History of Computers -Links:

History of computing
Hardware before 1960
Hardware 1960s to present
Hardware in Soviet Bloc countries

Operating systems
Software engineering
Programming languages

Graphical user interface
Internet
World Wide Web
Computer and video games

Timeline of computing Timeline of computing 2400 BC-1949 1950-1979 1980-1989 1990- More timelines...

Computing hardware has been an important component of the process of calculation and data storage since it became useful for numerical values to be processed and shared. The earliest computing hardware was probably some form of tally stick; later record keeping aids include Phoenician clay shapes which represented counts of items, probably livestock or grains, in containers. Something similar is found in early Minoan excavations. These seem to have been used by the merchants, accountants, and government officials of the time.

Devices to aid computation have changed from simple recording and counting devices to the abacus, the slide rule, analog computers, and more recent electronic computers. Even today, an experienced abacus user using a device hundreds of years old can sometimes complete basic calculations more quickly than an unskilled person using an electronic calculator â€” though for more complex calculations, computers out-perform even the most skilled human.

This article covers major developments in the history of computing hardware, and attempts to put them in context. For a detailed timeline of events, see the computing timeline article. The history of computing article is a related overview and treats methods intended for pen and paper, with or without the aid of tables.

An Illustrated History of Computers
Part 1

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The first computers were people! That is, electronic computers (and the earlier mechanical computers) were given this name because they performed the work that had previously been assigned to people. "Computer" was originally a job title: it was used to describe those human beings (predominantly women) whose job it was to perform the repetitive calculations required to compute such things as navigational tables, tide charts, and planetary positions for astronomical almanacs. Imagine you had a job where hour after hour, day after day, you were to do nothing but compute multiplications. Boredom would quickly set in, leading to carelessness, leading to mistakes. And even on your best days you wouldn't be producing answers very fast. Therefore, inventors have been searching for hundreds of years for a way to mechanize (that is, find a mechanism that can perform) this task.

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This picture shows what were known as "counting tables" [photo courtesy IBM]

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"Who invented the computer?" is not a question with a simple answer. The real answer is that many inventors contributed to the history of computers and that a computer is a complex piece of machinery made up of many parts, each of which can be considered a separate invention.

This series covers many of the major milestones in computer history (but not all of them) with a concentration on the history of personal home computers.

History of Computers <http://www.hitmill.com/computers/computerhx1.html>

The development of the modern day computer was the result of advances in technologies and man's need to quantify. The abacus was one of the first counting machines. Papyrus helped early man to record language and numbers. Some of the earlier counting machines lacked the technology to make the design work. For instance, some had parts made of wood prior to metal manipulation and manufacturing. Imagine the wear on wooden gears. This history of computers site includes the names of early pioneers of math and computing and links to relating sites about the History of Computers for further study. This site would be a good Web adjunct to accompany any book on the History of Computers or Introduction to Computers. The "H" Section includes a link to the History of the Web Beginning at CERN which includes Bibliography and Related Links. Hitmill.com strives to always include related links for a broader educational experience. The material was originally divided into Part 1 & Part 2

8-Bit Operating Systems (Armory.Com)
Classic 8-bit Computers

-A-
A Brief History of Computers and Networks (GoldenInk.Com)
A Chronology of Computer History (Cyberstreet.Com)
A Chronology of Personal Computers (kpolsson - islandnet.com)
A Few Quotes from Silicon Valley History
A Journey Through the History of Information Technology
Photos: History of Computing Information
Artificial Intelligence, History of
A Timeline of Computer and Internet History

ABACUS
The Abacus (Hitmill.com: Good pictures, overview, brief history, definition, counting boards, bibliography, and links for further study)

AIKEN, HOWARD HATHAWAY
Howard Hathaway Aiken and the Mark I
Howard Aiken: Makin' A Computer Wonder
Howard Hathaway Aiken, Computer Pioneer
Howard Aiken's Harvard Mark I

ALTAIR Computer
Altair 8800 (Wikipedia)
Introduction The Revolution Begins (David Bunnell)
The Altair 8800 and Ed Roberts
Altair History (onlineethics.org)
Early History of the Personal Computer (by Thayer Watkins at San Jose State University)
Brief History of the Altair (highgate.comm.sfu.ca)
The Virtual Altair Museum"
Ed Roberts Interview (virualaltair.com)
What Good is a Computer Without Software? (virtualaltair.com)
How the Personal Computer Was Born (sas.org)
Looking Back on Nearly Three Decades of Personal Computing (by Forrest M. Mims III)
Ed Roberts and the MITS Altair
How the Altair Began (by Stan Veit, the Computer Editor of Popular Electronics Magazine)
Chronology of Personal Computers 1975
Open Letter to Hobbyists from Bill Gates, February 3, 1976
Ramblings From Ed Roberts, March 1976

ANALYTICAL ENGINE
The Analytical Engine, Table of Contents
Analytical Engine/Babbage

APPLE/MACINTOSH
Apple Computer history (apple-history.com)
Steve Jobs Information Page
Woz.org
Making the Macintosh (stanford.edu)
The Apple Museum (theapplemuseum.com)
Books on Apple History
MacPicks (Mac News, Reviews, E-zines)
MacPlaces

ARPA, Forerunner of ARPANET and the Internet
ARPA: The Early Days of ARPA, Forerunner of the Internet

ATANASOFF, JOHN VINCENT
The John Vincent Atanasoff Virtual Archive
Iowa State University Department of Computer Science, birthplace of the electronic digital computer.
Atanasoff Biography (Hien Chris Do)
Washington Post Obituary
Secret of a Genius: Drive Fast and Don't Look Back
(This is an article about John Atanasoff.)
Inventors of the Modern Computer
This article from the Minining Company discusses the Atanasoff-Berry Computer,
John Vincent Atanasoff, and Clifford Berry.
ATANASOFF-BERRY COMPUTER
Reconstruction of the Atanasoff-Berry Computer
(Article from Ames Lab)
ABC Public Showings: November 1996 and October 1997

-B-

BABBAGE, CHARLES
Pioneers: Charles Babbage
Charles Babbage Biographical Notes
The Babbage Pges: Biography
Babbage's Analytical Engine
Charles Babbage Institute (U. of Minn.)
Charles Babbage - Bibliographical notes (cs.vt.edu)
Picture of Charles Babbage (cs.vt.edu)

BACKUS, JOHN
Biography of John Backus Leader of the team that developed Fortran programming language
John Backus, Recipient of Alan M. Turing Award

BELL, GORDON
Gordon Bell Microsoft Bay Area Research Center; worked on design of PDP-6 at DEC, an antecedent of the PDP-10, one of the first mPs and the first time-sharing computer.
MyLifeBits Project: Vannevar Bush's 1945 Memex Vision Fulfilled (research.microsoft.com)

BOOLE, GEORGE
George Boole - Genius of Lincoln (Roger Parsons)
The Calculus of Logic by George Boole (maths.tcd.ie)
Papers by George Boole (ucc.ie - University Library County Cork, Ireland)
George Boole Invents Boolean Algebra
George Boole, Biographical Notes (st-and.ac.uk)

BRICKLIN, DANIEL (Co-Creator of VisiCalc)
Daniel Bricklin, First Spreadsheet,VisiCalc
Daniel Bricklin's Web Page
Daniel Bricklin Biography, Long Form

BUNNELL, DAVID (Altair, MITS, PC Mag., PC World, MacWorld)
The Third Culture: David Bunnell (edge.org)
Prosumer Media
Upside Tech Magazine's Downside (S.F. Chronicle)

BUSH, VANNEVAR
As We May Think (by permission of theatlantic.com)
Article of 1945 by Vannevar Bush
Vannevar Bush Biographical Notes (www.iath.virginia.edu)
Vannevar Bush (livinginternet.com)

BYRON, LADY AUGUSTA ADA
Ada Byron (Yale.edu, contributed by Dr. Betty Toole)
Ada's Notes Contributed by Dr. Betty Toole, Yale.Edu
The Birth of the Computer Revolution Yale.edu
Pictures of Lady Augusta Ada Byron, Countess of Lovelace

-C-

Calculator Reference, Research Page
Chronology of Computer History (cyberstreet.com)
Chronology of Personal Computers (Ken Polsson)
Computing Science, History of
Computers: From the Past to the Present

C++ Programming Language
History of the C++ Programming Language (hitmill.com)
History of C++ (cplusplus.com)

CALCULATORS
Timeline History of Calculators

CERF, VINTON G. Co-inventor of TCP/IP Protocol for the Internet
ICANN Biographical Notes about Vinton G. Cerf
Vint's Personal Home Page Read about the first 35 years of the "Internet"
How the Internet Came to Be as told by Vinton Cerf
Vinton G. Cerf (isoc.org)
Vinton G. Cerf (Wikipedia page)
Vinton Cerf on the future of e-mail (ComputerWorld: 2001 article)
From Inventing the Enterprise: Vinton G. Cerf (cio.com)

CODD, EDGAR F. Database Pioneer, Key Theorist of Databases
Edgar Codd, Database Pioneer, Dead at 79 (usatoday.com)
Edgar Codd, Key Theorist of Databases Dies at 79 in Florida

COLOSSUS
The Colossus Rebuild Project (codesandciphers.org.uk)
The Colossus Rebuild Project (project-x.org.uk)
Lorenz Ciphers and the Colossus
1940-1944 The Colossus
Colossus Electronic Programmable (to a limited extent) Computer
Colossus Computer

Computer Conservation Society
Computer Conservation Society

-D-
DIJKSTRA, EDSGER WYBE Mathematician, Computer Scientist,
  Shortest Path Algorithm, Computer Programmer, Educator
Biographical Notes: Edsger W. Dijkstra (Wipikedia.org)
Edsger Dijkstra, The shortest-path algorithm
Dijkstra's Algorith (Wikipedia.org)
E. W. Dijkstra Archive (utexas.edu)
Dijkstra's Algorith (uwa.edu.au)
GoTo Statement Considered Harmful by Edsger Dijkstra, 1968;
   Article began the structured programming movement.
How Do We Tell Truths that Might Hurt? by Edsger Dijkstra, 1975:
  On old problems in programming
Edsger Dijkstra on universities
Edsger Dijkstra:RIP (death notice)

DIGITAL IMAGING
Mona Lisa, Digital Image from 1965
A Brief History of Digital Imaging

-E-
ECKERT, J. PRESPER
J. Presper Eckert Interview
The Eckert/ENIAC Collection

ENGLEBART, DOUGLAS C.
AUGMENTING HUMAN INTELLECT: A Conceptual Framework A summary report prepared by Douglas C. Englebart for the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, October 1962.
Original Computer Mouse Patent
Computer Mouse Demo (video info.)
Facts About the Invention of the Computer Mouse
The Computer Mouse
The Mousesite - a resource for exploring the history of human computer interaction beginning with the pioneering work of Douglas Engelbart and his colleagues at Stanford Research Institute in the 1960s.

ENIAC
The ENIAC Story (army.mil)
A Report on the ENAIC (army.mil)
ENAIC - The Army Sponsored Revolution (army.mil)
John W. Mauchly and the Development of the ENIAC Computer (upenn.edu)
The Eniac (about.com)
ENIAC Computer Invention (ideafinder.com)
Jean Bartik, The First ENIAC Programmer

Ethernet
Networking With Ethernet (entertainmentdesignmag.com)

-F-

Fibonnaci Numbers
Fibonnaci Numbers Definition
Fibonnaci Numbers and the Golden Section

-F, G-
First, Second, Third, and Fourth Generation Computers
Features of each generation are discussed.

-G-

Google.Com's Computer History Links
Great Microprocessors of the Past and Present
Greatest Engineering Achievements of the 20th Century

GATES, WILLIAM H III
Bill Gate's Web Page at Microsoft
Bill Gates: Biog. notes and p;icture
The "Unofficial" Bill Gates page
Focus Magazine's Interview with Bill Gates
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
An Open Letter to Hobbyists - by Bill Gates, 1976 (blinkenlights.com)
William H. Gates III Before Microsoft
Bill Gates Wealth Index

GOOD, IRVING JOHN (JACK)
Roanoke Times Article about Jack Good, a memeber of the team that broke the ENIGMA code during WWII
Irving John (Jack) Good Cryptologist, statistician

GORE, AL
Al Gore's Support of the Internet
    by Robert E. Kahn and Vinton G. Cerf
Gore to Get Lifetime Award for Internet
Gore Never Did Claim That He Invented the Internet

GOSLING, JAMES wrote the Java programming language From Inventing the Enterprise: James Gosling (cio.com)
James Gosling, On the Java Road
Java - James Gosling (about.com)

Graphical User Interface
Graphical User Interface
History of the Graphical User Interface
Graphical User Interface, GUI (apple-history.com)
Mac OS X
Aqua Human Interface Guidelines (developer.apple.com)
GUI Gallery
The History of Graphical User Interfaces

-H-

Historic Computer Images (army.mil)
History of Computer Viruses and Attacks (securityfocus.com)
History of Computing (ei.cs.vt.edu)
A compiled directory of categorical links.
History of Computing: Virtual Museum of Computing (VMoC)
This site is a virtual museum which includes an eclectic collection of WWW hyperlinks connected with the history of computing and on-line computer-based exhibits.
History of the Internet (Roads and Crossroads of Internet History (Gregory Gromov's site)
History of the Web Beginning at CERN

HOPPER, GRACE
Grace Hopper
The Wit and Wisdom of Grace Hopper
Inventing the Enterprise: Grace Murray Hopper (cio.com)

Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard, History -- Founding Fathers
The Making of Hewlitt-Packard
Dave Packard's 11 Simple Rules

-I-

IEEE Annals of the History of Computing
Internet History: Roads and Crossroads of Internet History (Gregory Gromov)

IBM
IBM Vintage Personal Computers

IEEE
IEEE/ISTO Industry Standards and Technology Organization
IEEE Computer Society Home Portal
IEEE Computer Society History of Computing
IEEE Annals of Computer History
IEEE 802.11b - Wireless Ethernet Article by Al Petrick, Vice Chairman of the IEEE 802.11 Standards Committee

Internet Explorer
The History of Internet Explorer

-J-
JACQUARD, JOSEPH-MARIE
Book: Jacquard's Web: How a Hand Loom Led to the Birth of the Information Age by James Essinger. Read about this book at Amazon.com
Jacquard Loom
The Jacquard Loom (columbia.edu)
Jacquard's Punched Card
Industrial Revolution: Timeline of Textile Machinery
Biographical Note on Joseph-Marie Jacquard
Biography of Joseph-Marie Jacquard

JOBS, STEVE PAUL
Steve Paul Jobs Bio.

-K-
KAHN, ROBERT E (co-inventor of TCP/IP Technology for Internet)
Robert E. Kahn Biographical Notes
Robert E. Kahn Awarded National Medal of Technology

KING, ADA BYRON
(See BYRON, AUGUSTA ADA)

KLEINROCK, LEONARD
Leonard Kleinrock Biography: The Birth of the Internet (ucla.edu)
Leonard Kleinrock was the inventor of the Internet technology known as packet-switching.
Leonard Kleinrock's home page

-L-
LEIBNITZ, GOTFRIED von
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz (1646-1716)

LICKLIDER, J.C.R.
Man-Computer Symbiosis by J.C.R. Licklider (PDF file, Memex.org)
The Computer as a Communication Device (PDF file, Memex.org)
by J.C.R. Licklider and Robert Taylor (of ARPA)
JCR Licklider (columbia.edu)
J.C.R. Licklider Biography (thocp.net)
J.C.R. Licklider (livinginternet.com)
Six degrees of J.C.R. Licklider traces computer evolution (St.Louis Post Dispatch/wustl.edu)
J.C.R. Licklider in Memoriam (MIT.edu)
The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal (book, by M. Mitchell Waldrop -- see Amazon.com book site)

-M-

Mind Machine Museum (SFSU.edu)

MAUCHLY, JOHN W.
John W. Mauchly and the Development of the ENIAC Computer

METCALF, ROBERT M. Ethernet
From Inventing the Enterprise: Robert M. Metcalf (cio.com)
Ethernet (acm.org)
Ethernet PDF Paper: IEEE 802.3

Mouse
(See also: Englebart, Douglas)
The Mouse Site

-N-
NELSON, TED
Project Xanadu
The original hypertext project...
Ted Nelson home page

NYGAARD, KRISTEN
Notes About Kristen Nygaard

-O-

-P-

Past Notable Women of Computing and Mathematics
PC Computers, Pre-IBM
Pioneers (Wired Magazine's List of Pioneers of Computing)
Pioneers of Computing

PASCAL, BLAISE
Blaise Pascal Quotes to Inspire You
Blaise Pascal Biography

PDP Computers
What is a PDP? (Ken Olson/DEC)
PDP-8 (pdp8.net)
PDP-11 History (telnet.hu)

-Q-

-R-
RITCHIE, DENNIS
Dennis Ritchie Home Page
Interview with Dennis M. Ritchie
Dennis M. Ritchie timeline
Dennis M. Ritchie: From Inventing the Enterprise

-S-

Shareware, History of
Silicon Valley History (netvalley.com)
Smithsonian Institute's Computer History Collection

Shortest Path Algorith
See Dijkstra, Edsger

STIBITZ, GEORGE R.
George R. Stibitz, Computer Inventor (1904-1995)
George R. Stibitz in Inventors Hall of Fame
George R. Stibitz Curriculum Vitae
George R. Stibitz, Biography
George R. Stibitz, 1904-1995

SYSTEM R
System R (mcjones.org)
System R led to the introduction of the SQL language

-T-

Tech. History (si.edu)
The Charles Babbage Institute
This is located at the University of Minnesota
Many computer subjects including the history of computers...
The Evolution of the Computer
The History of Shareware
The IEEE Annals of the History of Computing
The Revolutionaries
The Smithsonian Computer History and Information Technology
Timeline: The History of Computers (Maxmon.com)
Well done! Events influencing the history and development of computing.
Tools for Thought (Howard Rheingold)

TURING, ALAN
The Alan Turing Home Page
Alan Mathison Turing (1912-1954)
Alan Turing and COLOSSUS

-U-
UNIVAC COMPUTER
Univac Memories (fourmilab.ch)
Book: The Unsung Heroes of the PC Age

-V-

Virtual Museum of Computing
Viruses: History of Computer Viruses
Wearable Computing at media.MIT.edu
What was the first computer and who built it?"
Wired Magazine:Browse by Person
This is a list not to be missed. Enjoy.

von NEUMANN, JOHN LOUIS
John Lewis von Neumann (1903-1957)
John von Neumann
(Click on hardware in the background of this next reference)
von Neumann Digital Computer

-W-
WANG, AN
Dr. An Wang (Magnetic Core Memory) (mit.edu)
An Wang, Hall of Fame Inventor Profile
Book: Dr. an Wang Computer Pioneer
The Doctor and His Calculators
About Wang
An Wang: The Core of the Computer Era
Wang system photos
Photo 1968 Wang Calculator
Wang 363E Calculator
Wang BASIC vs. Microsoft BASIC

WILKES, MAURICE VINCENT
Maurice Vincent Wilkes (vt.edu)
Maurice Vincent Wilkes, Brief Biography

WIRTH, NIKLAUS
Niklaus Wirth (kzoo.edu)
Niklaus Wirth was the inventor of Pascal, and other languages.

WOZNIAK, STEVEN
Steven Wozniak Bio. (cs.vt.edu)
Official Website of the "WOZ"
Apple Computer history

-X-
XANADU
Project Xanadu
The original hypertext project...
Xanadu Australia: Problem Definition
Xanadu Secrets Become Udanax Open-Source (1999)
Marc Steigler's 1989 Article Published in the February 1990 Edition of Unix Review is about Hypertext Publishing

-Y-
-Z-
ZUSE, KONRAD
Konrad Zuse
(Use the search engine at this next site to put in the name of Konrad Zuse, in order to navigate to this topic.)
A photograph of Konrad Zuse
Konrad Zuse's Z3 Computer
Konrad Zuse And His Computers

Computer History Year/Enter	Computer History Inventors/Inventions	Computer History Description of Event
1936	Konrad Zuse - Z1 Computer	First freely programmable computer.
1942	John Atanasoff & Clifford Berry ABC Computer	Who was first in the computing biz is not always as easy as ABC.
1944	Howard Aiken & Grace Hopper Harvard Mark I Computer	The Harvard Mark 1 computer.
1946	John Presper Eckert & John W. Mauchly ENIAC 1 Computer	20,000 vacuum tubes later...
1948	Frederic Williams & Tom Kilburn Manchester Baby Computer & The Williams Tube	Baby and the Williams Tube turn on the memories.
1947/48	John Bardeen, Walter Brattain & Wiliam Shockley The Transistor	No, a transistor is not a computer, but this invention greatly affected the history of computers.
1951	John Presper Eckert & John W. Mauchly UNIVAC Computer	First commercial computer & able to pick presidential winners.
1953	International Business Machines IBM 701 EDPM Computer	IBM enters into 'The History of Computers'.
1954	John Backus & IBM FORTRAN Computer Programming Language	The first successful high level programming language.
1955 (In Use 1959)	Stanford Research Institute, Bank of America, and General Electric ERMA and MICR	The first bank industry computer - also MICR (magnetic ink character recognition) for reading checks.
1958	Jack Kilby & Robert Noyce The Integrated Circuit	Otherwise known as 'The Chip'
1962	Steve Russell & MIT Spacewar Computer Game	The first computer game invented.
1964	Douglas Engelbart Computer Mouse & Windows	Nicknamed the mouse because the tail came out the end.
1969	ARPAnet	The original Internet.
1970	Intel 1103 Computer Memory	The world's first available dynamic RAM chip.
1971	Faggin, Hoff & Mazor Intel 4004 Computer Microprocessor	The first microprocessor.
1971	Alan Shugart &IBM The "Floppy" Disk	Nicknamed the "Floppy" for its flexibility.
1973	Robert Metcalfe & Xerox The Ethernet Computer Networking	Networking.
1974/75	Scelbi & Mark-8 Altair & IBM 5100 Computers	The first consumer computers.
1976/77	Apple I, II & TRS-80 & Commodore Pet Computers	More first consumer computers.
1978	Dan Bricklin & Bob Frankston VisiCalc Spreadsheet Software	Any product that pays for itself in two weeks is a surefire winner.
1979	Seymour Rubenstein & Rob Barnaby WordStar Software	Word Processors.
1981	IBM The IBM PC - Home Computer	From an "Acorn" grows a personal computer revolution
1981	Microsoft MS-DOS Computer Operating System	From "Quick And Dirty" comes the operating system of the century.
1983	Apple Lisa Computer	The first home computer with a GUI, graphical user interface.
1984	Apple Macintosh Computer	The more affordable home computer with a GUI.
1985	Microsoft Windows	Microsoft begins the friendly war with Apple.
SERIES	TO BE	CONTINUED