain Colmerauer at the University of Marseille develops Prolog, which popularizes key logic programming concepts.
  • 1972: DEC’s PDP 11/45 is introduced, its circuitry encased in chips.
  • 1973: IBM launches its System 370 mainframe computer.
  • 1974: Intel produces its 8080 chip.
  • 1975: DEC System 10 and the VAX project begins.
  • 1975: Three key chips appear on the market. They are the Zilog Z80, the MOS 6205, and the Motorala 6800.
  • 1976: The Cray-1 from Cray research is the first supercomputer with a vectored architecture. It was rated at 1.38 MegaFLOPS^?.
  • 1977: The Commodore PET computer was produced using the 6502 chip, 4K RAM, 14K ROM and sold for $595 with peripherals.
  • 1978: DEC introduces 11/780, a 32-bit computer that becomes popular for technical and scientific applications.
  • 1979: Motorala introduces 68000 chip, which will later support Macintosh.

• 1980s
  • 1981: Xerox introduces the Alto computer. It used a mouse, had built-in Ethernet, and used Smalltalk.
  • 1981: The open-architecture IBM personal computer (PC) is launched, signalling to corporate America that desktop computing is going mainstream.
  • 1982: The Commodore 64 is launched with a 6510 chip, 64K RAM, 20K ROM at an initial cost of $595.
  • 1982: The Cray X-MP (two Cray-1 computers linked in parallel) proves three times faster than a CRAy-1.
  • 1983: Though not destined for commercial successs, Apple’s Lisa, launched in May, shows what can be done with a mouse, icons, and pulldown menus. Its price is $10,000 led to its early demise.
  • 1983: UNIX V is developed.
  • 1984: In January, the Macintosh is unveiled with a publicity campaign that includes an Orwellian-themed ad during the Superbowl. The machine had a graphical user interfce.
  • 1984: Motorala introduces the MC68020 with 250,000 transistors.
  • 1985: Supercomputer speeds reach 1 billion operations per second with the release of the Cray-2 and Thinking Machines’ parallel-processor Connection Machine.
  • 1985: The Commodore Amiga and the Atari 520 ST computers are produced.
  • 1985: Intel introduces the 80386 chip with 32-bit processing and on-chip memory management.
  • 1986: Danny Hillis develops Connection Machine.
  • 1986: The four processor CRAY XP performs 713 million floating-point operations per second.
  • 1987: The IBM PS/2 computer with its OS/2 operating system come to market.
  • 1987: Intel’s 80386 microcomputers are used in several personal computers.
  • 1988: Motorala’s 32-bit 88000 series RISC microprocessors offer processing speeds of up to 17 million instructions per second.
  • 1988: Tim Berners-Lee proposes the World Wide Web project to CERN (European Council for Nuclear Research).
  • 1989: Intel’s 80486 chip with 1.2 million transistors on a 0.4” x 0.6” wafer executes at 15 MIPS.
  • 1989: Seymour Cray founds Cray Computer Corp. and begins developing the Cray 3 gallium arsenide chips.

• 1990s
  • 1990: Microsoft introduces Windows 3.0 in May, intensifying its legal dispute with Apple over the software's "look and feel" resemblance to the Machintosh operating system.
  • 1990: Hewlett-Packard and IBM both announce RISC-based computers
  • 1990: Intel's i486 and iPSC/860, and Motorola's 68040 become available.
  • 1990: Berners-Lee writes the initial prototype for the World Wide Web, which uses his other creations: URLs, HTML, and HTTP.
  • 1990: Arpanet is officially decommissioned.
  • 1990: Laptop computers emerge as a portable computing platform.
  • 1991: IBM, Motorola, and Apple's PowerPC^? alliance is announced on July 30.
  • 1991: The ACM and the IEEE Computer Society produce Computing Curricula '91 that includes curriculum recommendations for computer engineering and liberal arts programs
  • 1991: Tim Berners-Lee develops the first code for the World Wide Web (WWW). The WWW was developed at CERN (Conseil Européan pour la Recherche Nucléaire – the European Particle Research Laboratory) and it immediately generated enthusiasm for its method of integrating text, sound, and graphics
  • 1991: World Wide Web (WWW) standards released describing the framework for linking documents on different computers.
  • 1993: Students and staff at the University of Illinois' National Center for Supercomputing Applications create a graphical user interface for internet navigation called NCSA Mosaic
  • 1993: Marc Andreessen at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign develops Mosaic, which becomes the first graphics-based Web browser and the prototype for all Web browsers
  • 1993: IBM, Apple, and Motorola produce the Power PC.
  • 1994: Jim Clark and Marc Andreesen found Netscape Communications (originally Mosaic Communications).
  • 1995: Sun Microsystems releases Java, an object-oriented cross-platform programming language designed to work on network systems like the internet
  • 1997: Microsoft releases Office 97 with major Web enhancements integrated into Word, Excel, PowerPoint^?, and Access

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