History of Computing
Milestones in Computer History: 2001 Timeline from a poster © 2000 Course Technology scsite.com/dc2001/ ch1/timeline1.htm
Discovering Computers 2008: Timeline 2008 from a poster Course Technology for the book Discovering Computers 2008 by Shelly, Cashman, Vermeat
1937
Dr. John V. Atanasoff and Clifford Berry designed and build the first electronic digital computer. Their machine, the Atanasoff-Berry-Computer, or ABC, provides the foundation for advances in electronic digital computers.
1943
During World War II, British scientist Alan Turing designed the Colossus, an electronic computer for the military to break German codes. The computer’s existence is kept secret until the 1970s.
1945
Dr. John von Neumann writes a brilliant paper describing the stored program concept. His breakthrough idea, where memory holds both data and stored programs, lays the foundation for all digital computers that have since been built.
1946
Dr. John W. Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert, Jr. complete work on the first large-scale electronic, general-purpose digital computer. The ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer) weighs thirty tons, contains 18,000 vacuum tubes, occupies a thirty-by-fifty-foot space, and consumes 160 kilowatts of power. The first time it is turned on, lights dim in an entire section of Philadelphia.
1947
William Shockley, John Bardeen, and Walter Brattain invent the transfer resistance device, eventually called the transistor. The transistor would revolutionize computers, proving much more reliable then vacuum tubes.
1951
The first commercially available electronic digital computer, the UNIVAC I (UNIVersal Automatic Computer), is introduced by Remington Rand. Public awareness of computers increases when the UNIVAC I, after analyzing only 5 percent of the popular vote, correctly predicts presidential election.
1952
Dr. Grace Hopper considers the concept of reusable software in her paper, “The Education of a Computer.”
Discovering Computers 2008: Timeline 2008 from a poster Course Technology for the book Discovering Computers 2008 by Shelly, Cashman, Vermeat
1937
Dr. John V. Atanasoff and Clifford Berry designed and build the first electronic digital computer. Their machine, the Atanasoff-Berry-Computer, or ABC, provides the foundation for advances in electronic digital computers.
1943
During World War II, British scientist Alan Turing designed the Colossus, an electronic computer for the military to break German codes. The computer’s existence is kept secret until the 1970s.
1945
Dr. John von Neumann writes a brilliant paper describing the stored program concept. His breakthrough idea, where memory holds both data and stored programs, lays the foundation for all digital computers that have since been built.
1946
Dr. John W. Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert, Jr. complete work on the first large-scale electronic, general-purpose digital computer. The ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer) weighs thirty tons, contains 18,000 vacuum tubes, occupies a thirty-by-fifty-foot space, and consumes 160 kilowatts of power. The first time it is turned on, lights dim in an entire section of Philadelphia.
1947
William Shockley, John Bardeen, and Walter Brattain invent the transfer resistance device, eventually called the transistor. The transistor would revolutionize computers, proving much more reliable then vacuum tubes.
1951
The first commercially available electronic digital computer, the UNIVAC I (UNIVersal Automatic Computer), is introduced by Remington Rand. Public awareness of computers increases when the UNIVAC I, after analyzing only 5 percent of the popular vote, correctly predicts presidential election.
1952
Dr. Grace Hopper considers the concept of reusable software in her paper, “The Education of a Computer.”